Genesis 3: When You're Lost, Go Back to the Starting Point

Introduction

"When you're lost, go back to the starting point." Matthew Glock admits he struggles with this advice, especially behind the wheel. He pushes ahead, keeps driving, and suddenly finds himself lost. Instead of turning around, he tells himself he can still go a little further. "It's hard to admit that we are lost."

For several weeks, Église Protestante Évangélique de Paris Beaugrenelle has been reading Genesis from the beginning. The first two chapters showed how God created the world, the man and the woman, and how he placed them in the middle of the garden as his stewards, charged with making humanity and the garden flourish.

Genesis 3 gives a key to understanding what happened next. The preacher reads in it the true nature of sin, the question God still asks today, and the new road Jesus opened to come back to him.

Outline of the message

1. Am I lost?

Many answer no: "I know where I'm going, I know what I want." And yet they sense that something is missing, something they feel entitled to.
Blaise Pascal noticed this: only a king who has lost his throne can claim his place as king. If you were never a king, how could you say "this is my place"?
Whoever says "there is a place for me" reveals something deep, written by God into humanity at creation.
At the end of the text, the man is east of Eden, outside, and he wants to go back. There is in our hearts this longing for a land where everything is well, "like a country we have never visited, a song we have never heard."

2. It's not other people's fault

If we don't understand the nature of sin, we can never truly move forward.
Instinctively, we refuse to say "I am lost" or "I have sin within me." We look elsewhere: "It's my family, I had awful parents." "The state was awful to me."
In doing so, we miss a truth: the deep nature of sin.
God does not give a list that says "here is sin, here is how it works." He places us in a story, a relational situation where these realities come to light.

3. Sin is subtle, and it lies

The serpent, the most cunning of the animals, begins with a question: "Has God really said?" There is no need to search today for who he is, the preacher stresses: the man and the woman listen to him.
Doubt opens a door, like those conversations that draw us toward what does not bring glory to God: "Have you heard this? Have you seen that?" First observation: sin is subtle.
The woman's answer becomes muddled. She adds "you shall not touch it." God did not say that; he said "you shall not eat of it." The doubt has been planted.
Then the serpent drives the point home: "You won't surely die... you will be like God." It is the ultimate lie, the one that reveals the real problem of our world.
The essential nature of sin is falsehood and lying. "Sin lies," and you fall under the grip of evil to the extent that you take part in the lie and believe it.
The lie fits in one sentence: "You can't trust God, because he doesn't really want what is good for you." Turn your eyes away from God, forget that he is good.

4. A glass neither half empty nor half full

Our world says that people are a little bad and a little good, with no real dividing line between what is evil and what is good. It is hard to break free from these thoughts.
The text says something else: from Adam to today, every human being is under the power of sin. The letter to the Romans says so plainly.
Whether or not you have already given your life to Jesus Christ, this lie keeps coming back to your ears. If you don't nourish the new heart God has given you, you will be constantly led astray.
In verse 6, the lie seizes the woman's heart and redirects her desires. Instead of a heart turned toward God, receiving what God wants to give that is good, she sees a tree that is good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. She forgets God completely.
Their eyes are opened, but not to see God and be in relationship with him: they see that they are naked.
The serpent never says "the LORD God," the covenant name. He says only "God," because he is not under God's covenant. And the woman, answering him, also says "God": she has stepped out of that covenant reality. Jesus calls the devil "the father of lies."

5. "Where are you?"

For Matthew Glock, the key to the text lies in verses 9 to 12. God comes with a simple question: "Where are you?"
Did God know everything that had happened? Yes. But he still wants to give us the chance to answer for ourselves. "God does not impose himself."
He still does the same thing today, in our difficult situations and in our struggles with inner sin.
"Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" God seeks to make them responsible, so that they acknowledge their fault themselves.
The man's answer is the reflex of someone who has been exposed: "It's her, not me." The woman does the same: "The serpent deceived me."
Men have done so much harm by saying it is women's fault, and women by saying it is men's fault. "Nobody wants to admit that their heart is dark. Nobody wants to admit that they are lost."

6. The first announcement of the gospel

In his grace, God is already putting things in place to promise a future and a hope.
To the serpent he says: "I will put hostility between you and the woman... he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel." "This is the first mention of the gospel, brothers and sisters."
Satan will try to hurt the Lord Jesus, to tempt him, to bring him all the way to the cross. But he is a liar and knows nothing of God's plans. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the serpent's head is crushed and sin is defeated.
God has shut up everyone under sin so that his grace may be revealed to all.
Two great truths follow. First: "I am worse than I could ever imagine." Our capacity to sin goes beyond what we know of ourselves. Second: God loves us more than we could ever imagine. As lost as we are, so great is his love.

7. A new road back

At the end of the chapter, Adam and Eve are driven out of the garden. If they came back to eat from the tree of life, they would remain forever in that state of being lost.
God places cherubim at the east of the garden, with a flaming sword that turns every way: no one can enter.
The preacher then reads Hebrews 10: by the blood of Jesus we have boldness to enter the sanctuary, by the new and living way he opened through the veil. "Let's draw near with a sincere heart."
Jesus was pierced for us. The sword that guarded the garden is the one that struck Jesus and led him to die for us. Because he paid that price, a new road is open and we can approach with confidence.
The glass full of sin, Jesus says: "I take this on myself." He carries in his body the full weight of sin so that many may be saved. "God is good. You are full of grace."

Key takeaways

The human heart holds a longing for a lost place: it is the sign that we come from somewhere else and that we are far from home.
The essential nature of sin is the lie: "You can't trust God, because he doesn't really want what is good for you."
Blaming others is the first reflex of someone who has been exposed. God, for his part, asks a question and waits for you to answer for yourself.
From Genesis 3:15 on, God announces Jesus' victory over the serpent.
You are worse than you imagine, and God loves you more than you imagine. By the blood of Jesus, the road to him is open.

Personal application

In which area of your life do you struggle to admit that you are lost?
On whom or on what do you place the responsibility for who you are today: your family, your past, society?
Where do you hear, right now, the voice whispering that God doesn't really want what is good for you?
If God asked you today "Where are you?", what would you honestly answer him?
How are you nourishing, this week, the new heart God has given you, so that you can approach him with confidence?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What is the nature of sin according to Genesis 3?

For Matthew Glock, the essential nature of sin is falsehood and lying. The serpent's lie comes down to this: you can't trust God, because he doesn't really want what is good for you. This lie turns your eyes away from God and redirects the desires of the heart.

Why does God ask Adam "Where are you?" if he already knows everything?

God knew everything that had happened. But he still wants to give us the chance to answer for ourselves and to acknowledge our fault. God does not impose himself, and he still asks the same question today in our struggles.

Where is the first announcement of the gospel in the Bible?

The preacher sees it in Genesis 3:15: the woman's offspring will crush the serpent's head, and the serpent will bruise his heel. Satan wanted to harm Jesus all the way to the cross, but through his death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin.