We're Back in the Garden.

1st Sunday in Lent
February 13, 2005
Genesis 3:1-7

^3:1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" ²The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but 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.'" ⁴"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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." ⁶When 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. ⁷Then 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. (NIV).

We all know both good and evil. We could have known only what was good. We could never have known evil things like guilt and shame. But our first ancestors failed to believe God and so lost a state of truly blissful ignorance. As a result, evil became a part or our daily experience. Now, we must live with things like guilt and shame and we must daily deal with the temptation to think, say and do what is evil.

However, all is not lost. For as we read in the Gospel lesson, there is a hero who has come to save us from our knowledge of good and evil. Jesus came as the second Adam and he succeeded where the first failed. He did not doubt God and thus crushed the head of the serpent. The consequence of Jesus’ victory means that we are delivered from the evil effects of knowing the difference between good and evil. We have been changed. God no longer considers us rogue rebels but righteous children. Jesus reversed what Adam did as the Apostle Paul says, For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19).

That is definitely good news! God has forgiven every time we have doubted him and listened to the devil. And he has purified us through Jesus’ perfect life and death so that we are acceptable to him just as Adam was at creation. We have been justified. We are no longer just the unfortunate offspring of Adam and Eve expelled from Eden. Instead, we are like ex-convicts! We have been released from prison. The law no longer condemns us. We are free to move about as we will. We have been given a new lease on life.

Jesus has restored us to a situation much like that of Adam and Eve in the Garden. We can trust God and do as he says or we can listen to the devil and strive for things pleasing to the eye. In effect, we’re back in the Garden of Eden. Before us stand, every day, the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We can approach the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but God has warned us to stay away. “When you eat of it you will surely die!” We can not yet access the other tree, the tree of life. But God has promised that Jesus will return to lead us to that tree so that we can eat and live forever.

My point this morning is this. Because we have been born again through faith in Christ, we are back in the Garden. We stand where Adam and Eve once stood, waiting for access to the tree of life. And, like Adam, the devil, the ancient serpent, is out to deceive us. So the question we face every day is, will we trust God’s word, “When you eat of it you will surely die,” or the devil's word, “You will not surely die”?

It is helpful, therefore, to understand what happened in the Garden. First the devil prepared for a lie. Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden” The feel of the phrase in Hebrew is more like, “Wow, God really won’t let you eat from any of the trees?” In other words, he sows a little tension. His exaggeration suggests that God is imposing unreasonable limits. So he does today. Wow, you Christians can’t drink any alcohol? You have to sit around all day in good clothes on Sunday? You can’t have any fun? In other words, he paints a bad picture of our God so that we have to defend our faith. And defending things is usually not the best perspective.

After putting Eve on the defensive, the devil let loose with the lie, the worst kind of lie, You will not surely die!” He flat out contradicted God. No messing around here. Eve had to decide between one of two mutually exclusive statements. Either God spoke the truth and the devil lied, or the devil spoke the truth and God lied. She fell for the devil’s lie. They did not physically die that very day, but they did die spiritually that very day. The relationship with God was broken and he became their greatest fear.

The devil continues to contradict God with bald-faced lies that continue to sweep us off our feet. God says he created the universe and everything in it; the devil says that he created nothing. God says he established very definite order in our human relationships, between male and female, children and parents. The devil says that all order is man-made and often wrong. God says that there is right and wrong, absolute truth. The devil absolutely denies the distinction. Whom will you believe?

The devil deceived Eve when he said that their eyes would be opened and that they would become like God knowing good and evil. I ask you, what was wrong with not knowing what evil was? What would be wrong with never having known guilt and shame? Would you miss something if you never experienced the pain of rejection and of being mocked. Would you miss something if you never got caught lying? Would you miss something if you never got sick, if you never suffered bodily pain so bad that it had to be controlled with morphine? Of course not! In every possible example, you would always be better off not knowing and experiencing evil. Evil always destroys; it never builds up! What good thing could you possibly gain by murdering, stealing, lying or committing adultery, other things that God has forbidden? Nothing! All of them will only bring us judgment and punishment.

You will be like God. Right there and there Eve should have wakened up. She should have picked up a stick and killed that snake! No creature can become the equal of its creator. We have received life and truth; we have none of our own to give. We cannot become gods as the Mormons teach. The devil himself was thrown out of heaven because he wanted to become a god. How stupid to think that we could play God!

Nevertheless, the devil had spun his web. He said to the woman, “Take and eat!” 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. Eve believed the devil’s lie that God was withholding something good from them. Apparently Adam did too. Is that the way we look at God’s commandments? Is God withholding good things from us? Is he making it so that we can’t have any fun? Are murder, adultery, theft, lying and coveting really desirable things?

If we have ears then let us hear! Adam and Eve didn’t become like God. They became afraid of God. 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. They got fear and shame. Their eyes were opened, but like opening Pandora’s Box, what they got was not worth getting! They were immeasurably better off without having their eyes opened in this way. There is never anything to gain from any knowledge or experience of evil! I don’t have to experience cirrhosis of the liver to know that excessive drinking is bad or emphysema to know that smoking is bad. I don’t have to experience prison to know that theft is bad or divorce to know that adultery is bad. God said it’s bad. That’s all I need to know!

And lest we forget that, God has given us a sign, our sense of nakedness. Man is the only creature that wears clothes! This is not a social hang-up, some vestige of evolution that served a survival purpose in the past. It’s the consequence of original sin, the sign that Adam’s trespass affected all of us.

People under the influence of the devil often raise an objection here. They blame God for Adam’s sin. If God didn’t want Adam to eat from that tree, then he shouldn’t have put it there. He is responsible! That’s the same childish reasoning that Adam and Eve gave God when he confronted them with their sin. “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.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-13).

We don’t know God’s purpose for putting that tree in the garden of Eden. But that doesn’t mean that it didn’t have a good purpose. Our ignorance doesn’t mean that God and the tree were evil! It only means we’re ignorant! It’s just like when arrogant men spoke of vestigial organs in the body. They didn’t know what organs such as the appendix did and so declared that they were left over from evolution and had no purpose. In their ignorance they confidently declared evolution to be true and God an inept would-be creator. Later they found that they were wrong, that things like the appendix, the tonsils and the gall bladder do indeed have a purpose. Yet when they were corrected, they did not repent and turn to God. Just so, it is ridiculous to blame God for our sin. Adam and Eve knew the truth. They understood. God set no trap. The devil set the trap.

Fear, shame and death were a pretty hefty price to pay for a little meal! Adam’s eating brought condemnation to all people. But another has stepped up to save us. He too has said, “Take and eat.” “Take and eat; this is my body given for you. Take and drink; this is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of your sins.” This time we do need to eat! Adam ate from the tree and died. Christ invites us to eat his body and live, forever! It doesn’t matter that we didn’t participate in these actions. I can argue till I die that it’s not fair for me to die because Adam sinned. I will still die and I do know why. Nor does it matter that it’s not fair that Jesus die in my place. He did. All that matters is that we know it’s true and that we eat his body and blood.

And so, brothers and sisters, we are in effect back in the Garden. Jesus reversed what Adam did and brought us back into God’s presence. We must not let the devil lie to us and deceive us. And that’s easy. Just hold fast to the Word of God. He does not lie; he does not deceive. He gave his son, the way the truth and the life!