The Bible shows a bleak picture after the whole garden incident. The aftermath of the evil now present in mankind is very evident. We see murder in the incident between Cain and Able, and soon after God does a restart with Noah because the earth was filled with violence. Even after the flood mankind decides to elevate himself to God, and in response God divides them by confusing their language. The dire need for a hero is set by the time we get to chapter 12 and Abram.
Out of nowhere God comes to Abram and says, "I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing:And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and through you all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). Here we find out something else about our hero. He will come from this family. Remember what this history is about. It's just not random incidents that involve the Creator and His creation, but a recorded history of the coming or at least the expectation of the coming hero that will make things right again. So when God tells Abram that through him "all nations will be blessed" that is the first thing that comes to mind; through Abram the promised hero will come.
God recommits himself to this promise many times in Genesis, but one particular situation sticks out. In Genesis chapter 15 God again tells Abram that He will bless him, but Abram asks God how since he doesn't even have a son which would be a prerequisite for God fulfilling much of His promise to Abram. God simply says that He will do it. The Bible says that Abram believed him, and in response to this belief God credited Abram with "righteousness". The reason this sticks out is because it is the main issue. "Righteousness" or right standing before God (A life of no shame) is what was lost in the garden. Here we see that a man gets credit for righteousness through his faith in God.
In Genesis we don't get to see how this is tied to the hero to come, but it is noteworthy since it relates to the core issue of why a hero is needed in the first place. Many centuries later, after Jesus walked this earth, the apostle Paul would write in his letter to the Roman Church, "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe" (Romans 3:21-23). Paul's point is that after centuries of mankind trying and failing to live right with self, others, and God; that another way to be restored had been made known. This way was through the promised hero and faith. The need for the hero was established in Genesis 3 and the need for faith was established in chapter 15. He says that the law and the prophets wrote of this. The first five books of the Bible including Genesis are considered the "law". From the beginning God's plan was to restore us through our belief, not in our selves and what "we" can do, but in belief in the hero and what he would do (or has done).
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