You do not have to look very far to see that there is something radically wrong with our world. Everywhere you look there is strife, it springs from mistrust and broken relationships and in so many cases erupts into violence and sometimes murder. This week we’ve seen the continuation of the violence in Iraq and Israel and no doubt there has been similar events in many other parts of the world that just haven’t made the news. And just down the road at Westminster there have been protests that have erupted into violence over foxhunting.

Why is the world in such a state? It is because basically we live in a fallen world. We know that a loving creator made our world, and that he created a world that is good. We know that he created human beings to relate in love to each other. But instead of a world where people relate in love and respect, mistrust and hatred creep into human relationships at every level, within families, within communities and within nations. It all goes back to the event that took place in the Garden of Eden that we have read about in Genesis 3.

The harmony that existed between Adam and Eve, and the harmony and fellowship that was there between them and God was shattered in one foolish act. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Human relationships were spoilt; our relationship with God instead of love became one of fear. In our world today, if we want to understand the problems of our world, we need to start by understanding what happened when it all went wrong.

Let’s look then first at what actually took place at the fall. The creator God had made man and woman in his own image. He had breathed his life into them. They shared many godlike characteristics, the ability to love, and the ability to think and speak. But yet they were different from God. God is the one in authority. He is the originator and creator. God loves man and woman; he walks and talks with them in the garden. But yet he is different and apart.

He puts a limit on their activity, they may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God has infinite wisdom; human wisdom is limited, finite. God in his love and wisdom chose to shield Adam and Eve from things that that didn’t need to know; they were forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That suggests that evil existed, but that God protected the world, and Adam and Eve from it. They enjoyed innocence, based on love and trust.

But evil rears its ugly head. The serpent makes an entrance. He is operating in opposition to God. The whole issue of evil is in many ways surrounded in mystery, yet the bible portrays evil, not as an abstract force, but as a person. Here in Genesis, it is the serpent. In the book of Job it is Satan, and in the New Testament the term Devil is used. Yet the evil one is not a being on a level with God. He is part of God’s creation. In that respect as a serpent he is creature that God has given man dominion over. There is an order of Authority in creation, man has authority over all other creatures, and God has authority over man.
What happens in the fall is that the authority is reversed; it goes in the wrong order. Man and woman obey a creature instead of God. They reject God’s authority and instead of a world in harmony, governed by a loving, all-wise creator, we have a world in rebellion. Adam and Eve have grasped for something they have no right to. As a result they lost their innocence and so much else too.

Lets look now at the consequences of the fall, and as we look at the consequences for Adam and Eve, we see the consequences for the whole human race. Firstly, in their act of obeying the serpent, the relationship between humans and other living creatures had been altered. Instead of man ruling an ordered animal kingdom, he has a fight on his hands. The serpent is out to get mankind, ‘he will bruise your heel’. Maybe the implications are much wider; we know that throughout human history man has had a battle on his hands with the animal kingdom.

Lions, tigers, wolves, crocodiles seem to have a rather different disposition from the animals at creation that God created and provided for, and brought to man to name. Maybe even our current hot potato of foxhunting stems from this aspect of the fall, man in conflict with the animal kingdom.

But that ongoing fight between man and serpent certainly represents something else as well. It represents the power of the devils temptation for men and women. We see it in the world around us. People know what is right; they often know that to do wrong will bring painful consequences on themselves and others, yet they still give in to temptation. That is the consequence of the fall.

Secondly, the earth itself is somehow affected by the fall. God says to Adam ‘cursed is the ground because of you… It will produce thorns and thistles for you.’ The environment is spoiled. Instead of fruitful trees and crops, producing food will become a struggle against weeds and the forces of nature. If you are a gardener, you know something of the reality of that still. Farmers certainly know it.

Even though we live in an age now where fewer and fewer people actually farm the land, yet there is still the same general sense of toil for most people about their daily work. Those phrases ‘through painful toil’ and ‘by the sweat of your brow’ are so characteristic of people’s experience of daily living now in the 21st century. In fact there is a sense in which believers have come to understand how the whole earth has been tarnished by the fall. In Romans Paul talks about the creation being subject to frustration, and in bondage to decay. In the fall the earth was spoilt.

Thirdly, human relationships have been spoiled. Adam was delighted with his wife in his innocence in the unspoilt creation. Now he turns accusingly and blames her. ‘The woman you put here with me’, he tells God. ‘Its all her fault.’ Instead of harmony, there is criticism. Their eyes have been opened not just to see that they are naked, but also to see in stark relief each other’s faults. The physical side of their relationship is spoilt, pain in conception and childbirth and probably headaches as well are all par for the course now. And God says to Eve ‘your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.’
We see a glimpse in that phrase of the love hate relationship that is so common between men and women, we sometimes hear the expression ‘men, you can’t live with them, can’t live without them.’ That last phrase in verse 16 ‘he will rule over you’, it gives you the sense that woman will from now on feel dominated by man. Maybe the oppression of women that feminists decry has its origins in the fall.

Fourthly, and most tragically of all the relationship between God and humans has been spoilt. From now on, God will no longer come and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden. The barriers will come down, man will be banned from Eden, and he will not be allowed to eat of the tree of life. Man had tried to become like God, and in a way he had succeeded. But in doing so, he had lost the relationship with God. He had lost his immortality. From now on he is faced with the prospect of death.

Trust has gone out of the relationship. God now has to act as policeman, to keep man in his place and to step in when man goes too far in evil behaviour or the pursuit of power.
God now comes to Adam and Eve as judge. They had reached out for knowledge and authority. But with knowledge and authority comes responsibility. God holds them responsible for what they have done.

God holds each one of us responsible for our actions. We tend to be a bit like our ancestors, we try to pass the blame on to others. Notice what they did; Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. But with God, that will not do. Adam, Eve and the serpent all receive God’s judgement; God spells out the consequences for each one of them. God also holds each one of us responsible for our failures.

But notice that God doesn’t wash his hands of his creation. God is still in the business of providing for man and woman who are made in his image. He provides them with the clothes that they are painfully aware that they now need. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

There is something else that God gives them. He makes an indirect promise. In passing sentence on the serpent, he promises, that Eve’s descendant will crush the serpent’s head. Believers have found in that statement the promise that in the struggle of mankind with temptation and evil, mankind will ultimately triumph.

The rest of the bible is the continuing story of the struggle of human beings with the power of evil. There are accounts of God’s continual help and intervention on behalf of the human race. We also see God’s judgement on man when he goes too far in his evil behaviour.

But the ultimate focus of the bible is on God’s rescue plan for the world that he made, and for the species that he created in his own image. Because human beings could never manage to gain the upper hand in their fight against the serpent, God himself came into the world as a human being. In Jesus, God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has faced the evil one, but he has not succumbed to the power of temptation. Jesus defeated Satan, not only in his temptation in the wilderness, but decisively in his death on the cross and resurrection. The good news is that in doing that, he has freed us from the consequences of the fall. Some aspects of Christ’s victory have still to come to fruition. But the prospects are there for people of faith to anticipate.

Our new testament speaks of the creation itself being liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God; a reversal of what happened to our world at the fall. The gospel message is that men and women, not only have their innocence restored through Christ’s death on the cross, but are elevated to the status of children of God through Christ. These are the privileges that God has given us in his love, along with the promise of eternal life. What wonderful blessings God has given us in Christ.

Yet we live in an in-between time. Good news has come into the world through the gospel; there is hope for men and women. But the power of evil continues to blight creation. Men and women still continue to live by selfishness, pride and hate. Jesus didn’t promise an instant solution. He called us to follow his example; the example of peace and forgiveness, the example of suffering love.

And he reminds us that we need to come back time and again to the events long ago when he won the victory over evil on the cross. He won that for you and me, through his broken body and his shed blood. As we remember what took place then, we can learn to live in the reality of restored fellowship with God, and also bring something of God’s salvation to our human relationships and to the world around us.

Amen.

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