The Tragic Day When Sin Entered the World

THE TRAGIC DAY WHEN SIN ENTERED THE WORLD

An Exposition of Genesis 3:1-8

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: March 6, 2022

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

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.

⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:1-8)

This is God's Word. It is for our good. Let's pray.

Father, We thank you for your decisive, clear, transformative Word. And Father, we pray that your Word would dwell richly in our hearts this morning. We pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts so that we would understand and be transformed by what you are saying. Give us ears to hear, hearts to believe, lives that are ready to obey. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

INTRODUCTION

It is such a blessing to have the Word of God. The world is full of words. We're constantly bombarded by words, most of which are worthless and destructive. But here we have a clear Word. God has spoken clearly in the words of Scripture and His words explain the world as it actually is, and His words also explain our experience of the world. The world as it actually is, is something of a conundrum. On the one hand, there is something beautiful and orderly and wonderful about our world. But on the other hand, there is something chaotic and painful and tragic about our world. The 17^th century philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal captured this conundrum when he wrote, regarding mankind:

“What sort of freak then is man! How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe!”[1]

The all-encompassing, very goodness of Genesis 1:31 has been lost. The all-encompassing beauty and innocence and relational harmony of Genesis 2:23-25 is ruptured and corrupted. The world as it actually is now is a dangerous place. Human beings are a tangled mess, conflict and turmoil are commonplace, the shadow of death covers the whole world, and one by one everyone is swept away. Why? What happened? How did we get here? In Genesis 3, God tells us how the paradise of Eden was tragically lost.

Now let me do what I did last week. I'll give you a brief outline of where we're going and then we'll go there. So, in verses 1-5: the serpent deceives the woman. In the first part of verse 6: the woman obeys the serpent. In the last part of verse 6: the man obeys his wife. And then in verses 7-8: the man and his wife suffer immediate consequences.

Now let’s walk through the passage.

THE SERPENT DECEIVES THE WOMAN (v. 1-5)

First, the serpent deceives the woman in verses 1-5. The Lord made all the animals and some of these animals are called beasts of the field. These beasts of the field, including serpents, were all part of the very good and orderly world that God made. Although these creatures reflect God's goodness, they are not moral creatures. Animals do not deliberate about whether a particular course of action is moral or immoral, ethical or unethical. Which raises a question: How did one of these animals become the conduit of temptation in Genesis 3? The answer is that the serpent in Genesis 3:1 is, in fact, an ordinary serpent that had been co-opted and hijacked by the devil. Revelation 12 identifies “that ancient serpent” as “the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9). Satan is also a creature, an angelic creature who was created in a state of innocence, but who subsequently became proud and rebellious. After his rebellion, Satan became the archenemy of God and the adversary of God's people.

Verse 1

As we come to Genesis 3:1, God permitted Satan to possess a serpent and through this serpent to tempt the woman. The serpent, on the level of its animal nature, was crafty, clever, shrewd. There's nothing wrong with being clever. In fact, in the New Testament, Jesus instructs His followers to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Craftiness can be put to good use, but Satan hijacks the serpent's craftiness and puts it to bad use. So, you have to understand that the serpent is Satan under the guise of an actual animal serpent.

Now before we unpack the conversation between the Serpent and the woman, we should ask a question: Why did God allow a rebellious angel to enter the Garden of Eden, occupy an otherwise good animal, and tempt the woman? Why did God allow these encroachments on His very good world? That's a fair question. However, we have to be careful with such questions. God is sovereign over heaven and earth and he never owes us an explanation. Everything that happens in the world happens either because God proactively ordained it or, to borrow a phrase from John Piper, because he “planned to permit it”.[2] Nothing happens outside of God's sovereign orchestration. Which is why we can bank on Romans 8:28, that God will work all things together for the good of His people. How could He guarantee the promise of Romans 8:28 if he was not sovereign over and orchestrating all things? But he doesn't owe us an explanation for every event in the universe. We must learn to trust Him.

