Lesson 1, September 29 - October 5
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Genesis 1:26, 27; 1 John 4:7, 8, 16; Genesis 3:16-19; Genesis 11:1-9; Galatians 3:29; Deuteronomy 7:6-11.
Memory Text: "Then [God] brought [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:5, 6, NKJV).
The story of God’s people starts with the creation of humans and their tragic fall into sin. Any attempt at understanding the nature of unity in the church must begin with God’s original plan at the Creation and then the need for restoration after the Fall.
The first chapters of the Bible reveal that God intended for humanity to remain one family. Unfortunately, this unity was severed after the tragedy of sin. In sin alone the roots of disunity and division arose, more of disobedience’s foul consequences. We get a hint of this division in the immediate interaction between Adam and Eve when God first approached them after they ate of the forbidden tree (see Genesis 3:11). Hence, among all else that the plan of salvation will accomplish, the restoration of this original unity is one crucial goal, as well.
Abraham, the father of God’s people, became a key player in God’s plan of salvation. Abraham is depicted in Scripture as the great example of “righteousness by faith” (see Romans 4:1-5), the kind of faith that unites God’s people with each other and with the Lord Himself. God works through people to restore unity and to make His will known to lost humankind.
