Wretched Man That I Am!

Genesis 3:1-7 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The entirety of the biblical text is remarkable in an unlimited number of ways, but one particular aspect of the biblical text that amazes me is that throughout it we see what seem to be an unlimited number of instances when one who is favored by God comes to reason that he knows better than God. And because he thinks that he knows better than God, he then decides that he is going to do things his way, but then he quickly realizes the consequences of trying to play God.

I mean, the scriptures are filled with examples of this. Moses did not speak to the rock as he was commanded but struck it and was expelled from the Promised Land. David slept with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and not only did his infant child die, but so did his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. Or how about when Jonah was commanded to go to Nineveh but ran in the other direction only to be swallowed by a whale and spit out on dry land and told once again to go to Nineveh.

And we could go on and on about Jacob and Esau and Peter and Paul, the nation of Israel itself and its unfaithful nature, and gobs of others, but what the Bible reveals to us is what we already know is true, and that is that man is a natural born rebel.

Without question, any time that we hear of one who holds any kind of authority, we almost immediately question them and distrust them. We go right to seeking to disregard such a person or maybe even cast off such a person. What we have presiding within us is a natural desire to defy authority.

And this desire to defy authority is directed chiefly at the One at the very top, God Himself, the One Who holds all power and authority. Naturally we fight Him, we seek to take Him down. But the thing about us no-powerfuls fighting an all-powerful God is that we never win. He always comes out on top.

That is why being a legitimate Christian is such a miraculous thing, because someone who is a legitimate Christian ultimately does not seek to fight God, but rather, such a one desires to submit to God, which is how God originally created man.

So, if God originally created man in such a way as having a desire only to submit to Him and if man is now naturally in rebellion against God, and if adhering to the orthodox faith causes man to return to desiring to submit to God, then we ask, “How did man ever get himself in this mess to where he must be saved from his rebellion and placed back in willful submission?”.

Well, as we proceed this morning in our series of sermons, we will answer that question. For today, this series is going to take a dramatic downward turn.

Thus far we have spoken of the God-given bliss that man had enjoyed in paradise. But today, we are going to be looking at how man radically fell into sin and thus lost paradise.

There are three characters in our cast for today’s sermon. There is the man, the woman, and the serpent. But our text focuses primarily on the woman and on the serpent.

We are introduced first to the serpent, at the very beginning of our reading, when it says:

Genesis 3:1a ESV

1a Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

I want us to look at a few of the details that our text affords about this particular character before we move on.

First, he is called the serpent. He is not called a serpent, but the serpent, showing that this is not in reference to serpents in general, but to a specific serpent.

Secondly, concerning this serpent it is written that he was more crafty than any other beast of the field that God had made. Now, craftiness can be a positive trait. For example, some positive synonyms for crafty are prudent, clever, or discerning. But craftiness can most certainly be a negative trait as well. For example, cunning, tricky, sly are all negative synonyms for the word crafty.

Obviously, we know that the craftiness used in describing the serpent consisted of negative traits.

And the last thing that I want to observe about the serpent in this portion of the text is that he was made by God. The text says, “the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.”

The serpent’s origins are the same as the origin of all others, they come from God and thus they serve a God-ordained purpose. And this goes for the serpent as well. As Martin Luther once famously said, “Even the devil is God's devil”, meaning that even the devil was created by God for a God-glorifying purpose.

But as the serpent approached the woman, he initiated conversation with her as we see in the remainder of this first verse, where it says:

Genesis 3:1b ESV

1b He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Now, some believe that at this time, before sin entered the world, all of the animals had the ability to speak, while others believe that it was just the serpent here who could speak, but regardless of whether which is true, what appears to be the case when we observe how the serpent begins this conversation with the woman, is that this was probably not the first time that the two had spoken to each other.

The way that the serpent comes and boldly asks this question, let’s us know that the two had probably had several conversations preceding this one, likely about this topic, and thus they had become pretty familiar with one another by this point.

In fact, the serpent probably learned of God’s commands to the humans through previous conversations that he had had with the humans.

But look here at what he asked the woman and more specifically, how he asked it. He said, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”.

This question was asked in such a way as to call God’s character into question… “Did God actually…?” What wording this question in such a way served to accomplish was to condition the woman’s mind to the possibility that God may be self-serving, that perhaps God was not looking out for them, and that He wasn’t as benevolent as she had thought.

Well, let’s look at verses two and three to see how the woman answered this question.

Genesis 3:2-3 ESV

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Now, we typically look at this response of the woman as though she was quick to put the serpent in his place about this matter, but let’s look carefully at this response and compare it with the exact command that God had given.

