Genesis 2:15-3:24
Have you ever been the bearer of bad news? Not fun right. Even worse, have you ever been told to go share bad news even if the bad news shouldn’t be yours to tell?
Story: Paul Callaghan telling me to go tell a woman that she didn’t make the worship team. It did not go well. She was furious at me.
Well, that is happening to me today, and the culprit is David. He gave me the responsibility today to be the bearer of bad news.
As we look at Scripture today, we are in a familiar spot. We all know the creation story. It’s beautiful. It’s full of imagination and creativity. We have painted this picture of the creation event to be this fantasy. Major things just popping out of nowhere and they’re simply amazing, perfect even. It’s sometimes hard to even grasp how the universe just formed, or how earth just came into existence.
We can’t really answer the question how, so we tend to debate the why.
Just to clear things up: when God created existence, it wasn’t for the purpose of fellowship. God wasn’t bored or alone and in need of creation.
He has a story to be told, and love to pour out, and lessons to teach, and joy to give and purpose to reveal and the list goes on and on.
Before getting into the bad news, we must first understand that this is not only the beginning of creation as we know it, but it’s the beginning of the Gospel story. We can’t view the creation and Adam & Eve as a fairytale that eventually ruined the history of the world. It’s the conception of not just the greatest story ever told, but the only story ever told.
The Gospel is the good news, right?
In order for news to be good, it has to invade bad spaces.
So here’s the bad news: The creation we read about in Genesis 1 is not the world we are inheriting.
Let’s look at the Scripture today and we’ll see what world we inherit.
Scripture Setup: Genesis 2:15-25
– no rain has fallen yet, which means that shrubbery or plants have not yet grown. However, we know that mist, or what we call, dew is coming up from the ground and watering the surface.
– the name Adam from the Hebrew sounds like the word adamah which means ground
– God is the one who planted Eden and put Adam there.
– Rivers were strategically flowing through there to provide water for everything.
– God informed Adam about the forbidden tree before Eve was created.
– God delegated to Adam to the naming of the animals, how nice
– a helper was needed, so God made Eve from Adam’s bones.
– verse 24 & 25 are very interesting and open for debate
Here’s what we see in this passage:
- The Core of all Sin is unbelief (verse 4-7)
– sin looks appealing
– sin is not surprising
– your sin effects others
– sin exposes the evil inside you - Sin induces fear which separates us from God (verse 8-13)
– God still asked where they were
– our personal shame is terrifying
– this moment reformed the world as we know it
Reality: The world we inherit is a world that is fallen, dead, sinful.
Our disobeying God is a declaration all out rebellion.
Here’s what it means for us:
Women – I’ve never experienced labor pains, but I’ve seen it happen 3 times and it’s not pretty.
Men – God created us to work and hold responsibility.
There’s nothing more dangerous than a man that is bored.
How we respond to sin compared to how God responds:
WE – rely on our self – a better person of you solves nothing
– rely on others – other people will never become enough for us
– seek out the world – more stuff will never make you holy
– follow religion – that’s a bottomless pit
GOD – provides.
The Fall creates an understanding of our need for a Savior.
Romans 5:19 NIV – Paul explains that Jesus is the new Adam.
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.
Before we even learn about anyone else in creation, we already see the invitation for Jesus.
The Fall in Genesis 3 is not a mistake or oversight on God’s part. This wasn’t a colossal flaw in God’s design.
Instead this is a Father making room for His Son.