Kanakuk Institute Podcast

The Fall and the Gospel

July 25, 2022 Kanakuk Institute Season 1 Episode 31
Kanakuk Institute Podcast
The Fall and the Gospel
Show Notes Transcript

Chad and Keith discuss several pictures of the gospel present in the Genesis 3 account of the fall of Man.

Intro (Keith): Welcome to the Kanakuk Institute Podcast, where we continue to equip leaders with biblical skills for a lifetime of ministry.

 

Chad (00:13): And welcome back into the Kanakuk Institute Podcast. Chad Hampsch and Keith Chancey with you today, and we are really excited, we are jumping into a series where we’re looking at the amazing, fun Old Testament stories that so many of us grew up knowing as kids, but we often miss what’s actually happening.  And so, we’re looking at how God has woven these stories into the Old Testament, so that they would actually point to Jesus. And that we might understand more fully what God is planning. And so, this really came out of conversations we were having at camp with counselors and campers, and just such a misunderstanding of the Old and New Testament and how they work together. So, if you were with us last time, we covered the fall of man and how God had given one instruction to man, and that that instruction didn’t pass from Adam to Eve, and when Satan tempted Eve, they fell. And Adam in his passivity didn’t respond, didn’t step up, didn’t lead, wasn’t’ in a place to do that. And so, we left you with a cliff hanger, and now we come to the rest of the story, because, the amazing thing of this story, Keith, is that, that God planted a little seed that would change the lives of all of us. So, explain what’s going on here.

 

Keith (01:34): Well, you know, Chad, it’s so good because, you know, when you look in Genesis 3, you see this story of Satan has tempted mankind, and they have failed, so Eve knew what Adam had told her, but she doesn’t really listen, and now, when Satan says, you know, what he says, and helping her when he says, “Indeed has God said, ‘You shall not eat from the fruit of the tree of the garden?’ And the woman says, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the fruit, God has said, ‘You shall not eat or touch it, your you will die.’” She just begins to add to it doesn’t she?

 

Chad (02:16): Don’t we all do that?

 

Keith (02:17): I don’t know about all that. But then you look at it, and the serpent says, you know, to the woman, “You surely won’t die. For in the day that you eat from it, your eyes will be opened.” I really like how that says your eyes will be opened. What she doesn’t realize is that her eyes will really be open to sin.

 

Chad (02:35): Right, that’s not necessarily a good thing.

 

Keith (02:37): That’s not a good thing. She’s thinking eyes be opened to enlightenment of wisdom, of truth, and she’s going to be smarter, and there’s going to be more things available for them. But what she does is that, so in verse 6 it says, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was more desirable to make one wise, she took from the fruit, and she ate it, and she gave it to her husband, and then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they were naked and afraid.”

 

Chad (03:13): Yeah, and it immediately makes me think of 1 John talking about lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, right? Here we see it in Genesis 3, we see Jesus tempted in the exact same way in Matthew 4. You know, Hebrews talks about how Jesus was tempted in all ways as a man, and I think we often think about that like, “Was he really?” I mean, he was God, was he really? And that connection between Genesis 3 and Matthew 4 really helps us understand, like, Jesus knows exactly what we’re going through. He experienced those things in real flesh. And so, Adam and eve kind of give us an understanding of what our temptation is going to look like. Keith, as you’re talking with staff and campers all summer long, what are you seeing the biggest struggle for kids being in the idea of temptation?

 

Keith (04:03): Well, you know, so good that you ask that, because, you know, John 8:44 just tells us what Satan is, he’s the father of lies. And the question that we always ask is, “What’s the lie that you believe?” And all of us have a lie that we believe, and that’s why we struggle with our convictions, because if I really do understand what God’s word says, it is my conviction, and I want to go against it. But as long as I don’t really want to address it, it is only an opinion. And so therefore, I don’t’ feel as bad when I do it. And so, these, you know, whether it be staff, old, young, whatever, their struggle is that there’s not a great fear of God, there’s not really an understanding that, “Oh this is just a little thing, I’m just kind of missing the mark just by ever so slightly.” But in James 2 it tells us that all sins are equal, that there’s no sin greater than another according to God. Now, you do get greater consequences if you murder somebody you will go to prison, most likely for a long time, but if you tell a white lie there may not be any consequences, but still to God that is still a lie, and the lie that I believe is my sin is less than another one’s sin. And so, therefore, I’m ok. And so I judge my, I probably, I look at myself and I compare myself to someone else’s sin. And when I do that, that’s a trap, because see, the devil wins. Because all he does is just ever so slightly change the truth, bend it just like Eve, and the next thing you know, she’s giving up everything in just the power of choice. God gave mankind a choice, they blew it. Separated everybody forever. Oh wow.

