20251221 Genesis 3:1-24 - The Christmas Cure

Christmas and Easter are the big Christian holidays that the Western World celebrates. In the NT, Easter is the most important of the two. In our culture, Christmas is the bigger deal. In Western culture, Christmas is less connected with Jesus but more with good food, time with family, family traditions, decorations, gifts, movies, songs, Santa Clause, and Christmas trees. It Belgium, the month of December really is Holiday season. This season captures all our senses. Christmas affects what we see, what we hear, what we taste, and who we surround ourselves with.

In the Church, some of us go “all in” at Christmas, while others are more hesitant. Those who are more hesitant want to focus on the simple biblical teachings of Christmas. Celebrating Christmas involves a certain tension.  We can't become like the world. We can condemn aspects of materialism, commercialism, and capitalism. And, we need to be careful, because God loves feasts. In the Old Testament, there are a lot more feasts than what a typical Westerner celebrates each year. So, we want to beware at Christmas, but we can't be Grinches either. Feasting is Biblical. The incarnation and the birth of Jesus are worthy of celebration.

Having said that, we must keep our eyes on the Biblical teaching of Christmas. In the Bible, Christmas is a big deal, so we celebrate it. We celebrate the miracle of the virgin conception, the Incarnation of the Second Member of the Trinity, the fulfillment of Prophecy, God's timing in sending his Son, and the necessity of Christmas for the Salvation of the World!

Focusing on these, Christians celebrate differently than those who don’t have the Christian Hope. We don’t have to find the perfect gift because Christ is the perfect gift. We don’t need to stress over making the family gathering the perfect gathering, because God is the one who gathers his family, his church, to be his people. We don’t have to make the perfect meal because the one being born on Christmas day offered himself to us to be the best eternal life-giving meal. Now, we can be generous, we can value family gatherings, we can love fellowships around food, and these are all outworkings of our hearts that truly treasure the meaning of Christmas.

Christmas fulfills prophecy. The birth of Jesus is what most genealogies in the Bible anticipate since Genesis 3. Genesis 3 offers the first promise of Christmas. It makes Christmas one of the most anticipated events in the OT.

We will study Genesis 3, using medical terminology, we will look at the Christmas Cure with these points: The Sickness in Genesis 3:1-6, the Symptoms in Gen 3:7-24, and the Solution in Genesis 3:9, 15, 20, 24.

First, we look at the Sickness of Sin that made Christmas Necessary in Genesis 3:1-6.

In Genesis 1-2, God made a wonderful world. The pinnacle of God’s creation was human beings made in his image. People were created by God to live for God. They were to glorify him by reflecting his rule and character and by multiplying to increase the visible manifestation of his rule.

Being made in God’s image came with a duty, but it also came with the privilege of a relationship with God. This relationship was one in which man enjoyed communion with God and depended on God for knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3 is about how we fell from that original blessed state in paradise with God. We sinned against God. We willingly rebelled against him. We committed treason and plotted to become God. Our sin is that we did not believe God, and we did not believe that God was good enough.

Genesis 3:1-6

When Satan tempts Eve, he doesn’t argue that God doesn’t exist, or that he is not powerful, but that God is not good. God has something that could make the woman’s life better, but he chose to withhold it from her. We sin when we believe God does not have our best interest at heart.

In Gen 3:5, the snake says about the forbidden tree, "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 accuses God of withholding blessing from the woman.

According to Gen 3:6, “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, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Eve believed Satan and obeyed Satan. She disbelieved God and disobeyed God. Adam did the same. God created the world and human beings. He knows what is best, but we struggle to trust him and so we sin.

Application

We fall for this same lie. We do not believe that God is actually for our good. There is a popular Christmas song called Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. I heard a pastor ask if this song reflects what we think about God. The words go: “You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. He’s making a list, Checking it twice, Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you’re sleeping, He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake.” Do we think of God, like Santa in this song? Is he a distant disciplinarian?

Deut 10:13 teaches us that God’s commandments are for our good. God loves us and instructs us for our good. He’s not a distant disciplinarian God, but our Father in Heaven who is our loving King.

In Genesis 3, God knew that as limited creatures, humans needed to depend on him to thrive. They wanted independence for a better life, but there is no better life without God. We can doubt God’s goodness when it comes to sex, money, food, work, and status. But history shows that God’s commandments are for our good.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s showed what happens when sex is detached from marriage and commitment. This led to the rise in broken families, sexually transmitted diseases, and abortions. We still ask why God wants to restrict our fun.

The global fast-food industry promotes consumption of vast quantities of food, leading to widespread health crises like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. The Bible teaches us that man does not feed on bread alone but from the words that comes from the mouth of God.

God intended for work to be meaningful and productive to benefit others and provide for us and others. Instead, we sometimes pursue wealth and status that leads to stress that keeps us away from the Lord, we can neglect our families and sacrifice our moral principles to “get ahead.”

The world is full of illustrations of the consequences of not obeying God. God's laws are for our good. We struggle to believe that God loves us. Still after we sin, there is a verse that is quoted 32 times in the Bible to remind us of God’s love. Exodus 34:6 teaches a sinful people “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…”

God is greater than Santa Claus. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. We do not believe God or his goodness. We believe we could make better gods. We look for goodness outside of God. This is the sickness. This is our sin.

Second, we see that the Symptoms in Genesis 3:7-24

Sin affects every aspect of the good world God created in Gen 1-2. Genesis 1-2 are marked by order, abundance, provision, unity, harmony, delight, peace, and intimacy.

The man and the woman enjoyed inner peace and relational harmony. They were naked and not ashamed. The man and the woman enjoyed harmony with the rest of the created order. They named the animals, and the land provided abundantly for them with food. The gold and onyx around the rivers of Genesis 2 reveal the richness of the abundance.

The man and the woman enjoyed harmony with God. Later Tabernacle and Temple texts in the Bible borrow Eden imagery to show that like the Tabernacle and Temple, Eden is where God dwelled with man.

Now in contrast, the symptoms of the disease or the consequences of sin are rupture, hostility, fear, shame, alienation, oppression, abuse, deceit, and war in all spheres.

First, our text reveals the internal war we experience.

According to Gen 2:25, the couple were naked and unashamed. In Gen 3:7, the verse that followed sin, the couple clothed their shame. Their eyes were opened. Fear seized them deep down. They knew something was wrong with them. This is the voice of shame. They feared being exposed, so they covered themselves.

We experience loneliness, despair, depression, insecurity, fear of being found out. These were not part of God’s initial created order. They are not normal. Suicidal thoughts, depression, identity dysphoria, anxiety, and contempt towards ourselves reveal sin’s effects in our inner beings. We live covered lives, physically and metaphorically. Everyone lives with the sense that if people really knew me, I would be alone the rest of my life. In addition to shame, in Gen 3:8, there is also fear.

Second, we experience relational wars.

For Adam and Eve, marital bliss turned to hostility. In Gen 3:11, the Lord asked Adam if he had eaten from the tree. In Gen 3:12, the man responded by blaming his wife. When he called her, “The woman you gave me,” he also blamed God. Our internal brokenness spreads to human relationships. In Gen 3:16, God describes the consequences of sin in the marriage relationship, “[The woman’s] desire will be for her husband, and he will rule over [her].” Both her “desire” and his “ruling” are negative. Sadly, after sin, the ideal marriage gives way to blame-shifting, manipulation, deception, and oppression. The man was to rule over the animals with his wife, but now he rules over his wife like an animal.

We experience this relational break in the dysfunction of our families growing up – whenever there was neglect or physical, emotional, verbal, spiritual, or sexual abuse. Sibling rivalry, favoritism, or not feeling safe to share our desires and disappointments with those closest to us, are results of sin in our relationships.

The third break is with the physical world.

According to Gen 3:18, the abundance of God’s provision in creation for the man and the woman has turned to thorns and thistles. Working the ground for food became a lot harder. We have multifaceted problems at work from deadlines we can’t meet, to unreasonable colleagues, humiliating firings, the risk of turning our jobs into a source of identity. Beyond this, we experience disharmony with the creation through floods, earthquakes, fires, and droughts. These are consequences of sin.

