Hanningfield Green
Lawshall
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP29 4QD
Genesis 3: 1 – 7
Genesis Chapter 3 is a chapter that deals with a serpent in the Garden, temptation, forbidden fruit, a woman who was deceived, a man who followed her in violating God’s Word and God’s command, and it talks about a curse and the price that was paid for that disobedience.
It is a very familiar passage of scripture, which to some degree is acknowledged but not necessarily in the depth that it requires, because not everyone admits that they are sinners, therefore they have no need of a Saviour! Furthermore, do we really recognise the evilness that is within these passages? Genesis 3 is an accurate historical record of what actually happened in the Garden, and it is as the Word of God says it is.
This chapter may well be the most important chapter in the Bible, because if you don’t understand this chapter, you won’t understand the rest of the Bible. You cannot understand the solution to the problem unless you understand the problem. You can’t understand the cure unless you understand the diagnosis. You will never be able to understand God’s remedy for this world if you don’t understand the condition under which this world lives and functions.
And it may well be the most important chapter in the Bible because it explains absolutely everything about our universe, about life in that universe, and about all of us who live in it. It explains everything about why things are the way they are, why we are the way we are, and what God is doing in history, and why He’s doing it in terms of salvation. Genesis 3 explains the human dilemma. All the problems of the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account. Whether its physical, spiritual, moral, sociable, economic, or political, all the problems in the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account.
Therefore, if you do not understand the origin of sin and its impact based on Genesis Chapter 3, then your understanding of the world is wrong. Everything then is misunderstood. Everything is misdiagnosed and therefore hopelessly incurable.
When God completed creation in Genesis 1, everything was very good because there was no disorder, there was no chaos, no conflict, no struggle, no pain, no discord, no disease, no decline, and no death. Now however our lives are defined by disorder, chaos, conflict, struggle, pain, discord, disease, decline, and death.
Human life is a struggle. As soon as life is conceived in the womb, it begins to live and die at the same time. It begins to grow and decay at the same time. And in the spiritual and moral world, everyone finds it easier to do wrong. In fact, it’s really impossible to do righteous things. Hatred, crime, war, perversion, wickedness, just seem to come with life.
So, we have to ask a question. What has gone wrong?
The word “sin” doesn’t appear in the third chapter, but this is where it entered into our world and Romans 5: 12 explains this by saying, “Therefore just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Through Adam, sin entered into the world and through sin, death, the ultimate measure of decay. And as we all originate from Adam and Eve, we therefore inherit what theologians call original sin.
At the end of Chapter 2, you’ll notice that the man and his wife were naked and not ashamed. There wasn’t anything to be ashamed of because there was no sin and therefore no evil thoughts or desires. But as you come to Ch3:7, the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
This is the great indicator from their viewpoint that they had sinned. And the indicator from God’s viewpoint comes in verse 16 when God curses them, and it’s quite interesting because those curses are physical ones. There is a curse on the woman’s pain in childbearing and on her conflict in her marriage. There is a curse on Adam in the fact that he is no longer going to be able to just pluck the wonders of Eden. He’s going to have to cultivate the ground, he’s going to have to fight the thorns and thistles, he’s going to have to sweat to cultivate a harvest, and he is going to ultimately die.
But those things really don’t say anything about the moral change that took place, but it becomes very apparent. First of all, Adam and Eve felt shame, and shame is a function of guilt, and guilt is a function of sin, and somehow they had thoughts of wickedness and were so embarrassed by them that they sewed together some leaves to cover themselves.
We don’t know when The Fall occurred nor how long they enjoyed Eden in its glory, but it occurred at some point between the sixth day of creation when everything was very good, and when Adam and Eve gave birth to their first child. This we know as in Chapter 4; they brought forth two sons Cain and Abel. Cain was born a sinner who murdered his brother. So, when Adam and Eve fell, they were changed, they were altered spiritually and physically, and they passed on fallenness and sin to every human being that ever lived because we have all come from Adam and Eve. When Adam sinned, he brought death on himself and everybody else. So, we are all born to die. We not only inherit death; we inherit sin because we were all there in Adam. That’s original sin.
But there’s another aspect to it called imputed sin. This did not just affect man’s moral life and therefore every area of relationship, but it also affected the ground, it affected the material universe, the physical universe. And Romans 8 says the whole creation groans under this curse. The reason there is disintegration, death, and all of that in the entire universe goes right back to Genesis 3. So, we’re going to be looking at Genesis 3 to see all the things that we can to help us understand this amazing event.
Our culture has really declared war not only on sin, because they don’t want anything defined as sin. Everything is just a lifestyle choice; nothing is a sin.
