Why...?
Creation and Fall • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsCelebrating Easter in light of the Fall in Genesis.
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I want us this morning to be completely honest. First, we’re in church so I would hope that honesty is important in how we think and behave here this morning.
If we’re completely honest we can ask questions that we might consider inappropriate or even childish. We sometimes feel like we should already know the answer and so we don’t ask the question because we don’t want to sound ignorant, or look silly. We don’t want to be embarrassed or ashamed. Our text this morning will respond well to those feelings.
Today we celebrate the highest of holidays in the Christian calendar - the Resurrection of Jesus!
But there’s a serious question we all must wrestle with about this holiday, and indeed about all that has led up to it.
Why?
Why are we celebrating this day?
Why is it important that Jesus rose again?
Why did Jesus have to die?
Why was Jesus’ death so brutal?
These are questions that may seem simple, to some of you maybe obvious, even childish - and yet how we answer these questions not only to ourselves but to others reveals what we really believe. And WHAT we believe and WHAT we trust impacts our entire life.
Let’s open our Bibles to - that’s the third chapter of the first book of the Bible. We’re going to begin at verse 6. If you want to use the Bibles in the chairs, we’re on page 3. The verses will also be displayed here on the screen.
We’re picking up the story sort of midstream. The man and the woman, we know them now as Adam and Eve are in the garden. They’ve had this amazing relationship with God and until this time they have no knowledge of what good is, no knowledge of what evil is, to them there is only God.
And last week we met another character the serpent who challenged the woman with a question where he twisted what God had said. The serpent has suggested to the woman that somehow she is not like God at this point - even though she and the man are both created in the image of God. The serpent has challenged her trust and belief in what God has said forbidding them from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The serpent tells her at the end of vs. 4, “You will not surely die.” and then vs. 5 we read:
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So that’s where we pick up our story. Let’s read our text this morning starting at vs. 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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 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. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:6-13
After this God speaks directly to the serpent, to the woman, and then to the man, and if we skip down a few verses to verse 20:
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Wow, there’s so much there.
We’re going to touch on just a few highlights this morning in the time we have.
First, their eyes were opened...
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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.
As soon as they ate of the fruit, our text tells us their eyes were opened. What were they opened to?
They were vulnerable.
They were exposed.
They now see each other and somehow that makes them self conscious, to the point that they need to cover up. So they sew together some leaves and make themselves a very rudimentary clothing.
Their eyes were opened and now it’s become a divide between them.
Second, not only are they now covering up, or one might even say “hiding” from one another, and they’re hiding from God.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
This is where it all begins. This is where the separation between God and humankind begins and it continues today. Let’s keep reading.
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
This is perhaps one of the most grace filled statements in all of Scripture. God - the all knowing - omniscient God asks, “Where are you?” As if He doesn’t already know? Of course He knows.
Right here in the third chapter of of Scripture we have a great description of God inviting us to return into relationship with Him, despite the fact that sin has now entered into the Creation narrative.
We’ve just heard the invitation, “Where are you?” The man hears God’s call and responds.
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Afraid? Afraid of the one who gave him life?
Afraid - do you see what’s happened? He’s now somehow afraid of God, afraid of that communion that he once had not only with God, but the the woman as well.
Verses 11 & 12 give us a lot of insight into what this “opening of eyes” has done.
And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
God asks simply - “did you eat of the tree I told you not to?” Notice how the man says, “Okay, it’s my mistake, but it’s your fault.”
The woman…gave me fruit and I ate. - but if we look at it closely, he’s not really blaming the woman, he’s blaming God.
“The woman you put here with me...”
“You know that gift you gave me? That help mate YOU gave me? Yeah well, she’s defective, you messed up!
Can you imagine?
The woman isn’t much better.
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
It’s not my fault, it was the serpent - that thing you created and pronounced good, it deceived me.
I invite you to further examine this passage in the coming days, for now let’s skip down to verses 21.
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Think of that - the man and the woman - having admitted that they had defied God’s command, having in essence blamed God for their wayward ways are now clothed by God, and look at how.
The Lord God made garments of skin...
Where’d God get the skins to make the clothes? From the animals created and pronounced “Good.” God made the sacrifice. And so God’s response began.
Fast forward through several millennia and you arrive at Jesus.
Most of us have heard .
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
But so many fail re respond to that love. Perhaps it’s because we don’t know the verse in context.
The very next verse says:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God way back in the garden could have done away with Adam and Eve. Instead, God came calling for them...
…instead God invited them to confess what they’d done.
…instead God gave them consequences
…instead God made the sacrifice
…instead God clothed them.
Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and then in 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It’s important to recognize it was not about when we got our lives in order. Paul wrote:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
I began with four questions. Let me answer them in reverse order.
4. Why was Jesus death so brutal?
Jesus crucifixion demonstrates both the immensity of our sin and of God’s love for us.
3. Why did Jesus have to die?
Death was a consequence of eating of the original sin.
2. Why is it important that Jesus rose from the dead?
In His dying, Jesus paid the debt for our sin. In His rising He conquered death as well.
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Why are we celebrating this day?
Because Jesus after dying rose from the dead. The tomb is empty. Our debt has been paid. The veil between Creator and Creation has been torn in two. All of it...
AND in celebrating we also look forward to our own resurrection.
In closing let me read this promise in Scripture:
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In His dying, Jesus paid the debt for our sin. In His rising He conquered death as well.
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.