The fourth rupture we experience is the most important, it is with God.

Where are you? The Lord asks. And Adam responds in Gen 3:10, “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” In Gen 3:22-24, Adam and Eve are ousted from the garden and sent away to live east of Eden at war with God.

The result of sin in our lives is war with God. We don’t believe in God’s love. We don’t believe his instructions are for our good. We look to other places to satisfy what only God can satisfy. We pursue romance as we long for intimacy. We pursue leisure for a refuge from stress. We strive for greatness and status.

Romance, leisure, work are all gifts from God, but our war with God can make us turn those good things into ultimate things. Marrying an unbeliever draws us away from the Lord. Leisure, hobbies, and entertainment can numb our consciences to sin. They can take over the time we would spend worshiping God with his people.

In this second point, we looked at the symptoms of our Sin Sickness. We struggle within ourselves, with others, with the world, and with God.

Third, we turn to the Solution which is the Christmas Cure to the disease of Sin in Genesis 3:9, 15, 20, 24.

We first get the hope of a resolution in Genesis 3:9.

 God asks the first question of the Bible, “Where are you?” Humanity disobeyed, but God begins his pursuit. He begins with, “Where are you?” This question reveals God’s intent to pursue us.

Second, in Genesis 3:15, God promises the birth of a child who will destroy the devil.

God tells the snake, "I will put enmity between you and the woman." The “you” and “the woman" are both singular. Then, the enmity will be between "the snake's offspring" (plural) and the woman's offspring (also plural). The final phrase goes back to the singular when God says, "he (singular) will bruise your (singular) head, and you (singular) will bruise his (singular) heel." This is an announcement that a male descendant of the woman will bruise the head of the devil while being hurt in the process. This is the first announcement of Christmas and Good Friday in the Bible! Genesis teaches that this descendant will come from the line of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. 1 John 3:8 says Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil. Jesus is the solution who offers the forgiveness of sins.

Gen 3:20 offers a third clue for the solution.

God clothes their nakedness. According to Gen 3:7 Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves, but God shows them that he is the one whom must cover them, and for this covering, another must die. The Hebrew word for skin (“ur”) is the same used in Lev 7:8 to describe what is left over for man after a burnt offering. This word for skin has sacrificial significance. We can conclude that a sacrifice is required to cover our sin and shame. We also learn that God is willing to cover our shame and sin. God provides the offering—He so loved the world that He sent His Son to be our sacrifice. Because of our sin, we deserve judgment and death, but God loved us, and Jesus died for us and took our punishment.  

Gen 3:24 provides a fourth clue concerning the solution to sin.

After the man and the woman were sent out of the garden, God placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. This means that there is no way back to Eden except through the cherubim and the sword. The only way back to Eden is through death. On the cross, Jesus takes this sword of God into himself the punishment for sins. He takes the death we deserve. At Christ’s death, the NT tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This curtain was made up of woven material with images of cherubim. These images reminded the people to stay out. Once the veil is torn, Jesus gives us access through the cherubim to eternal life.

There is a sickness, with symptoms but there is also a solution. Why does God do this? To show us that we are wrong about him. He does love us. He gave his son for the World because he loves us. His steadfast love endures forever!

Conclusion

This Christmas, like every Christmas, we have so many reasons to celebrate. Christmas is the fulfillment of prophecy. It is God’s answer to all of our hearts deepest longings to experience Edenic bliss and harmony in all spheres – within ourselves, in each relationship, with the world around us, and most of all with Him.

At Christmas, the descendant of Eve was born. He was born to a virgin who conceived by the Holy Spirit. In this miracle of the Incarnation, God himself, God the Son, who has existed from Eternity past, became a human being without losing any of his Deity. As a man, he could represent sinful humanity. As God, he could offer a sacrifice of infinite value to effectively atone for our sins and reconcile us to live with God and for God.

This is what Christmas is all about, according to Luke 1:78-79 “Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”