Christmas in Genesis (Part 1 of 6)

When we think about the story of Christmas and its meaning, we don't often turn to the opening pages of the Old Testament. But today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg takes us to the Garden of Eden, to Adam and Eve's rebellion, to point us to the hope of Christmas.

We begin a new series today in Genesis chapter 3. All of us, I'm sure, have heard of celebrating Christmas in July. But we may never have given any thought to discovering Christmas in Genesis.

And what I want to do is just that. Look into the book of Genesis in order that we might see Christmas—strictly speaking, in order that we might see Jesus. And since Jesus is the center of Christmas, then that is our desire. And my text this morning, which is the fifteenth verse of this chapter, is a text which provides us with the first glimmer of the gospel.

In the movie and in the soundtrack of The Sound of Music, they sing at one point, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. And when we think in terms of the gospel, the story of all that God has done in and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find ourselves beginning right here—a hint of a coming Redeemer, the one who is the seed of the woman. Now, in doing this—and by necessity, our study this morning will have to be selective rather than exhaustive, and some of you will be disappointed by parts that are left aside.

I do that for you so that you can do work on your own. But as we come to it, it's helpful to remind ourselves of what we've said. And that is that it is good to think of the Bible actually as a two-act play. If you only come in for the second half of the play, then you've no idea who the characters are, because you were not present for the beginning.

If you leave at half-time, then you've no idea how it ends. And so, it's very, very important that when we do a study like this, and especially when we come to it, as it were, out of the blue, when we look at chapters at the beginning of the book, as we now do, we should keep in mind what we're told towards the back of the book. And that is why, earlier in the service, Mac read for us from 1 John 3. And in that section, the words, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Now, you may not have put that as a verse on your Christmas card, but you might legitimately do so, because this is a straightforward and vital emphasis of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is this aspect of it that is addressed here in this fifteenth verse of Genesis chapter 3. So, let us consider three things. First of all, the context in which we discover the record of the entry of sin into the world.

Because that is what we discover. The record of the entry of sin into the world. The context. Secondly, the consequences of the entry of sin into the world. And then, finally, the cure for the entry of sin into the world.

So, three Cs. First of all, then, the context. What are we dealing with when we read these opening chapters of Genesis? We're dealing with a historical event—a historical event that determined the eternal destiny of mankind. Now, that's quite a statement, isn't it?

You say, Why? I never really considered it in that way. In fact, you may even have said, When I was at school, they told me that it was just a big mythology, and that these opening chapters were just a concept, but that they had no basis in time and in history.

Well, no. In actual fact, this is a historical event. God has created the world. Before there was time, before there was anything, there was God. God made the world, he made it for his glory, and he made it to help us to know him, to love him, and to trust him. So, if you find yourself saying, Why do we even have a world?

Why do we have a universe? What is all that we have before us? Well, the answer that the Bible gives is that God made it to manifest his own glory in order that we then might know him, might learn to love him, and to trust him. And so, when you read the opening sections, you realize that he lit up the darkness, that he filled up the emptiness, and that he put within the context of the origins of things all that was beautiful and delightful and attractive and enjoyable. And he made Adam and Eve as his, if you like, special editions—the way in which they were fashioned was different from all that would follow in terms of creation.

You can read of that in chapter 2. First of all, in making Adam out of the dust of the earth, and then of forming Eve using a rib from Adam himself. They were created by him, they communed with him, and they were perfect for each other—absolutely perfect for one another, in the way in which you're tempted to tell your spouse that he is just perfect for you.

And then you confess your sins for telling lies and acknowledging that things are not just as perfect as you had hoped. Now, God gave them everything to enjoy, everything richly to enjoy, and into the midst of all of that, he gave them one simple test—one little test. It was a test of their trust in him and of their obedience to him.

And the question was essentially this. Would they believe God's Word? Would they trust God's plan? Now, in saying that, let me give to you a phrase that I culled from my reading this week, that this is a story which catches us up into itself.

And the reason that the writer gives it to us is because this is essentially what happens. Even just in rehearsing, for example, the test that is given to Adam and to Eve, we realize that that is the test that is given to us—that there is a foundational question that confronts each one of us this morning along the very same lines. Will I believe God's Word? Am I prepared to trust God's plan?

Or will I believe whatever I want to believe and do whatever I choose? The choice as rational beings is granted to them in this setting. And we immediately find that this, then, gives them an opportunity to show God that they would obey him for one reason and for one reason only—not because it seemed like a really good idea but because he is God. He is God. We are accountable to God.

