Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and
to God:
Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the
mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Psalm of praise: 84:1, 2
Prayer
Psalm 19:7
Scripture reading: Genesis 2:15 – 3:14
Scripture
text: Genesis 2:15;
Catechism Lord’s Day 3
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for
it. (Genesis 2:15 NLT)
The Lord brought about the entire creation in a calculated and systematic way:
- From a formless mass cloaked in darkness He formed land and then He created light and
later also plants and animals.
- In such a way He built the earth and everything on and around it until it was perfect for
man to live and survive on it – and He called it the Garden of Eden!
- He created everything perfectly so that man could live there to serve Him without being
disturbed.
- When He had done all this, He started creating man. The Lord first created Adam and, last
of all – to crown his labours – He created the woman: Eve.
Today we consider the following:
1. Did the Lord really created us as perfect beings?
2. What did God expect of us?
3. Where is He taking me now?
1. Did the Lord really created us as perfect beings?
When the Lord created man He revealed that He could also create in another way.
- Up to this point in time everything was established at his command, exactly as He had
planned it to be.
- We don’t know anything about how He planned the creation of plants and animals.
- All we know is that every kind of plant and all the different animals came into being at
his command.
- Then God inspected everything and He saw that it was good.
But when He created man it was done differently. God had another way of creating:
- He did not merely speak; He created “with his hands” in a tender way.
- This was how He brought people into the world!
Here the Lord reveals something about his planning and consulting with Himself on how He
was going to create man and what they should be like!
Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They
will be masters over all life –the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the
livestock, wild animals, and small animals.” (Genesis 1:26 NLV)
This creature that God had in mind had to be of much higher status than the rest of creation.
The Lord reveals and confirms it when He spoke these remarkable words:
So God created people in his own image; God patterned the after himself;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27 NLV)
In the Name of God there were now rulers on earth – people who could live to all
eternity.
- Through the creation of man the creation receives its crown – the ruler in the Name of
God.
- Everything God created was focused on his rule over the creation through his
communication with man.
- We know this because before He created man God consulted with Himself and decided that
man would be created to rule over the creation.
- NB: The creation of man therefore adds meaning to the existence of the
creation, namely that it had to provide space for man to communicate with God and to live on
earth.
The question arises: When we look around we see very few people who are really honourable
in all ways. Why had so many people become so very bad?
- Did God then create people so evil? Was there some built-in mistake or defect that caused
us to become what we are today?
- The answer is very clear: Of course not.
-
- Because when God had created man He did not just say, as in the case of the rest of
creation, that it “was good”.
- God looked at the entire creation and said that it was “excellent”.
- God’s judging is perfect. He wouldn’t have made a single mistake. He also would not
tell a lie to cover up a weakness in his creation, because his perfection and holiness
would not allow Him to tell a lie.
- On completion of the creation of man the creation fully answered God’s purpose of it.
- There can be no doubt about it: God created man perfectly: When God describes
something as “excellent”, then it truly is beyond any form of imperfection.
What made us different from the rest of the creation?
- The fact that God created man to be good.
- And the fact that the Lord created us in his image.
- This means that He made us to have his own unique attributes:
-
- True knowledge,
- true righteousness, and
- true holiness.
- God specifically gave these to us so that we could:
-
- rightly know God our Creator,
- heartily love Him, and
- live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.
Man was therefore created in such a way that he could have perfect communion with
God.
- This is clear from the way in which God treats man and the creation of man – completely
different from the way He treats the rest of his creation.
- God calls on people and speak to them.
- The Lord also blessed the animals and told them to multiply, but take notice: God did not
bless them individually. He blessed them all together (Genesis 1:22).
- But when He blessed man it was different:
God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.” (Genesis 1:28 NLV)
In this blessing we note the personal relationship between God and man.
- Man does not have to share this blessing with anything or anyone else.
- The Lord gave them a personal task, namely to rule over the earth in his Name.
2. What did God expect of us?
What then did God expect of this perfectly created human being?
- The Lord expected him to respond to the work and the voice of God.
- Man should reflect God’s glory on earth.
-
- He should do it in such a way that it is clear that God rules him and that he openly
admits God’s rule over him.
- This is obedience.
Also, man should show his gratitude spontaneously.
- He should continuously praise God for his work and his goodness. This is also why man was
created to talk and animals were not created as such.
- Psalm 19 says the heavens tell of the glory of God’s craftsmanship. Man should do it so
much more. The Bible teaches us this sincere prayer through which we can praise God:
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O
Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14 NLT)
In the meantime something very bad happened in heaven. One of the supreme angels exceeded his
rights and rebelled against God. Ezekiel 28 refers to this event in his description of the king
of Tyre:
I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access
to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in all
you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. (Ezekiel
28:14-15 NLT)
This angelic guardian had received so much power from God that he decided to be a god himself
and wanted God to serve him! Then he rebelled against God. His name was then changed to
Satan.
He arrived in the Garden of Eden to make the people share his iniquity:
- He led them astray to break off their communion with God.
- He did not want man to recognise God’s dominion over them. Man had to reject obedience to
God. By doing that they would reach the status of godliness.
- In the process he suggested that God was dishonest:
“You won’t die,” the serpent hissed. “God knows that your eyes will be
opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and
evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5 NLT)
The fact that God told them that they would die for being disobedient was said to be a lie. And
afterwards we did receive the death sentence, which we had not believed would happen! Before
the Fall of man there was no suffering because of hard work and there was no death.
