Introduction
1) What’s going on in the Fall?
A) Preserving Paradise
B) The socially awkward subject of sin
i) You only need a Saviour if you’re a sinner
ii) Unsaved sinners want saved sinners to say a lot about human sin and their Saviour
2) Where does this leave us with sin?
A) Identifying what constitutes sin
B) Identifying the way that it GETS to you
There are two huge windows in this chapter and the next one on how sin gets to us.
i) The free choice
Knowing what’s right
Satan’s contradiction of God’s Word
Eve is tempted by being her own ‘god’
Eve’s flesh gets involved
ii) The choice born of bondage
3) Where does this leave us with God?
Conclusion
Introduction
What would you say was the most pivotal event in human history?
It’s a hard question, isn’t it?
I suspect the answer any person would give to a question like that would say a lot about them and their perception of the realities they face at that particular point in time … so, for example, this week has seen the commemoration of D-Day, the Normandy Landings eighty years ago on Thursday.
The Normandy Campaign of 1944 and the battles in the Fallaise Pocket clearly marked the decisive turning point (at last so far as battle-field contact was concerned) of the whole of the Second World War, the war which has given us eighty years of fascist-free government so far.
And of course that commemoration of an historic decisive point in our history has been characterised by bold statements of the significance of D-Day and the sacrifice of those who fought their way onto the beaches and up through Europe.
It was a huge human endeavour and we would never want to detract from it, but … even that dent seem like the turning-point in human history.
What was?
It’s a huge question, so let’s just content ourselves with what I’m going to suggest was the second most pivotal event in human history, and then that will bring us back to the MOST pivotal event.
What was it?
I’m going to suggest - and I’m going support this argument - that the second most pivotal event in human history was an odd incident involving a woman, a fruit tree and a snake.
You’ll basically know the story, but are you absolutely clear on the huge significance of what it represents to us?
We’re talking about the fundamental downfall of humanity … which we call, in the shorthand, ‘The Fall’.
How come?
1. What’s going on in the Fall?
First of all, let’s be clear on the detail here …
It starts with the paradisiacal purpose of people …
A) Preserving Paradise
Genesis 2:7-9 gives us the basic account of Creation and then fine tunes the account there with this further detail:
“Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil …”
It goes on to describe how AMAZING things were in that garden, and then tells us that “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”
… and that he saw it wasn’t good for the man to be alone there so He made another like him but with differences to be there with him.
Now, before you start thinking ‘that’s just an improbable fairy story’, just tell me again how probable it seems that humanity has happened into existence by an extremely long chain of random events that ‘happened’ to produce the complex but well ordered organism that is a human being from electrical discharges in the equally randomly ‘evolved’ universe via a patch of blue-green algae through fish and a bunch of monkeys swinging in the trees … to a human as well developed as you that is able to hear what I’m saying today over a highly complex piece of technology that the human brain has developed?
So, back to Genesis, where an intelligent, compassionate and all-powerful creator designed and devised Adam and then Eve … and put them in the Paradise He’d created to enjoy it, to enjoy a fantastic relationship with them, and to take care of His physical Creation as His vice-regents and stewards.
Humanity’s role in Creation is first spelled out there in Genesis 2:15-18: “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 from it you will certainly die.”
They universe as created was the work of a moral Creator Who produced a moral universe, and preserved it by forbidding to the humans the knowledge of what was evil … they were to know only wha was good but not be able to identify it because they lacked the contrasting knowledge of what constituted evil.
In THAT way humanity was protected from the judgement that God (as the perfectly moral Being) would be compelled by His own holy nature to bring on sin.
And now possibly you’re saying you’re nervous in this day and age of mentioning … of making too much … of sin.
Let’s take a time out on that one …
B) The socially awkward subject of sin
A society in rebellion against God clearly doesn’t feel comfortable hearing too much said about sin.
There are two things, one basic and theological but the other very relevant to our insecurity as believers in this world about this topic.
i) You only need a Saviour if you’re a sinner
Tuesday marked the death of Jurgen Moltmann.
There is absolutely NO reason most of us should have heard of Jurgen Moltmann … but if you read much Christian literature … or if your preachers do … your thought will very likely have been influenced by the significant books that he wrote.
The books are erudite, complicated and a hard read, but the thing that Moltmann makes most of that we will have come across is an overly incarnation view of what happened the Cross.
His big contribution to the doctrine of the trinity … which excites theologians a lot more than it affects us … is probably a variance with the historical definitions of Christian orthodoxy.
But it is Moltmann’s theology of what happens at the Cross that will impact us most.
He is really concerned about evil in the world and the origin of evil and possibly his wartime experiences and his struggle to make sense of all that which leads him to stress that in his view the Cross is fundamentally an affirmation of God’s solidarity wit us in pain, rather than God acting to atone for human sin.
Now, that sort of teaching actually seems to me to have influenced John Stott’s writing and preaching (see his ‘The Cross of Christ’) although Stott doe go on to make a presentation of the atoning work of Christ at the Cross.
Now, in terms of what Moltmann was teaching, that’s quite simply NOT what it says in the Bible about what happens on the Cross, which is all about sin, God’s active judgement on sin which is the result of His holy character and Christ paying the price of our sin in His body on that Cross, before rising again to life for our redemption.