 

Chad (05:49): Yeah, and you mentioned the comparison game. The reality is, we can, I can always go, “Well there’s Adolf Hitler.” You know, like I’m doing ok. So the comparison game, like, we will never find the gospel by comparing ourselves to our neighbor. When we compare ourselves to the person of Christ, we will always come up short, which, again, shows our need for the gospel. Just so, I think a word of warning for all of us that are listening, like, the comparison game is a two way street that is really, really ugly, and will never lead us to truth, never intimacy with Christ in the way he intended.

 

Keith (06:28): And Chad, you know something there that I always am convicted. I try to memorize scripture. I try to pray. And I try to really be that good of a person. But the problem is when I’m trying to do something out of just doing it for doing it’s sake, it’s not what’s in my heart. And I think that what happens, and I think it’s important for us to address this early in Genesis, what we’re looking at, is that we can be very guilty of making people believe conventionally that they if they don’t do these things, they’re not saved. And so, salvation is not me doing something, or changing my lifestyle before I understand salvation, but salvation is me believing what Jesus did, and because of what he did, I want to serve him, rather than me having to serve him, and that’s a big deal.

 

Chad (07:18): Yeah, it’s almost like the cult of self-improvement, right? Like, do these things, clean yourself up. And again, we don’t find the gospel there. We find trying to be a better person, and that’s a deviation from what God is laying out here, so, like you said, there’s a plan here laid for God’s plan of salvation. Walk us through where the text leads us.

 

Keith (07:39): When Satan gets Adam and Eve to eat from that fruit, he says to them, “Who told you that you were naked?” Well they clothe themselves and they do what they do, and now, the man says to the woman, “It’s the woman that you gave to me, that’s why I’m making this choice.”

 

Chad (07:57): Blame game.

 

Keith (07:58): Yeah, I’m blaming her, she did it. And, we ate and the Lord then said to the woman, “What is that you have done?” And the woman says, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.” So you see the blame game is nothing new. We all love to feel better about ourselves, because if we can make it seem like Chad did something wrong, someone else did something wrong, my wife did something wrong, I feel better about myself, and it eliminates my responsibility to have to assume personal responsibility. 

 

Chad (08:28): Which, really, we’re deceiving ourselves right?

 

Keith (08:29): Absolutely, Yeah.

 

Chad (08:30): Because we lose.

 

Keith (08:32): Well, and you know this, I’ve never won an argument in my family where it really made me, where things went well for me. You know? You win the battle but you lose the war, right? And my wife does not want me to win, she wants me to say, “Sweetie, I’m sorry.” And you know I think there’s a great understanding here, that in my life, the greatest thing I can do, right here, just of what I’ve read so far, is to learn to say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” And you don’t’ see it here. All you see is the blame, and you see the justification, the rationalization, and put the blame on the wife, or the devil, or anyone else other than myself. And so now, look what he says, very next, he says, “And the Lord says to the serpent.” And I want you guys to understand, if you have your bibles out right now, I’d love for you to mark with a little pitchfork everything that has to do with Satan, because it would be really good just to kind of go, “Look what all is said here,” because God is speaking specifically to Satan, he says, “Cursed are you Satan, more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field, on your, Satan, belly, you, Satan, will go, and dust you, Satan, will eat all the days of your life, and I, God, will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman. And between your seed, Satan, and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heal.” Now Chad, I’m going to stop right there because I think there’s something really big here. You know, that there is a cursing that’s going on. And it’s Satan that’s being cursed. He has not, he has twisted the truth, he’s lied. Now mankind believes the lie, the lie that they believe has now separated them from God, and he says, “Satan, you are going to go on your belly. And the dust you’re going to eat all the days of your life. And I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.” Now, that word right there, between your seed, Satan, and her seed. Now, this is critical, because her seed is somehow a woman one day is going to be impregnated by something other than a man. It’s going to be a pregnancy that is the Holy Spirit divine and a woman that’s going to be a virgin is going to bear a son, and his name is going to be Jesus, and I’m going to tell you something right now, I am jumping up and down in my chair because you know, so often, we know what John 3:16 says, “For God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” Right now, this is the gospel of the Old Testament. This story right now is of her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heal. Satan is going to bruise Jesus on the heal, and that’s going to be the cross. He thinks he wins. But Jesus is going to crush the head of Satan because of the resurrection. This is the gospel. He does go to the cross. But he raises from the cross. And I can’t imagine what that looked like when Satan saw Jesus on the cross. He’s over there doing his little dance of celebration, “Celebrate good times, Come on.” And then all of a sudden, Uh Oh, three days later, he rises from the grave.

 

Chad (12:02): Defeats sin, defeats death. Game over. Slam dunk.

 

Keith (12:06): Bad day. Crushed head. Bruised heel. Jesus is the truth, the life, the only way to salvation. And here it is, Old Testament, how are Old Testament saints saved? Through whom?

