The Origin Of Evil In Man (Part 2) Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD, USA

www.mycrossway.org

View this and other messages at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118

We continue today in our series “Beginnings.” This series has led us through many different beginnings already, including the beginning of the world and universe, time, man, marriage, society, and so much more. But last week we looked at the beginning of evil -or sin- in man. We talked quite philosophically last week about evil and how it was introduced in the garden. Today I want to take us into a more practical application because I realize that the presence of evil is far more complicated in our lives than philosophical discourse.

In essence, pain is the by-product of evil. Some of you know that I’ve had extensive abdominal surgery. On one occasion, at the change from day shift to night shift after my surgery, the night nurse came into my room for her rounds. She did her assessment and in the process, pressed on my belly. I screamed out to which she jumped back, “Oh! You’ve had surgery!”

I’ve counseled many people and walked with even more through dark and evil times. I’ve learned over the years that no matter your position, you must be careful when touching the areas of pain in people's lives. To merely explain away someone’s trauma in philosophical or theological terms can be insensitive and coarse. I’ve determined over the years that life is a series of pain management. How we manage our pain is crucial to our health and relationship with God. How we manage the pain of others is just as important.

The third chapter of Genesis is an important chapter in the Bible because it explains why things are the way they are today. Why there is decay. Why there is disease, racism, tyranny, and violence. Why there is ultimately death and judgment. Those things plague our entire universe, Genesis 3 tells us why. Even more, they point us to Revelation. Understanding Genesis 3 helps us better understand what and why the events in Revelation will unfold.

Up until this point, Adam and Eve are sinless and living in the peace and splendor of the garden. This is a place absent of death, disintegration, dysfunction, decay. It is the perfect Edenic creation of God and they live in it without sin, enjoying all the wonders of God’s creation. Genesis 3 is not a legend or a fairy tale. It is the written and inspired Word of God. And it explains to us exactly why things are the way they are and how sin came into our world and how it began to affect our world.

The first 7 verses start of the solicitor of sin, entering the garden as a serpent. With craftiness and deception, he convinces her to doubt God’s goodness and His love. The Fall took place when she stopped loving the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving Him means believing Him and trusting Him. Last week, we saw the entry of sin into the woman’s mind in doubting God’s Word and the man’s inaction against this enemy. Today we will see the completion of that doubt into action that will seal their fate.

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.” 6 So when 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. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:1–7 ESV)

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” (Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda)