Sin and God's Good News

Daniel Norman

The Gospel Project • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Genesis 3:1–24

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People sinned against God and rupture our created purpose, but GOd has provided forgiveness in Christ Jesus

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Introduction

We are on our third week of the Gospel Project and so far it has been a blissful ride. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just stay in the zone of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. We started with “God’s Good World” and we celebrated all the beautiful things that God has created in this world. We even challenged each other to get out into creation to acknowledge the glory of his handiwork. I hope that we continue that practice as personally, I think fall is the very best time to see the beauty and handiwork of God’s Good World.

Then last week we talked about the very pinnacle of God’s creation. We don’t always see it this way, but the greatest achievement of God’s creative work was: You…and me. We were literally the show stoppers. We focused in on how God made man in His Image and because of this, every human life has value and is worthy of dignity, respect and compassion. As God’s Good People we talked about how we are called to stand up for the rights of every human life.

This includes the life of unborn babies, and we talked about how many of us got to walk with APPLE pregnancy center to support that right to life.

This included the life of unborn babies. The life of the elderly, or we could include the physically or mentally disadvantaged in that. The life of each person no matter their culture, race or skin color. And we specifically talked about standing up against slavery. Every human life is made in God’s image and so we all have worth, value and purpose.

The life of unborn babies, and we talked about how many of us got to walk with APPLE pregnancy center to support that right to life.

This includes the life of the elderly. We don’t get to determine someones value by comparing what they can’t do to what we see that others can. God gave them life and we need to stand in protection of that life. They are made in God’s image.

The life of the elderly, or we could include the physically or mentally disadvantaged in that. The life of each person no matter their culture, race or skin color. And we specifically talked about standing up against slavery. Every human life is made in God’s image and so we all have worth, value and purpose.

This includes the life of every person, regardless of their culture, race or skin color. And we specifically talked about standing up against slavery and human trafficking last week. If you didn’t get a chance to look into supporting the International Justice mission their is more information on the Library cart in the Lobby.

Every human life is made in God’s image and so we all have worth, value and purpose. That is Good. That is God’s Good. And I wish that Genesis Chapter 3 just continued on in that Good…but it doesn’t. It takes a sharp turn away from God’s Good. Genesis is the book about beginnings, today in Chapter 3 we are going to tackle the beginning of Sin.

That is Good. That is God’s Good. And I wish that Genesis Chapter 3 just continued on in that Good…but it doesn’t. It takes a sharp turn away from Good.

SIN

Even as i say the word… “Sin” I know that this room is full of varied responses to it’s meaning. It is a small word, only three small letters and yet it is one of the most powerful forces in our world. Yet somehow our culture has turned the word into something common, somewhat comical and even a little cutesy.

As Genesis is the book about beginnings, today we are going to tackle chapter 3 on the beginning of Sin.

My family is big on garage sales. You never know what kind of treasures you might find. The old saying that “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure” probably rings truest in the world of the garage sale. One of the things that we have had to learn to be careful about in is checking out any hidden meanings or pictures in the clothes we buy. A couple of weeks ago we found a shirt for Chara that had a great design on it. It seemed to be her style and she needed some new long sleeve shirts. But as we looked closely at the design we could make out some letters. Written right in to the design was the word “Sinful”. I came to find out that this is the name of a line of clothing for girls and women. “Sinful”.

I am certain that I know very little about marketing strategies for women's clothing lines, but even I can see how this points to we as a culture no longer understand Sin for the destructive force that it is. Otherwise clothing companies would not try and sell their clothing in this way.

It is almost as if they are saying, with a little smirk and a shrug, “Yeah but aren’t we all just a little sinful”. Yes we are, in fact most of us are a lot more than a little sinful and there is nothing good about that. To be able to take the idea of Sin so lightly makes me wonder if even those in the Church even understand our Sin for the devastating force that it is.

