Fulfillment, beauty, and enlightnement
Notes
Transcript
Fulfillment, beauty and enlightenment
Fulfillment, beauty and enlightenment
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. 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.”
Greta’s story...
It was just recently that I was talking to one of my kids, and I asked them what was some of their earliest memories? They told me a story about being in pre-school. What did they remember? Not liking another little boy in class because he was often rude to them, so… MY Child… My perfect little angel had an idea on how to make this other kid get what he had coming to him.
My child told me about they had the idea to tell the teacher that this other kid had bit them so he would get in trouble. The only problem was that they needed to make this a believable story so, My child bit themselves and told the teacher that the other kid bit them.
Can you believe that my Child, a pastors kid would do such an awful thing to another student?
Who taught my kid to sin? I know I didn’t...
The text we have before us today will show us the beginning of sin.
What is Sin?
What is sin?
What is sin?
Sin is not a created being like we are and animals are. Sin is the result of disobedience, but what is it really?
Is sin simply missing the mark? Perhaps you have heard this as a definition of sin before.
There are places where Sin is described by the Hebrew word ḥāṭā˒ (verb) “miss the mark, fail” and related words, ˓āḇar “pass beyond, transgress” and related words, ˓āwōn “iniquity, perversion,” pāša˓ “revolt, transgress” and related words, šāgag̱ and šāg̱â “err, go astray,” tā˓â “err, wander,” ra˓ “evil,” and rāšā˓ “wicked, impious.”
ḥāṭā˒ (verb) “miss the mark, fail” and related words, ˓āḇar “pass beyond, transgress” and related words, ˓āwōn “iniquity, perversion,” pāša˓ “revolt, transgress” and related words, šāgag̱ and šāg̱â “err, go astray,” tā˓â “err, wander,” ra˓ “evil,” and rāšā˓ “wicked, impious.”
All these OT words used to describe SIN are talking about specific ways of understanding specific sins. Basically there is 2 categories of sin… Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission.
Sins of Omission are specific ways we are not doing certain things we are commanded to do.
Sins of Commission are ways in which we do things we are commanded not to do.
This may sound confusion but I think we can see how both Adam and Eve commit both of these sins in the garden failure. But before we get into the specifics of the fall and how sin works, we need to get a better definition of what sin is in order to understand this story and make sense of every other story in scripture.
Sin is always against God first and foremost… Even if it has to do with hurting another person, because all sin is directed against God… Why Because it is in some way disobeying his word… So…
Sin is disobedience against God
Sin is disobedience against God
“Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself.”
R.C. Sproul
And as a result of sin it separates us from God because God is holy and cannot share a space with sin.
When I say disobedience, I could also say distrust in his word, or rebellion against his commands.
Sin is always a way of taking God off the throne as sovereign ruler and placing yourself on his throne. It is an act in which you are saying to God, “I do not care what you have said about this, I want to do it my way not yours.” God will not share a space with sin because he is always on the throne.
This is why in the garden where Adam failed, Jesus passes a test in another garden as the true and better Adam who declares, “Not my will be done but yours”. Where the first Adam disobeyed bringing death to all who would be born after him, the second Adam - Jesus Christ - obeyed to the point of death bringing life to all who would believe in him.
We typically understand the Gospel well… meaning we know that the good news is that God forgives us all our sins based on the work of Jesus Christ who died in our place for our sins. But we do not really understand the Gospel until we understand what sin is, and how it works.
And so why should we all pay attention to such a sermon?
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
The Bible declares to us that we are infected with sin which ultimately brings death. We know this is true because everyone dies and that is a direct result of sin.
Let’s look at the nature of sin, how and why it was committed in hopes of better understanding how God dealt with it in Christ.
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’?”
gen3.1
Right off the bat this story seems to be too fantastic to believe for us modern people. But we need to hear this story in light of the Biblical text, not just according to the way in which we know the world today. Before the fall on man in the garden, it never rained, but the earth watered itself, and here we see that an animal is able to talk to humans. But this is no common reptile… Who is the serpent? The bible answers this question for us, and that will give us better context here.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
Satan is the serpent from the garden. Our true enemy, the accuser of the brethren, the evil one, the devil, satan, is the serpent in this story. And to be clear this story isn’t make believe, we actually believe that somehow Satan appeared as a serpent that spoke to Eve. Some people are looking at this story of the fall as something less than an actual event and more of a moral story. We reject that and believe that it actually happened.
