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God's Love Wins and Saves Genesis 3:1-24 Key Verse: 3:15 In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, we learned that God created the whole world and also man in his own image. God put the men in the Garden of Eden. The world was the perfect paradise. And most of all, there was intimate loving relationship between God and man. Then how is the world now? We do not seem to live in that perfect world, as we have learned from the previous chapters. Rather, the world is full of sorrow, tragedy and violence. This all starts from Genesis 3 when man listened to Satan and turned away from God. Genesis 3 is a very sad chapter. However, I found that Genesis 3 reveals great love of God. God's love does not fail. When we have faith in the love of God and come to God, we also never fail. Today let's learn how great God's love is. 1. The fall of man (1-13) Look at verse 1. We suddenly see a serpent appears. Satan makes his appearance in the form of the serpent, a big snake. We do not see his origin in the chapter, but the Bible tell us that he was crafty and that he was a created being. Other scripture (Rev 12:7-9; Jude 6;2 Pet 2:4) tells us that Satan was a beautiful powerful angel who became proud to be like God, rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven. Pride destroyed even angels of God. And Satan came to the woman in the Garden of Eden, which is thought to be the safest place in the human history ever. However, Satan appeared even in the garden of Eden. Peter refers to Satan as 'roaring lion looking for someone to devour'. (1 Pt 5:8) There is no perfectly safe place in this world and we should always be watchful. The only one we can totally trust is our Lord God who created us and still loves us. Then what is the serpent's purpose in coming to the women when Adam was not with her? Look at verse 1 again. "He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"". Satan's purpose was clear. He planted doubt and disobedience in the woman's heart by making God's command negative and emphasizing it. He tried to confuse her about God's word, and he suggested that God's prohibition was something unreasonable, and negative. The woman did not think of God's word this way, but she came to have different thoughts about God and his word. Here we learn that at any time Satan can attack us. Sometimes we feel that we are very spiritual, but we easily become powerless even doubting God's love for us. Only the fact that God loves us forever makes us confident and strong in any attack of Satan. What was the woman's answer? Look at verse 2, 3. "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.'"". Satan's one word changed her heart. Satan wanted her to listen to him and follow his words instead of obeying God's word. This seems like a small thing. But until this time, mankind obeyed God and walked with him in a beautiful fellowship in the garden. The Bible says that we are slaves of the one whom we obey. By disobeying God and obeying Satan, mankind would come under Satan's authority. Satan listened to her answer then said. Look at verse 4, 5. ""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."" Satan said very against God's word, "You will not surely die,". He removed the absoluteness from God's word. Satan was insisting that God's word is not absolute or serious. Moreover, he says the word of God is not really a life and death matter. Even many of us are deceived by Satan and do not think the word of God is a life and death matter. Let's pray that we accept the word of God as life and hold on to the word of God in any situation. God's word is life. However, Satan twisted that God's motive in forbidding the fruit was withholding her from something veery good. Satan led her to doubt the goodness of God. When doubt of God's love took root in her heart, and when the fear and respect of God and his word were shaken, she became vulnerable to temptation. This shows every man is very weak. Even though the first man who was created perfect was tempted to sin. Apart from God, we are nothing. We are created in God's image. Only when we are with God, we have Godly image and life purpose. What was it in her attitude toward God's word and blessings that weakened her? In the first place, she was not grateful to God for his grace and abundance for her needs and happiness. The good and delightful trees of the garden were all prepared by God. He had commanded man to eat freely of their fruit. But the woman took this gift and blessing for granted. At the same time, she put unnecessary emphasis on the negative part of God's command. She did not pay careful attention to God's word, and changed God's word in her heart and accepted Satan's words instead. He told her that eating the fruit would make her as wise as God, and she believed him. He did not tell her the tragic consequences of disobedience. Her physical desires to enrich her life even more that God does became huge. Now the fruit was beautiful and looked delicious. It became very desirable. Without any further thought, she took it and ate. And as guilt longs for company, she gave some of the fruit to Adam; he ate and joined her in the kingdom of Satan. Their innocence was gone. They tried to cover themselves to hide from each other. They tried to hide from God. Look at verses 9-12. "But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."" The beautiful relationships with God and with one another were broken. Adam blamed the woman for giving him the forbidden fruit, and he blamed God for giving him the woman. Fear, guilt and broken relationships are the curses of Satan. Lost innocence can never be recovered. When God called, "Adam, where are you?" Adam could not answer. He was lost. 2. God's great love and the world under curse (14-19) Look at 14, 15. "So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.""God cursed the serpent. But embedded in his curse is a precious promise that plants hope in the hearts of all men. God said, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Man disobeyed and betrayed God, and was even blaming God for the responsibility. But att the very time, God planned to love them to the end. God decided to forgive them by his own sacrifice. God decided to send his son to be crufied for terrible sinners. In God's right time, Jesus, the seed of the woman, would come to crush the head of Satan. He would be painfully wounded by Satan, but he would win the victory. This is good news. Satan will be defeated; he will not always rule the world. This is the promise of God that plants hope in men's hearts. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection. Just one act of disobedience seems very small, but it was an act of rebellion against God. Because mankind joined the rebellion of Satan, God put the world under curse. Look at verse 16. "To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."" The specific punishment given the woman was directed toward the special blessing God had given her. God had blessed mankind and told them to be fruitful and increase in number. But in a world under curse, childbearing became the woman's cross of pain. Joyful friendship with her husband, and the joy of sharing with him in doing God's work was replaced with selfish desire for him. The order of love in the family was replaced by man's tyrannical rule over woman. This curse can only be removed by Jesus. He came to set mankind free from the curse. He died so that we might be set free from slavery to sinful desires and the guilt of sin. He came to restore our relationship with God and to make it possible for men and women to have a healthy and right relationship with one another. He came to restore love and friendship. God's love Jesus restores. Look at verse 17-19. "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."" Man's punishment was also directed toward his blessing. God made the man fully responsible for listening to his wife. Man was created to be the steward of God's world. He had tilled the ground to fulfill his mission and serve God, and he had named the animals to joyfully cowork with God. His work was joyful and full of meaning. But now, because of his sin, the ground and all creation were under curse. He lost his mission; he must work, not for God but for his own survival. Work became toil; the final enemy, death, awaited them both. Only Jesus can remove the curse and restore man's mission. He died and rose to give life and meaning and mission back to mankind. Let's hold on to God's great love, Jesus. The consequences of sin is death. Man cut off from God by sin is like a cut flower. He is already dead. He is dead spiritually. Only physical death and hell waits for him. However, God promised to give his son Jesus for us. And Jesus came and was crucified for us. live in a cursed world, by God's grace we can live with a glorious hope. God's unchanging love and his wonderful promises give us hope. |
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