Genesis 3 “Our First Parents” September 2, 2007
Heidelberg 6-8
Last time we looked at the law of God.
God requires us to love him and love one another.
The problem is that we do not love.
We saw that our love is fickle –
Sometimes we love God, but sometimes we don’t.
And half-hearted love is not acceptable.
If you love your wife most of the time,
and only cheat on her every other Tuesday,
that is not really love.
That is why the Heidelberg Catechism says:
Can you keep all this perfectly?
No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbor.
By nature?
Does this mean that God created us this way?
We’re looking at Genesis 3 tonight,
but it is important to start back in Genesis 1.
6. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
No, on the contrary,
God created man good and in his image,
that is, in true righteousness and
holiness,
so that he might rightly know God
his Creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal blessedness to
praise and glorify him.
In Genesis 1:26, we hear how God created man.
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
What does it mean for man to be in the image of God?
At its most basic level, it means that man (both male and female)
resembles God.
We look like God.
Scripture talks about God having hands and arms, eyes and ears.
But God does not have a body like us.
When it talks about the eyes of the LORD,
it is referring to God’s power of sight which penetrates the deepest darkness.
When it talks about his arm,
it is referring to God’s mighty power by which he does whatever he pleases.
Because God sees all things, he gave us eyes which see some things.
Because God can do all things, he gave us arms which can do some things.
Even our bodies are designed to reflect who God is.
When I look at your family, I can see the family resemblance.
You look like your parents.
But to be in the image of God means more than outward looks.
You not only look like your parents, you also act like your parents!
And this is because of two things:
1) there is a biological relationship – what we call genetics –
2) but even adopted children act like their adoptive parents
because we imitate our parents.
How many times have you caught yourself thinking,
“that is exactly what my mom used to do…”
Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God.
While there was no biological relationship between God and man in the Garden,
nonetheless God did breathe his spirit into man,
in chapter 2:7 it says, “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
The Hebrew word for “breath” is ruach – which is also translated “Spirit.”
God breathed his breath of life – his Spirit – into Adam,
thereby distinguishing him from all other creatures.
In all of Genesis 1-2, no other creature receives the Breath of Life.
Adam and Eve are also in the image of God in their having dominion over the creatures.
God is the Creator, the ruler over all things,
and he gives to his son the stewardship of all creation.
Adam and Eve are to rule all things under God.
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth
and subdue it
and have
dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the heavens
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.(Gen 1:28)
As rulers of creation, Adam and Eve are in the likeness of God.
And for that matter, even in their being fruitful and multiplying they are like God.
We call it procreation.
It is the closest that humanity can come to imitating God’s work of creation.
(Even as subduing the earth and ruling it for the glory of God
is the closest that humanity can come
to imitating God’s work of providence)
But the catechism calls our attention to another aspect of being in the image of God.
Indeed, this one is so central that without it
humanity becomes a horrible distortion of what God is.
God created man good
and in his image,
that is, in true righteousness and
holiness,
Without righteousness and holiness, man is a perverse caricature of God.
We have seen several aspects of the image of God.
Our bodies were designed to reflect certain things about God,
but because of sin we use them contrary to their natural function.
We were created to rule over the earth – subduing it for the glory of God,
but instead we plunder the earth – pillaging it for our selfish gain.
We were created to be fruitful and multiply,
and we have multiplied!
– but we have filled the earth with wicked and miserable sinners.
Without righteousness and holiness
every other aspect of the image of God is perverted and distorted.
But
7. From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come?
From the fall and
disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,
for there our nature became so
corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Some people have said that we are sinners because we imitate our parents.
In their view, Adam and Eve’s first sin was just that – the first sin.
But the scripture teaches that our nature itself is depraved.
In fact, that is one of the main points of the first part of Genesis.
In Genesis 6:5 we hear that
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth,
and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
That’s pretty harsh!
“every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
You could interpret this as referring simply to that generation.
Maybe another generation would be better?
But then in Genesis 8:21 God says,
I will never again curse the ground because
of man,
for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
It is not simply a problem in one generation,
it is a problem that characterizes humanity as a whole.
The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
David reflects on this in Psalm 51:5,
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
There was nothing especially sinful about David’s mother!
--at least, nothing worse than anyone else!
All of humanity is tainted and corrupt.
I know that sometimes people think in terms of comparative goodness.
