Rebellion, Mercy and Grace

Scripture Reading

Genesis 2:15–17 NIV84

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Introduction

As you know by now, we are considering together from the Scriptures the significance and importance of covenants in the unfolding redemptive purposes of God. We began with an overview of what covenants are in the Scriptures, and then we moved on to the initial important aspect of the creation of man in the image of God.

As we continue now, I want to draw our attention to the event in Scripture that sets the redemptive purposes and plans of God into motion. Essentially what we are going to be looking at is the fall of man as he rebelled against God, and found himself in opposition to God. It was this fall of man that led God to put into motion the predetermined plan that he had in order to redeem a people for himself.

In terms of introducing this topic of the fall of man, there are some points that I need to draw your attention to as we begin to consider the significance of this event of the fall of man.

The first thing that I’d like to point out is the fact that man was placed in the Garden in Eden. In Genesis 2:15, we read, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15).

Keep in mind that last time we were in this series, we consider the fact that the image of God in man had at least partly to do with the fact that man was to rule over the creation. And thus we find that God places him in this garden in order to work the garden, or rule over it in a wise way.

I want to point out another important matter in this regard. As we work through this passage dealing with man being placed in the Garden of Eden, and then what happens as man sins against God, I want to point out a number of ways in which the Garden of Eden was seen to be a form of a temple, or rather a sanctuary, where man worshiped God. At the very least, the Garden set before us a picture of life in close communion and fellowship with God, as God dwelt among man.

There are a number of ways in which this will come out as we consider the account of Adam and Eve in the garden. In terms of Genesis 2:15, we see this coming through in the phrase “to work it and take care of it.” As we look at the Old Testament, we find that the only other place in the Torah where the same two verbs appear together is in the book of Numbers, and the usage of the words actually relates to the ministry of the priests in the tabernacle.

Numbers 3:7-8...

“They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle. They are to take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle.” (Numbers 3:7–8, NIV84)

Numbers 18:5-6...

““You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting.” (Numbers 18:5–6, NIV84)

In these references from the book of Numbers, we find these two verbs “work” and “keep” referring to that which took place in the tabernacle by the priests of God. This is just one of the ways in which we find that the garden could be likened to a place of the worship of God. I will point out a few more examples of this as we work through the passage this evening.

The next important thing that we need to note from chapter 2 of Genesis is that man was given a command by God that he was to obey. Significantly, there was only one command that God gave to man that he was to obey. We read that command in Genesis 2:16-17. “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”” (Genesis 2:16–17).

As God placed Adam in the garden of Eden, he issued him with the simple command that he was to obey in order to continue to live in right relationship with God. At this point in time, Adam lived in perfect union with God. There was a fellowship that existed between God and man. We will see later on that God would walk in the garden and would interact with Adam. So long as Adam would continue to obey God, this beautiful relationship between God and man would continue to exist intact.

But we do also see that there would be consequences if man failed to obey God. The consequences are found in the end of that sentence in verse 17, “for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Death would come to man if they failed to obey God’s command.

What we need to recognize concerning that death, is what we considered last week in our children’s talk, and that is death seen as separation from God. Yes, this would include physical death for man. But significantly, it was a death that came about as man was separated from his right relationship with God.

With this in mind, we must turn our attention to Genesis chapter 3. I’d like us to notice firstly from Genesis 3, the deception that occurred.

1. Deception (vv.1-5)

As we head into this chapter, we find a new character entering into the scene. We find who the Scriptures refer to as the “deceiver” coming in the form of a serpent in order to draw mankind away from God. Notice his approach to Eve:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”” (Genesis 3:1, NIV84)

We see that the first thing that Satan does as he enters into the garden is that he seeks to cast doubt on God’s counsel. God had certainly said to Adam that he could eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. Simply by questioning what God had actually said, Satan begins to cast doubt in the mind of Eve.

We also see in this verse that Satan begins to distort what God had said. He asked the question, “did God really say?” And following that he twists what God truly said.

I point this out because this is the typical way in which Satan continues to work in our day. There is a practical lesson in this for us today as we live out our lives as Christians in this world. How often do you not ask yourself the question, did God really say? How often do you wonder to yourself if you can actually trust What God said? Further to this, how often do we not ask ourselves the question, did God really mean that when he said XYZ?

Satan is the deceiver, and he will continue to deceive mankind by distorting and casting doubt upon the word of God given to us.

We find in verses two and three that Eve correctly answered the serpent.

“The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”” (Genesis 3:2–3, NIV84)

One observation that I’d like to point out from that response, is the fact that the tree was in the middle of the garden. As we continue to see links between the garden of Eden and the tabernacle or the temple, we see that the tree is in the middle of the garden, but in the tabernacle or the temple was the branching lampstand, which is been recognized by theologians to be a stylized tree of life.

With Eve having responded correctly, Satan goes on with his efforts at devaluing what God has instructed man. Satan was seeking to systematically counter the wisdom of God and the perfection of his word to man. We see this in the next verses.