He has designs and plans, and we must do as he says. Now, it is in that context that the serpent—in all of that goodness—the serpent appears. The serpent is real but not ordinary. Again, at the front of the book, remember that much that is sketchy to us here is clarified as you go further back in the book. So by the time you get to the end of the book—so we go from Genesis all the way to Revelation—and we meet this same character again, now a great dragon that quotes ancient serpent—this is Revelation 12—that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

Okay? So that's what we're dealing with here. When we're confronted with evil in the world, we're not dealing with an abstract principle. The Bible does not allow us that option—the idea that somehow or another there are bad things, we don't really know why there are bad things, whatever it might be. But the Bible says, no, we're actually dealing with a malignant personal intelligence.

That is, if you like, represented in this creature, is essentially in this creature, that is, behind this creature. And the strategy of the creature, the deliberate objective of the evil one, is to hinder and, if possible, to destroy the work of God's kingdom by every means possible, so that God has fashioned his world in all of its beauty. He has made it, and it is absolutely perfect. It is good.

He pronounces it all good. And then, slithering into this garden, comes this serpent. Now, the origin of evil is not our concern this morning, mercifully.

Because the actual origin of evil is lost, is buried, if you like, in the mystery of God himself. What we know, we can know. What we don't know, we can leave alone. But we learn now from the dialogue that follows. And again, I have to be selective. Notice that the serpent comes to the woman and begins a dialogue.

I have a question for you. Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any of the trees in the garden? Well, of course, no, he didn't say that. But he did say, You will certainly die. And the woman then responds in verse 2, Well, we may eat of the trees in the garden, 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.

Well, I say he didn't say that. So now she's actually made the prohibition stronger than the actual prohibition. God said, You mustn't eat of it.

And she now, for whatever reason, takes it up a notch. But the serpent then replies to her, said, Well, I can tell you categorically that you will not surely die. Now, let's just pause here for a moment and say, what are we actually dealing with in this dialogue? What is the serpent seeking to do? He's seeking to tempt the woman to distrust God, to say, Well, God doesn't really know what he's doing, to doubt the word that God has spoken, and to question the goodness of God.

Now, just think about that in contemporary terms. If you hear a voice in your head, as it were—I don't mean in an alarming way, but as I or my colleagues may speak concerning these things, depending on where you are on the great continuum of the journey from unbelief to belief, you may find that immediately bells are going in your head, saying, Well, that can't possibly be right. And the temptation that comes is for you to distrust God, who made you, who gave you the mind to reason with, to doubt his word, and at the same time to question his goodness.

You may find yourself saying, Well, why would it be necessary to obey such an arbitrary and unreasonable prohibition? You see, the inference on the part of the serpent is this. God is actually depriving you of what would make life really fabulous.

If you are going to be really happy and fulfilled, that happiness and that fulfillment is not going to be found within the boundaries that are now established by God, who has made you for himself. And the appeal, you will notice, is to the woman's sight. It is an appeal to her intellect.

God knows when you eat it, but your eyes will be opened. Verse 6, and so the woman saw that the tree was good for food. In other words, her eyes were bigger than her ears. God had spoken, she heard that, but now her eyes see that. It made an appeal to her senses, if you like. It was aesthetically good, and it was desired to make you wise. So it appealed to her intellect. It appealed to her emotions. It appealed to her design and desire for things to be the way she would like them to be.

In short order, the lie of the serpent was far more appealing than the word of God. And so she ate. She ate. And Adam ate too. She gave some to her husband. You will notice who was with her in verse 6.

He was right there. So she eats as a result of the temptation, and Adam eats because he lets his wife lead him. She was tempted to do it, and he just chose to disobey God's clear command, and he was helped in doing so by the lie that there would be no consequences.

No consequences. The lie of the devil is always the same. I can make it possible for you to push beyond the boundaries of God's beautiful plan, and I'll make sure that you're not gonna have to deal with anything. And so Eve listens to the serpent, Adam listens to Eve, and nobody listens to God. Now, we have to leave that there and go, secondly, then, to the consequences of the entry of sin into the world. The serpent's promise about their eyes being opened was only half right, because their eyes were open but not to the delights of being like God, which he had said to them would be the case in verse 5. Not to the delights of being like God, but their eyes are now open to an awareness of their guilt and of their shame.

You see what has happened? All of a sudden, they see themselves in an entirely different light. Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

Well, what does that mean? Of course they knew they were naked. They didn't just become naked. They were naked before.

What is the significance of it? It is that sin changes everything. They were now exposed. Their nakedness was simply a symbol, if you like, of their predicament before God. It was an awareness of their consciousness of guilt.

They had sinned in rejecting and disobeying the will of God by doing what he had told them explicitly not to do. And so what do they do? They do what you and I do. You do what a child does. He runs and hides. I stall it. I shouldn't have done it. There's gotta be somewhere in the basement I can hide. At least until I finish eating it.

