Text: Genesis 3
Last week we started this new year with the declaration the God has a plan. Before the foundations of the world, God had a plan that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, that is to unite all things in Christ.
Rooted series review:
- How do we become rooted in our faith? Paul’s strategy
- Our rooted series: Moving to phase 2: Being established in the plan of God.
1. God’s Initial Design: This is the arrangement we find in Genesis 1-2. We refer to this as the creation order:
God: on stage cosmic ruler.
Man and Woman on stage: man has arm around women: protect and lead: Man is given dominion over creation (creation on the floor)
Angels: Hebrews 1:14 ministering servants for our salvation (between God and us)
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
2. Satan’s Rebellious Scam
At some point, one of the heavenly beings rebelled against God and was expelled from his service and cast down to earth. We call him Satan. In his hatred of God and his creation, he devised a scheme to wrestle away the dominion from humanity for himself. So he approached Eve and told her that if she violated God’s command, “her eyes would be open and she would be like God”. Eve fell for it and then she in turn led her husband into sin. That is the moment we refer to as the fall of man, and what I want you to see it that it was indeed a fall. I’m going to give you your new places:
- Satan: The New Ruler In scamming humanity, Satan wrestled dominion away from humanity and took it for himself. Indeed, II Corinthians 4:4 speaks of Satan’s rule and how has has worked to block man from seeing God: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The creation order is broken and we go on to see this in the curses God pronounces upon humanity.
- The curse of the woman (Genesis 3:16) To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Instead of the harmony man and woman enjoyed before the fall, the relationship is now marked by power struggles. The man’s loving responsibility to protect and serve has been replaced by a power trip and the woman’s complementary position of being a suitable helper is replaced by a desire to control her husband. Creation order is being broken.
- The curse of the man (Genesis 3:17-19) And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” No longer does man have dominion over the creation – it is as if creation itself has rebelled against man’s rule, just as man rebelled against God’s. This is the reason life is so hard and for earthquakes, and natural disasters – God’s creation order is broken.
3. God’s Promise of Restoration (Genesis 3:15) Jewish and Christian interpreters have consistently read more into this curse than that. This curse has been called the protoevangelion. Proto means first – like a prototype. Evangelion is not a Japanese anime, it means gospel, or good news. So this verse has been called the “first good news”. Here is the promise – there is going to be an offspring of the woman, a child of the righteous line who is going to do battle with who? With “you” – the serpent himself. This offspring is not going to battle the children of the serpent, but the serpent himself. And look, the serpent is going to strike the Son’s heel, but the Son is going to strike the serpents head. Now which do you think is going to be more effective, a blow to the head, or a blow to the heel? The head of course. So the Serpent is going to be mortally wounded, destroyed, while the Son is going to be wounded, but come out victorious. That is the first good news. The promise that a Son will come from the woman who will defeat Satan.
One of the reasons why I feel confident about the interpretation of 3:15 is 3:20. “Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.” I am astounded by this verse. Adam names his wife “Eve” Eve, havah, “Life” or “Life-giver”. Now, maybe its just me, but if my wife had given me a fruit to eat that basically ruined all of time for me and everyone else, I may not be so kind as to call her “life”. Adam calls her life! We could just see this as an amazing act of forgiveness on Adam’s part, but I think there is something more going on here. I think this verse demonstrates an amazing act of faith on Adam’s part. Faith in the promise of Genesis 3:15. It’s through Eve that the seed is going to come that is going to crush Satan. In her truly is life. Adam responds to God in faith, and that is what not only reconciles him to God, but also reconciles him to his wife. There is hope for relationships outside of Eden, but that hope comes from living out your faith in Christ, and trusting in the promises of God.
So Adam and Eve begin the process of waiting in faith for the restorer – the Satan crusher to come. But who is this son to be? The Bible starts out s a mystery story and we are going to look through the OT as a mystery as these promises are sorted out.
- Jesus has taken his rightful place a ruler Ephesians 1:20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
- The world is still in rebellion Hebrews 2:5 Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
- Jesus rule will be realized one day 1 Corinthians 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. - Jesus’ Rule is Realized Now In the Church – His Body Ephesians 2:6: and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 3:10: so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Romans 16:20: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1) Every person must ask themselves whose rule am I under?
2) Satan rules through psychological warfare
3) Live the creation order