Genesis and the Beginning of Life and Death 1
Zoomerang: Returning to the Value of Life • Sermon • Submitted
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Zoomerang: Returning to the Value of Life
I have been in evangelistic encounters before where the person I am evangelizing brings up social issues
They know I have an agenda that is religious and they are passionate in their liberal view of an issue and they make that the focal point of the conversation
“Are you pro-life of the fetus, or pro-life of the mother?”
Now, I can easily get into a political debate, and put my Republican hat on and have a good time conversing with such a backward way of thinking
I want to, however, get into a deeper issue that this present social issue points to:
A person’s view of life and death outside of God, and a Christian’s view of life and death in Christ
And how such a view really informs all we do in life
Both personally and publicly: Incident of the Deli Clerk and self defense
Whether your faulty view leads you to think it is okay to kill a baby in the womb for the sake of the more enjoyable life of the mother
Or if you are struggling with a certain sin in secret right now because you have a faulty view of what life and death is
What we think and how we act in life is a statement on what our understanding of life and death is: whether it is informed by God or driven by self-understanding
So in our study, I want to take a very broad look at life and death in the bible, and see how our understanding of it, or lack thereof, will have far reaching implications in how we carry ourselves in this life
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
This one verse, at the beginning of the Bible has profound implications what we should consider in our study of life and death
God was there before and at the start of life
A detective who wants to solve a murder will want to talk to people who were there before and at the actual murder to get proper information
In fact, if someone is over eager to provide information having not been there, it may show they are an ulterior motive
God was the first cause at the start of life
The person who knows most about the murder is the one who caused the murder
In that case you cannot trust him, though in the case of knowing about life, you can trust its cause
God created ALL life
Thus there is nothing we can’t know philosophically about life, outside of God
In fact, if we are going to be informed about life at all, it is imperative we start with God who has revealed himself by creating all things
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
A big expanse of chaos
If God would have left it to itself, life as we know it would not have happened
(Alarm clock, disassembled, will not put itself together no matter how long you shake it in a box)
Thus, in order for life to exist, God had to do something with all the material
2 Things to notice on God’s end
He spoke
He spoke with a determined purpose
1 Thing to notice in the response
Obedience
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Life, comes forth from God command—with a divine purpose
How did the receiver of the command respond?
Obedience
What is life?
Started by God, at his command according to his purpose in which the receiver responds in obedience
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Through and FOR him (divine command with purpose) Purpose was for life which was for Christ
And it is held together by him
Think of a play with all the parts in their proper position in obedience to the director for the show to happen
Jesus commands, and the creation obeys and thus we have life
If you want life, God must command, creation must obey, with the purpose being in Jesus (more about that in later days)
In Genesis 2 we have this life laid up before our eyes and it is meant to dazzle us
5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
Man is created a living creature, with the breathe of life in our nostrils, we are placed in a well watered garden that has every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food
A River is even flowing through it—if there is anything you should know about towns and cities, they can only flourish off a water source, mainly a river
(the war between Ohio and Michigan was over access to the head of a river: Toledo)
What else do we got there: something called:
the tree of life
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Similar but different from the trees that provided physical life, these trees provide something on a spiritual level: spiritual life
Spiritual life, and physical life are intimately connected, but NOT the same thing
So long as man was obedient and refrained from eating from the one, they were welcomed to enjoy forever eating of the other
Which I believed signified both physical life and spiritual communion with God (spiritual life)
We need to highlight how unique this is: only man is given a negative in all of God’s creation
A law capable of being disobeyed but the obedience of it had life in it
This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
What it means to be made in God’s image is that we take dominion of the earth with the motive to image God to the creation
And that image is found in obedience to the one we image
Creation obeyed God’s command with no ability not to
Man is made in God’s image to image him to the world with optional obedience as the lifeblood of that divine mandate
A break in that spiritual life (imaging God well in obedience) will lead to a break in physical life: in the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall die.”
Think of an Ambassador in a foreign land
His job is to image his home nation well
And if he fails at this task, his job as ambassador will be terminated (put to death)
God loved Adam and Eve so much that he gave them a law to obey to enjoy spiritual life which would image him to all creation including the spiritual realm
A being from the spiritual realm comes to the garden to tempt Adam and Eve (allowed by God, surely, for his desire to see spiritual life in them)
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Should have responded like Jesus did (you better believe the things Satan offered him was delightful to the physical senses
But they failed at imaging God, instead they imaged themselves and instant shame and wrath sinks on them like bad tacos sinking in your stomach
They scramble to make clothes to cover their shame—showing their need for Christ to cover their shame
They naturally flee from God into the trees
And God kicks them out from his presence
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Summary:
What is life?
Life is the result of obedience to a command from God (which always has purpose).
What is death?
A curse imposed by God for man failing to be a proper image of God by his disobedience
Since God has a purpose in his creation to be obeyed, when Adam sinned it began the process of the old world being swept away in death
So when I get in a conversation with someone who is pro choice—I could get in a political debate with them
But to get more to the root would be to see that their position of death is rooted in a spiritual death
Why do you want to terminate the fetus?
Because it is unwanted
What drives your wants and desires?
The answer will be rooted in self, and not imaging God
Thus since spiritual death is in her soul, she advocates physical death outside her soul
Or when you are tempted to sin
Don’t believe the lie Eve did that you should follow what is desirable to your flesh
But know where life comes from: obedience to God (from the heart).
The possibility of that comes from the curse he gave to the Satan, the one who deceived Eve into this mess
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
We had said God commands with a purpose: to create physical life
And he commands with a purpose to create spiritual life
And when man fails Jesus, creator of all things physical would be the creator of all things pertaining to spiritual life too
What does life and death look like now in light of Adam’s failure and the work of Messiah?