““You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “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 3:4–5, NIV84)

There are two things that Satan does in these verses. At this point he seeks to deny what God had said. He is no longer simply costing doubt, but is actually actively opposing what God has said. He says to the woman “you will not surely die.” He was saying to the woman that her deeds did not really matter and she could live in a more appropriate manner, in a way that better suited her, because God was a liar.

Furthermore, Satan denounced God by directly attacking his character. He intimates in verse five that God is nervous about man eating of the fruit of this tree in the middle of the garden, because when he does it then he will become like God knowing good and evil. In other words, he attributes selfish motives to God.

Once again, this is a demonstration that Satan sought to encourage man to distrust what God had said. And once again, that is what Satan continues to do even into our day. Whenever the Scriptures are undermined, whenever the Scriptures are thought to be irrelevant, outdated, insufficient, containing error or anything of that sort, Satan is behind the work to create the distrust in the word of God.

As a practical point in this regard, when there are times when you distrust what God has said in his word you must know that Satan is behind that creation of distrust. We are called to listen to the word of God and to hear it to believe what you said, and then to act on it.

There’s one more observation that I need to make from this verse five. The phrase is used over there “knowing good and evil.” There’s been much speculation as to what this phrase actually means. The best explanation that has been provided for this is that a particular theologian W. M. Clark that evaluate the various occurrences of this phrase in the Hebrew Bible, and demonstrated from this evaluation that to “know good and evil” has to do with the exercise of absolute moral autonomy. In other words, the phrase really means to choose or determine for oneself that which is right and wrong independently of God. Here was a decision to self-legislate.

As we consider this, we need to recognize that man does this unto this day. The essence of sin is that man will not listen to God but rather will determine for himself what he believes is right and wrong. Man will rather choose his own way than to listen to God. This leads us to our second main observation.

2. Disobedience (vv.6-7)

I want spend a lot of time on this point, what we find of a here is that the woman takes of the fruit and eats it. She also give some to Adam and he eats it and immediately both of them become aware of the fact that they have sinned. While their initial relationship had been marked by purity and delight, once that each of the fruit they became aware of sin and shame, and they sought to hide themselves from God. They sought to cover their nakedness.

As we consider them covering their nakedness, we need to understand very importantly that this was simply a demonstration of the fact that their hearts were not exposed as being contrary to the will of God.

This is very important in terms of our theological framework. We need to recognize that sin entered into humanity through Adam and Eve. In other words, it was not simply that Adam and Eve had sin in them, but rather that sin became the normal part of the human condition. As you continue to work your way through Scripture, you will find repeatedly that the heart of man is sinful.

“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5, NIV84)

“But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me.” (Jeremiah 16:12, NIV84)

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NIV84)

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6, NIV84)

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6, NIV84)

“All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3, NIV84)

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” (Ephesians 4:18–19, NIV84)

What we must see from this is that the sin that Adam and Eve engaged in plunged mankind into a state of natural sinfulness. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, not one. And this is evidenced in our works. In other words, we conduct sin because we are sinners. We engage in sinful acts because our hearts are by nature sinful. We must not think that we are innocent until we start to sin. No, we are born into sin, we are born with the sin nature. Therefore, we sin.

There is another theological aspect that I want to convey in this regard. There is what is referred to as federal headship. In our 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, it is written in these words…

They being the root, and by God’s appointment, standing in the room and stead of all mankind, the guilt of the sin was imputed, and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation, being now conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, the servants of sin, the subjects of death, and all other miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal, unless the Lord Jesus set them free.

When God created humanity, and specifically when he made man is the one to rule over the created world, Adam was the one that was created as that ruler. We see that when Adam sin against God, the curse of God came upon the whole world. We find the link in Scripture between what Adam did and the rest of humanity. In other words we call Adam the federal head of humanity.

Notice in the confession that speaks about the guilt of sin being imputed, and the corrupt nature being conveyed. In other words there were two sides. There was the side that we’ve already looked at in terms of all of us being sinners. And we see that in practical terms. All of us engage in sin because we are sinful by nature. That is what the confession speaks of in terms of the corrupt nature having been conveyed.

But in addition to this the confession conveys the idea of Adam being the federal head. This means that his sin was imputed to us, or that the guilt of his sin came upon all humanity because he was the representative head of humanity.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12, NIV84)

Now this federal headship is a very important theological truth, particularly when we come to consider that Christ stands as the representative head of those who are in him.

A little further on in Romans chapter 5, Paul links the one man bringing death and condemnation upon all men as a consequence of one sin, and sits it in opposition to the righteousness of Christ, a single person, being the one through whom righteousness may come to all people who are in him.

“Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:16–17, NIV84)

Paul also writes to the Corinthian believers the following:

“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21–22, NIV84)

So we see in the Garden of Eden the rebellion of man against God.

The final thing that will consider briefly this evening from this passage is the blame shifting that takes place. And we see this in verses 8 through 13…

3. Blame-shifting (v.8-13)

In these verses we find the responses of Adam and Eve as they are confronted by God in response to their sin. In verse 8 we read,

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8, NIV84)

We see from this verse that the garden of Eden is characterized by the presence of God. God is coming into the garden to meet with Adam and Eve. The verb that is used in this passage way in this verse actually speaks about a walking back and forth in the garden. This is something that God would do regularly in other words.

