The Problem of the Curve

The Fall  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Lead Pastor Wes Terry preaches on the Fall of Man out of Genesis 3:4-10. This message is part of the series "The Fall." The sermon was preached on March 5, 2023.

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INTRODUCTION

We’re in the middle of a series entitled “The Fall.” It’s a series on Choices and Consequence, God’s promise and provision.
Genesis 3 chronicles the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. It is the Bible’s main answer on what is WRONG with the world.
I’m sure I don’t have to persuade you that there’s something wrong with the world.
G.K. Chesterton said Original Sin is the only Christian doctrine that doesn’t need much of an argument because the evidence can be seen in the newspaper headlines every single day.
This is certainly true. The world is broken. People are hurting. People are being crushed under the weight of stress, suffering and fear of the future.
Our social fabric in this country is starting to tear. The moral consensus is falling apart.
The statistics on crime and violence are going in the wrong direction.
We are angry, divided, and pointing the finger in all different directions for what’s wrong with this world and how it needs to be fixed.

Understanding Self = Understanding Sin

But lest we miss the REAL reason for what’s broken in our world - and the REAL solution to the problem of brokenness we need to put down the finger and look into the mirror.
As the great Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in “The Gulag Archipelago”
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart
At the heart of human brokenness is sin in every heart.
Every human heart has a sin problem. It’s a problem we’re born with and it gets worse as we age.
Genesis 3 gives the origin story of that heart problem.
As I said last week - nobody LIKES to talk about these issues. We want to focus on our strengths and avoid our weaknesses. And I’m certainly sympathetic to that inclination.
And you might be someone who grew up in a context where all anybody EVER wanted to talk about was what you did wrong and how much of a failure you are. So to think that God is also upset with you because of the sin in your life is also not an attractive thought.
But if we’re ever going to break free from the prison of brokenness we first need to understand how the chains were made.
That’s what our text today is going to help us accomplish. I titled the message, “The Problem of the Curve.” We’re going to look at three things: the curve, the consequence and the cure.

Context

We’re picking up where we left off last week.
Last week we focused on the Schemer and his Schemes. We examined the nature of temptation and the schemes of our enemy.
In it we learned the “Devil never makes us do anything” but rather “persuades us” to do self-destructive things by appealing to our reason, our desires and fears in life.
In the story of Adam and Eve the tempter appeals to Eve’s desire to eat forbidden fruit from a forbidden tree.
To do so, he plants a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind about the goodness of God’s character and the truthfulness of God’s Word.
After Satan persuades Eve that God’s Word isn’t that reliable he moves to softening Eve’s fear of God’s judgment and strengthening Eve’s desire for self-gratification.
We pick it up verse 4.
Genesis 3:4–8 (ESV)
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve in perfect communion with God and each other. They were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 3 shows how creation is uncreated. Adam and Eve go from communion with God to covering up their nakedness and hiding in shame.
From freedom to slavery. From acceptance to insecurity.

The Curve

Theologians call this “The Fall of Man.”
The problem of sin enters into the world through the corruption of choice and rebellion against God.
What does sin do as a result? To understand that we first need to understand the essence of sin.
I grew up going to church. My dad was a deacon. My mom served in the nursery. I was in Sunday in school from birth to 12th grade. I don’t know how many sermons and lesson I had on sin but it was probably a BUNCH.
When I graduated high school my basic definition for sin was “breaking God’s law.”
Anybody remember the “bullseye target?” And the arrow missing the bullseye? Usually underneath that illustration was the word SIN in big red letters with the definition underneath: missing the mark.
That’s not an untrue definition of sin. Sin is missing the mark.
Certainly that definition fits within the basic narrative thread of Genesis 3. God says “don’t do X.” Then, Adam & Eve turn around and do the very thing God says “don’t do.” Sin is missing the mark.
At one level sin is “transgressive.” There’s a boundary put into place and sin entails crossing the boundary.

Incurvatus in se

While that understanding of sin is not untrue - I do believe it’s incomplete.
One the great theologians of the Early Church - Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo - popularized a phrase that was taken up later by Martin Luther, Father of the Protestant Reformation.
The original Latin understood the essence of sin as “incurvatus in se” which means “to be turned in on oneself.”
In other words, sin involves more than merely “missing the mark.” At root, sin is a “turning in on the self.” I’m calling it the problem of the CURVE.
We have a tendency, right out of the womb, to turn in on ourselves and think only of what’s good for us.
Many Modern people would hear this definition of sin and say “well what’s wrong with that? You’ve got to love yourself before you can love others… There’s nothing wrong with a little self-confidence.”

