-and we’ve discovered some very good news, that God designed us for perfect harmony in the four major relationships of life: with Himself, within ourselves, with others and with the world He created and placed us in…
The Story of Reconciliation
Part 4 “The Genesis Gospel”
Gen. 3
But today, in chapter 3, everything changes…for we come to the bad news, to the entrance of sin into the human race and into each of the four major relationships…
open Bibles…prayer…
-we are about to see how…
Sin Ruined the Four Major Relationships
-read vv.1-7…
A. within ourselves v.7
-loss of innocence, peace…now guilt, shame…need to cover-up…v. 7 “made coverings for themselves…”
-because of sin, we need to hide our true selves behind all sorts of coverings…
We still do that today…we cover ourselves with all kinds of things: appearance, success, money, accomplishments …good works, good religious behavior, a good family, marriage, escapist behaviors, power, control, perfectionism, etc.
…all in an effort to avoid facing the brokenness we feel within ourselves…to cover our shame, guilt, fear…to hide our true selves from others…
We feel that we must be hidden so that we can be fully loved; that somehow we can’t be fully loved if are fully known.
And so we sew fig leaves together as a way to cover up our true selves…which stems from an inner brokenness caused by sin, believing the lie that we are not loved or loveable…
-read vv.8-10…
B. with God v.10
-broken fellowship, hiding, fear…
-when you see this in contrast to the way things were meant to be, then you realize how sad a moment this is in human history…
-we talked about this last week…whereas God’s original design for mankind was to have a free, open, safe and unobstructed relationship between Him and people, sin has ruined that…
-and so we hide from God out of fear, guilt and shame because we are not convinced He will accept us as we really are in our broken and sinful state…
So He calls out, “Where are you?…”
-read vv. 11-16…
C. with others
- blame…deflect responsibility…vv.12-13…
“the woman you put here with me…the serpent deceived me…” my sin and brokenness is somebody else’s fault…don’t blame me…
Sin is a willingness to throw somebody else under the bus to justify yourself, to feel superior to other people. In order to feel good about myself, I have to blame and expose other people. I have to find fault with other people.
I make you wrong so I can be right…
- control and domination v.16…
To understand v. 16, in particular this phrase “your desire will be for your husband but he will rule over you”, it is helpful to look at 4:7, same word “desire” is used in both passages.
When 4:7 says that sin is crouching at the door of Cain's heart and that it desires to have him, it means that sin wants to overpower him. It wants to defeat him and subdue him and make him the slave of sin.
Now when we go back to 3:16 we see the same meaning. When it says, "Your desire shall be for your husband," it means that when sin has the upper hand in a woman she will desire to overpower or subdue or exploit a man, to rule, to dominate, to control him.
But this goes both ways. Because when sin has the upper hand in a man he will do the same thing with a woman, to try to subdue her, or rule over her, or control her. And we all know how this powering up over each other between men and women has produced untold turmoil and heartache…
Again, another sad result of how sin has ruined the relationship between people…
-read vv. 17-24…
D. with creation
- conflict between human and animal world v.15
- painful toil, sweat v.17, 19
- thorns and thistles v.18
-return to dust through death v.19
-expulsion from The Garden v.23
- now you can see why ch. 3 is such bad news…how sad that such a beautiful creation as this can be ruined so quickly by the choice of sin and disobedience…how sad that each of the four major relationships is ruined by sin…
And the very worst part of this bad news is that sin brought death, both physical (3:19) and spiritual (Rm. 6:23 “the wages of sin is death…”)
The Genesis Gospel
- that’s the bad news; now comes the good news.
The moment it all goes bad, God begins the process of reconciliation…He doesn’t waste any time embarking on the rescue mission that is at the heart of the Bible…
1. Begins with a call: “Where are you?” 3:10
The call from God to Adam and Eve is at the forefront of the work of reconciliation…of the gospel…just like today…God reaches out to lost men and women by calling out to them…inviting them to come to Him…reaching out to them…”Where are you? I want you to find Me…I want to fin you…Here I am…”
You see, while we hide, God seeks. While it’s our nature to hide; it’s God’s nature to seek and to save those who are lost. God begins the rescue mission: “Where are you?” He comes after us because He loves us so much.
It’s not that He doesn’t know where we are: He does. But He asks because He wants us to recognize exactly where we are and admit our need for Him…to admit like Adam did, that “I’m hiding from You…for whatever reason…” to agree that we need to be found…
He’s treating us as men and women who have free will. “Admit what you’ve done. Say who you really are. Take responsibility for your soul.”
That is the starting place in the Genesis gospel…
2. Points to Christ’s Victory: ”He will crush your head and you will strike his heel” v. 15.
I believe this is the first reference in the Bible to the future work of Christ on the cross… where we know He crushed Satan’s head, spiritually defeated him by His victorious death and resurrection…
Heb. 2:14 “…by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil…”
Gen. 3:15 is called the “protoevangelium” = the first gospel
This is amazing when you realize this verse is not just about a snake but about Satan. God is saying one of the descendants of Adam and Eve, referred to as “your offspring, he”, is going to destroy sin and death itself but get a fatal wound in the process, the serpent will “strike his heel.”