 

Chad (12:22): Jesus

 

Keith (12:23): There you go. That’s a wow.

 

Chad (12:25): Absolutely, and what I love too, Keith, is that the disciples actually help us know how to interpret this. So, Galatians 3, if you’re at home, clearly helps us understand that the seed was Jesus, that the promised seed was Jesus, and so, if you’re wondering all the connections, there are lots of ways we can cross reference to make those connections, but check out Galatians 3. That would be really, really helpful. There’s one other shadow, Keith, in this story, one of my favorites of all the Bible. And, you mentioned, you know, that immediately, they eat of the fruit, they’re naked, and they’re shamed like so many of us when we fall into sin. There’s just this shame cycle, we feel dirty, broken

 

Keith (13:09): And what would you be doing right at that moment?

 

Chad (13:11): Yeah, trying to find a way to cover it up. And that’s what Adam and Eve do. They go, “Oh, you know what? We’re, let’s cover our shame.” And so they come up with an idea. They take the leaves, they cover the shame, feel better about myself, right? Self-improvement, and God says, “Uh uh” Not going to work. So what’s he do? Kills an innocent animal, and the skin, the blood of an innocent animal, probably a lamb. The shadow of the one to come, the seed that would take away the sin of mankind, and so, God takes away their clothes, their idea of self-righteousness, and he says, I’m going to clothe you with my sacrifice. Think about how many times in the New Testament, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Clothe yourselves in such a manner worthy of the Gospel.” Right? Like over and over again. So, Keith, that’s, we see the upper story, help us understand lower story. You hit on salvation, what else do we walk away with?

 

Keith (14:05): Well, you know, I love, you know, when you think about them putting on those fig leaves, or whatever they put on. I hope it was poison ivy. You know? Because that would have caught my attention a whole lot more, you know what I’m saying? And you’re just going, because you’re trying to cover yourself from God. And we do it every day.

 

Chad (14:25): Yeah, they hid in the garden.

 

Keith (14:27): We hide, we don’t want our sin to be exposed so we’re trying to cover up, I mean, we do it, we shut our door, we pull the blinds, we change the channel, we do whatever we can. We know how to navigate around our computers so nobody finds us on our computer what we’re looking at. I mean, we do it. We just don’t say it’s Genesis.

 

Chad (14:45): Well, we’re hiding in the garden.

 

Keith (14:47): We’re hiding in the garden. And we’re putting on something that we think will not allow us to be found. 

 

Chad (14:50): And it doesn’t work.

 

Keith (14:52): And it doesn’t work. And all of a sudden, God says, “Put on this.” The blood. Clothe yourself in the blood. In the animal. The sacrificed animal. The blood. And this is salvation, the blood of Christ, one day, will be shed for you on the cross and you will have eternal life and you will be forgiven of your sins and you will be justified by what only God could have done. I’m going to be made a man, and I’m going to pay your price one day. You see, Chad, this is what’s so interesting about this to me. I blamed God when my life was in trouble. My Dad divorced, lot of things were going on in my life, that I had to blame somebody just like Adam and Eve did. Because, I was so miserable, somebody had to pay for my miserableness, and I blamed God. The problem there was I was blaming the wrong person. I didn’t really understand the story here. I had never really studied it. And so I didn’t’ know salvation was here, I didn’t know that one day, the savior was going to come and crush the head of Satan. You see, I was still believing that this story was just kind fo some little story, and I was a victim of my own sin. But when I understood that Jesus did die on the cross and this was prophesied all the way back to Genesis

 

Chad (16:15): Thousands of years

 

Keith (16:16): Yes, I go, “Are you kidding me?”

 

Chad (16:18) And, what we walk away with is, “I can take God at his word.” Did God really say? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And you can trust his word, not over 10 years, but over thousands of years. 

 

Keith (16:30): Thousands. And the blood that was there is the same blood today that was shed that is the right blood. It’s the blood of the one, the unblemished lamb, that would give his life for the world. And he wishes that none would perish, and so my hope today is that if there’s anybody out there today that’s going, “You know, what? I’m kind of doubting.” That you go, “This is in the beginning.”

 

Chad (16:33): Yeah, and I need to be reminded of these truths.

 

Keith (16:55): And these guys, Adam and Eve were saved the same way that you and I are. And that’s good news.

 

Chad (17:01): That’ll preach. We’re excited to continue to talk about these shadows. Hebrews 10 says these are just the shadow of the good things yet to come. The story in Genesis 3 was pointing towards something greater. We’re going to look next time at Abraham and Isaac, and a wonderful picture of God’s plan over time, so thank you guys so much for joining us on the Kanakuk Institute Podcast, we’ll see you next time.

 

Keith (17:25): Goodbye.