She tells the serpent, “No, God didn’t say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’” so far, so good. But then she went on to say, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden”.

Now, God did not say to the man “You may eat” look back at chapter 2, verse 16, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat’”. Other translations say, “You are free to eat” or as the trusty King James Version words it, “thou mayest freely eat”.

Thus, the eating of the fruit of these trees was a freedom, a liberty that humans were to enjoy. But when the woman said, “God said ‘you mayeat the fruit’” she makes it sound like God is being more of a stingy dictator than a benevolent Provider.

She then also says that God told the man, “neither shall you touch it”. But look back at chapter 2, verse 17. God never said that the man and the woman could not touch the tree, He said that they could not eat from the tree.

And the last thing that we notice about the woman’s reply is that she said that God told the man, “You shall not do this lest you die.” Now again, look back to chapter 2, verse 17, God said to the man, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Notice that the woman said that God said don’t do this, lest you die, or you mightdie, when in all reality God said you will surely die.

So, she said that God said it may happen, when in all reality, God said that it would happen. What these alterations that the woman makes shows us is that the conversations that she seemed to regularly have with the serpent had begun to cause her to question God’s good character.

Let’s now look at verses four and five to see what the serpent’s response was to the woman’s statement:

Genesis 3:4-5 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

“You will not surely die! You said it yourself! You said that God told you lest you die! You won’t die if you eat the fruit, because if you would, God would have said that you would surely die!”.

Now, we know that God did say that they would surely die, but it appears as though these conversations with the serpent had caused the woman to confuse what God had actually said.

So, the serpent takes advantage of this, and he says, “The opposite is true! God knows that when you eat of this fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.

Now, what the serpent means when he says “knowing good and evil” is having the authority to determine for yourself what is good and what is evil.

This authority, of course, is something which God alone possesses, but the serpent tells the woman that if she would eat of this fruit, she too would have this authority, thus she would be just the same as God Himself.

And he says that the only reason why God commanded the humans to not eat of the tree is because God is cruel and doesn’t want to share with anyone else what is His.

So, with all of the serpent’s arguments having been made, let’s look to verse six to see what the woman and her husband decided to do concerning the fruit of the tree:

Genesis 3:6 ESV

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

The woman pondered on what had been said. She knew what God had commanded, but she just heard this very convincing argument from the serpent, so she wondered whether she should eat of the tree or not. And of course, we know, as the text says here, she did indeed eat the fruit of the tree.

But when we look at the text, we see three driving forces that compelled the woman to do what she did.

First, we read that it says that the woman saw that the tree was good for food, so there were physical cravings here.

Second, we read that the tree and its fruit were a delight to the eyes, so we see aesthetic attraction; it was very beautiful.

And lastly, we read that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. Thus, the pride of life, the desire to be able to determine for yourself what is good and what is evil, or as the serpent said, the desire to be “like God” was most certainly the chief factor in the woman making her decision.

And thus, she ate the fruit, and her husband, who the text says was “with her” ate the fruit as well. Now when the text says that her husband was “with her” I don’t think that it means that he too was in on this particular conversation with the serpent, though I believe that as the woman had likely had previous conversations with the serpent, the man most likely did as well.

And thus, when the text speaks of the woman’s husband being “with her”, I believe that it means that he was in agreement with her. Thus, his mind too had been made up, he too deemed that it was better to disobey the command of God, for like his wife, he too had come to the point to where he distrusted God.

But after partaking of the fruit, there were immediate consequences, and we see this in verse 7, our last verse of our reading for today, where it says:

Genesis 3:7 ESV

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The eyes of both of them were opened, the text reads. In other words, they now felt as though they really did have the authority to determine what was good and what was evil.

And when they looked upon one another in their nakedness, they deemed that they were not good. Immediately they felt a sense of inadequacy and disturbing self-consciousness… Sin had entered the world…

Feeling this shame and this guilt, they then attempted to cover themselves.

God had made man good, but now man had sinned, and man had seen firsthand that because he sinned, he was no longer good. Thus, this led man to experience the eternally hard truth that sin, rebellion against God does not lead to freedom, but to captivity.

And what is all the more amazing about this is the radical depths that man and we, man’s progeny, fell to as a result of this disobedience.

Now, we naturally have hearts that are so depraved that though we know God is good, though we know that rebellion leads only to further captivity, we just want to keep on doing what we know will only lead us into further captivity, we can’t help ourselves.

As Paul says, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

And it is through Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, the Lord and Savior of God’s elect people, it is through Him alone that we too are delivered from this body of death that wants nothing but to hate God!