"It Is Not Good To Be Alone"

First Sunday of Lent- 2/10/08

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19

Introduction: Relationships. Marriage. Partnership. These are all words that remind us of how we were created. Even before God created people, we need to understand that God was a partnership; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why when you read Genesis, chapter 1, you see that God is referred to in plural terms : Genesis 1:26- “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” God is in relationship with Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And when we were created, we were created in God’s likeness, in God’s image, to be in relationship with others.

This morning, as we start the Lenten season, I want to talk about how it is not good to be alone. And let me tell you that even though we often think of partnership as “being married,” I want us to understand it more as the need we have to allow others to be a part of our lives. And yet, when sin entered the world, it destroyed a part of this ability to be in relationship with others.

I. The Fall- (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7)

a. The command- As we come to this part of the book of Genesis, we

see that God has created all things on the earth. He has created the earth itself, the water, the sky, the dry land, trees and plants that bear fruit, birds and animals, the fish in the sea. And even before Eve exists, God comes and gives Adam a command. Let’s hear it again… Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”/ The command is clear, do not eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Now before we analyze this command, let’s first notice that God has given Adam so much; God has provided Adam with everything he could possibly want or need. God has given Adam command over all things. Adam is free to eat from all the trees of the garden, except one. ISN’T IT INTERESTING, that in life, we have so much that we can participate in, and experience, but we tend to want to try out those things that are forbidden? There is something about being told you can’t do something, that makes you want to do it all the more.

God, up to this point, is seen as the caregiver, creator, and benefactor. The only thing that Adam lacks is a partner. And if we were to read the end of chapter 2, we see that God gives Adam a partner. This partner comes from Adam himself; flesh of his flesh. She is to share all things with Adam, and this partner, Eve, is to have the same limitation: do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

b. The reason for the command- And yet we look at this command,

and wonder: Why would God even put the tree there in the first place?” I mean, the command wouldn’t even need to be given, if the tree didn’t exist. Why would God put something so dangerous in a place that was so accessible? Because God did say that if Adam ate from the tree, he would surely die. Does this mean that it was a poisonous tree? One bite and you would fall down dead? Looking back, we know that is not the case, but did Adam know what God meant?

And if this tree was the tree of “knowledge of good and evil,” why would God want to hold back knowledge from His creation? If we are made in the image of God, why didn’t God want us to have all the knowledge He has? These are good questions, and we will see in a moment they are the kinds of questions the serpent himself uses against Eve.

Question 1: Why would God put the tree there in the first place? To me, this is the most basic of questions. As I said before, without this tree, there is no danger and there is no temptation to do wrong. But by putting the tree there, and giving the command, God is letting Adam know that God has authority over man. God is not only the creator and provider, He is also the ruler and lawgiver. God knows that people need to have rules and laws and governing. And while Adam and Eve were to care for all things on the earth, to be the authority on the earth, God was their authority. God was the one to whom they would turn for help and guidance.

You see, at first there were only 2, but soon there would be more and more people. If the chain of command wasn’t established right away, it would easily be forgotten. On top of that, the more people that exist, the more complicated life gets. Adam and Eve needed to learn how to follow rules, so that they could pass that ability and understanding on to their children, and others after them.

Question 2: What kind of death? Since we have the ability to look back on the event, we can see that God wasn’t talking about immediate physical death. What God was talking about, was death from his innocence. To eat of the tree would mean that Adam would know about evil. But even more, it did mean physical death. Again, not immediately, but the ultimate consequence would be physical death, because in the garden, there was also the tree of life. To eat of this tree was to have life. But once sin came into the world, God didn’t want His people to live forever in sin, and so that is why God ultimately banned people from the garden of Eden, so that they wouldn’t have access to the tree of life.

Question 3: Why didn’t God want us to have this knowledge? Let me answer this by way of an illustration. ILLUS. As a parent, one of my jobs is to help my children understand about life. But there are some things I don’t want them to be exposed to. Even though these things exist in the world (rape, incest, murder, torture, etc…), I don’t want my kids to be exposed to it. And yet, at some point, they will find out about most, if not all of this. So it is my job to help them know and understand. But there is a right time for this. And yet, if we had the choice, we would prefer that these things didn’t exist, and that our children wouldn’t have to know about them. GOD DIDN’T WANT US TO KNOW ABOUT EVIL. EVEN THOUGH SATAN EXISTED, AND THROUGH SATAN EVIL EXISTED, God wanted Adam and Eve to be shielded from it.

c. The command broken- I’m not sure if this is true, but I

wonder if Adam and Eve would have disobeyed God’s command without some help? We think it would have happened, because we are always breaking the rules. But what about pre-sin? Would they be prone to disobey before sin existed? Well, the question is a moot point, because they had help.

We see this help in Genesis, chapter 3. The serpent comes along and wants to help Eve disobey God. But he doesn’t just come out and say to Eve: “Eve, why don’t you just eat of the fruit and disobey God?” That would be too easy for Eve to notice the evil intentions of the serpent. So he does it more deceptively. Verse one starts out by telling us that the serpent was more crafty than any other.

The whole point of the serpent’s plan was to confuse Eve, and cause her to doubt. The serpent starts out: “Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?” He probably said it with a tone of amazement and harsh critique of God, because it causes Eve to start out with a confused answer. But he also uses the phrase “any tree.” This, of course is contrary to what God said, because it wasn’t “any” tree, but only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve responds: “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” You see, she adds to God’s command. God simply said not to eat of it. Eve adds that they couldn’t even touch it; which makes God sound even more harsh!

With Eve seeming a little confused, the serpent goes in for the kill: “You will

not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 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.” The serpent attacks God for being so limiting. In essence the serpent is saying: “You won’t die. God is just telling you this because He doesn’t want you to really be like Him, knowing good and evil. God is being selfish and unloving.”

And with this Eve eats of the fruit, and so does Adam, and sin comes into the world.

II. Restored in Christ- (Romans 5:12-19)

a. Sin came into the world- In this chapter, we see that sin comes into

the world through Adam. And because of this, death came to the world as well, just as God said it would. This of course was all because of Adam’s disobedience. God had set Himself up as the authority of all people, but Adam disobeyed this authority.

It is interesting to see that Adam is a counterpart, or type of Christ. As Adam is the father of all people, we will see that Christ is the head of the church. Adam is actually the only Old Testament character who is explicitly called a ‘type’ of Christ in the New Testament. This is because Christ will ultimately replace who Adam was to be for all people; the archetype of humanity. Because of his sin, Adam was not able to fulfill his calling of living out the full humanity that God designed. So Christ lives out this new humanity.

So, unfortunately, we share in the sin and death that was brought into the world by Adam. And because of this sin, there was need for more law. Thus we see the apostle Paul, talking here in Romans 5, about Moses, and the law of Moses. Sin came first, then the law. The law was to help govern us in right and wrong, since now we have knowledge of both good and evil.

And yet, this can be a little silly. Here are some laws you might not be aware of: Alabama…….• It is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.
• It is illegal to impersonate a person of the clergy.

Alaska……• Kangaroos are not allowed in barber shops at any time.

• While it is legal to shoot bears, waking a sleeping bear for the

purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited.

Arizona….• Glendale: Cars may not be driven in reverse.

California….• Downey: It is illegal to wash your car in the street. (Passed 1995).

• In Los Angeles courts it is illegal to cry on the witness stand.

b. The free gift- But Paul goes on to talk about a free gift that we can

receive. Romans 5:15 tells us, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the free gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” So we are subject to death because of the sin of Adam, but we receive grace from God. This grace is a gift that comes to us by Jesus Christ.

Now notice that it doesn’t say that the free gift is for all, but for the many. The trespass of Adam affects everyone of all humanity and for all time; but not the gift of Christ. We will talk in a minute what will determine who gets the gift and who doesn’t.

Paul denotes to us that what we received from Adam, was condemnation; judgment. What we receive from Christ is justification, or the reversal of judgment. Christ brings to us righteousness and life. So while our sin makes us unrighteous, Christ is able to impart to us His righteousness. This means that in Christ, when God the Father looks at us, we are seen as righteous. We are made right with God.

EX. Reality television is becoming more and more popular. And with these reality shows, shows that help people change their appearance are popular; shows like “The Biggest Loser,” and “Extreme Makeover.” In these shows, people have a major transformation of their appearance. And while having your physical appearance improve can be nice, what Paul is talking about here in Romans 5 is an improving of the inner appearance. Through Christ, we move from sinful to righteous.

c. Sin overcome- Paul then says in Romans 5:18, “Consequently, just

as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” In Christ, our sin is overcome, and thus we move from death to life. And just like the act of eating the fruit wasn’t an immediate act of death, so the act of receiving this gift of Christ is not immediate eternal life, but will be experienced fully when we physically die. This gift can be experienced now, by receiving the righteousness of Christ, but will be experienced fully when we go to heaven.

Also, this justification brings us into a right relationship with God, through Christ. We are no longer separated from God, and alone. We have access to the Father, through the Son. We have a relationship and partnership with God.

A couple of months ago, I received a series of verses (shaped like a bell) that describes this wonderful new relationship. Let me list for you the change it makes in our lives because we have had our sin overcome by Christ. I won’t mention all the scripture passages that go with who we are in Christ, but if you want to know, I can give you a copy of this later.

THE BELL- I KNOW WHO I AM. I am God's child (John 1:12) I am Christ's friend (John 15:15) I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17) I am bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20) I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1) I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8) I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14) I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) I am free forever from condemnation (Rom. 8: 1-2) I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20) I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34) I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor.5:17-21) I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18) I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 2:6) I cannot be separated from the love of God(Rom.8:35-39) I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 C or.1:21-22) I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28). I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16) I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13) I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5) I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10) I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1) I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10). I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil 1: 5) I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5) I belong to God. Do you know who you are!?

When we believe that Christ died for our sins (the dying of Christ of course is the culmination of Lent, on Easter Day), then we are part of “the many” who receive this free gift of grace. And part of this gift is that we can again be in relationship with others. Because of our sin, we so often are in conflict and at odds with others; we have trouble knowing how to be in relationship. With Christ in our lives, we learn how to love others, and forgive others, and overcome the conflict.

Conclusion: Adam wasn’t able to be obedient. And because of this, sin was passed on to all. It wasn’t until Christ came, and showed perfect obedience, which led to His dying on the cross, that we were made right again. Every day is a battle with your sinful nature. Those who have received Christ into their lives, can have victory in this battle. Those who haven’t received Christ, will fight a losing battle.

God did not create us to be alone. It is not good to be alone. God created us to be in relationship with others. But we won’t be able to do this well without the power and victory of Christ. Through Christ we can again have a wonderful relationship with God, and a wonderful relationship with other people. Through Christ, we can go through life with the joy that relationships bring. So I encourage you to use this Lenten season, to renew your relationship with God, through Christ, and let God bless your relationships. Amen.