From Eve to Eve to Eve
It wasn’t all on her. Yes, she was swayed by the serpent - Eve trusted the word of the serpent more than the word of God, but this alone was not the Fall in full. As the English sense of her name would coincidentally suggest, her bite was but the foretaste of full rebellion, the crunch before Adam’s swallow. To this he obliged, decisively bringing sin’s curse upon mankind so that the Apostle Paul could one day assign him full attribution: “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”Romans 5:12 ESV
A fitting play on words courtesy of divine intervention brings us thousands of years hence to Christmas Eve. Another woman, this time carrying a child who would soon be born and grow to be a man. He had no human father nor did Mary create him by her own power. This child’s conception, like the creation, was by God, and he in fact was God. Notice of this came to her through angelic delivery of God’s word. Here again, as her mother before her, she could have kicked against the divine design. Instead, she opens her mouth to say, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." - Luke 1:38 ESV
This is how Mary finds herself among the animals in Bethlehem, ready to give birth. She is not the savior, but she will give birth to him. She is the Eve of salvation, preceding but not fulfilling all that will be required. This falls to Jesus Christ, the new Adam, who alone can save his people from their sins: “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” - Romans 5:19 ESV
By faith, Mary is made a party to what he will do. By faith, we also are joined to what he has done and what he will do. There is a third Eve (or second, however you are counting them) in which we now live before Christ’s second coming. “What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” - 2 Peter 3:11b-12a ESV
God continues to mysteriously include human beings in his unfolding work of redemption. By faith, we are invited into the way of Mary. Holiness and godliness sprout forth as we say, “Let it be to me according to your word." It is this faith in God’s power that yields everything we could never produce on our own and which yet invites us into the labor of the Gospel. In ways we cannot comprehend, our response, our small lives, forged together by God, are those links in the chain which draw Christ’s return closer and closer. We have passed through the Eve of the Fall and the Eve of Salvation; we now live in the Eve of Restoration. How will you respond to his divine design?