Genesis 3 – January 4

Think back for a moment over the course of your life and take a mental inventory of the following categories. What are the most horrible sins that have been committed against you? What are the most terrible things you have ever done? What are the most horrifying evils you have learned about from history? How have you experienced suffering? What about sickness? What about the death of loved ones? Every single evil that you have ever encountered or performed stems from Genesis 3. We live in a sin-cursed world filled with people who are sinners by nature because Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command. Let’s think about this event by breaking it down into bite-size concepts.

The Command

God gave Adam and Eve a single, understandable, and reasonable rule: don’t eat of the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden. To most of us, that seems like such a small thing. At some point, you might have wondered, “What is the big deal? It is just a piece of fruit!” The fact is, the weight of the sin is always measured by the level of authority you have sinned against. Even the smallest sin is cosmic treason against a perfect, holy, omnipotent God. You may have thought to yourself that you would have been different, you would have obeyed God’s one command. But, ask yourself, have you followed all of God’s commands over your life? Even the ones that you think are small or insignificant? Obviously not. You are just like your first parents – a sinner.

The Temptation

Satan’s temptation contains the exact same ingredients that we encounter in temptation every day. The wicked one caused Eve to doubt the command of God. “Did God really say…?” He led her to doubt God’s promises of punishment. “You will not surely die.” Then, she was tempted by her natural instincts, just like we are. She was tempted by the physical pleasure when she “saw the tree was good for food…” She was tempted by its beauty. “…it was a delight to the eyes…” And she was tempted by the power she thought she could receive from it. “…the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” But, in all of the temptations, the one that stands above all the rest is the lie that sin will cause you to “be like God.” Adam and Eve were already as much like God as it was possible for a created being to get. They were made in His image and were following after Him in a perfect, submissive relationship. Every time we sin we are fundamentally claiming to be our own god who makes our own rules. We reject the authority of our Creator and instead choose our own path, thinking that our way is better. In our sin, we have been just like our first parents, seeking to usurp God by way of rebellion.

The Fall

Adam and Eve both ate the fruit. Immediately they were filled with shame and realized for the very first time that they were naked. For the first time, humanity had something to hide. For the first time, we had something that caused embarrassment and humiliation. But, what is much worse, this sin by our first parents resulted in the entire world falling under the curse of sin. That includes every human being ever born from the line of Adam. We are all sinners by nature because the propensity to sin has been passed down like a genetic virus to all of Adam’s children.

The Results

Sinners hide from God. Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden, so they attempted to conceal themselves. So, the Lord asked them, “Where are you?” God was not asking out of ignorance. He was providing an opportunity for confession. And in doing so, He was making it all the more evident to His creation that they were no longer where they were supposed to be. When asked if he had eaten of the tree, Adam said, “The woman whom you gave to me to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Adam deftly blamed both Eve and God in a single sentence. He shifted the blame everywhere except exactly where he should have. Then Eve did the same thing in turn. Therefore, God cursed the serpent, the man, and the woman.

The Gospel

Even though this chapter records perhaps the saddest and most negatively consequential moment in history, it is not without a glimpse forward toward the gospel. Genesis 3:15 is known as the “proto evangelion” or “first gospel.” God promises that there would one day be an “offspring” (or more literally ‘the seed’) of a woman that would come to destroy the works of the devil and crush his head. In the process, there would be a painful bruising of that Messiah’s heel. This was a foreshadowing of the work that Jesus would accomplish at the cross to bring reconciliation to the very ones that Satan had led into rebellion. Furthermore, although it was Adam and Eve that were promised death, the first physical death was that of an animal. God shed the blood of the innocent to cover the shame of the guilty. In like manner, God the Father would later shed the blood of His own Son in order to cover our sin and shame. That is good news.