The Me Monster

But that’s not what Augustine nor Luther meant by the phrase.
The “curve” causes us to use God’s gift, other people, and even God himself for the interests of the self instead of the good of others or the glory of God.
For Luther this includes even the GOOD things we do.
we love and befriend others for what they can do FOR US not what we can do for them.
we serve and give to others not for their welfare but for our own reputation.
we seek to live a moral and holy life not because it’s right but because we want people to think WE are right.
The problem of “The Curve” is the pull of the great “Me Monster.”
In the famous words of the great country song “I want to talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one- oh my, me my - what I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see - I want to talk about ME.”

The Consequence

There are at least three consequences of this “curving in” on the self from Genesis 3. Or you might call it the three phases of sin.
There’s a turning away from God, a turn to the self and a subsequent search FOR security.
The first is the turning away from God and we saw most of this in last week’s message.
Look again at verses 4-5.
Genesis 3:4–5 (ESV)
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.”

Dethroning God

The Curve always starts with the dethroning of God.
Last week we spent a lot of time on this so I’d encourage you to go back and listen. Before there was sin there was temptation to sin.
There’s a method to the madness and it always goes in order.
I love the way the MSG translates James 1:15. “Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: SIN!”

Deconstructing Authority

How does the dethroning of God work?
Essentially Satan goes through a process of deconstructing God’s authority in your life.
Satan wants to get your heart to a place where “God is not in charge.”
Deconstructing is a popular word in our day because of post-modernism and critical theory.
Putting the academic utility aside, the process of deconstruction is actually as old as the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say?”
How does it work?
COMPROMISE: It begins with some kind of compromise to God’s Word. Satan tempts us to exaggerate it, add to it, subtract from it, contradict it or dilute it in some form or another.
CRITICIZE: After Satan compromises God’s word he’ll shift to criticizing God’s character. You see this in verse 5. God isn’t good he’s just jealous. He doesn’t love you he’s trying to control you and limit you.
I don’t care who you are, when you listen to a lie long enough you’ll start to believe it. And that’s what happens with Eve.
You soften the defenses before you start the attack. Satan does that with Adam and Eve and then he leaves them alone.

Redefining Good

The reason I say Satan “left them alone” is because verse 6 opens up with the words, “When the woman saw that the tree was good....”
That’s the second phase of giving birth to sin. After God has been dethroned through a process of deconstruction, wrong becomes right through process of reconstruction.
Step one, “dethrone God.” The question of authority.
Step two, “redefine Good.” The question of affection.
When you turn in on yourself, you don’t just turn away from God. You turn away from the one thing that can truly satisfy your deepest longings.
As a result, sin has to “redefine” what that ultimate good will be now that God is out of the picture.
And that’s exactly what Eve does in Genesis 3:6
Genesis 3:6 (ESV)
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
QUESTION: I wonder how much time transpired between verses 5 to 6? One second? One minute? One hour? One day? Or did it take weeks, months or even years for Satan to soften their defenses.
We don’t know. We just see the outcome. Desire gets pregnant and then has the baby. SIN!
Here’s what I know. In your life, Satan isn’t in a hurry. Big destructive sin in your life usually doesn’t surface all at once. Satan plays the long game. He sets the hook and then he waits.

Disordered Desire

Notice how Satan appeals to three different types of desire when redefining “good” in Eve’s eyes.
It’s similar to what we saw last week: good for food (desires), appealing to the eye (reason), and desirable to make one wise (fear).
They are the same three categories that John uses in his discussion about “the world” in 1 John 2:16
1 John 2:16 (ESV)
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
After sin has gotten you to turn away from God (deconstructing authority) it turns you in on yourself (through disordering your desires.)
It’s a cruel trick of the enemy. Because it doesn’t matter WHAT YOU CHOOSE as your ultimate source to satisfy these desires. They could even be good things.
Once you take God out of the picture, every other choice is wrong.
ILLUSTRATION: It’s like a magician doing a magic trick. “Pick a card any card… doesn’t matter what card you pick because he’s holding back the only card that matters. You THINK you’re in the drivers seat but you’re actually getting played through a process of diversion and distraction.