Now with that said, I think it is also worth saying this much, that God evidently thought it was fitting for Adam and Eve to be presented with a choice. This is evident even in Genesis 2:16-17, where God gave Adam one restriction. And then in Genesis 3, there is a temptation to violate that restriction. God did not create Adam and Eve as robots that automatically produce the right output. God did not create Adam and Eve like the sun. The sun does not shine because it chooses to do so. The moon does not reflect sunlight because it delights to do so. The river in Eden didn't bring water to the Garden because it felt compassion for the trees. Part of the glory of mankind is the glory to make meaningful moral choices. Isn't it glorious when a human being trusts God, and displays courage, and makes sacrifices, as the expression of heartfelt love for God and neighbor? And yet, the capacity to make meaningful moral choices implies the ability to make a moral shipwreck of your own life and inflict suffering on others. How inglorious and ugly is it when a man lives selfishly and recklessly without regard for God and neighbor? One man from the comfort of his own palace can authorize a war that wreaks havoc on millions. What a sobering thought! The point is that Adam and Eve are the kind of creatures who must exercise their moral freedom in the face of a meaningful choice. Keep this in mind as we turn to the second half of verse 1, where the crafty serpent initiates a conversation with the woman.

The serpent “said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”” (v. 1) Now pay attention to the serpent's scheme here. The Serpent's tactic is to sow doubt in Eve's mind concerning the clarity and accuracy of God's Word. “Did God actually say…?” And then the statement that the serpent makes is itself something that God did not say. What God actually said in Genesis 2 is this: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Genesis 2:16). As I said last week, there was "One No in a World of Yes"[3] – one restriction in a world of freedom. Satan wants to sow doubt and wants to change the narrative. He wants Eve to be thinking that God is so restrictive. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And so Satan’s very question involves distortion. This is a common tactic of the enemy – the powers and principalities as well as human evildoers. This is a common tactic, to confuse and to make things distorted and unclear. And furthermore, as I already mentioned, the serpent is casting aspersions on God's character. He's attacking God's goodness. He is suggesting: God isn't generous and large hearted and self-giving, is he? He's always just piling up the no’s, isn't he?

Verses 2-3

The woman answers the serpent in verses 2-3:

“And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 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.’””

How would you grade Eve’s reply to the serpent? I do see some deficiencies in Eve's reply. Some people – and I respect this line of thought even though I'm not convinced of it – some people will argue that since Eve didn't sin until she ate the forbidden fruit, she must have been functioning sinlessly up until that point. So we would therefore have to conclude that there's nothing wrong with her answer. Some really good commentators make that argument – and I respect the argument – but I think it's a bit too technically focused on the overt act of sin. But consider the way that sin actually works. You don't think and feel righteously, righteously, righteously, and righteously in all the moments leading up to the overt sin, and then all of a sudden – out of nowhere and from a perfectly righteous frame of mind – sin. So, I kind of see this unfolding temptation and unfolding distortion and unfolding thing develop that's going to culminate in this decisive act of crossing the boundary. That's how I look at it, and when I look at Eve's answer, what seems to me to be happening is that the woman is reframing God's instructions – the instructions that she presumably received from Adam.

What Eve is doing is that she is reframing the instructions in terms of the false narrative that the serpent has suggested to her. God said in Genesis 2:16, “You may surely eat”, but in the woman's reply to the serpent the word “surely” drops off . Instead of saying, ‘We may surely/certainly eat’, the woman only says, “We may eat”. And then there is another thing that drops off. In Genesis 2:16, the Lord says, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden”, but in the woman’s reply to the serpent the word “every” drops off. Instead of saying, ‘We may surely eat of every tree’, the woman only says, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden”. All of a sudden, it seems like she views God as a little bit less generous than He actually is. Satan's scheming is doing its work on her.

Then she seems to add a restriction that we have no record of God saying, when she says that part of God’s instruction was “neither shall you touch it”. Where did that come from? I mean, it's one thing to say – at the level of application – that since the Lord told me not to eat this thing, I've decided that I'm not even going to touch it. That's one thing and that might possibly be a wise decision. But she puts that ‘do not touch’ restriction in God's mouth. It's weighty thing to put words in the mouth of God. Make sure that they belong there – or don't say them. So, it seems like what's happening in Eve's outlook and mindset is that God is less generous and more restrictive than he actually is.

Verses 4-5

In verses 4-5 the serpent intensifies his attack. Verse 4: “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” What the serpent said in verse 1 was a distortion of God's word. Now, in verse 4, the serpent wages a direct assault on God's word. God said that “you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17) when you eat the forbidden fruit. The woman captured that idea in verse 3 when she said “lest you die”. But now the serpent directly contradicts the word of God by saying, “You will not surely die.” Henry Morris writes, “Not content merely with altering God's word, Satan now blatantly denied it, calling God a liar!”[4]

Then verse 5 is a deceptive half-truth that continues to assault God's character. It's as if the serpent is saying: You know Eve, God knows that something really good will happen to you if you eat the fruit of that tree. And God doesn't want that really good thing to happen to you, Eve. God is withholding good from you. God doesn't have your best in mind. Some of you are dealing with that temptation right now. You're in the midst of your life, you're attempting to follow the Lord. Some frustrations have presented themselves to you and you're doubting that God has your best in mind. That's the old lie, the old temptation, straight out of the serpent's handbook in Genesis 3:4-5.