But let’s look at what is going on here in the garden. Man was placed here to work it and keep it...
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
gen2.
Last week we talked a little about the concept of man and work, and how after the fall man will always default to being identified by his work, which causes the gospel to be so extreme because we must now be found in the work of another in order to be right with God. But intentionally left out the words, “keep it”. The Hebrew word for keep here is translated guard, watch, i.e., limit access and movement of persons or objects in and out of an area, implying protection to or from the object being guarded.
So here we have the man and the woman in the garden. We see that the man was placed there first before the creation of woman, and God gave man purpose in working the garden and keeping it. Along with this duty he was given instructions.
guard, watch, i.e., limit access and movement of persons or objects in and out of an area, implying protection to or from the object being guarded
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.”
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
So man has purpose in work, duty in guarding the garden, and then gets Woman presented to him in order to complete him. Things are very Good by the end of the second day according to scripture. Life is perfect. God is holy and man and woman are able to fellowship with him because he is the sovereign ruler of them, they follow his commands and enjoy being united to him.
Thats when the serpent comes to talk to them. now lets look at that section and see what was said...
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.
gen3.1-
First notice that if Adam was keeping the Garden by Guarding it, then this wouldn’t have happened. This is a sin of omission… Adam did not do what he was supposed to do… Back to the story...
While this may sound like a snake came up and made them question God, I believe there is something more complicated going on than that. Sure on the surface they disobeyed and he made them call into question whether or not they actually believed God… But the question is why? If everything was perfect and good why would they question God? And I would submit to you that it was because the question was subtly connected to something deeper.
Jared Wilson explains it this way, “When the serpent slithered up to Eve in the garden, what he was tempting her with did not fall far outside of her design. Fulfillment, Beauty and Enlightenment. these are all things God created her to want. Indeed, Adam and Eve were created with an endless capacity for fulfillment, beauty and enlightenment, provided they were oriented in the right direction.”
Meaning that we were created to desire fulfillment, beauty and enlightenment, but these things are meant to be found in our relationship with God our creator. By keeping our eyes on him and enjoying our surrounding. By listening to his words and staying away from whatever he commands. By glorifying him and looking forward to being close to him as the key priority. And it is only when her eyes are directed away from that, that there is a problem.
Her grasp for fulfillment, beauty and enlightenment in a way that was strictly forbidden is what the problem was, even though her capacity for them is part of her own design. She brought fulfillment beauty and enlightenment to Adam, and he brought that to her, and they both had this in a relationship with God. And as soon as her desire for this was pointed away from the prescribed ways for her to experience this, it became a major problem.
See all sin does this to us. It offers us something that we were created for in the right capacity but tempts us to gain it in a way that is prohibited by God. Sin offers us something that is innate in our creation but is twisted in how we gain it. The problem is that we like to see sin as a list of things that we either do or don’t do. And the problem with that is it gets you to believe a false narrative about God which leads to 2 different lies… more on that in a moment but let me illustrate this to you in hopes of seeing what I am talking about.
God created us with a capacity for sex, in fact he created sex and procreation, and it is not a dirty thing. It is meant to be a beautiful expression of the closest intimacy a man and woman can have. So sex and sexual things are not inherently sinful in and of themselves, until your desire to have them for fulfillment outside of the prescribed ways take over and causes you to decide to gain them by other means.
God also created as his vice-regents to work the ground and keep the garden. He created us to have authority over the created order and to subdue the earth. AUTHORITY becomes a God ordained structure in creation, marriage, the home, in the church and in society. Yet when man’s desire for authority causes him to try and gain it by exercising it over others in wrong ways, it becomes a sinful desire that tries to take God off his throne.
Sin is a twisting of how we are very much wired. It takes our God given capacities and tempts them with desires to gain things outside of the way God prescribes for us to have these things. That is why the Bible declares that money isn’t evil but the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
This is why Jesus takes the law and internalizes it for people. He re-frames sin from being just outward behavior to being an inner character. And so committing physical adultery is obvious but those who in their heart are cheating on their spouse constantly are just as guilty. He does the same thing with murder, which not many people are actually guilty of committing, yet anyone who in their heart hate people as just as guilty. Why does he do this?
