Christian Foundations

We have been laying the Foundations for the Christian faith in this series.  So far, we have discussed how the Creator planned and then spoke the worlds into existence.  The angels in their levels, the universe, galaxies and the expanse of space were filled.  Then our Creator began the created part of the project – Adam and Eve.  We saw that their perfect existence was challenged by ‘a talking snake’. 

This creature questions the words of the Creator when he talked to the woman, Eve.  She was deceived into thinking the snake had truth about ‘being like God’.  She ate of the forbidden fruit and then gave it to Adam – who was there with her.  They both realised their mistake but the deed had been done and consequences were about to happen.

1.  This is where we continue with the story about the fall of the human race.  Unable to keep their one commandment, their world – and all the worlds around them – were about to change!

As we trace their actions, we can see their basis human instinct all around us; we continue with the same patterns.  Now, feeling the guilt, shame and probably fear over their disobedience, Adam and Eve try and hide from God.  Their usual routine was to walk and talk with God in the cool or the evening.  So when the time arrived, God called out to them, knowing very well what they had done.

We continue with Genesis 3:8:  ‘Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they had from the Lord God among the trees of the Garden.

‘But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He answered, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid”.  (Notice God is talking to Adam as He held him more accountable.)

‘And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”  God was asking a very rhetorical question as the answer is very obvious.

‘The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me so she gave me the fruit from the tree and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”

“’The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate”.  Ever notice one of the most common ways people try to get out of a tricky situation is to blame someone else.  This is where it all started.

‘So God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this …” and the list of the consequences for their actions begins.  I am sure it was a very sad and resigned Creator who pronounced the results of their actions:

     a.  The snake was pronounced as cursed above all other animals.  The serpent would crawl on its belly, knowing have enmity between you and the women and her offspring.

Comments:  Of all the created beings, the snake has received more ‘bad press’ down through the centuries than most any other creature.  It is more often feared, avoided or chased and killed, dreaded in every culture, age and society.  Even when children are not taught to fear snakes, the dread of snakes is still inherited.

   b.  To the women: the pain she would experience during childbirth would increase, her heart’s desire would still be for her husband but because of her actions, he would now ‘rule’ over her.

Comments: Due to the stress and disharmony coming into the human race, the woman’s reproductive system would be thrown off balance, causing more pain in childbirth than Eve would have known.  Deep inside, every woman wants her man so her desire is still to have a husband.  However, because of the deception and conflict between the sexes, male would ‘rule’ – either through domination or withdrawal.  Man is still held responsible and still determines which kind of ‘rule’ he will have.  Adam was ordained to have dominion over all until the fall when rule by domination would enter.

     c.  To the man: ‘Because he listened to his wife’ rather than obey God, the ground would know the influence of sin and rebellion.  By the sweat of his brow, Adam would work.  Now the ground would know thorns, thistles and dryness.  There would be a limit to their life span and their bodies would return to the dust it was created from.

Comments: No longer would the garden be a paradise with order and blessing.  Now, Adam would have to ‘work’ – laboriously, hard labour – for the food they would eat.  Then, since they had not eaten of the tree of Life, their life on the Earth would end.  The bodies were no longer ‘glorified’ but would return as dust to the ground.

2.  However, please notice that even in the middle of this their darkest time, the Creator does not leave them lost and alone.

a.  He promises a ‘seed’, a Saviour that would redeem them from the curse of their rebellion.  This refers to the Promised One, the Messiah, the Christ, to Jesus the Lord.

b.  He makes garments of skin to cover their bodies.  He doing this action, He also taught them that sin has consequences as an animal had to be killed to make the skins to cover their disobedience.

c.  To prevent an never ending life span, God sends them out of the Garden and sets an angel in charge.  Can you image if life never ended?  We would still suffer the rule of despots, tribal wars and dictators.  All the evil people would still be here to torture innocent people.  What a living hell that would be!

3.  One other important point is made from Genesis 3: Adam names his wife Eve “….mother of all living….” verse 20.   On one level, he saw life coming from her but she was not to be the idolatrous mother figure, revered down through the ages as a fertility goddess.  Nor was woman make to be the mother over all males.  This is an enormous problem when men see women as the source of life.

4.  It would be nice to think that the Garden of Eden story was just a myth or a made up tale.  However, as counsellors for over 20 years, we have learned so much from this Bible passage in Genesis 3 that answers why people do what they do.  The Garden of Eden is a true story that helps us understand human nature.

Human nature refers to the basic personality structure of our drives, character traits, attitudes, affections and instinctive ways of behaving, that make us human.  These are qualities we learned from our environmental and from what we inherited, that we were born with, the innate qualities that make us human.

Since you and I are born into the human race, we have also inherit a whole package of ‘traits’, personality characteristics and cultural habits from previous generations, all the way back to Adam and Eve.

We learned as children to observe our parents and those around us who have followed the rebellious tendencies of our first ancestors.  When we were old enough, we added our own rebellions and deceived actions.  We have all been caught in this inherited pattern to walk away from God and His rules.  We are ignorant, blinded and deceived about who this loving God really is.  We make our own rules, our own religions and our own value systems – just as Adam and Eve did.

As a result, we are born with this old nature.  Ever watched at two year old in their “I want what I want now!” behaviour?  This self-centred, ‘me first’, ‘life is all about me’ is the symptoms of our old nature.  Almost 7,000 years later, the old nature is more ‘corrupt’ than ever.  In fact, the whole creation is contaminated and ‘groaning under’ the influences of our self-centred, degenerate choices.

5.  This will only increase until God’s Answer is realised.

….but remember there is hope!

In fact He loves the world so much that He did what?  The greatest story ever told, the Redemption Story of Mankind, has several more chapters.  In our next session, we shall meet the Greatest Rescuer ever sent.  Jehovah God became flesh!  The Word, through the Holy Spirit, became Jesus.  He became that perfect sacrifice to bring the whole of the human race back to Father God’s love.

6.  Our Conclusion:

So what is the human condition?  We have both a God-like nature built into us by design and a fallen nature inherited from Adam.  When mankind sinned, we were separated from God.  We died both spiritually and physically.  Without God’s redemption through Jesus Christ, we would become even more perverse.  Fortunately there will come a time when those who accept Jesus will live in God’s presence forever.  Then there will be no curse, no sin, no tears and no death (Revelation 21:3-4, 22:3).  All this was part of the Creator’s plan when He designed the Christian Foundations to come with the Lord Jesus.

I trust this post will add to your understanding of human nature and the part God wants to play in your life,

Susanne Fengler, Blog Author

www.christianfoundations.mentorsnotebook.com/blog

Tags: The Curse
Filed under: Foundations of our Faith, Series #1: Being a Jesus Follower