Doctrine Series – It’s all about God

Part 5 – Fall: God Judges1

We believe the Bible, is inerrant, sufficient, authoritative and

necessary for us to understand who God is, as He has revealed
Himself to us as the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who
created the entire universe. And last week we looked at what it
means biblically to be human, that is to be made in the image of
God and as God’s image-bearers in the earth we all both reflect
God and resemble God and therefore every living person, from the
womb to the grave is valuable and shares equality in God’s sight.

Yet, the fall of man into sin has greatly tarnished His Holy image
and only in Christ Jesus, who is the perfect representation of the
image of God, can we be fully restored as His Image-bearers.

So what happened? The world as we know it is in turmoil.

Earthquakes have rocked into New Zealand, Japan, wars are
being fought in the Middle East, Libya, there is little peace,
sickness, evil, pain, death all continue unhindered. God is good,
what he made was very good, but then there was the Fall.

Genesis 3 (NB chapter in the Bible – explains the source and

solution for sin and death)

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that
the LORD God had made.

1. Satan
Somewhere between Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good.” And this chapter, Satan, a
fallen angel, created by God, in no way equal to God, in pride
desired to be exalted above God, rebelled, declared war against
God together with 1 third of all the angels. God cast them out of
heaven into the earth.

He is referred to as “a murderer from the beginning”, “a liar &

the father of lies” – he speaks twice and this is enough to offset
the Shalom – the peaceful balance of trust and obedience

1
We are using a book by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears called “Doctrine: What Christians Should
Believe”, Crossway Books, 2010 as a guide for our doctrine series. Todays message on the Fall of man,
has been further resourced from http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/sin-predator (Tim Keller),
among others, one of my favorite books: Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology” IVP, 1994 & the ESV
Study Bible by Crossway, 2008, p 2505 – 2634.

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between man, woman and Creator. Have a look with me at some
of His tactics – what he does here, he does by tempting Jesus and
again comes at us in the same manner:

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.

2. Devilish Schemes
The Devil wants to do whatever he can to turn our eyes off God,
our good, our joy, our satisfaction, our authority, our identity, our
source, our first love – and turn it to creation – things, ourselves,
our feelings, philosophies, himself or his demons. Anything but
God!

1 John 2:15, 16
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world
—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in
possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the
world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will
of God abides forever.

When Satan tempted Eve it was exactly this, turning affection

from God to other things, bringing doubt in His spoken Word and
intended goodness and provision. Then instead of receiving
morality, identity & purpose from God, we are tempted to
receive this from creation.

1. Desires of the Flesh – “good for food”

2. Desires of the Eyes – “delight to the eyes”
3. Pride – “to be desired to make one wise”

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.

3. Sin
So now they realized they had sinned. What is Sin?

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1. Sin is Moral evil – it is personally against God (e.g:
murdering his image-bearers) and brings about Natural evil
– like cancer and destruction of all sorts.

2. Sin is Always and Ultimately Related to God – Sin has

social, relational and physical ramifications, the main thing is
that it offends and incurs the wrath of God. Even though a
sin may affect people, a nation, others, ultimately it is a
personal attack on the character and ordinances of God.

3. Sin is Breaking God’s Law – by either overstepping the

mark (Sins of commission: doing what we should not do), or
failure to reach the mark (Sins of omission: not doing what
we are supposed to do). Either way you miss the mark.
Notice in this case – Eve committed the sin of eating what
God told her not to eat, and Adam’s sin is 2 fold, omission,
He failed to protect His wife and also committed the sin by
taking of the fruit.

To reject one of God’s laws is a matter of rejecting all of His

holy character, which made those laws – so it really means
to reject God himself.

4. Sin is Rooted deep in our very Nature – Sin is deep

seated; it comes from the very heart. To get it right on the
surface but not have it right in motivation and thought and
intention, all of this is to miss the demands of a Holy God
who by nature is holy through and through.

5. Sin brings about a Guilty Standing before God and a

Corrupted condition in all humans. – this is why Adam
and Eve ran and Hid and tried to cover themselves, they
were experiencing guilt, their state before God had changed
completely. From one of being able to walk in unity and
fellowship in the cool of the day, to one of running, hiding,
blaming, conflict…

8 And they heard the sound of the L ORD God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the
LORD God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? 10 And
he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid,

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 because I was naked, and I hid myself. 11 He said, Who told you that
you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded
you not to eat?