The Hebrew word for Sin is חַטָּאת (hatt-at) and we find it’s root to be an archery term. That should connect with us, right? Here we are towards the beginning of the Archery Season in Buffalo County, one of the premier counties for trophy whitetail bucks in the world. Not to mention about 11 of us came back from Man Camp last night so we are already hopped up on bacon and testosterone. It’s a fitting picture, that Sin is missing the mark, like when you miss your mark on a target like this one.

So what

Where I think that this illustration may have drifted us off course is that missing the bullseye is a common experience for all of us. It happens to even the best of us, none of us hit the bullseye every time, it is common to miss. So since it is such a common experience we may have become complacent in it’s presence, not remembering that every time we choose to sin it costs us something. Every time. Now if you are Christ follower, then you have been saved from the effect of your sin on your eternity - but there are still consequences to our sin while we are here on earth.

That is one of the reasons why it is so important to remember . A time in human history where we had everything that our creator intended for us to have, without all the things that He wanted us to not have to deal with. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we did our best to try and build a picture of that kind of existence in our minds, but admittedly we did not even come close to doing it justice. This is probably because we are so blessed with the many freedoms and opportunities that we have in this country that we might not even see much of a difference. That is why when tragedy hits, and it hits all of us eventually, we go right into the questions. Why did this happen? How could this happen? Who is to blame, because this is not what I expect to see in my world. We are so quick to forget how all of our world has been tainted by Our Sin, we just spend a lot of our lives sheltered from a lot of it because freedom is the air that we breathe - at least for now.

That is why it is so important to remember . A time in human history where we had everything that our creator intended us to have, without all the things that He never wanted us to have to deal with. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, we did our best to try and give ourselves a picture of that kind of existence but admitedly we did not even come close to doing it justice. The truth is, we are so blessed with the many freedoms that we currently have in this country we might not have seen too much of a difference between that experience our day to day experience. That is why when tradgedy hits, we go right to the ‘why” questions. We often forget how all of our world has been tainted by Sin, we are just sheltered from a lot of it in the freedoms that we swim in here.

Especially since we live in such blessed circumstances here in this country, we are often sheltered from many of the effects of Sin in our world.

Tension

Maybe it would serve us well to put away the target when we are talking about the archery term of “Sin” and draw a different picture in our minds. Maybe we should instead put our archer in less passive scenario. So that this time it is not a circle drawn on a box that we are aiming at, but an enemy that is actively seeking to destroy us. Picture that enemy however you will, man or beast, and then as they have risen up and are charging toward you with a clear intent of completely destroying you - now how important would it be to not “miss the mark?” Now how quickly would you just shrug, smirk and say, “Aren’t we all just a little sinful”, “Don’t we all miss the mark sometimes” If we understood the devastation that our sin brings then we wouldn’t take it’s presence in our life so lightly. We would do whatever we could to rid it from every corner of our life.

That is what we are going to focus in on today in , so open your Bibles with me to the beginning of the book of beginnings, , p2 in the Bibles in the chairs, Ill pray and we will walk through the text together.

Truth

The Beginning of Our Sin (; ?)

We don’t really know how much time has gone by between and 3 but we do know that during this time the first man and the first woman were enjoying the fruits of God’s work, in using his word to create his very good world. We don’t get a lot of fill story on this, but at some point then the writer of Genesis, probably Moses, moves the story on to the major plot twist of Chapter 3

Genesis 3:1–5 ESV

Genesis 3:1–3 ESV

So into God’s story of Good comes this interchange between the woman Eve, and the serpent. There is something here that is very weird, but I wonder if we are all so familiar with this story that we have never really even given it a second thought.

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.

So into God’s story of Good comes this interchange between the woman Eve, and the serpent. There are so many weird things going on here that it is hard to know where to start and maybe we are so familiar with this story that we have never really even given it a second thought. Let’s start with the serpent.

Genesis 3:1-

Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that the Snake is talking?

Anyone else find that a bit odd? It seems weird to me, and even weirder is the fact that Eve doesn’t even seem to be bothered by it. I don’t really know what that means? Did all the animals talk? Did they have some common language that God gave them? Was it just one big Disney movie here or what is happening?

