Firm Foundations: Core Truths We Believe 3

Humanity - Our Identity and Problem

This morning we are continuing our series on Firm Foundations: Core Truths We Believe.

Our theme verse for this series is Jude 3

Jude 3 NASB95

3 you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

This series is to help us know the foundations of what we believe so that we can stand firm in our beliefs and defend our beliefs.

Week one we looked at the inspired Word of God, that is the Scriptures, the Bible.

Last week we looked at God and who He is, as we seen God is one but has three distinct persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

This morning we are going to begin looking at Humanity - Our Identity and Problem.

Humanity is being split into two messages, so that we can look at who we are, and the problem we have, and then next week we will look at the solution to our problem.

As we begin to look at Humanity beginning with our Identity, we are going to start from the beginning with the creation of humankind.

Last week we looked Genesis 1:1, this morning we are going to pickup in Genesis 1:26-30

Genesis 1:26–30 NASB95

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

Pray

Our Identity

Our identity as mankind is rooted in God.

As we see there in our text - Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26 NASB95

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

God says let Us, that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, a reference to the doctrine of the Trinity.

God made man in His image, we are not made like robots, animals, but in the image of God.

We must ask what does it mean that we are created in the Image of God?

First the image of God was only imparted to mankind.

Image is used figuratively here, for God does not have a human figure.

Being in God’s image means that humans share, though imperfectly and finitely, in God’s nature, that is, in His communicable attributes (life, personality, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice), and so mankind has the capacity for spiritual fellowship with Him.

Being made in the image of God is that mankind is to visibly mirror God’s spiritual nature, then according to God’s likeness, is visibly mirroring God’s functional actions.

God created mankind with a threefold purpose in history: first to represent God’s person and image, second to rule on God’s behalf, and third to reproduce God’s presence throughout the earth.

In chapter two of Genesis we are told how God made man.

Genesis 2:7 NASB95

7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

God made Adam from the same ground that he was to oversee.

God formed Adam from the dust or dirt but then breathed breath into his nostrils, this combination is astounding: Adam was, at one and the same time, a piece of dirt and the bearer of God’s own breath.

This should keep us from thinking of ourselves either too highly or too lowly.

God made mankind out of the most mundane material imaginable, so we should not be conceited.

God also infused us with His Spirit, which gave us tremendous value and enables us to communicate with God.

Like Adam, we are all a fusion of the divine and the dusty.

God created man, and then realize he was alone.

Genesis 2:18–22 NASB95

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

God says it is not good for man to be alone, then begins to make the animals and brought them to Adam for him to name, but none of them were suitable as a helper for Adam.

God address the issue of Adam needing a helper, and causes Adam to go into a deep sleep, taking one of his ribs from his side, God fashioned the woman.

A wife is there to be a man’s counterpart, equal to him and adding to what he lacks.

It would be the man’s responsibility to provide, protect, and proclaim God’s truth in the home.

The woman is an essential contributor to the marriage - not a secondary servant to her mate.

Our identity is then that we are to be an image of God not in our form, features, or intellect, but in righteousness and holiness of the truth on earth.

But then comes the problem.

The Fall

Genesis 3:1–7 NASB95

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

The serpent which is satan in disguise approached Eve, the woman.

Why did satan choose to approach Eve and not Adam?

Well we see in Genesis 2:15-18

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

Verse 16 there says the Lord God commanded the man, this command was given to Adam.

Verse 18 of chapter 2 is where God says hey Adam needs a helper.

Therefore, satan knew that Eve did not hear the command from God firsthand, which was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam was supposed to lead his family by making sure that both he and Eve knew God’s commands and walked in them.

Satan disguised as a serpent sought to reverse the divinely ordained roles in the family by bypassing the man and appealing to the woman.

This is a reminder that role reversal leads to chaos.

Satan lied to Eve, more or less saying, God is holding out on you.

Thus, satan questioned the goodness of God.

In verse 4, satan tells Eve you will not die, what satan is saying here, is that sin has no consequences.

God told Adam do not eat or you will die, but satan tells Eve you wont die, death was the consequence of the sin of not being obedient to the command.

Everyone of us has felt that lie, since it’s at the heartbeat of every act of sin.

God tells us not to cross a line - because the consequences are disastrous - and we pretend like God is all talk.

Satan goes further by saying that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will become like God.

Satan is trying to tell Eve that she can become an equal to God.

Satan was ultimately telling Eve that she could take God’s place.

Look then at the end of verse 6, Genesis 3:6

Genesis 3:6 NASB95

6 and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Eve then gave fruit from the tree to her husband with her, so Adam has been with her during this time that Satan is persuading her to eat the fruit.

God had given Adam the task of protecting the garden and leading his wife, and yet here he is standing next to his wife as the serpent deceives her.

Adam is there and silent, he became the responder instead of the leader, and literally all hell broke loose as a result.

Adam’s failure to help his wife live in obedience to God’s word had tragic consequences.

Romans 3:23 NASB95

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Paul says all have sinned, there is no exception.

When the target is God’s glory and righteousness, it makes no difference if we miss by an inch or a mile.

If two men are rushing to catch a plane, and one man is an hour late while the other is only a minute late, who is in a worse situation?

They both missed their flight.

It does not matter if you are better than your neighbor.

Your neighbor is not the standard.

God is the standard, and we all fall short.

There are consequences for our disobedience, our sin.

The Curse

Now we see the curse or the consequences of the sin.

Genesis 3:14–19 NASB95

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” 16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

There were three characters in the disobedience, and now there is three separate consequences for the disobedience.

First God address satan, God says to the serpent you will be the most cursed of all the animals.

God takes the serpents legs from him, and tells him that mankind will be his enemy.

Second God address Eve, the woman, saying to her that she will now have great pain in birthing children.

Third God address Adam, God says, because you listened to your wife and disobeyed by eating the fruit you were commanded not to eat, you will thus labor hard.

Adam and Eve’s rebellion led to relational death, as God promised that the relationship between man and woman would become a battle rather than a partnership.

We even see economic death, as God promised that work would become painful labor rather than the fruitful process God intended it to be.

Adam and Eve would not drop dead on the spot, their coming biological death was now guaranteed.

Jeremiah 17:5 NASB95

5 Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord.

Why was Adam and Eve cursed, because they turned their hearts away from the Lord.

We want to depend on ourselves, and on material things, but God created us to depend on Him and have a relationship with Him.

Sin came in and brought separation between mankind and God.

But God makes a way clear up the separation.

Which is what we will look at next week, the solution to the sin problem.