There was an article sometime age of a man who robbed a little store, and the store owner grabbed a gun and shot him. The lower part of the man’s body was paralysed, and he was confined to a wheelchair. When the case came to trial, the attorney for the robber took the case on the basis that this man who shot him did not understand that the man who committed the crime was a victim of society, that he was driven to crime by his economic disadvantages. The lawyer said he now is a victim of the insensitivity of the man who shot him. And he said because of that man’s callous disregard of the thief’s plight as a victim, the poor thief is going to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He deserves some compensation. And amazingly the jury agreed. Resulting in the store owner paying a huge settlement.
We have so much of that in our society. Everything wrong with mankind is described as some kind of an illness. And that’s just the way the world chooses to avoid the issue. By the way, the thief was arrested two months later for committing another armed robbery in his wheelchair.
Societies issues cannot be changed because they don’t ever deal with the reality of what is in the heart. All humanity has a rebellious, corrupt nature. The thought-life is corrupt, the emotions are corrupt, the will is corrupt, and the behaviour is corrupt. And Genesis 3 is crucial to understanding that.
There are somethings that are not in Genesis 3. The word “sin” is not there, the word “Satan” is not there either, and there is no statement explaining the fact that the sins of Adam were passed down. But it’s very apparent because immediately in the next chapter you have conflict and murder among the two sons of Adam and Eve. But we have to understand the rest of Scripture to interpret Genesis 3, as it’s really important for us to have a good biblical doctrine of sin.
Judaism, as such, has always rejected the existence of sinful depravity in man inherited from Adam. Basically, they believe that what Adam did, he did because he chose to do it. Therefore, Cain and Abel did what they did because they chose to do it. This results in no depravity being passed down, there’s no suggestion of guilt in us because of the sin of Adam. And that’s how they maintain salvation by righteousness because they don’t have a doctrine of original sin. They understand Adam’s sin as affecting only him, and that we have the same choices, either to obey or disobey God, and we don’t inherit anything from them. But that is not what Scripture teaches.
Isn’t that interesting though, as they understand the message of Christianity, yet they want to cut it off from the very beginning. They want to deny original sin so that they can deny that men are in a condition which requires Jesus Christ to be their Saviour. But they’re wrong because Scripture clearly indicates this is where evil began. And it is the New Testament that is most definitive. And again, you have to know that verse in Romans 5:12 because when Adam sinned, everybody sinned in Adam. And when Adam received the penalty of death, we were all then sentenced to die.
We need to understand the theology of sin, because this is essential for our understanding so that when we look at the book of Genesis, we are able to see clearly where the root of all of this began.
I want to try to answer five questions.
The first question which I have partly answered is: what is sin? Sin is a disposition of the heart, it thinks evil, it speaks evil, it acts evil, and it therefore excludes anything that is good.
It is any violation of the moral character or the law of God. 1 John 3:4 says, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” It’s living as if there was no law of God and doing just what you want. It’s further defined in Romans 14:21: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Anything that you do that isn’t done as a direct act of faith in God is sin. Or to put it another way, to know to do right and not do it is sin.
All unrighteousness is sin. All sin is lawlessness. And all of those things point us to the fact that sin is any violation of God’s moral character or His law. Surely this gives us a substantial understanding of sin. It’s enough to know that sin is defined as any breach of God’s law.
Now, where is God’s law revealed? Surely it’s in Scripture. So immediately we have a problem as society today don’t have the desire to understand scripture. They don’t believe that man is naturally a sinner; and even if they do acknowledge that man does evil, how do we define that evil? What is our standard for what is evil? What is it? Our standard for evil in England, and our standard for morality in England, was established by the Bible. We like to think of ourselves as a Christian country which incorporates our laws which were written. Our view of morality, our view of crime, our view of justice all came out of the Bible, that’s why we swear on it in court. And once, there were certain behaviours that were considered to be against the law. And that’s changing rapidly. It’s changing in the sexual realm. It’s changing in the homosexual world. It’s changed, of course, in the world of abortion, euthanasia etc.
As we continue to move down deeper and deeper into the mire of sin and remove ourselves from any set standard governed by the Word of God, we have no way to define morality anymore except to take a survey, because that’s what politicians do. They give back what they think the voters would vote for. They want to get elected so they basically say, “I believe this,” The Labour Party have put euthanasia on their agenda because they polled the voters and that’s what they want. And that’s how we develop our morality. As I watched the new government and MPs getting sworn in, I was amazed at the number who declined to swear on the bible! And these are the people who are leading our country and setting laws and moral standards. And we watch, as our society sinks deeper and deeper into sin, and distances itself consistently and completely from the Word of God, and it’s going to be harder and harder to define morality. There won’t be anybody who can walk into a court and hold up the standard of the Bible as the standard of morality. And we already see this, as people swear on the bible to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but then they deny truth and sometimes in a big way such as the Post Office horizon scandal. How can people swear to tell the truth if they do not know what the truth really is?
How do you go to a generation like that and tell them they’re sinners? Because their response will be ‘on what standard am I a sinner’? I think we have no other choice but to hold the Bible up as a standard and to challenge them by asking them to read it carefully and thoughtfully to determine whether it is the Word of God or not.
