Sermon February 21, 1999 Reflection on the First Sin based on Genesis 2:7-9,15-17,3:1-7

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lent is a time to reflect. We turn to think about our lives and consider our sin. We will start at the beginning today. Genesis is the title of the first book of the Bible which means "beginnings." It is an often abused and neglected book. What we find in it, however, are the beginnings of God's created world in Chapters 1 and 2. We look at the beginnings of sin today in Genesis 3. The first man and woman fell into the first sin. Recall that this first sin led to the inherited sinful nature that each of us are troubled with. The trespass of one man, Adam, led to sin among all people, as our Epistle lesson today taught us. Let us now reflect upon the beginnings of sin.

"The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." With these words we see that God created man out of dust. There was no evolution from animals, but God created man from scratch.

We are also reminded with these words of our exact relationship to God: He created us. Psalm 100 says, "Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." Our relationship to God is a relationship of creature to creator. He made us! Just think of that for a moment. What things can you claim to have made? Have you baked a cake? Built something out of wood? Sewed an article of clothing? Painted a picture? Or, have you even made a mess? Now, think, what is the relationship of that which you created to you? This is the relationship we have to our God, creature to creator.

How many forget that this is the proper relationship. They instead claim to be in charge and God is forgotten. These are creatures who are out of control, trying to claim the rights which only the creator has. Each of us has those times, when we forget that God made us and we are His creatures.

God immediately demonstrates how much He cares for His creation, however. He doesn't just stick man on the shelf or put him in a museum. Instead the Lord made a special place for man to be happy. "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-- trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." The Lord created a special garden for the man to enjoy and to live in happiness. Man was a special creation of God and He took extra steps to show His love for man.

This garden was a special place, as evidenced by all the wonderful trees growing there. They were a pleasure to look at, and they had fruit that was good for food. Imagine the wonder and variety of trees.

Among the special trees, God had a job for man to do. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Again, God shows His love by creating a special task for man to do. Man was created for a purpose. He had a way to serve God. Man was ranked above the rest of creation, for he had the job of tending a portion of it.

There were some limits imposed by God, however. They had to do with one of the trees. Genesis explains that there were two trees which were special. "In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The limits God imposed were very minimal. He gave man great freedom. "And the LORD God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;'" Man was given freedom to access any tree in the garden, with one exception. "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." God imposed a minor limit. You may eat from any tree except this one tree. God loved the man so much that He allowed him to eat from nearly every tree. God could have severely restricted man, and told him that he could not eat from any of the trees. Instead God loved the man and let him eat from all except one.

Yet, there was a limit. There was an expression of God's role as God, the one in charge, the creator. He gave the law. If you eat from this tree you will die. The crime has a punishment attached and the punishment is severe. It is not just that you will die, but you will "surely die." In other words, you will really die, experiencing death in a big, final way.

There were not many limits, in fact, there was only one. God didn't ask much. The creator gave His creation great freedom and demonstrated just how much He loved him.

Now the Devil enters to tempt the man and woman to disobey God. He tempts them to move beyond the limits their creator has imposed. The power of deception of the Devil is something we all must fear. The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals. You know that lions and bears are to be greatly feared. Yet, we ought to fear the Devil even more so. We know that the Devil led Adam and Eve to disobey the simple limit that God had imposed. He can do the same to us.

It seems as if the serpent was not so crafty, however in his attack, for he simply tries to deny God's Word. "He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?'" He flat-out contradicts what God said, which was to not eat from only one of the trees. Eve replies but ends up adding to God's Word. "The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ~You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.~'" She takes God's Word, that they should not eat from the tree and adds to it the command not to touch it. Perhaps this shows her struggle under God's authority, for she took God's limitation upon her and made it more severe. She was perhaps feeling like God was too restrictive.

Again, the serpent flat-out denies what God said. "'You will not surely die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" God said "you will die," and Satan says, "no you won't die." With this, the woman seems to doubt God's Word. She no longer allows the threatened punishment to interfere.

Many are caught in the same trap today. They doubt that God has said what is written in the Bible. They flat-out deny that the Bible is the authoritative Word of the almighty creator of us all. Many even deny that such a god exists.

There are many other examples of doubting God's Word which are less extreme, but still a big problem. Many will come to doubt what God's Word says when it interferes with their lifestyle. When God says don't do something that you are doing, it is easy to claim that God didn't really say that. It gets each of us just where we are most comfortable-comfortable sinning. We think that God didn't really mean it when He forbids all lying, lusting, living together, breaking laws, gossiping, or hating our neighbor. We are experts at excusing ourselves when it comes down to our pet sins. Eve was deceived by Satan into thinking God didn't really tell her she would be punished for eating from this one tree. Satan can deceive us also into believing that God doesn't care about our pet sins. It is so easy to doubt God's Word.

Once Eve doubted the Word, then she was seduced by her desires. "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." Once God's Word has no authority over us, we do what ever we please. So the woman went after the fruit she thought was good for food and pleasing to the eye. With God's Word out of the way, she pursued self-centered pleasure.

Further, she pursued the temptation Satan laid before her: "to be like God, knowing good and evil." This is the final level of rebellion of the creature over the creator. The creature tries to put itself in the place of creator. How foolish. Eve thought the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom and so she was seduced by a desire to be like God.

We too, are seduced by the desire to be like God. We want to be like God in deciding what is right and wrong. We want to write our own laws. We also want to be like God in believing we can save ourselves from sin, death and eternal punishment. Only God can save us, but the temptation is to believe we can save ourselves, by our works, our good deeds, or because we are nice people.

The result of challenging God's authority as creator over creatures is: instant guilt and shame. This is what the man and woman experienced following their sin. "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." Prior to their sin, they were naked, but they were not ashamed. Now they have the guilt of their sin and they feel exposed. They want to hide themselves, because they are not comfortable with who they are anymore: they are now sinners.

You will notice how in their attempted self-cover-up, they are continuing to try to be like God. God is the only one who can remove our guilt. When we attempt to cover-up our guilt, instead of bringing it to the Lord, we simply sin more, as we try to be our own gods.

As we reflect upon this first sin in Genesis, we know it has a lot to do with us today. This first sin spread to all people, as our reading from Romans told us. Our sorrow as Christians is this sin. Our joy, however, is in how we are wondrously rescued from the sin, punishment and death. Yes, we rejoice because one person came to rescue us from sin. This one person, Jesus Christ, came to save sinners. He came to purify us from all unrighteousness. He came for all sins: those of Adam and us and everyone in between. He came for the sins of all those yet to be born.

Jesus came as the ultimate example of God's love for us. He demonstrated love in Genesis by creating the garden and giving the man a place and task. He demonstrated love in giving man tremendous freedom. Then, in Jesus, He demonstrated love by forgiving us when we move beyond the limits the creator places over us.

For our sins and trespasses, Christ hung on the cross. He died for our sin. What we deserve for our sins is eternal punishment, which is surely worse that death. Yet, Christ suffered the death promised as the punishment for the first sin so that we might be set free from eternal punishment. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and placed His righteousness upon us.

We rejoice in this good news, for it comes simply from the work of one man. Jesus' one act of righteousness paid for all transgressions and sins of all people. The evil of the first sin spread to all people, but even greater is the fact that the redemption by Christ spread to all people. By the good deed of one, we are all healed.

As we reflect on the first sin and our own personal sin in this time of Lent, we are sorrowful. We are joyful, however, that the deed of one saved us. We are joyful that we have a God who cares about His creatures enough to rescue us from our own mess. We rejoice in the good news that our sins are lifted, through the one and only Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.