Today’s theme is important.

In fact, it’s central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Bethany read parts of passages from Genesis and Romans, passages which are central to the good news about Jesus, the good news about Easter. They are at the heart of what really matters about being a human being in our world.

And because they are so important, it sometimes can be difficult to talk about them, to do them justice.

So much has been said about these passages…the Genesis story of the first human sin, and Paul’s words about what God has done about sin. But what cannot be forgotten is that for Paul, this is his way of talking about hope.

Together, we are trying to observe Lent this year as a church, as a way to prepare for Easter.

Historically, the church has used Lent to look at the hard things in our lives…to examine ourselves and confess the things we have done wrong. This helps us better understand the hope of Easter.

Our phrase for Lent has been give up, dig in, and look deep. We want to dig in to the bible this morning, in order to look deeply at ourselves.

Where do I fit in the story of Genesis? How is my life like that? And where do I fit in Paul’s words of hope?

I want to pray and ask God’s Holy Spirit to open our eyes, minds, and hearts to him this morning.

[PRAY]

Turn with me to the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 2.

A couple of verses in chapter 2 are necessary for us to understand what happens in chapter 3. Listen as I read verses 15-17 in the New Living Translation. [READ 2:15-17]

One commentator helped me see God’s original intent this way: God gave human beings a job (tending the garden), freedom (eat anything you want), and boundaries (but not that one tree).

The starting place for understanding God, therefore, is NOT a God who says no. The starting place is a God who provides meaningful tasks, who gives freedom and provides everything we need, and who warns us not to do things that will harm us.

Later in chapter 2, God creates a partner who brings deep contentment, a woman who is the pinnacle of God’s creative act. That leads to verse 25. [READ 2:25]

I think both for the original readers and for us, this isn’t supposed to feel completely familiar.

We may get glimpses of life like this…moments when we have meaningful tasks given to us, provision and freedom for all we need, clear boundaries as to what is off limits. We have moments where we catch a hint of what it is like to be with another human being, completely naked and unguarded and yet also completely safe, completely unashamed.

But if we talk more deeply than just physical nakedness, if we also talk about soul nakedness, being completely vulnerable to another person and feeling no shame and no fear…that is not how most of life is.

It’s chapter 3 that we are meant to relate to. We ought to strive for chapter 2. We were created for chapter 2. God longs for us to live in chapter 2.

But we live in a chapter 3 world. Chapter 3 feels familiar…not familiar like a comfortable old sweater that gives you the warm fuzzies, but familiar like, “yes…yes, sadly, this is how the world is.”

Walter Brueggemann, one of the scholars I read this week, wonders if we have brought questions to this passage that Genesis was never meant to answer.

Brueggemann says Genesis 3 is not a story of how evil came into the world, or a doctrine of original sin, or a treatise on death. No, he calls it “a theological critique of human anxiety.”

In other words, we’re meant to recognize ourselves in the choices that Adam and Eve make. We’re meant to understand that God is making a judgment, a critique of their choices. We’re meant to understand and identify with the way Eve and Adam misunderstand God’s intent. Their tendency to take matters into their own hands, their shame and regret, the fear and loneliness they feel after their choices are made... we see ourselves in this sad experience.

This is a description of the problem of being human, and it is a diagnosis of why things went wrong.

Let’s look at the first few verses of Genesis 3.

[READ v. 1] First, let’s enter the story without focusing on who the serpent is, whether it’s the devil or evil personified or something else. The text just tells us it’s a serpent, so let’s honor what it says.

The serpent questions God. For the first time in Genesis, God is not speaking or being spoken to, God is being spoken ABOUT. God has been placed at a distance, objectified, questioned. I love how Brueggemann says it:

“The serpent is the first in the Bible to seem knowing and critical about God and to practice theology in the place of obedience.”

We follow the same practice if we don’t allow this to force US to examine OURSELVES, if we don’t let God speak directly to us about how we may be like the serpent, or like Eve or Adam.

READ v. 2-3

Of course the serpent had the facts wrong, and Eve corrects it. “No, of course we can eat from all kinds of trees, it’s just that one that’s off limits.” But perhaps because the idea of questioning God has been raised, the idea that God might be against them and not for them, Eve adds to God’s warning: not only can we not eat it, we can’t even touch it.

READ v. 4-5

I’ve read and heard many people say that the serpent lies here. But in the course of the story, is it a lie? Adam and Eve DO eat and they DON’T die. Their eyes ARE opened…just not in the way hinted at by the serpent…and they ARE able to know good and evil.