“All your life you will sweat to produce food, until your dying day. Then
you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to dust
you will return.” (Genesis 3:19 NLT)
In the Garden of Eden man became a fallen sinner and traitor who exchanged obedience to God for
obedience to the Satan.
- Since then He was no longer pleased with us and then declared us as children of Satan!
- This is clearly revealed in John 8:44:
For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the
evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth.
There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar
and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NLT)
Satan succeeded in making Adam and Eve becoming arrogant and rebellious.
- Arrogant because they learnt that they would become God’s equals. They would be gods
themselves and would therefore not have to worship God.
- This spirit of rebelliousness against God is clearly reflected in the different way in
which the woman looked at the fruit of the tree.
The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it
would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who
was with her. Then he ate it, too. (Genesis 3:6 NLT)
And then indeed their eyes were opened and they had knowledge!
- But their knowledge was a caricature of what Satan had promised them!
- They could see that they were naked! Nakedness suddenly led to evil thoughts that had not
existed before. Suddenly all was very wrong. This is the kind of knowledge they acquired!
They knew that they had brought absolute misery over themselves and that they had
estranged themselves from God. That’s why they hid themselves among the trees!
- They were afraid, because instead of having become like God, they realised that exactly
the opposite had happened.
- They suddenly became aware of their impotence. Through them all their descendants would
be conceived and born in sin! This is why people are what they are today!
It all became worse when God brought them to book: God also placed a curse on the entire
creation. Satan was so pleased about it all, because man and the creation have been suffering
ever since because of man’s irresponsibility:
And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit I
told you not to eat, I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you will struggle to
scratch a living from it. (Genesis 3:17 NLT)
3. Where is He taking me now?
God immediately shows mercy to those who know all this and realise it.
- When God placed a curse on the serpent, He also prophesied redemption for man.
- Even before God placed a curse on Adam and his wife The Lord said:
From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her
offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)
This is the very first promise of the coming of Christ.
- He would be born from the human race so that He would be a human being like the two
people who lost against Satan.
- However, there is a significant difference: The promised Christ would destroy and ruin
Satan completely. On this occasion, when Satan was to confront man for the second time, his
battle was over. He lost!
Therefore we live with hope in our hearts.
- It is true that man estranged himself from God, and that he is now only inclined to evil.
- But something far more important is also true! God did not create man in his image and at
the same time allowed that everything would be lost. Therefore it is said that redemption is
possible.
God the Father created man in accordance to his will. Regardless of the fall of man, God
the Father provided for redemption through the work of his Son (Ephesians 1:4).
- The Lord Jesus Christ, as the omnipotent God, became a human being. He effected our
redemption.
- He is God who became a human being and as a human being defeated Satan.
When the Lord Jesus Christ returned to heaven, He promised the faithful that He would send
another Counsellor for the time when He would preparing a place for us in heaven: He promised
the descent of the Holy Spirit.
- God the Holy Spirit is omnipresent on earth to guide us.
- As believers we are guided by the Holy Spirit to fight against Satan and to triumph over
him.
- By doing this we build God’s kingdom.
To change our lives – away from the devil (to defeat Satan!) – is what rebirth is all
about.
- God the Holy Spirit gives us the will and drive to defeat Satan.
- This is our hope for the present and the future.
- We can be reborn to a new life by the Spirit of God – a life in which we avoid sin and
pursue what’s good and glorify God with our whole life.
This is how God restore what we messed up. This is grace through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
- This has not been fully revealed in this life and it is not always very clear.
- But at the Second Coming all these promises will be fulfilled when we will become one
with God in his glory – as it was in the Garden Of Eden before the Fall of man.
But God’s counsel comprises grace and judgement.
- The Lord Jesus Christ will come to effect the separation mentioned in the Garden of Eden
(Genesis 3:15).
-
- For some the cross is redemption. These people know that He is the One from the
woman’s seed who crushed the serpent’s head.
- For the others it means judgement, because they want to be like God and submit
themselves to Satan against God.
We must answer to ourselves regarding our repentance and rebirth through Jesus
Christ:
- Does my life bear testimony to being irreproachable regarding my responsibilities towards
God – so much so that I have a personal relationship with God?
- Is my entire life focused on love for God, or do I continuously reject the grace of God
and am I the proud ruler of my own little world?
Dearly beloved, we must submit ourselves to the Spirit of God.
- We must repent and turn away from evil every day.
- We must listen to God’s commandments and obey them, because the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled them in the most glorious way.
There are only two options:
- Either reject Christ, and be destroyed together with Satan, because Christ had already
realised it through his godly omnipotence.
- Or serve Him en be saved through his omnipotence.
Let us read what the Heidelberg Catechism says about it:
6. Q. Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
A. No, on the contrary, God created man good[1] and in His image,[2]
that is, in true righteousness and holiness,[3] so that he might rightly know God His
Creator,[4] heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify
Him.[5]
[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 1:26, 27. [3] Eph. 4:24. [4] Col. 3:10. [5] Ps.
8.
7. Q. From where, then, did man's depraved nature come?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve,
in Paradise,[1] for there our nature became so corrupt[2] that we are all conceived and born in
sin.[3]
[1] Gen. 3. [2] Rom. 5:12, 18, 19. [3] Ps. 51:5.
8. Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and
inclined to all evil?
A. Yes,[1] unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Is. 53:6. [2] John 3:3-5.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 32:1
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
Amen.
Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
Date: 24 July 2005 (evening)