Now I said that verse 5 is a deceptive half-truth, so follow me carefully here. When we read verse five, we might first assume that it is a total lie. We might assume that when they eat the fruit, they will not become “like God, knowing good and evil”. But that assumption turns out to be false. And we know this because of what God says in Genesis 3:22 after Adam and Eve had sinned. God says, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:22). So Adam did become “like God, knowing good and evil” when he ate the forbidden fruit. But what the serpent says is a deceptive half-truth because the serpent gives the impression that eating the fruit in order to become “like God, knowing good and evil” is a good thing. But it is not a good thing. It is not good to pursue God-likeness by disobeying God. So the question is: Will you trust God? Psalm 84:11 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Do you believe him? Do you wait patiently for God's provision in God's time? Or are you trying to rush on ahead and get what you think you want?

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Now before looking at Eve's response, we should attempt to understand what “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9, 17) really is. It's an actual tree with actual fruit. It is good. It is part of the very good world that God made. It's good, but it's off-limits to the man and his wife because God placed a restriction on it. I believe that Francis Schaeffer is on the right track when he says this about the tree. He says,

“… there is nothing intrinsic about this tree that is different in any way from the other trees. Rather, God has simply confronted man with a choice. He could just as well have said, “Don't cross this stream; don't climb this mountain.” He is saying, “Believe Me and stand in your place as a creature, not as one who is autonomous. Believe Me and love Me as a creature to his Creator, and all will be well. This is the place for which I have made you.””[5]

So it's not about any kind of magical quality to the tree. It's the fact that God has placed a restriction on it and attached significance to it. The tree of “the knowledge of good and evil” is obviously connected to becoming “like God knowing good and evil” – which is the temptation that Satan gives in Genesis 3:5 and which God says tragically happened in Genesis 3:22. By the way, Genesis 3:22 puts constraints on the possible interpretations of what “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” is because – whatever it is – becoming “like God, knowing good and evil” is attainable. We know it is attainable because Adam actually attained becoming “like God, knowing good and evil” when he ate the forbidden fruit.

So, if you say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents omniscience, that can't be right, because Adam was certainly not omniscient after he ate the fruit. Furthermore, some people will say that knowing good and evil for Adam and Eve means that they have this experiential knowledge of evil because they've become evildoers. But that interpretation seems to be wrong because God certainly doesn't know evil experientially as an evildoer. So, whatever the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents, it's not omniscience and it's also not the experiential knowledge of evil. It must be something else. Further, one commentator points out that we know that Adam actually had some limited knowledge of good and evil even before he sinned. Think about it: God said you can eat from all of these trees. And Adam would have thought, ‘Well, this is good.’ But then God said that you can't eat from that one tree – not because the tree is bad, but because he has put it off limits – and if you eat from it, you're going to die. Presumably Adam would have thought, ‘Well, dying would not be good.’ And Adam also understood at some level the truth that God declared in Genesis 2:18 – “It is not good that the man should be alone.” When Eve showed up, he delighted in in the beautiful provision of a wife and burst forth in poetry and celebrated her arrival, thus showing that he understood that having a wife and helpmate was better than not having one. So before mankind’s fall into sin, Adam had some understanding of good and not good.

What I think the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents is knowing, discerning and deciding for one's self what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and fitting and what is not beautiful and not fitting. We are designed to understand good and evil by trusting God's words, God's assessments, and God's judgments. And so, the tree is a test. Will you trust God and believed that his assessments are right and reliable and praiseworthy? Will you submit to God's judgments or will you seize for yourself the right to make your own independent assessment of what is good and what is evil? Will you set yourself up as a God-like judge over good and evil? Choosing the pathway of God-like independence and God-like sovereignty over good and evil is stupid and deadly. God is the sovereign Creator. He is the source of all goodness and the fountain of every blessing. And the attempt to chart a prosperous path of good and evil, right and wrong, wisdom and folly apart from him has zero chance of success. But welcome to planet earth under rebellious man.

