STUDY THEME: QUESTIONS ABOUT ORIGINS.

"SIN: WHAT WENT WRONG?"

GENESIS 3: 1, 2-5, 6-7, 8-13, 14-19, 22-24 8-18-02

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO GENESIS 3.

Last week we left the newly weds, Adam and Eve, in a perfect environment in a garden in Mesopotamia. God had planted the garden to supply every need the couple might ever have. It was a beautiful place where God could enjoy fellowship with His creation. What went wrong?

There was one in the garden who was not happy. The Bible tells us about Satan, an angel of God who rebelled and, because of that he was evicted from heaven and banished to earth. Satan learned that he could not overcome God. So Satan focused his attack on the next best target, mankind, to whom God had given authority over the earth.

It is the Devil who asks the first question in the Bible, and casts the first doubt upon the Word of the Lord, and by clever deception gains the ear of Mother Eve. Satan is the great deceiver. He comes in the garb of a beautiful animal, walking upright in all its dignity and with the power of speech, the only instance in nature of a beast being able to communicate with man, except by special permission of God. The word serpent means the "whisperer" and this in itself is highly suggestive. And this tempter comes to Mother Eve and asked "Yea, Hath God Said?"

The words "more subtle", "more cunning" and "more crafty" show us that the serpent knew just what to say to the woman to seduce her into listening to him and disobeying God. Satan has now had thousands of years to refine his approach, but the same old methods that worked in the garden still seem to be effective today. He takes people by surprise, coming when we least expect him, and appears as our friend who has come to help us find a fulfilling life.

The tempter ignored all of the beauty and bounty that God gave to the original pair in Gen. 2: 16-17, and focused the woman’s full attention only on the one forbidden tree. The tone of his words in Vs. 1 insinuate what he later spells out in Vs. 4-5: that God did not have their welfare at heart; instead, God was only looking out for Himself.

Now notice carefully the answer of Eve, for in this answer we have the nature and the beginning and character of all sin. Most people think of sin as an act rather than attitude. It is generally believed that Eve sinned when she actually ate of the tree, which God had forbidden, but this is hardly true. Eve’s sin was committed before that, when she believed the Devil instead of God. That was the root of her sin and the act of taking of the fruit was only the natural result of her unbelief of the Word of the Lord. Sin is not primarily an act but an attitude toward God.

2. PLEASE READ GENESIS 3: 2-5.

Today in this lesson see how God warns us about the influences that are present in our decision making. Life is composed of choices and we are responsible for our choices. It is amusing some of the excuses people give for the choices they make.

The verses just read show that the woman was taking the bait offered to her by the tempter. When she quoted what God said, she followed the spin the tempter had put on what God actually had said. Like the tempter, she ignored the bounty of the garden, and she watered down the generous invitation to eat freely from all the trees. She even added to the prohibition by saying that God also commanded them not even to touch the forbidden tree.

Vs. 4-5 show how the tempter quickly took advantage of this opening given him by the woman. He moved from an insinuation to a mixture of half-truths and lies. He denied the word of God that they would die. Then he told the woman that God was holding out on them, for He did not want them to have the kind of knowledge of good and evil that God has.

Now there are parts of this we don’t understand, but if we deny that which God’s Word teaches is true, we make a serious mistake. There are many people, for example, who claim that talking snakes and a tree of knowledge are parts of a fairy tale.

One famous theologian, Karl Barth, was asked, "Dr. Barth, did the snake really speak to Eve?" He replied, "It doesn’t matter if the snake spoke, what counts is what he said." Now, on the surface that sounds like one of those profound, opaque, answers theologians sometimes like to give. But if you stop to think about it, it is really just nonsense. If the snake did not speak to Eve, what he did not say is hardly important.

Some of you may be thinking, "So what? What difference does it make in my life today, if Gen. 3 is fact or fiction?" It makes a big difference. For one thing, if the Bible cannot be trusted when it tells about events in the Garden of Eden, why should we believe what it teaches about other matters?

Right there Eve fell, right there Eve sinned, and the subsequent eating of the fruit was only the result of this first sin. The first sin of Eve was doubting God, and the next was lying. Eve was a liar. Before she became a thief, she was a liar, and before she was a liar she was an unbeliever. Now don’t wince at this, for it is right here in the record. What Eve quoted God as saying was an untruth. God never said that at all.

Now in examining this statement of Mother Eve in Vs. 2 & 3, we find that she made three mistakes, which always lead to disaster. First, she added something to God’s Word. Second, she changed something in the Word of God, and then, finally, she left something out of the Word of God. Notice each one of these.

Eve fell, not when she reached forth her hand to take of the forbidden tree, but she fell when she doubted the Word of God and gave ear to the tempter Satan, speaking to her through the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In Vs. 6 we have the three-fold temptation which followed the threefold mistake Eve made when she: (l.) added to the Word of God; (2.) changed the Word of God; and (3.) took something away from the Word of God.

In Vs. 6 and 7 of Gen. 3 we also have three definite things. Eve saw the fruit of the tree, that it was good for food, good for sight, and good for wisdom. Three things, food, sight, wisdom! The appeal of the temptation attacked Eve from three sphere of her being: body, soul, and spirit.

