Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

(Genesis 3:1-24)

Yearly Theme:  “Patience is…”

Series Title:  “Love and Marriage”

September 18^th, 2022

Something to think about:

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring GOD’s original design for human relationships, specifically the marriage relationship between man and woman.  The first week, we looked at GOD’s design of male and female, and the various distinctions that make each unique and equal.  The second week we looked at the importance of living together in unity, and not being alone, equally sharing rulership and dominion over all that GOD has entrusted us.  Today, however, we will be exploring where everything went wrong, and how relationships, specifically marriages, have struggled to regain what was lost since the Fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.  This leads us to our passage of Scripture for the day.  Following along…

Turn in your Bible to:  Genesis 3:1-24

Here’s the takeaway this morning:

Key Point:  “Sin broke all relational unity within GOD’s perfect creation, thus resulting in a distortion of what GOD once called good.”

Let’s take a closer look at the relational consequences of sin within GOD’s good and perfect creation:

•    .

Genesis 3:11-12, 13 (NLT),  ¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?”  the LORD God asked.  “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”  ¹² The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” …  ¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”  “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

•    .

Genesis 3:16b, 20 (NLT),  “And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.” …  ²⁰ Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.

• Patriarchy vs. Feminism
• Polygamy
• Divorce

•    .

Genesis 3:17-19 (NLT),  “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you.  All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.  ¹⁸ It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.  ¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.  For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

Something to take home:

Ever since the Fall, humanity lost its way.  Instead of thinking like Jenny, we roam through life either throwing caution to the wind out of selfish thought and desire, or we live in fear of punishment and guilt driven by insecurity.  However, what if we actually cared what GOD thought about who we are and what we do?  What if we really cared about GOD’s purposes and desires for our relationships and marriages?  What if we were more concerned about hurting Him by the decisions we make?  Would it change anything?  Would it change how you relate to your spouse?  Would it change how you relate to others?

Thinking that seeking more than GOD had to offer would bring fulfillment beyond measure, Adam and Eve were duped into chasing what they already had.  And like Adam and Eve, we too continue the quest apart from GOD for satisfaction and happiness only to come up empty handed and alone.  What we need to understand is that the only true Source of happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment is found at the foot of the Cross where Jesus dealt once and for all with the consequences of the Fall that began with Adam and Eve’s disobedience to GOD’s command not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Only in Christ can we find our way back to Eden.  Only in Christ can we find restoration to become our true selves as the Children of GOD.

Biblical scholar and author, Allen Ross, writes, “The motifs in [Genesis 3]—death, toil, sweat, thorns, the tree, the struggle, and the seed—all were later traced to Christ.  He is the other Adam, who became the curse, who sweat great drops of blood in bitter agony, who wore a crown of thorns, who was hanged on a tree until He was dead, and who was placed in the dust of death.”^[1]

It's time to seek relational unity again.  The means to this is the process of loving GOD with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself.

Key Point:  “Sin broke all relational unity within GOD’s perfect creation, thus resulting in a distortion of what GOD once called good.”

^[1] Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 32–33.