If you take all the good deeds that you do,
and compare them to all the bad deeds that you do,
sometimes you may come away thinking that you are not so bad.
Or we compare ourselves to someone else,
and say, “I’m not as bad as so-and-so, so I must be okay.”
But remember our example.
You could be a model husband 99% of the time,
but if you cheat on your wife once every hundred days,
you are a miserable failure as a husband.
It is like a airline pilot with a 99% track record of landing planes on the runway!
All it takes is a 1% failure rate, and you are dead!
And remember, what God calls for is that we love him with all our heart – not just most –
all our soul – not just when we feel like it –
and all our strength – not just what’s left over after we have served and pleased ourselves.
And also remember, that you are in Christ,
you have been regenerated by the Spirit of God!
Right now we are talking about someone who does not have the Spirit of God!
We are conceived and born in guilt and sin.
Our nature has become corrupt.
Every child is a part of this corrupt humanity in Adam.
We don’t start with a blank slate.
We start with native tendency that is pointed in the wrong direction.
If you’ve been around little children at all,
you know this is true!
Do you have to teach your children how to sin?
Do you have to train them how to rebel?
No, from their first days they are selfish!
They do not love God and neighbor.
They have one and only one god – their stomach!
Indeed, my children only began to acknowledge my existence
when they became old enough to eat solid food.
Suddenly Daddy became interesting because now he can feed me too!
8. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
Yes, unless we are
regenerated by the Spirit of God.
This one is tougher to accept.
Totally unable to do any good?
Inclined to all evil?
We said earlier that if you have a 1% cheating rate you are a miserable failure as a husband.
If you have a 1% crash rate you are a miserable failure as an airline pilot.
In Romans 3, Paul says that everyone – both Jews and Greeks – are under the power of sin.
This is more than just a statement that “everyone sins.”
This is talking about our disposition – our orientation.
And Paul points us to the scriptures, “as it is written,
None is righteous, no, not one;
No one understands; no one seeks for
God.
All have turned aside; together they
have become worthless;
No one does good, not even one.
(Psalm 14:1-3)
Their throat is an open grave; they
use their tongues to deceive. (Psalm 5:9)
The venom of asps is under their
lips (Psalm 140:3)
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness
(Psalm 10:7)
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace
they have not known. (Isaiah 59:7-8)
There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Psalm 36:1)
Paul says that these scriptures demonstrate that
all,
both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin.
No one does good. Not even one.
Paul is not saying that no one is nice.
There are lots of nice people out there.
But nice doesn’t cut it with God.
God is looking for good.
And good means 100% all of the time, loving God with everything.
Anything less than entire devotion to God and neighbor
is like the husband who cheats on his wife every other Tuesday.
You can pretend that you love your wife,
and you can do lots of nice things for her,
but if you are sleeping with your secretary every other Tuesday,
then you do not love your wife.
If you say you love God,
and if you are nice to God most of the time,
then you do not love God.
Goodness is not something that can exist in part.
Either you are good, or you are not.
Partial goodness is like partial faithfulness.
Think of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series.
What if the Beavers had said that Aslan was good most of the time.
If goodness is something that can be a “most of the time” sort of thing,
then we could only look in terror at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who might or might not be good to us when he comes!
We’ll see when he gets here what kind of mood he’s in!
What kind of goodness is that?
Conclusion
God is good.
Always.
In all times, in all places.
God is good.
Now compare yourself to him.
How are you doing?
When you compare yourself to the inimitable goodness of the living God,
then you can say with the Heidelberg Catechism,
Indeed, we are so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good
and inclined to all evil
unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Unless!
Think about that!
Regeneration means that we are given new life.
The Spirit of God regenerates us and brings us to life.
And then what?
Then we are able to do good.
Indeed, in Christ we are inclined to all good.
As Paul says in Ephesians 2:1-10 (read)
We were by nature, children of wrath.
We were inclined in the wrong direction.
But God being rich in mercy loved us – even when we were dead in our sins.
And he saved us by his grace.
There is nothing that we did to deserve this!
But now we may do good.
That is the whole point of verse 10.
There was no way that we could do good before.
But now, we have been created in Christ Jesus anew.
We have a new nature.
We have been regenerated by the Spirit of God.
So let me ask you, church of Jesus Christ,
6. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
No, on the contrary, God created man good and in his image,
that is, in true righteousness and holiness,
so that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify him.
7. From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,
for there our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.
8. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
Yes, unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.