Broken Cisterns

One of the images that the Scripture uses to describe this dynamic is that of a broken cistern. The idea is that drinking from a broken cistern never truly satisfies your thirst.
Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
The problem isn’t with the thirst the problem is how we try to quench it.
The problem wasn’t with Eve’s DESIRES. Those three desires were all given to us BY GOD.
But they were given so that they might be satisfied IN GOD. He’s the only suitable cistern that can satisfy our greatest thirst.
When you turn in on yourself, redefine what’s good, create new cisterns outside of God, you’ll actually end up with greater thirst than when you began.

Practical Examples

There’s nothing sinful about ambition “per say.” It’s why things get done and our world get’s better. But when the main driver behind your ambition is SELF (or money, reputation, etc) you’re setting yourself up for a never ending thirst.
The Bible calls it idolatry. The problem isn’t the ambition. The problem is the WHY behind it and the UNBELIEF underneath it (if I don’t become successful then I don’t really matter.)
There’s nothing wrong with pleasure. It’s a wonderful thing. God has given us several thing to make life more enjoyable. But when you pursue those things outside of God’s design you’re putting that water in cistern. It’s not going to truly satisfy. You’ll just suffer from greater and greater levels of thirst.
In that way, sin makes us addicts. Satisfying legitimate desires through illicit means.
The thing we used to chase to make us feel great now we have to have just to make us feel normal. It’s because you’re soul was meant to drink on someone greater.
We could go on and on but you get the point.

Search For Security

The last thing we see about sin in this text is it causes every sinner to begin a search for security.
First God is dethroned. Then good is redefined. The final step is a search for security.
Genesis 3:7 (ESV)
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Remember Genesis 2 closed with the man and his wife both naked and unashamed. Before sin entered into the world they were secure in God’s love.
The minute that sin entered into the picture a search for salvation ensured.
They recognized, because of their participation in evil, that they needed something to cover their nakedness.

Deficient Deliverance

They sew fig leaves together and make loin clothes for themselves. Not a bad start, but it was enough.
Here’s the thing about sin. Every sin in your life will send you searching for security.
Sin doesn’t just make us addicts who are always thirsty and never satisfied. Sin also makes us anxious, afraid and ashamed. So we look for something that can cover it up.
Here’s what you need to know: you’ll never find anything in this world that is sufficient to take away that fear or remove that shame.
That’s why Adam and Eve hide from God.. Genesis 3:8
Genesis 3:8 (ESV)
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
It’s the problem of a counterfeit savior.
Every time we try and find security in something or someone other than the Lord, they’ll always and eventually prove themselves deficient.

Federal Headship

And it’s not just a problem for Adam and Eve. It’s a problem for the entire world.
The Bible teaches that because of what happened in Genesis 3, ALL future humans will be born into sin.
This is why David says, Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
It’s why the Apostle Paul, quoting from Psalm 53 says,
10 “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.”
We have a universal sin problem which means we ALL have a problem of deconstructing authority, disordered desires and deficient sources of deliverance.
That’s why they world is the way it is. We’ve turned AWAY from God and turned IN on ourselves and the consequences are glaring.
We’ll explore the theme of consequences next week but it boils down to one word: brokenness.
We grow up in broken homes with broken marriages.
We attend broken schools with broken bullies and broken friendships.
We get jobs with broken systems and broken co-workers and broken bosses.
Broken relationships, broken promises, broken hopes, broken dreams.
Another way to talk about the consequences of sin: I got ISSUES.
I’ve got trust issues, relationship issues, financial issues,
I’ve got medical issues, issues at work, issues at home.
Issues is just another way of talking about the problem of sin.
And it’s not just an adult problem. We come out of the womb this way. If you pay attention to their children when they’re young you’ll see the ME monster all over the place.
The only thing that changes when we get older is we get more sophisticated in how we go about it and how we try and fix it.

The Cure

So how do we fix it? The only REAL way to fix our issues is to REVERSE the curve.
How many of your “relationship issues” would go away TOMORROW if the people involved weren’t so self-absorbed?
How many of your financial problems would’ve been prevented if you weren’t curved in on the self? (outside of medical bills because of brokenness outside of your control probably several)
How many of your personal insecurities and stresses and anxieties could be alleviated if you could just get out of your own stinking head?
The man in the mirror has a curve in the heart and no matter HOW HARD he tries, he can’t bend it back.