Its amazing to see that God, as a loving Father is calling out for
His beloved. He knows what has happened but still longs to
engage us. God could easily have stayed away, but as we will
hear in the weeks to come, He is a God of loyal covenant love! He
still gives us opportunities right until the end!

4. Blame (Let the Blames begin)

As image-bearers, we were giving responsibility with
accountability. So God begins to ask for an account. But because
of irresponsibility, the finger-pointing starts:

12 The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave
me fruit of the tree, and I ate. 13 Then the LORD God said to the
woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The
serpent deceived me, and I ate.

Blame is a funny thing. Adam starts by blaming God. Its God’s

fault the world is in this mess. Its God’s fault things are out of
control…God should have but God didn’t! Blame is what happens
when we have sin in our hearts. Confession only finally came after
a couple of blames.

The woman blames the snake – creation, the circumstances, the

stimulus, the source of temptation, “the devil made me do it” yet
she was the one who looked with her eye, saw it was pleasing,
delightful, shiny, bling, bling, good for food and desired to be
wise…

 Blame creates conflict – externally & internally

 Blame is often the fruit of irresponsibility
 Blame does not develop respect
 Blame does not resolve, it just passes responsibility and
someone still has to clean up the mess.
 Blame never takes ownership
 Blame leaves you dissatisfied – you still have responsibility.
 Blame postpones accountability. Remember, God is still
going to judge.

14The LORD God said to the serpent,

Because you have done this,

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 cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.

5. Curse

15I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.

16 To the woman he said,

I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.

17 And to Adam he said,

Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
You shall not eat of it,
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.

a. Judgment has come upon us, which includes,

b. Alienation from God and from other people –
selfishness and segregation sets in
c. Creation is under a curse – animals strike at the heel.
The ground produces thorns and weeds, rust, moth
and loss.
d. Woman will have pain in childbirth and illegitimately
desire to usurp their husband’s leadership.
e. Men will work the soil by the sweat of the brow and
instead of rule over it, almost be ruled by it in
frustration until it finally wins and dust covers us over.
Harshness or silence in relationship!
f. Sickness, aging and death surround us.

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 g. Evil has resulted in hostile weather, earthquakes, and
tornadoes… creation will only be right when man’s sin
is fully dealt with. Green Peace hasn’t got a chance!
h. The more we sin, the more we are enslaved to it!
i. Identity in function becomes the source of achievement
and satisfaction yet never satisfies. When you get to
the place you have always dreamed of being at, you
are still yourself!
j. People turn to good things and make them ultimate
things.

20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of
all living. 21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife
garments of skins and clothed them.

6. Grace
Even though God is just in bringing physical and spiritual death to
creation – just as He said would be the consequence – he is also
very gracious. He covers our sin! This again is the Gospel
foreshadowed when one day, for us today, we may be clothed in
Him, clothed in Christ and His righteousness!

7. Sinful responses to Sin

1. Minimize: There is a propensity to minimize sin – by making

other sins more heinous and seemingly greater to attempt to
get off the hook of guilt.

2. Legitimize: to attempt to legitimize sin by having a good

reason for doing it. An example would be trying to say that
good came out of the sin. Grace which works in spite of sin
does not give us license to sin and is never virtuous.

3. Rationalize: the attempt to excuse the sin by trying to gain

sympathy or making the circumstances what should allow
the sin. There is nothing that would make it sense for anyone
to sin.

4. Criticize: This is blame shifting or pointing the finger away

from self – Eve blamed the snake, Adam blamed Eve and
God for making her.

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5. Devise: this is when think of ways to avoid our sin by
diverting attention to other things, make as if we were only
playing or joking or enter into the tactic of defending oneself
from the way in which it was handled. “You have not been
very caring in say that to me…”

6. Trivialize: By making it seem that our sin is smaller than it

was – often by only confessing half the truth.

7. Agonize: This is where we are only grieve for the

circumstances or consequences of the sin (perhaps
something we are missing out on) and not actually repent of
the sin itself.

