1. The first lesson learned from the fall is the inherited necessity of the Gospel. (3:20)
2. The second lesson learned from the fall is the saving substitution of the Gospel (3:21)
3. The third lesson learned from the fall is the present protection of the Gospel (3:22-24)
What a journey! Three months ago, we started this study in Genesis. We started with only God. Preexistent—before anything—in the beginning. We’ve looked at the 7 days of creation. God resting on the seventh day. God’s crowning creation of man and His wonderful provision for man. And then we looked at temptation and sin and the fall. Tonight we’re going to wrap up our study in the first three chapters of Genesis by seeing how God’s grace shined through the horrible darkness of the Fall.
GENESIS 3:20-24
All around us, God has given us pictures of good and beauty coming out of tragedy. When my Mother-in-law was still living, she lived in Pensacola, Florida. There were a few years in a row that Florida had some very dry summers. They were way behind on their rain and everything was brown and dry. Well, you know what happens when pine forests get really dry. Just about anything will start forest fires. And that’s what happened. There were huge fires all over that state. It got to the point where they would even have smoke advisories on the highways like you would normally see fog advisories. They even had to shut down one of the main roads because of bad visibility. When we visited down there right after the fires, I remember how awful the devastation looked. If you’ve ever seen the results of a forest fire, you know what I’m talking about. It was absolutely desolate. There was not a sign of life anywhere. But what was amazing was how it looked the next time we drove through there. There were now signs of life. The old burned out trees had green branches on them. Wildflowers and grass were coming up in the ashes. Birds and other animals had begun to come back. Goodness and beauty had sprung out of tragedy. That is God’s design. He brings goodness and beauty out of the awful tragedy of sin. Tonight’s passage is the first example of that. When mankind was at its lowest point, God followed the curse with grace. As we look at this text tonight, we will see a pattern that will show us the Gospel. As we see that pattern, I want each of us to begin to grasp the full extent of the Gospel and what it means. And when we do, I want that understanding to drive us to want to appreciate it more and share it better. In order to do that, we’re going to look at three lessons learned from the fall about the Gospel. The first lesson learned from the fall is the inherited necessity of the Gospel.
GENESIS 3:20
The inherited necessity of the Gospel. What’s in a name? In most ages and most cultures, a lot. We have a hard time understanding that in our culture. When we name our kids, we might get deep enough to pick a family name. Most of the time we just pick a name because we like it or it sounds good. Of course, a lot of times we pick names because of who is popular at the time. A few years ago, there were a lot of Britney’s born. I remember back in the ‘80s it seemed like every other baby girl was named Alexis. That’s one more reason to be thankful Dynasty isn’t on the air any more. But historically, names have been given because of what they mean. God gave Adam his name because he was taken from the ground. Adam is nearly identical to the Hebrew word for ground. Then when it was time for Adam to name his wife, he called her Eve. I think the timing of this is interesting. He didn’t name her when she was first created. But now, after this terrible ordeal—now he was going to name her. What name would you have picked? What’s the Hebrew word for “tempter?” Or how about, “sinner,” or, “look at the mess you got us into?” I’d have probably picked a name like that. Of course I’d have heard about it forever. Then I would have had to pick out a middle name—like “nag.” But Adam didn’t do that. To me, that indicates recognition of his sinfulness. I might be reading into it, but when he named his wife Eve, he acknowledged THEIR sin. He quit blaming her and acknowledged their combined guilt. He called her Eve because she was the mother of all living. By calling her the mother of all living, Adam recognized two things. First, he recognized that she would be the mother of the saving seed God promised back in verse 15. He didn’t know when it would happen, but he did know it would happen through her. Second, he recognized the necessity of that promised seed because he understood that their sin would impact all that she was the mother of. Eve literally means life—as in the beginning of life. As the beginning of life he realized that their sin would be passed down to all their offspring. Giving her the name Eve showed her as the mother of not only all humanity, but of all fallen humanity. The Bible says that in Adam all have sinned. In other words, we are sinners by birth and not just by practice. Adam and
Eve’s sin affected the entire human race from the first person down to the last. We’ve talked about that as the reason that Jesus had to be born of a virgin. If He had had an earthly father, He would have been tainted with original sin. But He didn’t. He not only lived a perfect life, He was born free from the sin nature we have all inherited from Adam. Eve was the mother of all of fallen humanity. Fallen humanity that needed the good news of a Savior. That needed the Gospel. That is the first lesson learned from the fall—the inherited necessity of the Gospel. The second lesson learned from the fall is the saving substitution of the Gospel.
