Summary 

Genesis 3 tells of our first parent's rebellion from God and it does this in a way where we can see these dynamics of sin continuing in our lives today. The apple doesn't fall far. Sin is still alluring and it still has massively detrimental effects in our lives together, with God and with creation. But thanks be to God that he promised the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent! In Christ we are a new creation, brought back to what God had originally intended.

Transcript

“That child will cary on the legacy of the 90’s” That’s what I read one commentator say at the news when Tony Hawk’s and Curt Cobain’s grandson was born two and a half weeks ago on the 17th of September. And think about it. I think he got it right. Tony Hawk loomed large over the skateboarding world in the 90’s - and I can say that, because I was totally stoked about skateboarding for most of the 90’s. And Curt Cobain, I mean, especially as someone from the pacific northwest, I can remember exactly where I was sitting when I learned the news that Curt Cobain died. And here were are 2024, a year after Cobain’s daughter and Hawk’s son got married with a little child that will cary on the legacy of the 90’s in all of their grunge glory. Now, little Ronin’s parent’s were already doing that. Francis Cobain and Riley Hawk are apples that didn’t fall far from their parental trees. Francis Cobain works in the arts as a visual artist and as a model. And Riley Hawk gave a good go as a skateboarder. He was Skateboarder magazine’s “Amateur of the Year” when he was 21 years old.

This morning we are looking at Genesis 3 again. Our first parents and their demand for autonomy, their decision that what God had said wouldn’t be best for them, their act that decided that what they determined to be good was good.  And we are looking at the effects.

Listen to the first stanza of Hopkin’s “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”. 

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; 
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells 
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's 
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; 
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; 
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, 
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.  

But there is something different and sad at the heart of humanity. We were made, so we have seen these last couple weeks to bear the image of God and to live lives of intimate dependence on God and interdependence on one another. That is what we are made for. We are made for faith. For trust in a God who made all things. We are made to trust that outside of ourselves God exists and that we are made for dependence and trust in him. And yet our bent is not to sing out what we were made for like the Kingfisher or the stone, but for what we have become. Independent selves that sing out in spells “What I do is who I am! What I can take is who I am! I must live for me!”  

Think, many people break down the Ten Commandments into those which are aimed at our relationship with God an those that are aimed at our relationship with others. Think with me about that second half: You shall not murder: the thought that your life is more important than another. You shall not commit adultery: the thought that you sexual and emotional desires are more important than another. You Shall not steal: the thought that you possessing something is more important than another having it. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor: the thought that your prejudicing some truth towards your ends is more important than the well-being of your neighbor. You shall not covet: you ought to have what your neighbor has.  

Sin’s draw is the self. The self distinct from God and faith in him. The self distinct from a well-being of the other.  

Look. This story that we have in Genesis begins with temptation and lies.  

Verse 1. The serpent was crafty. “Did God actually say”  

And it moves to a distortion of the truth. Verse 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.’ ” And we have here an abdication of responsibility. Adam is right next to Eve. That’s what verse 6 tells us. And God had told him about not eating the fruit of the tree. But there was no prohibition of touching it (BTW - there is a lot of sin that happens because we make God’s laws more restrictive than they are!). Jesus speaks to the harm of scrupulosity and Genesis 3 introduces that idea. 

Then we have the serpent simply stating that God’s words to you are not true. Verse 4-5: 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.” 

So we have temptation and we have lies and we have abdication of responsibility and we have twisting the truth. But when we get to the temptation, what we see is we have an allure to sin.  

Look at verse 6: 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 

Good for food, delight to the eyes, desired to make one wise. 

And let’s just be honest here. Most of this is undoubtedly true. Probably everything but the “wise” part. God didn’t make bad things. Satan doesn’t create. Satan takes what is good and only ever distorts it. No doubt, it was tasty. No doubt, it was beautiful to the eyes. Most of the time that you sin, it’s because something has been taken or done that was originally meant for good and it has just been twisted. Sex was God’s idea and the Bible is clean on the gift that it can be in the context of marriage. But oh the harm that has been done because of it’s distortion and misuse! Words were originally used by God to create good things and how wonderful is a word well spoken or well written and well used. Proverbs  25:11 tells us “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” and Prover’s 16:24 says “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” But probably every single one of us knows how destructive words can be, how twisted they can get, how hurtful they can be. That’s why Proverbse 16:27 tells us  A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.  

There is a great allure to sin. There is a great appeal to a life lived where we make the calls, where we decide what is good and what is bad, where we live in ethical autonomy. Of course there is. God did not make bad things and we are now inclined to the thought that we can have those things good things and use those good things when and how we want. Of course there is a great allure to sin.  

But our passage here, while it speaks very clearly to the allure of sin, it also speaks to the detrimental effects of sin.  

We saw last week the immediate effect of sin is hiding. We saw that sin always creates distance when we were made for intimacy. It creates distance with God and with other. But the other things we immediately see here as an effect of sin is distorting the truth and blame shifting.  