The serpent has painted a picture of God, and it is a picture completely different from the reality of chapter 2. The serpent’s words hint at a God who only prohibits, who keeps us human beings away from what we rightfully deserve, who tries to keep us in a lower place through threats and fear.

And it works. [READ v. 6-7]

It works. Eve and Adam both eat, both disobey, both choose to do something because they think God doesn’t have their best interest in mind, because they think they know better.

And instantly they are ashamed. Instantly openness and safety in relationship are gone. They now have to begin the human quest of hiding, covering up, trying to find a way to deal with the anxiety of the world they have created.

So here is what I think is the fundamentally essential question for us to answer:

Have you and I made choices against God because we think God is against us? Have we tried to go our own way instead of following God’s instructions? And in so doing, have we found it leads us to anxiety, shame, loneliness, and a need to cover up?

This is what it means to look deep. To face into who we are and the choices we make as people.

I don’t really think that the bible is trying to make us feel like we are terrible people in order to make us follow God. I think the bible shows us two types of living…in this case, Genesis 2 versus Genesis 3…and asks, which best describes you?

There may be relatively few people in the world who have the luxury of even debating the question. In the scope of the whole world and all of human history, we are part of only a few who are enough detached from human suffering and have enough of our needs met to even entertain the thought that our lives are more like Genesis 2 than Genesis 3.

I don’t believe anyone who honestly looks deeply at themselves and the world could fool themselves into thinking they live in a Genesis 2 world.

I believe what Paul writes in the book of Romans, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

My intent today is not to force anyone to believe that. My intent is to ask you to ask the question yourself: is your life more like Adam and Eve after the serpent, or before?

If you’re with me, if you see your life as Genesis 3…then you are ready for the good news of Romans chapter 5.

Paul has the best news in the world that he wants the Romans and everyone else to understand. Because Jesus lived and died and lives again, we have hope of getting out of the Genesis 3 world. We finally have the prescription for health after the diagnosis of what’s gone wrong.

Paul recognizes a question the Romans may bring, a question that I know many in our world today have: how could one person, even if it is Jesus, how could one person really make a difference in the world?

Turn with me to Romans 5: 12.

Yes, Paul says here, the one person Jesus CAN make all the difference.

Why do I think that? Well, because one person has made a big difference before. [READ 5: 12-17]

There is so much here, way too much to unpack today. Paul is so excited about the hope we have in Christ, the incredible gift of God that is there for us to take.

Paul chooses to teach some other important lessons from Genesis 3: one man, Adam, brought sin and death into the world.

Paul reminds us we live in a world dominated by death. The death of one man brings hope of forgiveness and the breaking of death’s power, as Jesus Christ came to life on the first Easter morning long ago.

We have a way out of living in a Genesis 3 world, a way of being restored to Genesis 2, when people could walk and talk with God in freedom!

It involves choosing to turn away from the wrong choices we make, the ones that look like Genesis 3. It means turning away, repenting of our disobedience and distrust of God. It means saying, “We don’t want to be naked and ashamed any longer, and the things we are doing on our own to cover it up aren’t cutting it!”

Paul is so excited to share the hope of Jesus Christ!

Paul and me and countless others invite you to accept this hope for yourself, by choosing to accept the gift of God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and to allow Jesus to become the one calling the shots in your life. This reverses the tragic human condition that began in Eden and continues to this day.

So now comes the fundamental question from Romans: Will you receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness?

It’s there for the taking. If you’ve never done it, this is your chance to receive it. Or maybe today, maybe the journey through Lent has reminded you how you have taken back control of your life, distrusted God, and gotten yourself in a mess, and you realize you need to change course. Here is how to receive the gift.

Admit to yourself and to God that you have not trusted him to do what is right in your life, and that you have disobeyed him. Believe that God wants to bring back a right relationship with him, one where we have a job and a purpose, where we have provision for what we need, where we have boundaries to keep us safe. Confess your sins and ask God’s forgiveness.

You can speak those things to God right now where you sit, as we enter a time of open worship. Or you can always come here to the front to pray with others, or go to the prayer room if you wish.

Like Paul, and like billions of other Christians, this gift has changed my life.

There’s nothing more important to me than anyone and everyone choosing to accept Jesus Christ. In our time of open worship, will you consider accepting God’s gift to you through Jesus Christ?