And once I get rid of the evidence, then I can reappear, and all will be well. But it's never well. Because when you lie on your bed, you know, I shouldn't have done that.

That was wrong. I lie in my bed tonight before a God, before whom my tiny heart is open and from whom no secrets are ever hidden. That's the issue of it, you see. Because now, with the entry of sin into the equation, all of that perfection, all of that goodness, is now impinged upon by the categorical rejection of God's clear instruction, by their decision, their own choice to do it their own way. Into hiding they go, sowing fig leaves together, making loincloths for themselves. It's no surprise that this has been a focus of fun throughout all the years—fig leaves and so on. Because it is such a picture of patheticness, isn't it?

It is so unbelievable. You think you can cover it up with a fig leaf, for goodness' sake, as if that is the issue. That's not the issue. Your nakedness is a symbol of your guilt.

It's not that you don't have your clothes on. The fact of the matter is, it's a cover-up, they're hiding behind trees, and they've decided that with the communion broken and with them alienated, they really have got no place to go. What has happened here—again, go to the back of the Bible, Romans chapter 1—they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. That's what they've done.

That's exactly what they've done. God's truth exchanged for a lie of the devil. And they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God. In other words, all of the transcendent beauty and holiness and loveliness that is represented in God's creative handiwork in the garden and in their lives has now been besmirched. It has now been soiled.

It has now been depleted. The tragedy of man is not simply that we break the law of God, but that we are now spoiled from all that God created us in the first instance to be. C. S. Lewis says, and in our attempts to fix that, he says, you know, we're like children making mud pies in a puddle at the side of the street when the Creator has prepared for us a beautiful vacation at the ocean. And we try and fix our perilous condition by our own endeavors. They chose to bow to things that God had made than to bow to God himself.

Beauty and intimacy are replaced with brokenness and isolation. And they are about to be banished. Before they're banished, God comes to seek them out. Quite wonderful, isn't it, in verse 8?

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the cool of the day, and the man and his wife, they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Why did you go ahead and do that? You had communion with God.

What has changed? Why can't you just walk out and talk to God? Well, we don't want to talk to God. I mean, he might talk to us.

And if he talks to us, he might talk to us about stuff. Like, this is one of the reasons people don't come to church—at least not to a church where the gospel is preached. Because God will speak to you about stuff—stuff you don't want talked about. But he doesn't do it out of an act of judgment. He does it out of grace and mercy. He exposes it in order that he might cover it.

He reveals it in order that he might forgive it. Understanding that God speaks to us out of grace and mercy. That's a great perspective from today's message on Christmas in Genesis on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. While this message is fresh on our hearts and minds, Alistair is here to briefly share why this storyline from Scripture is so crucial to us at Truth for Life.

Well, here we are looking all the way back to the beginning—to the book of Genesis—in order that we might more fully understand Christmas and the plan of God for salvation through Jesus. It is the remarkable storyline of the Bible that God gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Of course, as listeners to Truth for Life, you know that this is our message. We share it all day every day on the program.

We've become accustomed to saying you really only have one string to our bowl, and that's in order to teach the Bible so that the Word of God will do the work of God. All of this, of course, happens by way of God's goodness and through your generous partnership. And Truth for Life is 100% listener funded. Your giving enables us to do all that we do. So as we count down to these final days of the year, I wonder, will you be prepared to make a needed year-end donation? Your giving will go directly to covering our year-end expenses so that we can continue our programming into 2021. Thank you in anticipation.

Thank you, Alistair. And your giving enables us to do all that we do. To ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues on into 2021, you can donate online now at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call 888-588-7884. And keep in mind, when you give, we want to invite you to request a book titled Exploring the Bible Together. This is a 52-week family devotional that will provide you and your children with foundational faith-building material throughout the year. Request your copy of Exploring the Bible Together when you give by tapping on the image you see on the mobile app or by visiting truthforlife.org. You can also call us to make a donation. Call 888-588-7884.

I'm Bob Lapine. Tonight, join Alistair Begg as he hosts an online concert titled A Parkside Christmas. It begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Go to truthforlife.org slash live, or you'll find it on our YouTube or Facebook channels. Again, to find out more, go to truthforlife.org slash concert. And if you're looking for a way to supplement your local church's teaching this weekend, remember Alistair Begg's preaching at Parkside Church is streamed live most weekends. To check this weekend's schedule, go to truthforlife.org slash live. Be sure to listen again Monday, as we'll continue studying The Promised Hope of the Messiah in a new series titled Christmas in the Beginning. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.