While God models justice and wants to hear what happened, the truth is distorted and blame-shifting begins. 

Look, verse 11-12 ¹ He (God) said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  

Was that true? Well, yeah, sort of. Had God told him the prohibition regarding the tree. Yes. Did he say anything at all during this whole serpent conversation. No. Was he responsible to do that. Yes, that’s what Roman’s 5 seems to say. He was the responsible one.  

But then look at verse 13: ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  

Was that true? Well, yeah, sort of. Did the serpent deceive her? Yeah. Did she also find it good for food  and a delight to the eyes and desired to make her wise? Yes.  

What does sin do? It causes distance and hiding, but it also causes a distortion of the truth and it is nearly always accompanied by blame-shifting.  

And think about this. It’s true that apples don’t fall far from trees and that a lot of who you are and your interests and all of the rest do stem from who your parents are and who their parents were, etc.  

Ben Rector has a great song called “Wonderful World” where he talks about getting older and he says this: 

I've taken medicine
I bought an ottoman
I got a bigger house with bigger trees
I'm getting better at not blaming mom and dad
I'm tryna figure out what it all means
I thought that I’d done all the right things. 

Blame-shifting never helps though it seems like such a common effect of sin.  

But just as God models justice in hearing out what happened, he also models justice in passing sentences upon their rebellion.  

Let’s go to the end and look at Adams curse first. 

¹⁷ 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; 
¹⁸  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; 
and you shall eat the plants of the field. 
¹⁹  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.” 

What is the effect of sin on Adam here? Well, God’s punishment fit the crime and the person. Adam’s natural relationships are now frustrated. Look how often eating and the ground are mentioned. While he was commanded to have dominion over creation and to subdue it, that is now frustrated. While he was given the plants and all to eat, that is now frustrated. The Bible makes it clear that the ecology of the earth is partly dependent on the human decision and human morality. Leviticus tells us this, Deuteronomy tells us this, Romans tells us this. Creation itself grows because of sin. And sin does not bring him to the elevated, glorified state to which he was made, but sin brings him back to the dust from which he was made.  

Sin frustrates the natural relationships for which we were made.  

Part of the effect of sin is it’s distortion of what we were made for in our work and in our engagement with creation. 

Now look at Eve.  

Verse 16 

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 contrary to your husband, 
but he shall rule over you.”

The woman is now frustrated within her natural relationships.  

Unashamed freedom is now replaced with control and rule. The gift of being fruitful and multiplying is now accompanied by pain and grief. How painful is not only the act of childbearing, but the years of child-rereading and parenting adult children. How painful is not only the healthy birth of a child but all of the hopes that we have for children that never materialize due to miscarriages, failed marriages, hopes for relationship that never come about, still births and all of the rest.  

Sin frustrated the natural relationships for which we were made.  

Part of the effect of sin is it’s distortion of what we were made for in our relationship with others. 

I want you to hear that while these individual curses are not unique to men and women, they are felt more acutely by men and women.  

Finally, let’s look at the serpent’s curse: 

¹⁴ The Lord God said to the serpent, 
“Because you have done this, 
cursed are you above all livestock 
and above all beasts of the field; 
on your belly you shall go, 
and dust you shall eat 
all the days of your life. 
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.” 

Now, I think the best way to understand this is that while, sure, there are references to serpents, this is talking to Satan.  

Satan is cursed. BTW, Adam and Eve are not. Curses is impotence, the effect of sin, though great will not have the power that Satan hopes it will. It cannot overcome final death and it will not live on forever.  

God says that it will exist in the dust. Dust is a symbol in the Bible of abject humiliation and of total defeat. 

Finally, there will be an offspring of the woman who will be hurt by Satan and the effects of sin, but will not be overcome by Satan and the effects of sin. There will be an offspring of the woman who will struggle against the serpent and will overcome the serpent. There will be an offspring of the woman who will overcome temptation and will one day finally deal with sin! That offspring will be bruised, but the head of the serpent will be crushed. Sin will be defeated, even if it takes the bruising of the offspring! 

That offspring is Jesus! The Bible’s great story in a way is that we don’t fall far from the tree. That the effects of our fathers and mothers and our first father and mother are still with us. That sin still has it’s allure and you and I both know that sin still has it’s effects.  

But the good news, the gospel, that we proclaim is that Jesus overcame those temptations to the allure of sin and in so doing has reversed the effects of sin.  

Romans 5:12-17 

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.  

And let me read the second and last paragraph of Hopkins poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”:  

I say móre: the just man justices; 
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; 
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is — 
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, 
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his 
To the Father through the features of men's faces. 

You see, because of Christ, because of the Second Adam who withstands the temptation of Satan and lived a perfect, sinless life, you are brought back to what you were made for. You are redeemed to play Christ in ten thousand places, to be lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his to the Father through the feats of men’s faces. 

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