GENESIS 3:21
The saving substitution of the Gospel. Adam and Eve had sinned. They had violated God’s command. God had given Adam an A or B choice. Either obey me and live or disobey me and die. He disobeyed. So the only thing he could expect was death. God gave him a choice and he willingly chose the option that brought death. From the very beginning, God designed it so that the wages of sin is death. God’s justice would have been served if He would have immediately destroyed Adam and Eve and sentenced them to eternal punishment in Hell. Think about what happened when Satan led the rebellion of angels. God immediately cast them out of heaven and condemned them to eternal punishment. He made no provision for their redemption. They aren’t given the opportunity to repent. Their sentence was instant and it was irrevocable. That’s what God’s righteous justice demands. Immediate and eternal damnation for sin. Death. God’s justice demands immediate, irrevocable death. If God allowed sin to go unpunished and violated His requirement of death, He would no longer be just. He would be unfair. His righteousness would be defiled. But God loved Adam and Eve. He loved them enough to provide a way for their redemption. A way that their sins could be covered without violating His own justice and righteousness. He provided a way by providing a substitute. He shed the blood of an animal as a substitution for their own death. Remember back a few weeks ago when we talked about Adam naming all of the animals. In order to name them, they had to be very familiar to him. He had to know them. Every living species of animal passed before Adam. He spent time with it, looking at it, studying it. And then once he saw its characteristics, he gave it a name. I imagine it was sort of like what happens when we name our pets. As soon as we give it a name, a certain bond is formed. There is an emotional attachment. That’s the reason you don’t ever name your hog or your calf. If you do, it becomes a pet instead of becoming dinner. Now, we have no idea how much time passed between the time Adam named the animals and our passage tonight. Scripture doesn’t give an indication. But can you imagine how Adam felt when God had to kill one of the animals that Adam had named. Remember that they had never seen death. They had never seen death and because of their sin, God slaughtered an animal right in front of them. An animal Adam had named just a short time before. He slaughtered the animal and clothed them in its skin. Now, this wasn’t like wearing a fur coat. It was like clothing themselves in the one who had died as their substitute. God’s justice was served because an innocent died in their place—as their atoning substitute. God’s love was served because He provided a substitute for them so they might live. He clothed Adam and Eve in the pure garment of the one who died for them. Just like He does for us if we let Him. Except instead of being clothed in the skin of an innocent animal, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That animal skin temporarily covered Adam and Eve’s sin. But it also pointed to the need of an eternal covering. An eternal atonement for sin which was provided 4000 years later on the cross at Calvary. Except this time, instead of God sacrificing an innocent animal, He sacrificed His Son. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God willingly gave His life as a substitute for your sin, for my sin, and for Adam and Eve’s sin. While that first incomplete sacrifice looked forward to Christ’s perfect sacrifice, your salvation looks back to it. Looks back and clings to the cross in faith believing that Jesus died as a covering for your sins. Because, just as the coats of skins served to cover Adam’s sin and shame, Jesus blood covers your sins and mine. The first lesson is the inherited necessity of the gospel. The second lesson is the saving substitution of the gospel. Finally, the third lesson is the present protection of the gospel.