First the temptation of her body came through the channel of the appetite: she saw that the tree was good for food. The first temptation, therefore, was to the physical side of Eve, her desire for food. The second temptation was to the soul. She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes. The soul is the seat of appreciation of beauty, the seat of our appreciation of our likes and dislikes, our ability to enjoy pleasure and the seat of the emotions.

Their eyes were opened to sin and closed to holiness. They learned something they had never known before: they were naked before God. They forgot something they had known before: that God was their friend, but their eyes were blinded to that; and so they flee from God and hide in the garden and seek to cover their own nakedness and sin by the work of their own hands. Before they sinned, they had been clothed by a garment of sinlessness, and perfection, and holiness; and now suddenly they find they are without it and are naked.

Behold the awful effect of sin! Man knows he has sinned, but he does not know the remedy. His entire concept of God is changed and twisted and distorted. He misunderstands God and His love. He thinks now that God is someone to fear rather than One who has the only remedy for his condition. He hides from God, he makes excuses, he lies, and, foolish, foolish sinner, he imagines he can do something himself to make amends for his wrong. He imagines that by the work of his hands he can recover the garment of holiness and make himself again presentable before God.

They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Sin does not need a covering; it needs an atonement. The mistake which Adam made is the mistake of all ages, thinking that sin is something on the outside which can be covered by our own works and our own efforts. But sin is in the heart; fig leaves can only cover the external shame of sin, but it can never take it away; it cannot remove the penalty of death. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons

Fig leaves then, in the Scriptures, represent man’s own efforts to save himself and make himself right with God once more. Adam started the fad of fig-leaf dresses, and every Adam’s son born from that day until now has tried the same thing until convicted by the Spirit of God of the necessity of God’s remedy and God’s righteousness for salvation. Every effort of man without the blood of Christ is an abomination in the sight of God. It is Fig Leaves.

Vs. 7 & 8 explain the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin. In Vs. 7 Adam and Eve were ill at ease with one another. In Vs. 8 they are ill at ease with God. (fearful and hiding from Him). The confrontation with God produced fear and they hid among the trees. There would be no fellowship that day.

The Bible teaches that the devil is a deceiver. He deceived Eve and we are told in the 9^th Ch. Of John that the devil is the "father of lies." So he lies to us and deceives us and manipulates and tempts us. Why does he lie and deceive and tempt and manipulate us? The answer is, "Because he can’t force us." If he could force us to sin there would be no need for temptation or manipulation. He would just force us to do it. But he can’t force us to sin. We must choose to do it. And if we choose, then we are responsible.

Now that is bad news. But I have good news, too. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ loved us so much that He died for us, and that His blood can cover all our sins. But you see,, the first step in being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, is to accept responsibility for our actions. As long as we try to find someone else to blame, we will never come to grips with the fact that we are sinners.

Sin always has consequences, some immediate others months or years later. Adam and Eve, and the serpent experienced both, for at this point the Lord judged the serpent, then Eve, and then Adam. In looking at God’s curse on the serpent, we might think that the only thing here is bad news for snakes. God cursed the serpent and all its offspring so they would have to crawl on the ground ant eat dust all their lives.

Vs. 15 presents a different situation. This verse further describes God’s curse on the serpent by placing great enmity between the serpents and the human race. Some have called this the first mention of the gospel. This means that the great animosity is between Satan, (the unseen power behind the serpent) and his followers on the one hand, and the woman (representing the human race) and her offspring (Christ) on the other hand.

From the beginning Satan has been trying to destroy the human race. Satan would cause Christ much pain (strike His heel), but God would defeat Satan through Christ’s death and resurrection (He will crush Satan’s head). God—in the moments immediately after Adam and Eve sinned—promised humanity a remedy for sin through the coming Redeemer.

God’s judgment on Eve was that she would experience great pains in childbearing and despite her newly acquired desire for her husband, he would rule over her instead. Far-reaching consequences were in store for Adam. First, the ground was cursed, so it would resist his efforts, and the efforts of his offspring to make it produce food. Second, he would work hard all the days of his life and then die, returning to the dust from which God made him.

In Vs. 22, the Lord did not wish for the man to have eternal life. The man was living eternally in the Garden, but now he had sinned and separated himself from a relationship with the Lord, The Lord did not want him to have eternal life on earth anymore. The Lord knew that if the man were to remain in the Garden he would have access to the tree of life. This is the reason why God drove the man out of the Garden.

For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offense of one (Adam’s offense) judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one (Jesus’ righteousness) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam’s disobedience) many were made sinners, so by the righteousness of one (Jesus’ obedience) shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin did abound, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Chris our Lord.

Adam and Eve could not undo the sin they had committed. They could not go back to the way things were. The ultimate consequence for sin is death (Rom. 3:23), both physical and spiritual---but primarily spiritual. God has promised that on the day they disobeyed, they would die. Their physical deaths did not occur until years later, but their spiritual deaths, their broken relationship with God, occurred immediately.

Paul’s statement in 1 Cor. 15: 22 "in Adam all die" only makes explicit what Genesis already implies.

NEXT SUNDAY FROM GENESIS 4 WE ASK, "WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER? A.V. DAUGHERTY 8-18-02

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