, but more that He was She doesn’t say, “Wait a minute - that snake is talking to me” Outside of the wonderful world of Disney, talking animals are not a part of our normal day. And yet, the snake is talking to Eve and she doesn’t freak out she just answers his question thoughtfully.

It certainly points to the fact that something else must be going on here. This probably is not the typical Serpent.

Sitting on this side of the Genesis story, we know the snake for who He is, but Eve didn’t recognize the Serpent as her Enemy when she encountered him. Not only did she encounter him, but she entertained his questions. She milled over the question in her mind and answered it as if the Serpent had a right to even ask it. Remember the position that God gave man over the created order? They were to have dominion over everything in land, air and sea. This included Serpents. What she should have said is, “What right do you have to question me on what God did or said?” Instead she was drawn into a dialogue with her enemy, and it opened a door for him to reach into places in her thinking that He had no right to be.

Most of the time questions are not a bad thing, unless they are not honest questions. We know that our enemy the Devil is a liar and a deceiver, so His questions are never to get to the truth, he is never interested in us knowing the truth. His quesetions are to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of the person who is distracted enough to even consider His questions. Let’s look at 3 of the ways in which the Serpent proves to be after deception not a question.

Most of the time questions are not a bad thing, unless they are not honest questions. We know that our enemy the Devil is a liar and a deceiver, so His questions are never to get to the truth, but to plant seeds of doubt in the minds of the person who is distracted enough to even consider His questions. Let’s take a moment and look at some of the ways in which the Serpent proves to be after deception instead of a conversation.

1. He refers to “God” in title, instead of person

The Serpent begins speaking of God by his informal title, instead of His personal name. Remember last week we talked about how when God made man, He did it in a much more personal and intimate way. Genesis chapter one uses God’s formal title “Elohim” or “God”to describe how he created His good world. Then in Chapter 2, where He is creating man in a much more intimate way we see Him relating to his chief creation, mankind, as “Yahweh Elohim” or “LORD God” in English. This is God’s personal name and the crafty or cunning Serpent was using the “title” to distance Eve from the loving relationship that she had with a personal God and get her focused on his position of sovereign ruler over all things - even her.

Remember last week we talked about how when God made man, He did it in a much more personal and intimate way. Genesis chapter one uses God’s formal title of simply “Elohim” or “God”to describe how he created the good world. Then in Chapter 2 over and over again we see him relating to his chief creation, mankind, as “Yahweh Elohim” or “LORD God” in English. This is God’s personal name and the crafty Serpent was using the “title” to get Eve thinking only of God’s total authority over her, and not his loving relationship with Her.

Our enemy is still operating out of the same bag of tricks today, He loves to distract people from the loving relationship that God desires to have with each person, and instead get tell them that they should really be in charge of their life. The Devil is hoping that we forget that God’s perfect commands are there because He loves us.

Hebrews 12:10 NLT

10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.

Hebrews12: 10

2. The Serpent deceived Eve by overstating God’s command to make it sound oppressive.

The Serpent tries to get Eve to doubt what God had said about eating from trees by overstating the command in such a way that it would get her to think that it sounded oppressive. “Did God actually say that you cannot eat any tree in the garden?”. Eve’s response was to correct the Serpent’s overstatement, but you might have noticed that she offers an overstatement of her own. Did God say that they were not to “touch” the tree or just not to eat from it?

In answering the Serpents overstatement with one her own she began to see that she had the ability to reason in such a way that she could declare something as right or wrong. If we can safely eat from all of these other trees why should I be deprived from that one tree. There was really only thing that stood in the way of that tree - The Word of God that said that you shall not eat of it.

developed a thought process where she became the one who determined what was really determine that keeping her from eating from all the trees would seem unfair - but really what is the big difference between that and keeping them from just the one tree? Satan now has her thinking that she can be the one who decides what is good and/or not good. Sure, it is only one tree, but should God be keeping anything from her?

Again, many temptations in our life today are found when we start responding to God’s commands like this. I am not sure that we often see it when we are doing it, but it boils down to us saying that since God won’t allow us to do something in the way that we want to do it, he must not be a good God.