Jesus is trying to recalibrate our minds about sin to show us it is not about a simple malfunction but at its core it is about us being wired all wrong on the inside. Our God given capacities are being tempted because our internal wiring has gotten all messed up. So sin starts with thoughts, and becomes lies we believe, in order to gain things we were created for, in ways that we are told not to go.
With that thought in mind let’s look again at this temptation in the garden and notice it.
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.”
gen3.1-
So, Did God say you can’t be happy?...
Well… No, no, no we can be happy, but we can’t do this one thing… in fact we can’t even touch that???...
Nah… It’s not that so much, I mean God wants you to be happy but he also is holding out on you...
Do you see the lies here. The first lie is, “God JUST wants me to be Happy” and so when the enemy challenges this in you, he takes your desires for fulfillment only meant to be found in God and points them at other things. And we, Like Eve will begin to think, “If only I had _______, I’d finally be happy”
If only I had more money. If only I had more sex. If only I had his full attention all the time. If only they would notice me. If only people would think I am as great as I know I am. Then I would finally be happy.
The lies are told to us to get us to think about something wrongly. And when we believe that we reach out and take and eat what we were told not to eat. Watch this unfold for Eve.
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.
gen3.6
Notice what she thought...
I’m hungry and this will fulfill that desire, it looks good, it is beautiful, and I want to be wise, this will enlighten me...
She thought about the lie, starred at the tree and it s fruit and believed it would be the answer, so then she acted.
Before this serpent comes along, they see this tree all the time and they don’t desire to do this, because their eyes are on their creator and he fulfills them, nothing is more beautiful, and he enlightens them with every conversation. It is not until a lie they hear causes them to take their eyes off him. It is not until they question God’s motives. It’s not until they doubt God that this even becomes a temptation.
Look at the subtlety Satan takes with Eve… It’s like he says, “Look, why would God make you with a capacity for God-ness yourself, and then keep you from it? Why not become like him?”
She doesn’t even know what she is missing until the lie is spun in such a way that she now feels like she is missing something. Which of course she wasn’t because all these desires were filled in her relationship with God.
He was saying, “C’mon you are missing out and you know that God would want you to be happy, since he gave you the capacity for these desires, so… Go ahead and do it… God just wants you happy.”
“God JUST wants you to be happy”, is a lie...
“God JUST wants you to be happy”, is a lie...
Do you really believe that God is most concerned with your happiness? If not then what is God most concerned with if not our happiness?
It should be easy to point out all the scriptures where he told people he was most concerned with their happiness, right? Except for you cannot find that in scripture.
God having a wonderful plan for your life, is only true in that however he decided you will come to him and whatever you have to face in this life, he will be with you and will ultimately bring you to himself. There are no promises that it will always be perfect and fun because he only wants your happiness. Look what he call Paul to...
16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
acts9.
It seems like God is more concerned with the sake of his name than he is with Paul here. In fact all through scripture you see God showing his glory and calling us to righteousness and holiness not happiness. Here is what I found that point to God wanting our righteousness and holiness.
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.
31 “You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
lev
40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!
28 In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.
23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
ez36.23
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
eph1.
14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1peter
11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
So it is clear that God doesn’t JUST want our happiness, he is more concerned with our holiness and righteousness. But why?
Because he knows that when we are truly holy as he is holy and we are able to be united to him, we will find the most satisfaction and true Joy rather than temporary happiness.
The real truth we need to know is that Your happiness and holiness are not separate things. In fact I would submit to you that as a true believer you are only truly happy when you are empowered to live holy.
John Piper says it this way, “We are most satisfied when God is most glorified.”
It is a major problem to think about our happiness outside of God’s Holiness. The two are not mutually exclusive. So no God does not JUST want you to be happy, but his desire is for you to be Holy as he is Holy and this will bring you true Joy, because in his presence is fullness of Joy!
The problem in is that Eve was convinced of a lie by putting her eyes somewhere they didn’t need to be. She was duped into looking for something she didn’t know was missing, because it wasn’t.
and then another lie came...
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
OH come on, you won’t really die… If God is so good he won’t kill you...
He had to say the exact opposite of God and do the best he could to get them to not believe God. Satan now tries to convince her that God didn’t mean what he said and quickly points elsewhere in an effort to misdirect her attention. he moves on quick so she won’t focus in on death… Because its no big deal anyhow.