So the edge of the temptation is this: will you depend on God for all that you need so that you become all that he wants you to become in his time and in his way? Or will you declare your independence from God, in which case now you bear the burden of managing your life in your own wisdom and your own strength? And this is the tragedy of human history, that man wants to assume God-like powers and exercise God-like rights. And as we learn in Romans 1, God says to rebellious man: Go ahead, and let's see what you do with that.

THE WOMAN OBEYS THE SERPENT (v. 6)

Now back to the passage. After the serpent deceived the woman in verses 1-5, now in verse 6 the woman obeys the serpent. How should the woman have responded to the serpent? She should have said something like this: I already am like God. And I know just what I need to know. I'm created in His image. I already reflect him. And by the way, I have authority over you serpent. This is madness –  isn't it foolish for a beast under my authority to be encouraging me to rebel against God's authority over me? – this is insane. God has given Adam and me this beautiful garden and a promising life together and a great purpose. Disobeying the Creator's word seems like a very foolish thing to do.

But instead, what had been happening? The woman's perceptions and priorities were now operating under the influence of the serpent. In due course, men will learn to charm snakes, but here the snake has charmed the woman. Some of you have been charmed by the same snake, even over the past week. You're in a battle. You're involved in spiritual warfare and if you don't take up the whole armor of God, you're done.

So what happened in verse 6? A lot of people see a connection between verse 6 and 1 John 2:16. I'll draw the connection out for you. Genesis 3:6 begins, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food” (italics added). First John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh” (italics added). Genesis 3:6 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes” (italics added). First John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes” (italics added). Genesis 3:6 says, “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” (italics added). First John 2:16 states, “For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life–is not from the Father but is from the world” (italics added). Genesis 3:6 says, “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 the fruit and ate”. Instead of submitting to God's assessment, she relied on her own assessment. Instead of believing God's word, she believed the serpent's word and took of the fruit and ate. And in so doing she sought sustenance and pleasure and wisdom and knowledge apart from God's will.

THE MAN OBEYS HIS WIFE (v. 6)

Next, as we come to the end of verse six, we learn that the man obeys his wife. Verse 6 concludes, simply enough, by saying that “she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Instead of helping her husband walk faithfully with God, the woman took initiative and suggested to him that he join her in realigning their lives under the authority of the serpent instead of holding fast to God's word. And instead of protecting the garden, Adam listened to his wife, as we're told in Genesis 3:17. God said to Adam, “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” (Genesis 3:17). Thus she gave some to her husband and he obliged her. How casually a man can walk into senseless behavior! And it started all the way back in Genesis 3.

THE MAN AND HIS WIFE SUFFER IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES (v. 7-8)

Fourth, the man and his wife suffer immediate consequences as their internal and relational world falls apart, as we learn in verses 7 and 8. Let's walk through this. Satan had said in verse 5: “your eyes will be opened”. Well, sure enough, as verse 7 says: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” Just think about this: after seizing for themselves godlike powers, the first thing that Adam and Eve might have realized is that they were spectacularly pathetic gods. What does it say in Psalm 93:1-2?

“The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.” (Psalm 93:1-2)

The Lord – the true king – is secure on his throne and he is robed in glory and splendor. By contrast, ‘King’ Adam and ‘Queen’ Eve, after their royal folly, come to the realization that they are exceedingly insecure and not up to snuff due to their disobedience. They forfeited the glory of innocence, and now they feel exposed and ashamed. As dependent image-bearers, they were wonderful and glorious. But as independent pretenders to God's throne, they are woefully inadequate and pathetic. Of course, Genesis 3:7 contrasts with Genesis 2:25, doesn't it? In Genesis 2:25, Adam and his wife were naked and unashamed: they enjoyed transparent fellowship and intimacy; there was nothing to hide. But now they have something to hide. Now their nakedness is a source of deep shame. Before they violated God's commandment, they were wonderfully un-self-conscious. Do you know what I mean by un-self-conscious? To be self-conscious is to be preoccupied with how you look and how you're coming across and how this is playing out in terms of publicity and marketing. It's always thinking about what does this look like? How are others seeing this? To be un-self-conscious is to not be concerned about that at all. You're just free to express the beauty and goodness of your own heart. But the beauty and goodness of Adam and Eve's heart was gone. Adam wasn't preoccupied with himself in Chapter 2. Eve was not preoccupied with herself in Chapter 2. They were not self-focused. Instead, they were outwardly focused, fellowshipping with the Lord, loving each other, and enjoying the beauty of the earth. But by sinning, they poisoned the well of their own hearts. Now they know that they have torn the moral fabric of the universe. They bear objective guilt before the Holy One. They feel guilt and shame. Their conscience is stricken, and fear descends upon their hearts. Instead of living in the joy of self-forgetfulness, their original wholeness is ruptured, and they become preoccupied with self. They immediately feel naked, ashamed, exposed. They are no longer comfortable in their own skin. Adam and Eve are psychologically broken, and their hearts are restless. Further, their psychological disintegration leads to the loss of their transparent communion in marriage.