If God won’t let me marry whoever I want, then I guess God just doesn’t care about love.

If God won’t help me make the kind of money that I want, then I guess He doesn’t want me to take care of my family.

If God won’t let me spend time with those friends, then I guess God just doens’t want me to have close friendships.

Statements like these show that we have placed ourselves in a position where we are looking for God to just approve of what we have decided is good, instead of realizing that He is the author of and judge over what is truly good.

Why can’t marriage be as we want to define it?

There is no good, except for God’s good. Anything else is us opening the door to evil:

where we believe that we should be determine what is truly “Good” and God shouldn’t keep things from us that we have determined to be “Good”. There is no good, except for God’s good -

Isaiah 5:20 ESV

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

The Serpent overstates God’s commands to make them sound oppressive.

We can only call something good when God’s Word calls it good. Anything outside of that is evil, and woe to those who are pedaling those lies

3. The Serpent deceives Eve by defending His lie, with a partial truth

“Did God actuall

Did you catch this? Verse 4 is a bold face lie. When Eve tells him that God said that they would die if they ate from the tree, The Serpent comes right on out and says, “You will not surely Die”. This is just a straight up, bold faced lie.

On top of that, He is calling God a liar. God is the one who told Adam about the consequences of eating from the tree:

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

Verse 4 is a bold faced lie

Genesis 3:4 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

God told Adam that they would die if they ate from the tree.

Adam told Eve what God said, that they would die if they ate from tree.

Eve told the serpent what God said, that they would die if they ate from the tree.

And the Serpent told Eve…No you won’t...

Then Verse 5 is a partial truth:

, but He knew that in order for Eve to believe this bold face lie, he would have to package it with something close to the truth, so he gives her a partial truth:

but He knew that in order for Eve to believe this bold face lie, he would have to package it with something close to the truth, so he follows it up with a partial truth:

Genesis 3:5 ESV

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.”

Then Verse 5 is a partial truth:

It this a true statement? That God knows that this is what will happen if they eat from the tree?

Well lets look ahead to the end of this chapter, but before we do - “SPOILER ALERT: They do eat from the tree”…in case you didn’t know that... and we will get there in a little while, but just for now take a look at verse 22 where we find God describing what has happened as a result of Adam and Eve eating from the tree:

Let’s move ahead the last part of chapter 3 where we find:

Genesis 3:22a ESV

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

Genesis 3:20a ESV

20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

:22a

It’s true isn’t it. God did know that this is what would happen, but where it becomes a lie is in the way that the “Crafty” Serpent laid it out. He bridged the gap between his bold face lie and this partial truth with the word “For”. In other words he was saying that God didn’t want you to eat from the tree... because... then you would be like God, knowing Good and Evil. But the complete truth is that God didn’t want the to eat from the tree because He loved them and wanted to have a pure relationship with them and the only way to do this is if they would trust Him and his Good Word. That is why God told them not to eat from the tree - because despite what the Sepent said, they would die and they would be separated from the God who loves them and created them for a relationship with Him.

It was not a question, it was a deception and Adam and Eve rejected God in their decision to disobey him. This is how it happened.

And this is how it happened:

Genesis 3:6–7 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. 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.

Genesis 3:6-

Sometimes I have heard people say that the Christian God is just about rules. Well in the very good beginning there was only one rule. Everything else was so very good that God only needed one rule, one place where man could demonstrate his trust in God and his Word. And we couldn’t even keep that one rule.

And I know that there are a lot of jokes out there about how Eve was really the one to blame here. That maybe she slipped the fruit into a caserole one Tuesday night or something. But notice where Adam was when all of this was taken place. Her husband was with her and in full knowledge of what was happening, He too ate. While Eve was deceived by the Serpent, Adam was just passively standing by and allowing his wife to make a decision that would cause her incredible harm and then He even follows her into that decision too.

There is nothing to joke about here men, because this passivity is something that has plagued our gender ever since that day. God has entrusted us with positions of leadership in our marriage, families, church and community. Are we taking our position seriosly? Or are we just throwing up our hands and saying, “Well they are going to do what they are going to do. I guess I’ll just go along with it.” That is not the role that God has given us.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:13–15 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love. 15 Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—

That may be a little bit of residual from ManCamp yesterday, but it is an important reminder for all of us.

