You probably know the story. God creates the world and Adam and Eve in it. The world and everything in it was perfect... until Adam and Eve sinned and screwed it up. Soon their own children were killing each other and to use John Milton's words paradise was lost.
Genesis tells us of the Bible's first restart. The people of earth became violent and utterly sinful so God decided to start over with one family led by Noah. Noah builds the ark and the whole world was flooded leaving only Noah and his family. And they lived happily ever after, right? Wrong. Soon after the ark lands on dry ground Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk and then his son either lustfully stares at him or flat out rapes him ("uncovered his nakedness" is used as a euphemism for homosexual incest in Leviticus) This first restart fails soon after it starts.
Genesis also tells us the stories of Abraham. Abraham was to be the father of a new nation with which God would have a special relationship. Well, Abraham has all sorts of problems being the new start. He lies and has people sleep with his wife because he says she's his sister... twice, has a child with his servant because he thinks God is taking too long, and lives a life that is well short of the perfect restart. His family line is filled with fighting, scheming, murder, and more. This restart didn't work out well.
Abraham's family becomes the nation of Israel and eventually becomes enslaved in Egypt. God sends Moses to rescue His people. The nation of Israel was led out of Egypt and given new laws to govern them toward holiness. Immediately they spend much of their time failing and breaking laws right and left. Moses gets frustrated time and again by their inability to follow through with what they promised to do in their covenant with God.
The book of Judges is a cyclical story of failure, restart and failure again. The nation of Israel sins, then gets dominated by an outside force, then God sends a leader to redeem them from their enemy, then things work out well, then the leader dies and the nation of Israel sins worse than before. Rinse and repeat and you have the book of Judges. None of the restarts worked.
Later Israel gets a king instead of having judges to rule them. The very first king, Saul, fails and is rejected by God. So God restarts with a man after His own heart named David. David leads the Israelites and they live happily ever after, right? No. During David's time there is unrest and civil war, his son Solomon sees some success but David's grandson sees the country ripped in half. The kings in the line of David were mostly evil. This restart did not fix the problem.
Time after time the restarts failed. Time and time again the person who was set up as the second Adam, if you will, failed to bring the restart that was needed.
Until Jesus.
Jesus is the second Adam. From the time sin enters the story of mankind the Bible makes us feel the need for a restart. We failed out of the shoot and we need a restart. Jesus is the only restart that works. He is the judge and king who is perfect and won't die. He's the Noah who provides rescue from destruction and guarantee of the rescue working perfectly. He's the one that fulfills all the promises given to Abraham that Abraham and his line couldn't fulfill on their own. Jesus is the restart we needed. He is the one who is making all things new (Revelation 21:5).
So, when you seek to restart something in your life don't try to do it with your own power. The Bible is filled with men and women who quickly learned that they couldn't do it on their own. If you want a restart in your life don't look to yourself but look to Jesus who offers a regeneration, a rebirth, a restart that won't fail. Let Jesus be the second Adam you need today.
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