A Heart of Steel

ILLUSTRATION: Think about a thick steel rod. Steel is one of the toughest alloys. It’s extremely hard to manipulate through mere pressure. So once the steel gets bent it’s VERY hard to bend it back. That’s how Scripture presents the human heart.
In fact, according to the Scripture, it’s impossible for us to fix the problem of the curve. It’s impossible to do without God.
So the ONE person who can fix our problem is the ONE person we turned away from so that we could turn in on ourselves.
As a result, we hide from God and try and fix it ourselves and do our best to bend the metal back but overall we know it’s not enough.

A Life for a Life

As you read the rest of the OT you see that God address this problem.
In Genesis 3:21 the LORD God makes “garments of skin” for Adam and his wife. As far as we can tell, this is the first animal death since the creation of the world. It’s a vivid picture that the wages of sin is death. Sin separates us from God, the truly and only source of life.
In Exodus 12:23 the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt. When God’s angel of judgment visits Egypt to take the life of every first born the people of God are told to sacrifice a lamb and put it’s blood on the door post. As a result the death angel would “pass over.”
Later on in Exodus and Leviticus God gives Moses the Law and details about the sacrificial system. For God’s judgment on sin to be withheld, atonement had to be made. A life must be given.
In the OT this is done through the sacrificial system.
They would sacrifice a bull or goat and take the blood of that life and put it on the alar as a way of saying to God and showing themselves the wages of sin is death.
They were saying, “God you’re holy. I’m not. I know that my sin separates me from you and the consequence of my sin deserve death. But in place of MY life I offer this sacrifice.”
As a result of sin, God required atonement to be made. Theologians call this substitutionary atonement. A sacrifice is given to die in your place for your sins.
There’s a helpful summary of this dynamic in Leviticus 17.
Leviticus 17:11 (CSB)
11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.
Or Hebrews 9:22
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
God address the problem of the curve through substitutionary atonement.

The Final Passover

For the original audience reading Genesis this dynamic is VERY much on their minds. In fact, they celebrated Passover every year to commemorate God’s gracious provision in making atonement for sin.
The problem is, this system that God set up in the OT never really fixed the curve. It postponed judgment but it didn’t change the heart.
And when Jesus comes on the scene, he explains why. In fact, he does so through what we’re celebrating today: the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus redefined the passover and showed his disciples that Israel’s deliverance from slavery to Pharoah in Egypt was really just a sign pointing to an even greater deliverance from an even greater slavery by an even greater savior than Moses.
That savior is Jesus. That slavery is sin. And that deliverance is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus through his death on the cross.
The Law and OT sacrificial system were powerless to bend back the curve. But what the Old Covenant could not do, Jesus accomplishes through the Cross.

Take and Eat

So when Jesus took the bread and take “Take and Eat.” he was really pointing back to the “Take and Eat” of Genesis 3:6.
Sin came into the world because the serpent came to Eve and said, “Take and Eat… you won’t surely die.”
Death and brokenness came into this world because we took the forbidden fruit and we ate.
Jesus is saying, “If you’ll take and eat THIS bread. And take and drink THIS cup then you will be delivered.
Then your desires will be TRULY satisfied. And your communion with God will be finally restored.”

Communion Restored

That’s one reason we call the Lord’s Supper “Communion.” Because the communion with God we lost in the Garden is restored to us through the work of Christ.
Don’t misunderstand me. This bread and juice are not the literal body of Jesus any more than that original bread and wine were the literal body of Jesus.
They do, however, symbolize his presence, his person and his work on the cross. The bread represents his suffering. The juice represents his blood shed for the forgiveness of sin.
And when we repent of our sin and we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross we are then forgiven of our sins and reconciled back to God.

Bending Back the Metal

I said earlier the problem of the curve can’t be solved through human effort. It’s cannot. There must be a source of heat from outside of us that warms up the metal and bend it back the other direction.
And that’s what God does through the Holy Spirit when the Gospel is preached. Perhaps you’re experiencing it even now as I speak.
What Paul said in Ephesians 2 is true of you. You are DEAD in your trespasses and sins. Here’s the good news. God wants to make you alive through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ invitation is open for you this morning: “take and eat” and turn back to the Lord.
Here’s the truth. You may feel like your so far from God. Because of where you’ve got and what you’ve done and the brokenness in your life you may think “God would never forgive me and never want me back.”
But that’s not true! If he were far off then you wouldn’t be hearing his voice speaking to you this morning. Softly, tenderly, calling you back to a place of intimacy and restored communion.
The truth is you might’ve turned away from God. But he NEVER EVER turns away from you. All you have to do this morning is turn back around and say “Lord I’m coming home.”
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