And you ONLY need that sort of Saviour if you are a sinner.
But in its reluctance to talk about human beings as perpetrators of sin rather than mere victims of the effects of sin, our world and its theologians are reluctant to speak of sinners who are LOST without a Saviour.
So, yes, if we play by the rule of our sinful and God-defying society we will be reluctant to speak of sin but if we don’t speak about sin how would we be able to speak about the Saviour … because we’re not prepared to speak of the need we have for one.
The big irony about that reluctance is that the world that we live in doesn’t want real Christians to soft-pedal the subject at all.
Time and again we find it wants Christians to openly and unashamedly believe what we’re supposed to!
That is consistently my own long experience, but let me give you an example of that from a VERY famous atheist philosopher …
ii) Unsaved sinners want saved sinners to say a lot about human sin and their Saviour
In 1948 the famous French writer Albert Camus was invited to address the Dominican Monastery at Latour-Maubourg on the theme “What do unbelievers expect of Christians?”.
Camus surprised his audience by saying that what the world today needed was for Christians to be stronger Christians.
“What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out, loud and clear, and that they should voice their condemnation in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man.”
Soft-pedalling on Scripture for popularity doesn’t cut it.
2. Where does this leave us with sin?
The Bible certainly has a lot to say about how very messed-up humans are.
"Sin" translates the Hebrew word "Khata" and the Greek word "Hamartia".
The earliest meaning of sin probably wasn't religious at all.
"Khata" simply means "to fail" or "miss the goal".
Like when the Israelite tribe of Benjamin trained a small army of slingshot experts, they could sling a stone at a hair and not "khata", that is "fail" or "miss".
Or, there is the biblical proverb that warns against making hasty decisions because you are likely to "khata" your way, miss your destination.
So, in the Bible; sin is a failure to fulfill a goal.
What is the goal?
A) Identifying what constitutes sin
Well, here on page 1 of the Bible, we learn that every human is made to be an ‘image of God’, a sacred being who represents the Creator in Creation and for that reason is worthy of respect.
In this way of seeing the world, sin is a failure to love God.
But look, if you do not treat God’s image(s) with the honour they deserve … that comes t the same thing and therefore THAT is sin too.
And that’s why we’ve got (for example) the Ten Commandments, half of them referring to ways we fail at loving and honouring God, and the other half referring to ways we do the same via the dishonouring of and failure to love God’s images.
The fact that both kinds of failure are combined shows that failing to honour God is deeply connected to failing to honour people.
And THAT is why, in the Bible, sin against people is sin against God.
So, for examples when Joseph refuses to sleep with the wife of Potiphar, he says,
‘How could I sin against God in this way?’
Joseph realises, you see, that failing to honour a human made in God's image is a failure to love God.
The trouble with sinners in the Bible, though, is that most of the time people are failing, they don’t recognise or realise it.
In fact, often they think they are succeeding when in fact they are failing.
Pharaoh wants to build Egypt's economy and protect national security, because that seems like such a good thing to do in his mind.
And he reckons it is such a good thing to do it justifies enslaving the Israelites.
He thinks it is good.
He is totally unaware that it is an epic fail.
Or when the Jewish leaders are plotting to do away with the Lord Jesus in John 11 after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead
“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
(John 11:47-53)
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all!
50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation,
52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.
53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”
So, sin is about more than just doing bad things.
It describes how we easily deceive ourselves and spin illusions to redefine our bad decisions as good ones.
So why are humans such bad judges between moral failure and success?
The answer lies in the passage we’re looking at in Genesis 3 today.
B) Identifying the way that it GETS to you
There are two huge windows in this chapter and the next one on how sin gets to us.
It starts as a free choice, but that free choice becomes a compulsion by becoming part of our nature.
i) The free choice
In the account of the woman, the tree and the snake we learn a LOT about how sin gets to you … but we need to bear in mind that on this first occasion humans were tempted they really did have a free choice but fell for it for a number of common reasons …
Here’s an open window on the anatomy of falling for sin.
1. Knowing what’s right
Genesis 3:2-3 “The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.’”
2. Satan’s contradiction of God’s Word
First comes the casting of doubt:
Genesis 3:1
“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’?”
And then, having got a foothold, the Satan presses on to direct contradiction of God:
Genesis 3:4 ““You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.”
God had said that IS what would happen … but the father of lies (Satan) just says otherwise … and Eve PLAYS with the idea
3. Eve is tempted by being her own ‘god’
Genesis 3:5 Satan says God has an ulterior motive, to cramp humanity’s style by keeping them in their place.
Satan’s temptation is to seize God’s sovereign authority over humanity, and to be able to make one’s own determination of what’s right and wrong … for yourself.
““For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Funnily enough, it wasn’t actually knowing what is good and what s evil that resulted … but being able to grasp at evil rather than good … to have the choice by becoming aware of the POTENTIAL to chose wrong.
All the while Eve was dealing with the devil, and NOT telling Satan to get behind her … a catastrophically poor choice in itself.
