Genesis 3

The third evidence of his shed blood was the crown of thorns, which was symbolic for two reasons.

It spoke of the curse put upon man as revealed in Genesis 3, 17-18. where God cursed the ground that had once flourished with his divine presence overshadowing it.

By wearing this crown meant as mockery, it was in reality his crown of suffering, as revealed in chapter 53 of Isaiah.

and where he became a curse for us, as confirmed in Galatians 3.13, in glorious restoration power, and also as an allusion to the future crown that he would wear in glorious victory as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

That's a perfect way of looking at that.

You know, Christians have struggled down through the ages to understand Genesis to Revelation, right? And the big picture, the big flow of biblical history has been summarized in creation, fall, the promise, I always throw in promise, and then fulfillment, and then the future consummation.

So that's kind of the the big picture, the overview of Genesis to Revelation.

And that's what's going on in the Bible.

And yet the question arises, how is all of God's will actually accomplished on the planet? And how does he do that? Well, he does it by establishing relationships with us.

Covenant.

Old and New Covenants.

So when we think of the covenant of works, you really don't even see the covenantal language in Genesis, early Genesis.

Their heart was not in the right place when they were coming to worship.

And some of this, believe it or not, goes all the way back to Genesis 3 in the fall.

You don't have to go over there, but I'll just go over there myself and read that to you so you don't have to go over there.

But Genesis 3, 16, I'm just reminded.

It says the curse that God placed after the fall to the woman.

He said, I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth in pain.

Our wives want to rule over us and we want to rule over them.

So there is this strife between the husband and the wife and who's in authority.

And I don't think that's necessarily helpful, but When you doubt, it's this raw material and you get to choose how you respond.

I think a powerful example of that is like the first time we see sin enter the world in Genesis 3, there's a doubt that's put in humanity's mind by the enemy.

And that doubt is like, does God really care for you? Does God really want the best for you? And humanity chooses to respond to this doubt.

not by seeking relationship, not by going back to God, but by trying to take for themselves, by trying to prove for themselves that they know best, that they know best.

So it's like,

oh, I wonder, maybe that's what you're doing, you know? And not out of a place of trying to figure it out, but again, like going back to relationship with him.

So usually it's just, it's a process of asking questions, of inviting God into those questions and not... not looking for that certainty outside of Him that we see in Genesis 3, but really, it's like, I believe you're doing something.

I do believe.

And someone is told to do something with this specifically.

We go back to Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, you have Adam and Eve who have a tree and have food and are told to do something specifically.

And what we're going to see is that Adam and Isaac are going to undo this.

or point to the undoing of some of the things that she did in Genesis 3.

Father and Son together see a hill and they go up that hill together.

Verse eight, Isaac turns and says, where is the offering? Our translation said the Lord will provide the lamb.

Let's do one more word study.

I remember my theology lecturer, who's also Jack's... uncle-in-law, great-uncle-in-law, Ross Clifford, who was the former principal of Moreland College.

I remember him teaching on a couple of things that sin does in Genesis 3.

The first thing that sin does in the story of Adam and Eve and the snake is it ruptures the relationship between God and humanity, this vertical rupture, estrangement of relationship.

You see that in Genesis 3, God's walking through the garden saying, where are you and where are Adam and Eve? Hiding.

There is a rupture of vertical relationship.

But the second thing that sin does is it ruptures horizontal relationship between human beings.

So God was looking at a world ordered by his presence, the goodness between God and his creation held together by his goodness, the goodness of his creation and alive with his intention, submitted to his will.

But then in Genesis 3 and Genesis 4, something breaks.

We see a separation.

We see blame.

So logically, you should be asking right now, what is the lie? Paul mentions it a few times.

To find the answer, we just need to go back in our Bibles to Genesis 3, where we watch this lie take its grip in real time.

In the encounter with Adam and Eve, specifically with Eve, notice that the serpent doesn't tell Eve, Eve, I want you to go sin now.

I want you to disobey God.