Human society – which at this point is just Adam and Eve – human society is ruptured. Their first action after they sinned is to hide from each other. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths in order to cover their nakedness, hide their shame, and make themselves look more presentable than they actually were. Thus begins one of the tragic subplots of human history: we manufacture facades to cover our shame and make ourselves look better than we actually are. It all started in Genesis 3. Our attempts to hide typically meet with some limited success when it comes to our relationships with each other. But how does one hide from the presence of God? Their clothing did not make them feel safe when the Lord showed up for his evening walk. The Lord draws near and they hide.

In Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve were inwardly content, at peace with one another, and at peace with the Lord. Now, after their descent into sin – and even before God calls them to account and imposes judgments upon them, which we'll get to next – we see that they are inwardly unsettled and psychologically broken. They're uncomfortable with one another. Society is ruptured and they are at odds with the Lord. Their spiritual fellowship with God is broken. Now they are using the Creator's good gifts – fig leaves and trees – to hide from each other and from God. And that is how paradise was lost.

THREE LESSONS FROM THIS PASSAGE

The First Lesson

Here's the first lesson: Will you live under the Creator's word or under the serpent's lies?

The serpent's lies are a direct assault on the Creator's trustworthy and good word. God governs His people through his true and life-giving words. The serpent deceives people through his faulty and twisted words. As I said at the very beginning, the world is full of words. The world is full of deceptive words in order to advance anti-god agendas – and this is the world we live in. It's a dangerous world. Mankind acts independently of God, and comes up with his own pragmatic, self-serving system of good and evil. And the question is? Who will you trust? Who are you listening to? Everyone is listening to somebody, and the question is: who are you listening to? Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32) But if you reject, Jesus’ words – which are the words of the Father – then this is Jesus's assessment of you: “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:43-45). What is your disposition? To place yourself under the authority of God's word, or to act independently of your Creator?

The Second Lesson

Here's the second lesson: Will you live under the Creator’s order or under the Serpent's anti-order?

God has designed life to work a certain way. In Genesis 2, God spoke His words to the man that He had created and put in the garden. And then God created the woman out of the man and for the man. And as will look at in a few weeks, the New Testament makes it very clear that in creating the man first and in creating the woman out of the man and for the man, that God was actually establishing the man as the head and the leader. And the woman is to follow her husband's lead. You even see that at the end of Genesis 2 that Adam is the one who named the woman. This wasn't a calculating exercise of raw authority; it was a spontaneous delight. But nevertheless it reflected Adam’s real authority. Adam declared, ‘She shall be called Isha [Woman] for she was taken out of Ish [Man].’ This is a demonstration of his headship.

And so, God speaks his word to the man, and then God brings the woman alongside the man. The man is the head, and the woman is to follow and help, and then together they are to exercise dominion over the earth and over the animals. That's God's design. God's design is for a godly, courageous, firm and humble masculinity to shape the world. That should radiate outward from every marriage, every family, and every household.

But the serpent comes along, and he has a very different idea of how things should work. He wants to turn everything upside down, and Satan goes right to work by starting at the bottom. He co-opts the beast into his service. Then through the beast, he directs the woman into sin. For her part, the woman contemplates and ultimately undertakes a massive policy shift, independent of her husband. Third, the woman takes the initiative and leads her husband into sin. The man effectively rejects God's word and submits to the leadership of his wife. Do you see what has happened? Satan has just turned the whole creation order upside down. That's what he does, man and woman had dominion over the beast. Instead, the woman submits to the beast. In terms of the man-wife relationship, the wife is supposed to submit to her husband, but instead the man submits to his wife. In terms of the God-man relationship, the man is supposed to follow God's instruction. Instead, the man throws God's instruction out the window. Satan commandeers the beast, who rules the woman, who rules the man, who rebels against God. Welcome to Satan's anti-order – and there are tens of millions of Westerners who have bought it. God's design is for a godly, courageous, firm and humble masculinity to shape the world. Satan's agenda is for a beastly anti- masculinity to rule the world. And you have to make a choice. You have to take a side. Will you live under the Creator’s order or under the Serpent's anti-order?

