"Where Are You?" (Genesis 3)

Introduction: the question that has followed you since Eden

"Where are you?" These are the first words God speaks to man after the fall (Genesis 3:9). They aren't asking about a geographic location. They're seeking a heart that has started running away. This back to school Sunday, Pastor Ogi opened the Bible to Genesis 3 and invited us to let that voice reach us, at the threshold of a new year.

The verse that accompanies this year at Shion Christian Assembly is John 15:5: "I am the vine, you are the branches." Staying attached to Christ first requires that we stop hiding from him. Genesis 3 shows us why that's so hard, and why God, in spite of everything, has been preparing a way back from the very first day.

Outline of the sermon

1. Sin is fleeing from the gaze of God

After eating from the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hear God walking in the garden, and they hide (Genesis 3:8-11). Sin isn't primarily a list of infractions. It's this inability to look God in the eye, to speak to him with a free heart.

Pastor Ogi tells of an encounter that marked him more than thirty years ago, during his internship year in Chigasaki. A man who came to church had just been released from prison. One day, the young pastor asks him an awkward question: "In your view, what's the difference between the church and prison?" The man answers without missing a beat: at church, people acknowledge that they're sinners; in prison, many mostly feel like victims, convinced that others are far worse and that they simply had the bad luck of getting caught.

This contrast is striking. Sin blinds us to ourselves. It pushes us to compare, to minimize, to blame others, just as Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent (Genesis 3:12-13). The Gospel takes the opposite path: it brings clarity, but without crushing us, because it places the light of forgiveness at the end of the road.

In Psalm 32, David sings precisely of this experience. After covering his adultery with murder, he discovers the weight of inner silence: "My bones wasted away" (Psalm 32:3). Then comes the confession, and the forgiveness: "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven" (v. 1). As long as sin isn't confessed, we walk bent over, avoiding the face of God. Once forgiven, we lift our heads.

2. Created in the image of God: a dignity that sin cannot erase

Before Genesis 3, there's Genesis 1. God creates man and woman "in his image" (Genesis 1:26-31). At the end of the sixth day, he looks at everything he has made and says, "It was very good" (v. 31). Human existence, in itself, has a worth that doesn't depend on what we produce. We are precious because God wanted us.

Sin didn't destroy this image, but it disfigured it. That's where violence, contempt, and crushing hierarchies come from. Pastor Ogi points out that an ancient Roman philosopher could write, without flinching, "The domestic animal is a slave that doesn't speak, and the slave is an animal that speaks." We didn't need to wait for the excesses of the 20th century or racial slavery in America to see human dignity trampled. Without the biblical revelation that man is made in the image of God, every civilization falls back into the law of the strongest.

But the Good News is that this image can be restored. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18: "When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed… we all are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." When you return to God through the cross of Jesus, the Spirit gets to work. He brings color back to what had faded.

This is true right up to your last breath. Pastor Ogi especially encourages the older members of the congregation: "from glory to glory" doesn't stop at forty or sixty years old. You can aim for a radiant "silver age" and "golden age," like Abraham or Moses who walked with God very late into their lives. This isn't about performance. It's the Spirit who brings maturity.

3. Why that tree in the middle of the garden? Because God trusted you

A question comes up often, especially among young people: if God knew Adam and Eve were going to fall, why plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right in the middle of the garden? Isn't that cruel, like a trap?

Pastor Ogi offers another reading. God is all powerful. He would be capable of doing evil, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times more violently than any human could imagine. But he doesn't. Not because he's incapable, but because he has freely said "no" to evil, from eternity to eternity. His holiness isn't a limitation, it's a choice of love held firm through time.

When he creates man in his image, God hopes his creature will make that same move: "You could disobey, but because you love me and know me, you will say no." The tree was the space for that trust. It wasn't a trap, it was the place where love could become a real choice.

A simple example: when you get in a car with someone, you're entrusting them with your life. You accept that they'll drive sixty miles an hour on the highway. That trust is possible because there's a relationship. God, for his part, placed immense trust in Adam. The tragedy of the fall is that trust betrayed.

4. The cross, announced from the very first day

Genesis 3 doesn't end in condemnation. Two details, often skimmed over, already contain the whole Gospel.

The first is Genesis 3:15, what the church calls the protoevangelium: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The offspring of the serpent is Satan and his work. The offspring of the woman is Jesus, born of a woman, descended from Adam and Eve, come into the world as the new Adam. Satan will bite the heel of Christ on the cross, a painful wound but one you can recover from. Christ himself will crush the serpent's head through his resurrection on the third day. A blow to the head is the fatal blow.

The second detail is Genesis 3:21. After the fall, Adam and Eve had tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. A fragile solution, one that tears apart within hours. So God himself does something overwhelming: "The LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them." To clothe a human being in animal skin, an animal has to be sacrificed. This is the first death in the Bible. And this death happens to cover the shame of man.

The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament, all those "spotless" lambs offered for forgiveness, have their source right here. They point forward to the Lamb of God, Jesus, who "takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). When someone asks, "From what point did God start preparing salvation through the cross?", the answer is clear: from the very moment man turned away from him, God, in his love, was already opening the way back.

Key takeaways

Sin, at its core, is fleeing from the gaze of God and no longer being able to bear his presence.
You were created in the image of God. That dignity comes from him, not from your performance, and it doesn't depend on your age.
God didn't plant the tree to trap Adam. He trusted him, just as he trusts you today.
Genesis 3:15 and 3:21 already announce the cross: salvation isn't a plan B, it's the very first movement of God's heart.
Through the Spirit, God transforms you "from glory to glory," right up to your last breath.

Personal application

Is there a specific area of your life where, like Adam, you're hiding from God right now? What's keeping you from "looking him straight in the eye"?
When sin slips into your week, what's your first reaction: minimizing it, blaming your circumstances, or returning to the cross to be forgiven?
Do you know that your worth doesn't depend on your age, your usefulness, or what others think of you? How would this truth change the way you live this week?
God trusted you by giving you a free will. Where in your life is he asking you today to answer him with a firm "no" to evil?
Take a moment this week to reread Genesis 3:15 and 3:21. Thank Jesus for this cross prepared since the very first day.

Verses cited

FAQ

Why did God allow Adam and Eve to sin if he knew what was going to happen?

Because forced love isn't love. God created man in his image, with genuine freedom of choice. The tree in the middle of the garden wasn't a trap, but the space where that love could become a free choice. God trusted man, just as he trusts you today to respond to him in faith.

Is Genesis 3:15 really about Jesus?

Yes. Christian tradition calls this verse the "protoevangelium," meaning the first announcement of the Gospel. The offspring of the serpent points to Satan and his work; the offspring of the woman, born of Adam and Eve, is fully realized in Jesus, who, through his death and resurrection, crushes the head of the serpent.

How do I stop fleeing from God's presence when I've sinned?

Do the opposite of Adam. Adam hid; David, in Psalm 32, confessed. Confess your sin to God simply, without dressing it up. Look at the cross: it was prepared for you as far back as Genesis 3. Forgiveness isn't something to earn, it's already offered in Jesus Christ. All that's left is to receive it and rise.

All articles on “Foi”

to take notes and ask questions.