GENESIS 3:22-24
The present protection of the gospel. It seems that every week you read in the paper about someone being killed in a car accident around here. Sometimes that’s hard to believe with all the safety features that are built into cars these days. We have seatbelts and airbags and safety glass and crumple zones. Newer cars are designed to absorb the impact of a crash by crunching up in special ways. They kind of act like a giant shock absorber. They even build them with all the things to prevent accidents in the first place. Cars have better head lights and wipers and visibility than they have ever had. They have anti-lock brakes and traction control and better tires and suspensions. Roads have warning signs and guard rails and speed limits. With all those things in place for our protection, why are people still dying on the highways? Because nobody has come up with an effective way of protecting us from ourselves. I guess the only way to protect us from ourselves in the car is to not drive at all. And that’s what God did with Adam and Eve in the Garden. God entered eternal council with Himself. Notice the reference to the Trinity here in verse 22. Man has become as one of us. Satan’s lie was sort of true after all, wasn’t it? Man had become like God. Some people have said that this was a sarcastic comment by God. I don’t see that. I see that when man’s eyes were ripped open to the ugliness of sin, he saw something he was never intended to see. Man was created in the image of God, but God never intended man to see violence and pain and separation from Him. Since God sees everything, He saw it. But He never intended for man to see it. So, when he ate of the fruit, his eyes were opened to a world that only the triune God was intended to see. A world of not only the good that God had shown him. But a world of evil and sin and pain and suffering and rebellion. His eyes were opened to evil. And even though God had provided atonement for their sin in the covering of animal skins, they were still under the curse. They still had to deal with pain and toil and suffering and sin. To put it in today’s terms, they were saved, but still living in a fallen world. And God’s grace shined through once again. Not only did God save them by providing an atoning sacrifice, He protected them from themselves. He cast them out of the Garden. Was it punishment? Yes. But even more than that, it was protection. If you have a 16-year old son that takes your car out and speeds and drives recklessly, are you going to continue to let him drive it? Hopefully not! He will definitely consider it punishment. And that’s part of it. But the bigger part of it is for his protection. God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden for their protection. Had they stayed, how long before they had eaten of the Tree of Life? Notice that this is the first time the Tree of Life is mentioned. Was it hidden before? Probably not. Did they know about it? Probably. God told Adam he could eat of ANY tree in the garden EXCEPT for one—the one he ate from. Now, God specifically protects him from eating of the Tree of Life. He protects him from living forever. Living forever in a fallen, cursed world. Living forever struggling with the temptations of Satan. Living forever wrestling with the nature of his dying flesh. Living forever only being able to access God through a mediator. God didn’t want that for His crowning creation. So He didn’t allow it. He cast them out of the Garden and separated them from it with a supernatural barrier that they could not cross. That’s how much He loved them. And that’s how much He loves us. He loves us enough that He protects us. He provides us protection from ourselves in our daily lives. No matter how bad we’ve ever been, we never as bad as we could have been. He provides us protection from Satan. He only allows Satan to tempt us up to what we can handle. Nothing comes to us from Satan that hasn’t already passed through God’s gracious and merciful hands. Finally, He provides us protection from the curse. He numbers our days so we won’t have to struggle with our flesh forever. He promises a new heaven and a new earth that are not marred by sin and the curse. And He promises we will walk with Him forever without separation or boundaries. God protects us just like He did with Adam and Eve. That’s the Gospel. And God revealed it over 4000 years before the New Testament. He showed us the inherited necessity of the Gospel. All have sinned—not just by our actions. We have all sinned in Adam. His sin is passed down to us. God showed us the saving substitution of the Gospel. Nothing we can do is sufficient to cover our own sin. Sin results in death. Either our death or the death of a substitute. The blood that was shed by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary is the perfect substitute for our sins. It is the only thing that can cover them and wash them white as snow. God showed us the present protection of the Gospel. It is not His desire that we struggle with sin forever. He doesn’t want us to fight through a fallen world eternally. He protects us from how bad things can be in our daily lives. And He eventually protects us when He calls us home to be with Him. The question is, will you be going home with Him? Have you recognized your inherited need for the Gospel? Have you accepted His saving substitution for your sins? He desires nothing more than to provide you permanent protection. All you have to do is ask.