The Third Lesson

Here is the third lesson: We need a better Adam.

By the way, if what I just said about God's design for the world – that it be shaped by a godly and humble masculinity – if that surprises you or troubles you or offends you, please listen to what I'm about to say. Eve sinned first and her sin was an unspeakable tragedy. But even though Eve sinned first, sin did not enter the world through her. When Eve sinned, shebecame unglued. When Adam sinned, the world became unglued. Why? Because Adam, not Eve, was the God-appointed representative head and covenant leader of his marriage and of the entire human race. Therefore, Eve's sin was of limited scope, but Adam's sin was catastrophic and sent shock waves through all of creation and all of human history. Now don't take my word for it. All this is clear enough in 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 5. Here are a few passages for you:

• “… by a man came death” (1 Corinthians 15:21).

• “… in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

• “… sin came into the world through one man” (Romans 5:12).

• “… because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man” (Romans 5:17).

• “… by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19).

In addition to the verses mentioned above, Hosea 6:7 refers to Adam as the original covenant-breaker. If Eve had sinned, but Adam had not sinned, then the world would not have fallen into darkness. And in that case, what should Adam have done?

I recall one of my favorite writers addressing this question a year or two ago, and I want to share it with you.[6] It is very profitable. What should a righteous Adam have done with an unrighteous Eve? A righteous Adam should have done something like this: As the Creator makes his evening walk in the garden in the cool of the day, a heavy-hearted Adam goes to the Creator and says, ‘Father, my righteous heart is overcome with sorrow and grief. My dear bride, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, the most wonderful gift, she has disobeyed your word by eating the forbidden fruit. You told me that eating the forbidden fruit would result in certain death. And so now a justified sentence of death hangs over my bride. But I've been thinking about the fact that we are one flesh, and you appointed me as the covenant head of our marriage. Therefore, with deep anguish and overflowing compassion, and with a desire to honor your word, I would like to propose a solution. Let my righteousness cover her sin. And let the consequence of her sin fall on my own head. Let me die so that she might live.’ If Adam had remained righteous and offered himself as a sacrifice for his blemished bride, God might have well said, ‘My dear son, with whom I am well pleased, let's go – you and I – up to calvary's mountain, shall we?

Of course, such holy love was not to be found in Adam. Adam broke covenant. And when God called him to account, Adam threw both his wife and God under the bus. Eve needs a better Adam, and Adam needs a better Adam, and we need a better Adam. But a better Adam is hard to find: “for there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46). “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6) “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” (Ecclesiastes 7:29) “For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the LORD, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.” (Isaiah 59:12-13) All this is downstream from the serpent's original deceit. All this is why we need a better Adam.

The beautiful reality of the Christian gospel is that the Father has provided a better Adam for us. “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience” – this is referring to Jesus and his obedience – “by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19) “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit…. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven…. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47, 49)

The only reason why I'm standing behind this pulpit, and the only reason why I have anything worthwhile to say, is because of what I get to say right now: Behold Jesus Christ, the better Adam, the better covenant head, the better husband, the faithful Savior of all who trust him. He took upon himself our guilt and shame, and as the hymn says: “In [our] place condemned He stood – Sealed [our] pardon with His blood”.[7] He has accepted liability for all of our tangled sinful mess, and he covers us with the beauty of his own righteousness. And his righteousness is so much better than the fig leaves, the loin cloths, and a makeshift hideaway among the trees.

Now in just a moment, we're going to sing a final hymn. It's a hymn of pleading and invitation. Perhaps you have come here this morning and your life is out of step with God. Perhaps you have come into this sanctuary disordered. And maybe God is shining the spotlight of his truth on your heart and calling you to come out into the open and to bring your disordered and tangled mess under the order and grace and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if that's happening, cry out to the Lord. Cry out: Lord Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner. And let him begin to put your life back together.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that your word would govern our lives, amen.

ENDNOTES

[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées.

[2] John Piper, Providence. Wheaton: Crossway, 2020: p. 175.

[3] This is the title of Chapter 4 in Douglas Wilson, Why Children Matter, published by Canon Press.

[4] Henry Morris, The Genesis Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976: p. 111.

[5] Francis A. Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time. In The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Two, A Christian View of the Bible as Truth. Wheaton: Crossway, 1982: p. 49.

[6] In this paragraph, I am borrowing the line of thought from Douglas Wilson, who writes regularly at his online blog, Blog & Mablog, available at https://dougwils.com.

[7] From the hymn “Hallelujah, What a Savior!” by Philip P. Bliss.