“You will not die… As if death is the great nothingness that threatens to ruin the party” Jared Wilson
Satan is trying to promise something he doesn’t have the right to promise. God is the one who said they would die if they did this, so Satan can’t guarantee them anything since he wasn’t the one in control. Instead he is trying give a sense of immediacy to it.
“Sin has a logic of immediacy to it”… Just do this… you deserve this… it just a little taste… You are not hurting anyone else… this will give you relief… this will make you happy… you only live once… Carpe diem - Seize the day...
So with temptation you choose a little bit of death believing it will bring you life. It seems like you will miss out so you gotta act now.
But look at what happen to them… they do not even stop to think about death. Or worse to think about after death.
The only thing worse than not thinking past death, is not thinking about death at it at all.
And so what happens. Death is not what they thought it was, they didn’t know what death was in a perfect creation, but they did know that something changed as soon as they acted on these misdirected desires.
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.
Now the death they should’ve received is certainly a physical death, but God gracious doesn’t give them what they deserve.
This death was not an instant physical death… that will certainly come later now, but first there is a spiritual death that is hinted at in their alienation from each other. The first thing they experience is a feeling of guilt and shame from their nakedness. This is a brokenness in their intimacy with each other. But it doesn’t end with them being ashamed around each other...
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.
gen3.
The next way we see a major change and a result of spiritual death is running from God. Their shame has so overcome them that they are not only alienated from intimacy with each other, they are now hiding behind trees as if God will not find them or see them.
Spiritual death is being separated from God’s presence.
Spiritual death is being separated from God’s presence.
Instantly they are aware of the fact that they are not acceptable to God. they are now scrambling around to hide themselves. After all they know of God, they cannot bring themselves to be found out in the open, rather they are trying to cover and hide their sin.
Spiritual death is not aware of sin and if it is it tries to hide and cover rather than bring it out.
And a quick note on where they are hiding? among the trees??? Last week I made the point that certain elements of creation become bigger themes throughout scripture… Here again are trees… And while it might not seem like much but notice that they hide their sin behind trees, but when God judges sin he hangs it on a tree in front of everyone to see.
But God who knows all things, doesn’t come into the garden and kill them like he should. He is gracious even in his judgement of them. Look at how he talks with them...
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.”
Notice how God speaks to them. He first asks questions he already knows the answer to.
Where are you… Does he know where they are? Yes of course he does. So why ask?
God is giving them a chance to come to him. To step out of hiding and expose themselves.
He then asks them the question, “who told you that you were naked?”
God isn’t asking because he doesn’t know, but he is giving them a chance to confess their sins.
With the very first Sin god gives the chance to come out and confess it. From the first sin on to every sin in all of creation and into the future he knows of every sin that will ever be committed and he would still call out to his creation… Where are you? Who told you these things?
But what comes after death? Satan does not want you to think about that.
And this is where we see the effect of sin take over as they distort the truth and blame each other and even blame God...
Can you believe the audacity to blame God? Look at what their response was.
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
Its her fault… Even though it was His job to Keep the garden, or Guard it...
And she isn’t any better then him… Look at what she says...
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.”
What did YOU do Eve? Well… the serpent… it is his fault, even though she was told not to eat the fruit… Sin of commission...
This scene shows the brokenness of humanity instantly even in their admitting guilt. And the rest of the story gets worse from here.
But I couldn’t leave you in that state… Because this is what the Gospel is so powerful in showing to us. How in one man death came through sin but in another came obedience leading to life. And this is good news because it is a free gift based on the work of Christ and now on our performance of trying to be right… Because of sin we are wrong, so we need someone to fix us and get our desire focused in the right direction. This is what Jesus Christ does for those who believe in him. He justifies us before God and makes us his righteousness. And this is all pure Grace given to us to reverse the curse of sin...
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
romans5
3 questions
3 questions
Question 1 - Do you understand what the first sin was?
Question 1 - Do you understand what the first sin was?
Is it more than just doing something they shouldn’t do or not doing something they should do? How was this a subtle misdirection of desires that she had a capacity for already?
How does the idea of minimizing sin play into disobedience?
Question 2 - Do you understand the affects of sin?
Question 2 - Do you understand the affects of sin?
Is death, both spiritual and physical, the only affects of sin? How did it bring seperation to both man and woman, and their relationship with God?
Question 3 - How does God deal with sin?
Question 3 - How does God deal with sin?
Do you really understand the Gospel? How do people who are born into sin have any hope to be right with God?