A person is going to come, and he’s going to destroy sin and death, and in the process lose his life. And that so clearly points to the future work of Christ.
And v. 15 also talks about enmity between the snake and the woman and her offspring…enmity, hatred between Satan and God’s people…
-which we know to be true from passages like Rev. 12 where we read about the dragon, new metaphor, but which also describes Satan, who is filled with fury towards Christ and His people. He hates them/us so much that he goes off to make war against them…us…
…a war which he ultimately loses because he is
“hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray…because of…the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah…triumphed over by the blood of the Lamb”. Rev. 12:10-11
Tim Keller points out that by His death on the cross, Jesus reverses the curse brought upon Adam and Eve when they ate from the tree in the Garden…and He does this through a new tree and a different garden…Adam and Eve brought sin and death when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden; but Jesus brings forgiveness and life when in the Garden of Gethsemane He surrenders Himself to be hung on a tree called the cross…
-that is the heart of the gospel…Jesus’ victorious death and res.
3. Points to a Sacrificial Covering v. 21…
-this is the first time in scripture we see the intentional sacrifice of an innocent animal…and it’s God who kills the animal to make coverings for Adam and Eve…clearly foreshadowing of the OT sacrificial system, and, more importantly…
…a foreshadowing of the future sacrificial death of JC on the cross; the perfect, innocent Lamb of God being put to death so that our sins could be atoned for and we could be redeemed…that you and I could be covered with the right covering, the righteousness of Christ…His forgiveness and salvation so we could have a restored relationship with God the Father…
Is. 53:7 “…He was led like a lamb to the slaughter…”
Ps. 85:2 You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins.
Through Christ’s atoning death our sins are covered…we are justified (declared righteous) and are clothed with His righteousness…
It’s all about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ
Francis Gojawenchek story
On the last day of July 1941, the Auschwitz sirens announced the escape of a prisoner. As a punishment for the escape, ten fellow prisoners would die by long, slow starvation and be buried alive in a concrete bunker.
So all day in line, tortured by sun, hunger and fear, the men waited as the German commandant walked between the ranks to select, by random, ten men.
As the commander pointed to one man, Francis Gajowniczek, he cried out in despair, “My poor wife and children.” At that moment the unimpressive figure of a man with sunken eyes and round glasses in wire frames stepped out of line and took off his cap. “What does this pig want?” asked the Commandant.
“I am a Catholic priest; I want to die for that man. I am old, he has a wife and children...I have no one,” said Father Maximilian Kolbe.
“Accepted” replied the Commandant, and moved on.
That night, ten men, including the priest, went to the starvation bunker. Normally they would tear each other apart like cannibals. Not so this time. While they had strength, lying naked on the floor, the men prayed and sang hymns.
After two weeks, three of the men and Father Maximilian Kolbe were still alive. The bunker was needed for others, so on August 14, the remaining four were killed. The Polish priest was given a lethal injection and died at the age of 47.
Fast forward to October 10, 1982, in St. Peters Square, Rome, Father Maximilian Kolbe’s death was put in its proper perspective by the Pope. Present in the crowd of 150,000 was Francis Gajowniczek, his wife, his children and his children’s children. Many had been saved by that one man’s death.
The Pope described Father Kolbe’s death in these words: “This was a victory won over all the systems of contempt and hate in man; a victory like that won by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
-substiutionary atonement…
Rm. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
* there is no other way to be reconciled to God…it is thru the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ…He alone is the way, truth, life…
4. Points to Jesus opening the way back to God v.24
Did you notice in v.24 that when God sends Adam and Eve out of the garden, there’s angels with a flaming sword stationed at the entrance, guarding the way so that nobody can get back into the garden. You try and you’ll get cut down…
Nobody can get back to the tree of life. Nobody can get back to God’s presence. Nobody can get to paradise unless you go through the flaming sword.… God’s sword of judgment, justice, punishment…but that’s impossible for anyone to do…
So fast forward to the first century ad…guess who goes through the flaming sword? Through His death on the cross Jesus goes through the sword of judgment and justice and punishment and opens the way for us to get back to God…back to the garden, back to a relationship with God…
Col. 1:22 But now he (God) has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight…
…but Jesus breaks through the sword by His sacrificial and victorious death and resurrection…by His suffering, by His blood, by His atoning death, by satisfying the righteous demands of God’s justice, He breaks through the flaming sword…and through Him we gain access to God and to eternal life…
…something you and I sure couldn’t do on our own…we’d get stopped every time…but God I’m a good person…I attend church…I help people…I’m not perfect but I’m not as bad as most other people…” nope: stopped every time…
Conclusion
Isn’t this the greatest news you have ever heard!! That’s the greatest goal I have for today, that you are moved with amazement and gratitude at this gospel of reconciliation, this gospel of Jesus Christ…
All we have to do is accept this gospel by faith…place our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation…our call is two-fold: to be acceptors and ambassadors of this great gospel of JC…
Prayer…Worship…