Concluding our series on the opening chapters of Genesis we look at what life is like east of Eden. The consequences of Adam and Eve’s choosing independence from God mean that oneness with God, creation and humanity is lost. Post fall, the battle with sin is an ongoing constant reality. In the story of Cain we see that none of us is immune from temptation and the power of sin. But if our identity is built on the grace and love of God we can, in Jesus’ power, overcome. Cain though has built his identity in something far less secure, and his life falls apart very quickly.
Back To The Start: Curse
There were consequences for Adam and Eve’s decision to eat the fruit. We all know this part of the story, an echo and response to the famous creation story of the Hebrews’ Mesopotamian captors. It’s fair to say that Eve’s punishment may have had more air time than Adam and the snake’s throughout christendom. In fact, many christians today still root their belief in ordained male authority over women in what God says to Eve in this scene. But this was never a story about God’s intentions for hierarchy. This story is about quite the opposite!
Back To The Start: Crisis
The Fall of Adam and Eve is one of the most famous passages not only in the Bible but all literature. But despite this it’s not always easy to understand what is going on. Rather than just being about disobedience or a loss of innocence, it’s really about something much deeper. The heart of Adam and Eve’s fall is about independence. They go after something they already have (wisdom and divinity) but they want it without God. This tends to be the heart and result of all human sin - a turned inwards on oneself, grasping at an identity independent of God. We become incapable of being the generous open people, connected to our creator, that we were made to be. The beauty of the gospel though is that we don’t have stay that way - Jesus has broken the death spiral of independence and offered us a reconnection to the God without whom we would be lost.
Back To The Start: Relationships
It is not good for us to be alone. In a culture that strives for autonomy and individuality, Genesis reminds us that we are made for togetherness. Often togetherness has been defined in terms that exclude and diminish some under others. The togetherness that Genesis speaks of is one of equality without any sense of hierarchy or patriarchy. What we find in Genesis 2 is God’s purpose for us is to grow into his family. It used to be one built through physical means but in Jesus, it is one growing by the Spirit. God’s family is blended, its big, and theres room for you.
Back To The Start: Garden
Genesis 2 tells a second creation narrative that is told from the ground-up, whereas Genesis 1 tells the story from a more cosmic perspective. It speaks of Eden as a space where luxury and pleasure had no limit. It contained a garden where God himself walked with humanity, along with some symbolic rivers and trees. In this poetic-narrative we see a mirror-image of where all humanity is headed, when Jesus finally restores the earth. This series is called Back to the Start, but part of that is remembering where we are going. We aren’t headed back to Eden, but we are headed toward an earth that is restored and renewed by Jesus himself, when he will finally set all things right.
Back To The Start: Humankind
The creation of humankind in Genesis 1 is one of the most important passages in the whole bible. In it we see what God was and is again aiming for with us, the human race. We’re not a cosmic disappointment. We’re the pinnacle of his creation. He loves us and he saw that we are very very very good!
We are not God’s slaves (like in Babylonian mythology) we aren’t created to serve him, we are created to be him - an extension of his presence and power in the world. We are given extraordinary position and influence in the world. Through Jesus, God has redeemed, restored and ultimately recommissioned us to be his vice-regents on earth. Every single one of us has an identity and a calling from the King of Heaven. So allow him to breath his royal life into us once again.
Back To The Start: Creation
The first chapter of Genesis may be one of the most controversial, but it’s mind-blowingly revealing, beautifully poetic & meticulously structured, and it serves as a triumphant introduction to the whole new message about the kind of God, God is. Dating back to the Babylonian exile, this was a piece of liturgy for a downtrodden people who were questioning everything about their call and the nature and even existence of the God who called them. It’s the overture to the whole story of God and his people: The Creator is all powerful, He brings order out of chaos, He is in control, He names us, He loves us and He says that we are good. Genesis 1 calls us back to worshipping Him because He is God. And He is good.
Back To The Start: Pre-existence
Ultimately the central character of Genesis is not Adam or Eve. It’s the one true God. And he is unlike all the gods of the surrounding nations. He is creative - he both creates out of nothing in his exclusive power; and he creates out of chaos in his redemptive power. And his spirit, there at creation, is, thanks to Jesus, here for us now. He wants to bring his redemptive and matchless power to every aspect of our lives. Because this is what he is like - the matchless creator who is good.
Genesis: What Does It Say About Women
If we want to stand on the steadfast knowledge that the gospel of jesus proclaims one-ness - absolute inclusion, unity and justice for all - we HAVE to know what the Bible has to say about it. Hagar (slave, foreign, female) became the very first theologian in the story of god’s people… Every single martriarch (Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel) was met in her deepest need, by a God who showed them he was different: by blessing her, by including her in the story (a culturally unheard of thing at the time) and by saying, in the context of desperate need: I remember you. They may have been read to us otherwise. But THIS is what they’re about.
Genesis: The Rescue Begins - Fighting with God
Jacob is no saint. His name is deceiver and he spends most of his time looking after number 1, fighting with the world, and tricking his way through life. That is until he gets in to a fight he can’t win and he can’t trick his way out of.
It’s ok to be mad at God and to wrestle with him. But ultimately a fight with him is one we’ll never win. But it is the best one we’ll ever lose. Because when we’re weak, he is strong. And when we bow down, he lifts us up.
Genesis: The Rescue Begins - The Sacrifice Was Never Ours to Make
Genesis: The Rescue Begins - We're All Abraham
Genesis: The Rescue Begins - Cain and Abel
Hannah kicks off a new teaching series on the book of Genesis, our original origins, that reminds us what these massively misunderstood introduction stories are really all about. Cain and Abel is about injustice, pain, and our work not being rewarded - experiences every one of us go through, now maybe more than ever.