Next, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I can’t help but bring it up because we have hit on it both when working our way through Luke and 1 John. Our enemies bag of tricks is never new, he always goes after the same three catagories in temptation. 1 John lays it out beautifully:

1 John 2:16 ESV

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

1 John

Then we see in Satan’s temptation of Jesus found in where Satan, or the Serpent tried to tempt Jesus with

“If you are the son of God, command these stones to be bread…DESIRES OF THE FLESH

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,… (spectacle) DESIRES OF THE EYES

“I will give you all of these if you will fall down and worship me… PRIDE OF LIFE

Desires of the eyes - in showing him the kingdoms of the World

Be Gone Satan, for it is written…

Pride of Life - in giving him an opportunity to show the world how the angels would care for him if he jumped from the pinnacle of a the Temple.

Here in Genesis the same three things drew Eve into Sin

She saw the tree was good for food DESIRES OF THE FLESH

good for food, DESIRES OF THE FLESH and that it was a delight to the eyes, DESIRES OF THE EYES, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, PRIDE OF LIFE she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

It was a delight to her eyes DESIRES OF THE EYES

The tree was desired to make one wise PRIDE OF LIFE

The tricks of the evil one have not changed even today. We struggle with exactly the same things as we are constantly being drawn into temptation by the things that we feel, the things that we see, and the glory that we desire. Not only that, when we are caught in our sin we respond like our very first parents as well. We hide and we blame someone else:

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:

The Enemy came lunging after Adam and Eve and they missed the Mark. That is the Beginning of our Sin, and even today we are each continuing to deal with:

The Enemy came lunging after Adam and Eve and they missed the Mark, and as we can all atest to, there are now consequences for Our Sin.

Enemy is coming at you and you missed the mark - destruction is now eminent.

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.”

Genesis 3:4-

The Consequence of Our Sin (-19)

There are three directions in which the consequences of sin are aimed: 1. The Serpent 2. The Woman 3. The Man

The Serpent

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

This is a curse for both the reptile, as probably as a reminder to us of the serpents role in the story, and our enemy who is the devil. We find Satan referred to most often as a serpent here in Genesis at the story of the beginning of all things in this world and in the book of Revelations, the story of the end of all things in our world. A couple of examples:

Revelation 12:9 ESV

9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Rev

Revelation 20:2 ESV

2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,

Rev 20

There was a consequence for the creature of the Serpent, and for our enemy who was behind all these deceptions.

The Woman

Genesis 3:14-

Genesis 3:16 ESV

16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

Here God tells Eve that the presence of Sin in her life will bring great pain to the relationships that she holds most dear. Her relationship with her children and her husband. Theologians are a little unclear about what is meant by “multiply the pain”, but it doesn’t make sense that it would mean that there was pain before and now there will be more pain. Their was no pain in God’s Good World. So the best understanding of this is that the new found presence of sin in the world will make the relationship between mother and child more difficult and tension filled in every stage.

In the pains of child birth yes, but also as they grow up with their sin nature they will not obey their parents as they should or would have in the Garden of Eden. We can see this can’t we. It is not the “Image of God” in our Children’s lives that cause them to disobey so early one, but the sin nature that they inherited from us, and we inherited from our parents and they from theirs all the way to our first parents Adam and Eve.

This is why the Bible lists “disobeying your parents” in so many lists of the most grievous of sins. This is that contrary to the relationship that God intended for a mother to have with her children. If we were to read on into Chapter 4 we will see how this was lived out in Adam and Eve’s first children Cain and Able. God accepted the sacrifice of Able, but not Cain.

Genesis 4:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Genesis 4:

This is God speaking here, and the first mention of the Word “Sin” in the Bible. If you know the rest of the story, just like Adam and Eve gave into sin their Son will and Cain will murder his brother Abel. I imagine that the pain and loss over one of Her sons murdering the other was a multiplied many more times over the pain in the process of seeing them come into the world.

This is a similar notion in the marriage relationship. God created it to be a beautiful relationship of helping one another along in the shared God given role of Filling the earth and subduing it. But now marriage is forever tainted. Women will desire one thing and their husband another and the husbands rule over her will not always be the blessing that it was intended to be. These are the consequences of the presence of Our Sin for the Woman.

The Man

Genesis 3:16-

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:17

Remember last week when we talked about how God was the first employer. He had given Adam a job.

Genesis 3:14–19 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Notice it doesn’t say that he put Adam in the middle of the wilderness, the forest, the dessert or even the fields. He put him in the garden. Gardens are not a natural phenomenon, they are intentional. Someone has to plan out a Garden. Set it boundaries. Prepare the soil and choose the plants they want to be in their Garden. It’s not a garden if it is just where random things grew up. God had made a garden. An intentional and very good place for Adam to live, and then he put Adam in the middle of it to work it.

Adam enjoyed his work, but now the ground is cursed so that the work will be painful, and difficult. Just like for the woman, the consequence for the Man was in line with what he values most. To be able to provide with his hands. To work hard and have a good return for his effort. This is not always the case now. In our world plagued with death, disease, and natural disasters the work has become hard. If you work outside the business of agriculture then you see the pain more in the selfishness, greed and dishonesty in the workplace. It can make your work day seem so fruitless, difficult and painful. Like you never feel like you are accomplishing much at all. This too is a part of the curse of the presence of sin

The ground is now cursed so that the work will be painful, and difficult. Just like for the woman, the consequence for the Man was in line with what he values most. To be able to provide with his hands. To work hard and have a good return for his effort. This is not always the case now. In our world plagued with death, disease, and natural disasters the work has become hard. If you are work outside the business of agriculture then you might see the curse of sin better in things like the selfishness, greed and dishonesty that runs so prevelantly through the business world. so that you work is hard and it feels like it is impossible someday to ever make ends meet. This too is a part of the curse of the presence of sin

Gospel Application

Genesis 3:14-

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

Sin is so devestating and it attacks those things that are the most important to us. We should never be found making light of it as if even missing the mark a little is ok. The truth is that we are all going to sin. We have done it and we will do it again, but we should never be ok with it.

Well what a downer of a chapter huh, lets go back to chapter 1 and 2. I liked them much better.

And the truth is that we will return to Chapter 1 and 2. The whole point of the Gospel, what Jesus did for you and for me is to return us to that relationship with God that Adam and Eve had before Sin. One of the clearest pictures that we have of the heaven that awaits us is to look at the Garden that was before us. And the goal of the Gospel Project is to find the message of the Gospel even in the dark places like this. And it is here. I quickly swept over verse 15, knowing that we would return to is now, because the Gospel is..

Our Only Hope over Sin ()

Going quickly back to when God says

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Some of the other translations read that he will

Here is the middle of the curses of Sin, God speaks of the hope that is found the offspring of Eve. One who will come and will destroy the Serpent and his offspring. The ESV used the word “bruise” both times, but the sense of the “Bruising of the head” is more of a crushing blow than just a bruising. Some of your translations might even use that word crushing. This is the earliest picture of the Gospel that we have in the Bible. That while the craftiness, cunning and deception of our enemy will trip us up, we will have victory through one who is to come. The Offspring of Eve.

Landing

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans he lays out so many doctrinal arguments that find their beginnings here in Genesis, but it is interesting that he never even mentions our adversary until he closes his letter. He is telling the Romans in so many different ways how to live like Jesus and be one of his disciples and then only at the very end, in his closing does he mention Satan. And he mentions him only to say that God is going to end his opposition over us very soon. We can see echoes of verse 15 in his words as he closes with:

Romans 16:20 ESV

20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

We all have sinned against God and have corrupted our original created purpose, but God has provided forgiveness in Christ Jesus. So we love Him. Serve and obey Him. And I invite the worship team forward so we can also make much of who He is and what Has done for us in Worship.

Galatians 4:4 ESV

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,