I John 2:15-17 (NIV) 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Genesis 3: 1-6 (NIV) 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 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.' " 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
“What went wrong?” Most of us have found ourselves asking that question from time to time. The question puts us in touch with one of the basic issues of life, with a question that has haunted humanity since the beginning of time.
There are probably as many answers to that question as books that have been written, but none have proved more truthful and helpful than the answer given in Genesis. Man and woman wanted something they had been forbidden to have. They rejected God’s Word. They disobeyed His command. They sought knowledge of good and evil apart from God. That was the beginning of humanity’s problems and it repeats itself over and over again, unmercifully in the life of every generation and every individual.
This declaration of independence from God comes from claiming autonomy, which in Greek is “auto” – self, and “noumos” – law. With autonomy, we are a law unto ourselves and we are on our own in this world. There is no divine will, only human rules.
The serpent tried to plant suspicion in the mind of Eve. In a subtle way he cast a shadow of doubt over the goodness of God. The serpent was more crafty than any other beast, but no match for Adam and Eve and not more powerful, for God had already given Adam and Eve dominion over every beast of the field, including the serpent. The serpent simply aided Adam and Eve in doing what they made up their minds to do.
What went wrong? Adam and Eve chose to disobey God. They asserted their independence and refused God’s good will. There was simply nothing in the tree or in the command that gave Eve any reason to disobey God, except the desire and the choice to do so. And when and where men and women choose to do that again, they get the same results.
This is the tragedy of sin, not only the harm it brings to human life, but the fall into the hands of the Serpent who is delighted to have us in his grasp. And this is the truth of sin, whenever we begin to accept responsibility for the wrong we have done, the hurt and the harm we have brought, when we accept the responsibility God has given us, we have taken the first step back to God.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 19, 1992
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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