June 9, 2024 – Genesis 3:1–15

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​Hope Lutheran Church
Manhattan, Kansas
June 9, 2024
Genesis 3:1–15

What would it be like if no one ever got sick or old? Can you imagine a place where there’s never disagreements and fights between family members? No fighting or war. You always have everything you need. There’s nothing in your life to make you feel anxious or nervous or stressed. Imagine a place with none of those things that make life so difficult for us.
It’s almost impossible for us to really imagine a place like that, isn’t it? Because our lives are so full of those things. They’re all we’ve ever known.
But when we open God’s Word to the very beginning, that’s the kind of place we see God made. God created a perfect world and he’d put mankind at the center of it all, the crown of his creation. And when God made it that way, it was supposed to stay that way.
In the Garden of Eden, where God placed Adam and Eve after he created them, he gave them a pretty simple command that followed a basic formula. He told them they could eat from any tree they wanted to in that entire garden, except for one – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them that if they followed his command and did not sin, then they would live forever. If they disobeyed God’s command, then they would die.
You and I, maybe we hear that or we read that and we wonder why God put that tree there at all. Why would God plant a tree that ultimately led to Adam and Eve sinning? 
Well, that tree there in the garden was the way Adam and Eve could worship and praise God. By not eating from the tree, Adam and Eve were proclaiming the faith they had that everything God had given to them, even the one rule he gave, was good and perfect.
But, as so often is the case, the devil took something good and twisted it to fit his own evil plans and purposes. And here in Genesis 3, we’re going to see two things today. First, we’re going to get a clear look at sin and how it works. And along with that, the tactics the devil uses to lead us to sin.
And then – as we continue this series of sermons titled “Unbelievable” – we also get the chance to see how God deals with sin. Because after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God made a promise to save us and all mankind from sin. Here we see God make his very first unbelievable promise to all mankind that he would send a Son to crush the devil. A promise that in the end, Jesus always wins.
The account of the Fall into Sin starts like this: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman…” Let’s stop right there. You and I know that serpents don’t talk. Eve knew that too. This should have been Eve’s first clue that this wasn’t just a normal serpent. This was something else. But Eve didn’t walk away. Instead, she stayed there and listened to what the serpent said.
Doesn’t the same thing happen to us? I mean, has it ever happened to you, when there was something in front of you that really you knew was wrong, but you stuck around anyway just to get a closer look? To see what it might have to offer? All the while telling yourself that if things would start to get too out of hand, you’d walk away.
If you’re like me, you know how it goes. One thing leads to another and before you know it, you’re in the middle of a sin you never planned on getting into in the first place. That’s what happened to Eve, and listen to what the devil did next.
“He (the devil in the form of a serpent) said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Did God really say? What was the devil doing with that question? Well, he was trying to make it seem like God had given Adam and Eve a command that wasn’t good for them. He wanted them to question God and his goodness.
We’re familiar with that trick from the devil too, aren’t we? Did God really say there are some things only meant for marriage? Did God really say the government is his servant given for our good? Did God really say it’s good for you to look to the needs of others before looking to your own needs? Did God really say… yeah, we’re familiar with that temptation from the devil.
But here’s the thing – when God gives us commands to live by, they’re always for our good. I think of it like the rules parents make for their children. You don’t tell your child not to touch the hot stove because you’re trying to keep something good from them. You’re telling them what to do (or what not do) because you love them and know what’s best for them. It’s the same with God. When he tells us to do or not to do something, it’s always for our benefit.
Now, Eve does pretty well with that first temptation from the devil. She answered “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’”
At this point, the devil realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with Eve so he changed his tactics. First, he came with a flat-out lie. He said, “You will not certainly die.” The exact opposite of what God had said when he gave that command to Adam and Eve. And then the devil builds on that. He said, “God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The devil wanted Eve to think that God was holding out on them and keeping something from them. And notice that what the devil said wasn’t completely wrong. He told them a half-truth. Adam and Eve would have their eyes open and they would know good and evil.
But the devil led them to falsely believe that it would be to their advantage to do this, to know good and evil. But if you think about it, if you only knew things that were good, things that were perfect, and that’s the way everything else around you was too, what possible benefit would it be for you to know evil?
That’s what sin and the devil do. They come with half-truths and empty promises. But the thing about sin is it can never deliver on what it promises. The devil and our sin want to tell us that we can find fulfillment and meaning in our lives apart from God and his Word.
They tell us that if we just do what we want, then we’ll be happy. But sin can never give the fulfillment to us that we think it can. Sure, it might give us some sort of momentary satisfaction or pleasure, but it doesn’t last. It doesn’t give any real meaning or purpose.
Eve listened to that half-truth, that empty promise the devil made to her. And she took some of the fruit that was on the tree and ate it. And in the meantime, Adam was off somewhere else and just happened to be the victim in this whole situation, right?
Maybe that’s how a lot of us learned it back when we first were taught about this story in grade school or Sunday school. But what does God’s Word say? It says that’s not what happened at all. God’s Word tells us that Adam was right there with his wife, Eve.
Adam had failed to be the leader of his family God had called him to be. He could have told Eve that what they were doing wasn’t right. He could have decided he and Eve were going to walk away when the serpent started speaking. But he didn’t.
And so both Adam and Eve ate that fruit and with it, sin came into the world. And it didn’t stop with them. Every person who’s ever come after Adam and Eve, you and me, every person since that day has come into this world as sinners. Sinners who fail over and over again to keep God’s laws and his commands.
What’s amazing – what’s unbelievable – is that God didn’t hit the reset button right then and there when Adam and Eve committed that first sin. What’s unbelievable is that instead of coming to wipe them out, God came to them with a promise of grace. A promise that he would do what they couldn’t. A promise to crush the devil.
Listen to God’s promise: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” That verse, Genesis 3:15, this promise from God, is the very first gospel promise God made to mankind. And God saw that promise through when his Son stepped onto the scene.
When Jesus was born, God came into the world to do what we couldn’t. Jesus lived in our place. Every time the devil came to Jesus with a lie or half-truth or deception or empty promise, Jesus stood against those temptations perfectly.
And then Jesus took it a step further. He let the sin of the world be placed on himself. And on the cross Jesus died to be the sacrifice for sin that we needed. He died for what we could never do. And for three days it might have looked like the devil won.
But all he had done was strike Jesus’ heel. Because three days later, Jesus walked out of the grave to prove to you, me, and all the world God had made good on his promise. Jesus had done everything to make sure that you and I can have peace with God.
He did it all so you and I could know that the devil has been crushed. He did it so you can know that someday all the hard things of life will pass away and eternal life will take their place. He did it to show you that Jesus always wins. That’s God’s unbelievable – yet completely true – promise for you today. Amen.