We must realize that sin is not just the breaking of a rule or a

law with results, but that it is the breaking of God’s heart! To
break a rule means that you would perhaps scold your heart
– or reprimand your heart. What sin should do is rend our
hearts – cause our hearts to melt! God hates with intimate
pain the sin we commit – its like a divorce to him, he loves us
so much. This is the difference between worldly sorry – what
you miss out on, and Godly sorrow – how we miss treat Him,
our loving Father.

8. Victimize: to make yourself just the victim of circumstances,

where we make as if we had no other choice but to sin due
to things around us, genes, culture, personality, tradition…
Passing the responsibility onto others. Sin does not happen
to you, it comes from within you!

9. Verbalize: these people have the gift of the gab and can talk
their way our of sin – even to the point of acknowledging sin,
confessing it, calling it what it is, feel remorse and ask for
forgiveness but never actually put it to death by the grace of
God which has been given to us for this. Confession must be
accompanied by true repentance and willingness to stop
what Jesus has died for.

10. Medicalise: Sin may very well be addictive, it is the

nature of all sin to be addictive, because it does not satisfy
and leads you to do it again, but it is still sin. You need to
confess sin, not treat sin. It may lead to disease but it is not a

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 disease that you can pass the blame onto. It is an evil
offense.

In Genesis 4 we have the story of Cain & Abel. Effectively Abel

was wholehearted in his worship and offerings to the Lord, yet
Cain was halfhearted and as a result was himself not satisfied by
the kind of worship he was giving God – basically because he was
more concerned then about himself. It says then – inevitably that:

“Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The LORD said to Cain, Why
are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you
not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the
door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

One of the characteristics of Sin is that it crouches, like a lioness,

which lowers itself below the grass so that the victim may not see it
before it lunges out and pounces for the kill. Sin hides itself. God
says that we should watch out – it’s not a small little kitty hiding in
the grace, it’s a ruthless killing predator. Even when it comes to
responding to our sin, sin likes to make itself look extremely small,
it crouches. Most times when you think about your own sin, its not
that much of a big deal but others can see what a monster it is
that’s inside of you!

 Even Jesus exposed sin for what it was when He said that to
hold a grudge is the sin of murder making itself small –
crouching down in a small ball.
 Lust is the foxy hiding sin of Adultery
 Envy is the coiled up sin of Robbery
 Self-Pity is the bowed over sin of Idolatry

We love sinners, so we must take sin seriously – it’s not just an

ordinary little thing on the surface, when you see it on the surface,
know that it is a monster capable of the unthinkable!

Sin is powerful, its desire is for you, to take you out, to bring
ultimate death, to hurt the Father. Don’t underestimate sin.

God wants us to see and to know that we are not made for sin –
we are made for Him and He has expectation.

8. Taking Responsibility

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Even with all the curses, the grace of God, the tendency for sin to
hide, our tendency to try cover what God will cover, our speed at
blaming others and circumstance – in spite of all this – we still
have responsibility.

Towards God, Holiness, Image-bearers

Towards sinners, Gospel
Towards our wives, leadership, protection
Towards our husbands, submission, encouragement, help
Towards our families, finances, provision
Towards our church, shepherds, (Saki – Administration) flock,
brothers who fall – restore gently.
Towards our community, city, streets & environment.

Jesus shows that he takes responsibility for us and it was never

His fault. He teaches us what it means, with His Spirit compelling
us, empowering us to take responsibility for His name and His
Kingdom on the earth.

John 21:15 – 17
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon,
son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, Yes,
Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. 16 He
said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He
said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend
my sheep. 17 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you
love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do
you love me? and he said to him, Lord, you know everything; you know
that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep.

The best way we can be responsible for our sin is to bring it to

Jesus.

Not only is He the one who sets us free from sins power, sins guilt
& shame, and the penalty, but also gives us the power to be
responsible stewards and managers of all that He has entrusted to
us as restored-image-bearers.

My Poem
When it comes to sin, don’t believe the lies, smoke in the eyes,
we need to realize, where the responsibility lies,
but thank God there is one who dies,

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and from the grave did rise,
so that by our faith - he justifies,
and pours out His Spirit into our lives,
that with the Father we are unified,
and glory is restored through the you and i's,
as we submit the devil flies, and we continue, in faith and
repentance, to evangelize.
And when the set time arrives, that no one on earth can diarize,
we will see our Saviour, King, with our own eyes
and meet him in the skies! 

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