That same concept is found in terms of the presence of God in the tent sanctuaries among the Israelites.

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” (Leviticus 26:12, NIV84)

“For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.” (Deuteronomy 23:14, NIV84)

“I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ’” (2 Samuel 7:6–7, NIV84)

Once again we find links between what is taking place in the garden and the worship of God and the presence of God as he would in that sense be present in the tabernacle among the people of God.

As we continue on in our passage, I just want us to know very briefly the manner in which both Adam and Eve responded to God when they were questioned concerning their sudden understanding of the nakedness. We read in verses 9 through 12:

“But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”” (Genesis 3:9–13, NIV84)

I’m not going to dwell on this point for too long at this stage. But simply to note that there was blame shifting that took place in terms of Adam and Eve. When Adam was confronted by God in terms of the sin that that indulged in, Adam’s response was, “the woman you put here with me she gave me some fruit of the trees and I ate it.”

We must keep in mind that man had a responsibility to lead the woman is the one that was placed as the head of the family unit. Adam was clearly present with Eve when she took of the fruit from the tree. And yet, he failed to lead her into take responsibility as the head of their marriage, and so prevent you from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Notice also in Adam’s words of here that there is almost a sense of blaming God. Adam says to God that it was the woman that you put with me here in the garden that did this.

The woman on the other hand was a little different. She says to God the serpent deceived me and I ate. Both Adam and Eve sought to shift the blame to someone else. Neither of them would take responsibility for their own action. But we will see in due course as we continue in this look at Genesis chapter 3 that God made them responsible for their actions.

This is very insightful for us in our day for us practically. The same will occur as we live out our lives in this world. We will find that when we are confronted with Allison, we seek to blame people around us will circumstances around us for what is occurred. We say that if this person had not done something to me, then I would not have done something that was sinful against God, and in this way we try to justify what we do. Likewise, we will say that if certain circumstances certain difficult things around us were not present, then we would not have acted in the sinful way that we acted.

However, as will go on to see in due course, each man is responsible for their own sin. God holds each person accountable for their sin.

What I would encourage us through this evening’s message and particularly this last verse is to say that we need to see arson for what it truly is. We need to understand that every time we commit distant, irrespective of who we believe is the cause of our sin, or what circumstances we believe is the reason for us committing sin, we need to understand that that does not make us any less culpable for our sin against God.

“Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness.” (Psalm 96:13, NASB95)

“Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.” (Psalm 98:8–9, NASB95)

“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” (Romans 2:5–8, NASB95)

Most certainly, Scripture teaches that God is going to bring final judgment upon mankind. We are not going to delve into it at this stage, but there is a hope for those who are in Jesus Christ who will be the substitute for those who place their trust in him. But what I simply want to bring across is that each man who is sin before God is guilty of this sin. Either they will pay the penalty for their sin because they have refused to trust in Christ, or that penalty would have been dealt with in Jesus Christ for those who place their trust in him.

“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6–10, NASB95)

4. Curses (vv.14-19)

5. Grace (v.15)

6. Mercy (vv.20-21)

7. Separation (vv.22-24)

Application / Conclusion

We have considered a fair amount throughout passage this evening. There is still much more that we will need to consider when we look at this chapter again from Scripture. But for now let me close with a few words of encouragement.

It is very important that we across these foundational truths of Scripture. That which is taken place with man in the Garden of Eden is critical for us to understand if we are going to understand the purposes of God throughout history. This includes the manner in which man was created before God in order to worship him and to bring glory to him. It also includes the deception that took place in the Garden of Eden that led men astray. It also includes man's response to the serpent, and very importantly his decision to act in a manner that was autonomous and outside of the authority of God.

This is what has descended man into the chaos that we find in this world. And this is why ultimately it was necessary for a perfect Savior to come into the world in order to bring redemption to this world that was under the curse of God.

As you go out into this week, I would like to encourage you to pay careful attention to your own life and to the way you are thinking through situations and scenarios as they unfold in your own life and in your own circumstances. I would encourage you to keep in mind what we've looked at this evening. Consider how Satan deceived Eve and Adam. Consider the methods that he used in order to do this; the doubt he cast, the twisting of the word of God, the way he led Adam and Eve to believe that God's commands were not the best for their own good. Consider these things and think to yourself how Satan might seek to do the same in your relationship with God and his word.

Consider also then your own responses to circumstances and to people. Do you respond in a godly manner to people and circumstances? And if you are not responding in a godly manner, do you find yourself blaming the people or blaming the circumstances around you for the manner in which you have responded? Now that is not to say that there are not sinful people around you and sin-cursed circumstances around you. While this is most certainly true and the reality of the world in which we live, God calls us to live holy lives before him. In other words we don't use these things around us to blame shift. At least we ought not to.

And finally as you go into this week, in light of these things that we've been thinking about this evening, go into the week rejoicing all the more in the grace that is yours through Jesus Christ. We have not been redeemed from that which is insignificant. We have been redeemed from great sin before a holy God. Great is our salvation by his grace. Delight yourself in that, and seek to grow in holiness to the glory of his name.

Amen