Genesis 15: God's Promise of Paying the Penalty for Sin

Recap

Two Thursdays ago I had the privilege of preaching before you my very first sermon. After receiving some feedback, it became clear that some of the words that I used may have been inappropriate for the context in which I was preaching, and so, I wanted to briefly recap what we discussed last week so that we can better understand what it is will be discussing this week.

Who can tell me what it is that was preached two weeks ago?

If you remember from two Thursdays ago, we discussed God’s Promise of Deliverance - specifically in the life of Polycarp, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We discussed how it was not normative (or standard, repetitive behavior) that God would deem to deliver in this manner. We saw that for Polycarp, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, belief in God’s promise of deliverance was wrapped up in what they saw and believed of His character in their lives. That even unto death, they had determined to trust and believe that even death would be the means by which their Lord would save and deliver them.

Additionally, we examined the promise the Lord had given to Judah - that the scepter (or rule/reign/authority) would not depart from his tribe until Shiloh appeared. And we saw this as an end, or fulfilment of God’s promise to deliver His people. This end we saw, ultimately, was fulfilled in Christ Jesus’s death on a cross and subsequent resurrection and ascent to the right hand of the Father where He rules and reigns for all eternity.

This week, we’re going dive in and examine God’s promise of paying the penalty (or debt) for sin. We will examine the mechanism by which the Lord has determined to save His people. We will find what is true of God and, in understanding this, we will find what is true of ourselves. We will ask and answer questions like “Why is there a need for a savior?” and “If God is all-powerful, why doesn't He just snap His fingers and make the sin (or the penalty of sin) disappear?”

Introduction to the Text

Who can tell me about Abraham?

Why is he important

Read the Text

English Standard Version Chapter 15

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Pray

A Survey of the OT/NT in Regards to the Promise

Now to properly grasp the significance of what we just read, we have to know what exactly it is that the Lord is covenanting between Abraham and His descendants. If you remember in the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth. He created light - the moon and the sun and the stars; He created plants, and animals, and people in His own image. And He blessed them - causing them to be fruitful and multiply and filled them with purpose. He then created a Garden, a place where He placed mankind where He could commune with Him and enjoy His presence. And it was good. So what happened? What caused this wonderful creation of the Lord to become the way that it is now?

Let’s pick up in Genesis 3:

[Read Genesis 3]

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.”

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.”

Now for our purposes this morning, we want to notice a couple of things in this text that will apply to our primary text in Genesis 15.

Notice in what we just read - sin elicited several responses from man and from God

From man:

-In v. 7, their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked - They could now determine good and evil

Now some of you might say, “What’s so wrong about knowing/determining good and evil?” And that’s a valid question. But I want you to imagine only knowing and experiencing and rejoicing in the presence of the LORD God forever - and then in a moment’s notice, being unable to clearly decipher that which is good from bad, because your mind could now deceive you into believing that which is good is bad. It happens all the time around us. That extra slice of pizza you eat when you’re already full. That little white lie you tell your friend, because you don’t want to upset them. But don’t think that such determinations are limited to small things. Imagine the mind of a man who, when in anger, lashes at and hurts those closest around him. Imagine the mind of a murderer, who coldly calculates to take a life. Or the mind of a thief, who determines to take possession of things that do not belong to him.

-Continuing in v. 7, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves - so not only could they determine good and evil, but they attempted to cover their shame - their nakedness.

And in doing so, showed that not only were they able to determine good or evil, they were capable of knowing whether they’d done something wrong. This is an important distinction - they had become moral creatures, capable of creating their own set of laws. Which means they are capable of imposing these manmade laws upon others.

-In v. 8, because of their shame, they hid themselves from the face of God

They hid themselves purposefully from God. Not other creatures. Not themselves. But from their Creator. This should cause us to wonder - “What is it about God that would have caused Adam and Eve to hide themselves from their Creator who - only moments earlier had created them, and communed with them in Garden he’d created for them?” The answer to this is one we found two Thursdays ago - they knew their God to be holy, and just. Except, for Adam and Eve, this didn’t spur them on to belief that He would keep them, but, by deception and manipulation from the serpent, caused them to desire to be just like Him. And in doing so, condemned all of mankind with them.

-In v. 12 and 13 we see that both Adam and Eve shifted blame from themselves

Instead of confessing their wrongdoing, we see our forefather and mother instead attempt to deceive God by shifting the blame away from themselves. Adam says “This woman you’ve given me,” Eve says, “The serpent has deceived me!” Neither accounted for themselves the sin they’d committed against a Holy God.

Now we look to God in this chapter, and see what sin provoked from the Holy and Just Creator of the Cosmos:

-He demanded an answer: in v. 11 “Who told you that you were naked?”

His justness demands an answer. He surely knew all they had done. He’d created them. Intimately had known them. And yet, He asked them anyway.

-Punishment

God didn’t simply forgive Adam and Eve or the serpent. He instead curses them, causing them anguish and distress for the wrongs committed against Him and His glory.

-Sacrifice to cover their shame

Notice in the text that Adam and Eve had already fashioned for themselves garments of leaves to cover their nakedness/shame. Why then did God sacrifice animals, who had no part in Adam and Eve’s deception, to make a covering for them? By creating the garments of skin for them, God demonstrated that the covering that they’d made for themselves was insufficient (or not great enough to cover their shame), and that He himself would provide what was necessary to hide their shame.

-Protoevangelium

It is also here in this chapter that we see what Christian scholars call the protoevangelium, or the “First Gospel.” Note in v. 15 - I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” For many, this signifies a day that is coming in which the Son of Man (man’s offspring) will strike the head of the serpent (Satan).

So a quick recap - God creates the universe and everything in it. He blesses it. Causes it to flourish. Places mankind in a Garden where they enjoy His presence and goodness. And they sin. Their sin causes this chasm to come between themselves and God (and subsequently us). And God not only punishes their sin, but provides a covering for their shame. Already, we begin to see the plan of redemption of God in the beginning. This pattern of the sin of man causing a division between themselves and their God. And already, we see God’s work of restoring His people to Himself by sacrifice.

Awesome.

You may ask, “But why is a sacrifice necessary at all? Why doesn’t God simply snap His fingers and cause sin to go away?”

That’s a good question. And it bears a hard answer. The apostle Paul notes in his letter to the church in Rome:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So sin is so entwined in our nature, in our being that were God to rid the world of sin with a snap of His fingers, He would have no choice but cleanse the world of sinful humanity. Note in Genesis 6, verse 3:

“My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt”

Which soon after, the Lord caused a flood to wipe out the wicked and preserve Noah and his family.

So then, it does us no good to ask the Lord to simply cause sin to go away forever. In fact, it is to our own demise that we request such an action from God.

Then what is left for us to say? If sin is so bound up in our nature, in our conscious - how then can we be redeemed. And that my friends is where we find good news.

In verse 17 of Genesis chapter 15, Abram sees a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appear and pass through the animals that he had separated in half. OT scholars agree that it was the cultural norm for two people entering into a covenant with one another to split a livestock in half and pass through the carcasses together - it signified that if either party were to break the covenant they had made with one another, they were to be turn asunder as the animals they were passing through. Now, the imagery here is powerful. Not only is the eternally existent, all-powerful Creator of the universe condescending to covenant with man, in terms that he would have understand in the culture and time and place he was born into - but notice who alone passes through this the carcasses. The chapter tells us that Abram was in sheer terror from the glory of the Lord appearing before him. He wasn’t moving. God, and God alone covenants with man to fulfill His own promise of making a mighty nation of the descendants of Abraham, that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars, and that through him the nations would be blessed. And - think about it, God himself would fulfill the promise! When the the descendants of Abraham turned against God, broke His commandments, disregarded His laws - God himself would bear the penalty for their breaking the covenant of their father Abraham.

This is unspeakably good news.

For the apostle Paul again comments, this time in his letter to the church in Galatia -

the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

So let’s put this back into perspective - God created the heavens and the earth. He created all the plants, and animals, and mankind - and He breathed life into. He blessed them. He caused them to multiply. And it was good. He created a garden for man. And gave him dominion over the earth. He communed with man, and they enjoyed His presence.

But then they were deceived, and sinned against God. And God punished them. He cast them from the Garden - but not before promising that the Son of Man will crush the heel of the serpent.

Then God chose Abraham, so that the nations of the world would be blessed through him. He made a covenant with Abraham, and promised him that when his descendants broke the covenant with their God, He Himself would pay the consequences of that broken covenant.

And we broke it.

And now Paul (by the Spirit) has given us the understanding we needed to understand how it is that God has determined to keep His covenant with His people. Christ on a cross, broken and bruised, killed though He had done no wrong, the second person of the Holy Trinity, not displayed on a cross, on a hill He Himself created.

It’s the greatest love story ever written.

God Himself died that we may have life in Him. God Himself bled, to cover our shame. God Himself suffered, that we may know unspeakable joy and riches forevermore!

Don’t you see?

I know you hear, but are your listening?

Christ is the fulfilment of this promise!

It’s through Christ we receive the mercy of God!

It’s through Christ we have communion with the Father!

It’s through Christ we access eternal joy and love!

Benediction

Listen again to the words of Paul in Romans Chapter 8:

English Standard Version Chapter 8

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

and we’ll skip down to verse 31

English Standard Version Chapter 8

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s pray.

Pray