If you don’t believe the Scripture establishes morality, righteousness, and unrighteousness, then you have no standard, and you have no definition of sin. That’s the real issue in our society today. How do we tell our society about a Saviour who will save them from sin when their definition of sin is basically non-existent?
What is sin to them? You tell them it’s a violation of the law of God. But their response is “Well, where is that?” Well, it’s in the Bible! “But I don’t believe that the bible says.” Regardless, it’s still the Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses. So, we must not be deterred but keep on preaching the Bible and let the Spirit of God take it and use it to convict the hearts.
So, what is sin? Sin is a violation of the law of God. It’s a violation of the moral character of God and His laws as revealed on the pages of Scripture. That is sin. That’s all we need to say about it. So, you study the Bible and you’re going to find out what God commands us to do and not to do. You’re going to find out the essential elements of God’s nature. And whenever we violate those, we sin.
Now, let’s go past the definition for just a moment and look at the nature of sin just briefly. The nature of sin. Sin is defiling, it is a violation, it is a pollutant. It is to the soul what scars are to a beautiful face, what stain is to white silk cloth. It is a kind of ugliness that is defined in Scripture in very graphic terms. In 1 Kings 8:38, sin in man’s heart is compared to ugly, oozing sores from a deadly plague. In Zechariah 3:3 Joshua, the high priest’s sin is like a filthy garment that’s being worn by a person. Sin scars the image of God and man. Sin stains the soul. It degrades man’s nobility.
An Interesting statement is made in Zechariah 11:8, where the prophet Zechariah is talking about sin. “Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month for My soul loathed them,” “My soul detested them, and they also detested Me.” Sin causes you to hate God, and to loathe God. And God says, My soul loathed them, and they loathed Me. And when a sinner recognises his sinfulness, he sees it as defiling. He sees it for what it is. Ezekiel 20 verse 43 says, “And there you will remember your ways and all your deeds which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things you’ve done.”
When you really look at yourself, you see the defiling of sin and you loathe yourself. Sin pollutes, sin defiles, sin corrupts. Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 7:1, the filthiness of the flesh and spirit It is defiling, degrading, it stamps the devil’s image on the human soul.
Sin establishes not only a defilement, and a filth, and a pollution, and a corruption, but it establishes a life of rebellion. It is, by its own nature, as Leviticus 26:27 says, “Walking contrary to God.” It is just walking in constant opposition, in constant rebellion. A sinner tramples on God’s law, tramples on God’s character, wilfully crosses God’s will, affronts God, spites God, mocks God. And one of the Hebrew word for “sin,” I am told is ‘pasha’ which signifies rebellion. Is it, at its core, rebellion. That’s what it was for Lucifer. That’s what it was for Eve. That’s what it was for Adam. That’s what it is for all of us. Perhaps a good definition is, Jeremiah 44:17, “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth.” That’s it. We will do exactly what we want to do.
Sin is God’s would-be murderer. Sin would not only un-throne God but ungod God and replace Him with us. If the sinner had his way, God would cease to be God, and the sinner is the only god in his world. So, sin is defiling, and sin is open incessant rebellion.
Let me give you a third one. Sin is an ingratitude. I mean, everything we have, everything we are, is from God. We live and move and have our being in God. Acts 17:28 says, “He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the just and the unjust.” He’s given us everything. And Romans 1:21, Paul says, “That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven because when they knew God, they didn’t glorify Him as God. Neither were thankful,” Sin is just an act of ungratefulness.
· All the food the sinner ever eats, God gives to him.
· All the air the sinner ever breathes, God gives to him.
· All the joys the sinner ever experiences, God provided.
· All the love he ever experiences in the human world comes from God.
· All of his senses are from God.
· All of the pleasures of life, to meet those senses, are from God.
· Every beauty of life is from God.
· It is God who has given wisdom to us. He’s given wisdom to the mind of every human being to think, and feel, and work, and play, and rest, that life might be full and useful.
· And it’s God who made us love, and made us laugh, and made us cry.
· It’s God who gave us special skills and abilities to excel in some areas, and to know some measure of self-respect and value.
· It’s God who gave us the capacity to care for each other and have relationships.
· It’s God who providentially preserves us from getting every disease and dying every death.
God literally surrounds sinners with mercy. Yet, He is continually abused and ignored by them.
It’s just like Absalom, when, as soon as David, his father, had kissed him and embraced him, he went out and plotted treason against His father. And it’s just like Judas when he left the presence of Jesus and went out and plotted treason against Him. So, the sinner eagerly takes the kiss of mercy and grace that God provides in the created world, and embraces them, but then betrays Him by being the friend of God’s enemy, Satan.
As we approach another Easter may we recognise the cost of the love that Jesus has for us and the gift that He has given.