And look where Eve goes next on her journey into temptation …
4. Eve’s flesh gets involved
Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”
שָׂכַל
(sa.khal) 'be prudent' ‘to have insight’ ‘to have COMPREHENSION’.
The flesh … the fruit looked good.
The pride … ‘desirable for gaining WISDOM (sa.khal).
And by the time those two forces of nature were engaged the battle was lost …
- Taking and sharing the sin
In Genesis 3:6-7 we read:
“she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”
Immediately the situation changed, they realised they were naked and they made a very poor attempt at covering up the consequences of their sin.
Why did I say it was a very poor attempt to cover up the consequences of their sin?
A fig leaf is a three part leaf with two huge gaps between the three ‘fingers’ that form the leaf
!And so the Lord comes along in Genesis 3:21, as He is seeking to limit the consequences of humanity rejecting His word and choosing sin, and sews the people garments made of animal skins which would give them more adequate coverings.
Having failed themselves so spectacularly to cover u the consequences of their sinful choices … rejecting God’s authority and seeking moral self-determination for themselves … and having been found out they now started blaming anyone and everyone but themselves, deflecting God’s accusation by blaming someone else.
- Deflecting God’s accusation
Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, and God was just not having ANY of
In the things He says next God makes clear that each individual is responsible for their own choices that reject His authority and will face the consequences of those choices for themselves.
But, you may or may not have noticed, we haven’t yet come across the word ‘sin’ … Khata in Hebrew.
Which is where the next story following directly on from the ‘invention’ of sin in the Bible helps us to understand where the choice made in Eden now leaves us with sin.
ii) The choice born of bondage
The first appearance of the word "sin" in the Bible offers an insight into the way that sin gets to us AFTER Adam and Eve’s individual free choice.
There are these two brothers, Cain and Abel.
Their parents Adam and Eve had just given into this beastly temptation to redefine good and evil by their own wisdom.
And now Cain seems to be facing what looks like a similar choice.
He is jealous and angry that God has favoured his brother.
So God warns him, "If you don't choose what's good,
חַטָּאת
(chat.tat) 'sin' … is crouching at the door.
It wants you, but you must rule over it.” "
Heb “and toward you [is] its desire, but you must rule over it.”
As in Genesis 3:16, the Hebrew noun “desire” refers to an urge to control or dominate.
Here the desire is that which sin has for Cain, a desire to control for the sake of evil, but Cain must have mastery over it.
The imperfect is understood as having an obligatory sense.
But nonetheless, the way sin gets at us is that it is pictured here as ‘crouching at the door’.
What’s that about?
In these stories sin, or moral failure, is depicted as a wild, hungry animal that wants to come into their space to consume humans.
We know how that story ends.
Where does this leave us with God?
The Bible is trying to tell us that failed human behavior, our tendency toward self deception, it runs deep.
It is rooted in our desires and selfish urges that compel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others.
It leads to this chain reaction of relational break down.
This is why in the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes Hamartia as a power or a force that rules humans.
In his words, "We are slaves to sin."
He even says, "Sin lives in us so that the things I don't want to do, that's what I do."
With the word "sin", the biblical authors are offering a robust description of the human condition
It is a failure to be humans who fully love God and others.
It is our inability to judge whether we are succeeding or failing.
It is that deep, selfish impulse that drives much of our behaviour.
This is not a pretty picture of ourselves.
But, if we are honest, it is .realistic
3. Where does this leave us with God?
This is why in the Bible, the story of Jesus is such good news.
He is depicted as the Creator become a truly human one who did not fail to love God and others.
That is, he did not sin.
And yet, he took responsiblity for humanity's history of failure.
He lived for others and he died for their sin.
He was raised from the dead to offer them the gift of his life that covers for their failures.
Or in the word of the apostles,
"He committed no sin yet he carried our sins in his body on the cross
so that we might die to our sins and live to do what is right."
Now, there is a hopeful hint of that provision God would make for the consequences of sin in the passage we’ve been looking at in Genesis 3 here today … a provision that goes beyond the provision of garments made of animal skins to replace the inadequate coverings Adam and Eve had made out of fig leaves.
In Genesis 3:5 as the Lord delivers His verdict on the serpent He says:
“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
It is hard to be absolute about this but many Bible scholars over the years have seen in that verse a foretaste or a foretelling of what would happen at the Cross of Christ, where at personal cost (the bruised heel) Jesus crushed Satan’s head.
So that is the story behind the biblical word for sin … is started with a choice which
immediately became at least a fixed inclination … you might say an addiction
But God graciously made provision for sin and turned the compulsion into a conquered force, paying the price of human sin as recorded in God’s books and through the death of God the Son and His resurrection from the dead both judging sin to be consistent with His own holy character and freeing those who turn from sin to trust in Christ from the eternal consequences sin otherwise brings.
Conclusion
This account of the Fall presents us with a model for understanding our own strong tendency to be our own worst enemies by choosing NOT to live life following God’s way but choosing to define our own rights and wrongs, explains our persistence in doing that, but also opens a doorway that leads out of that condition into the glorious liberty of the children of God to follow His way back to the Paradise He intended for human beings from the start.
