I suspect that for many of us doctor’s appointments are a feature of our lives. Trying to get to the bottom of what’s gone wrong this time, experimenting with combinations of treatments that can alleviate symptoms of one condition with out them making another one worse, going for tests. Sound familiar?
One of the purposes of God’s word to us in the Bible is to help us to understand the symptoms and root causes of a disease that effects us all, the disease of sin. This is not an academic or theoretical exercise. It’s an immensely practical guide to how we can be made well, forgiven, and restored to good health. Part of this is to understand what’s wrong in the first place. One of the prime examples of this is found in the early chapters of the Bible, in the book of Genesis. Here we find the story of Adam and Eve, their creation, and their rebellion against God. They stand for each of us, and in their story we recognise ourselves and our own failures and afflictions.
In Genesis 2 we read that God had created Adam and Eve and commissioned and authorised them to steward the creation. There was just one restriction. They were not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
There was one restriction, and they could not abide it. They ate.
What were the consequences of this?
Firstly, they realised they were naked and tried to cover themselves – they were ashamed. Then, they heard God coming looking for them for their usual evening stroll in the garden together, and they knew that there relationship with God was broken, so they hid. Hiding from God is famously pointless, and God found them and asked what was going on. Adam started blaming everyone else. “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit.” It’s her fault. It’s your fault. Conflict. Then the curses – of hard toil and pain in labour. And then the banishment from the garden, from the immediate access to the presence of God.
These are the hallmarks, the symptoms of sin, it’s what we see in the world, it’s what we see in our own lives.
An action that changes the story, the direction of our lives, that we can’t undo, however much we regret it.
Conflict, with God, with each other, with ourselves.
Separation from God, knowing that we aren’t connected well, that we are outside of God’s gracious presence.
We grieve and mourn for what we’ve lost or are missing out on.
There is a sense of despair that we can’t get back, that we can’t fix it, that it’s all gone wrong.
We feel ashamed, knowing that we have dishonoured others, God, even ourselves.
It’s a fatal combination of symptoms that leads to our death. Without treatment it’s terminal.
The good news is that we do not have to leave it there. God doesn’t. I said earlier that one of the purposes of God’s word is for us to understand our condition, its symptoms and root causes. Which it is, but only for the purpose of helping us to see our need for healing, and to help us understand and take hold of that healing.
If Genesis 3 is a brief summary of all that can go wrong, then the beginning of Romans 5 is its matching pair, of how all those things can be healed and put right.
Let’s take them one at a time.
An action that changes the story, the direction of our lives, that we can’t undo, however much we regret. Adam and Eve ate the fruit. It was done, there was no undoing it. Or was there?
Paul writes, “we are justified”. What does that mean? There are all kinds of technical explanations of justification, but there are two fairly simple ones that seem to me to be most helpful.
The first is to do with type setting. When material is printed if can be left justified, so all the first letters on the left end of the lines of print line up down the page, or right justified, so you get a straight line down the right, or fully justified so both ends are straight lines down the page. So, justification lines everything up. It puts things back in alignment.
The second is a bit of a word play “justification” makes it “just as if I’d” never done it. Taking these two things together – justification means that I’m put right, aligned, with God – just as if I’d never sinned.
Conflict, with God, with each other, with ourselves.
Adam and Eve’s relationship with God was shattered and they fell out between themselves.
Paul writes, “We have peace with God.” Peace with God. There are a couple of different ways of reading this. The first is that we our relationship with God is one of peace, any conflict or dispute between us and God is resolved. We are no longer at odds, but are reconciled. That is a great gift. The second way of reading it flows from this peace.
“With God we have peace”. Because we are at peace with God, we have peace in ourselves, and with others. Our restored relationship with God enables us to be reconciled to ourselves and to others. We forgive as we are forgiven.
Separation from God, knowing that we aren’t connected well, that we are outside of God’s gracious presence.
Adam and Eve separated themselves from God – they hid from God. We hide from God. As a result they had to leave the garden.
Paul writes, “we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand,”
As Jesus died on the cross on the first Good Friday the curtain in the Temple, separating off the Holy of Holies, was torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He opens the way for us to stand in the presence of God once again, not having to hide, but walking with God in every garden – the garden of spring with its promise of life, the garden of summer with the fruit growing, the garden of autumn with its harvest and fading life, the garden of winter with its frosts and stillness. We can walk with God in the garden of grace again.
We grieve and mourn for what we’ve lost or are missing out on.
Adam and Eve went on their way with tears, knowing what they had lost.
Paul writes, “We rejoice”.
Rejoicing was a big one for Paul. He was forever instructing his readers to rejoice, or pointing out reasons for rejoicing. To be fair, he did lead by example.
On one occasion he was in prison in Philippi after being arrested for causing a disturbance when he freed a woman who was being oppressed by an unclean spirit. Beaten and chained in a cell he and his friend Silas were singing hymns to God when an earthquake came, shook the prison, and he was released. Even in suffering Paul rejoiced, not because the circumstances weren’t painful, or because he was in denial, but because he was able to see the deeper reality, and take joy in what he could see God doing, and in his renewed relationship with God.
There is a sense of despair that we can’t get back, that we can’t fix it, that it’s all gone wrong.
What is it that Paul writes that we rejoice in? “we rejoice in our hope”
Hope. The antidote to despair. Not the flimsy hope of unrealistic wishes, but the solid and grounded hope that is given to us by God. Hope that doesn’t disappoint us, because it is rooted in the love of God that we experience by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we celebrated at Pentecost last week, the Holy Spirit is now at work in the lives of every follower of Jesus, assuring us of God’s love for us and presence with us. We don’t experience it in all it’s fulness yet, that is why it is still hope, but there’s enough there for us to face the present and the future with positive expectation, with hope.
We feel ashamed, knowing that we have dishonoured others, dishonoured God, even dishonoured ourselves.
Adam and Eve knew themselves to be naked and tried to cover themselves. Their fig leaves became the lasting symbol of ineffective attempts to cover up embarrassing or shameful behaviour. They were ashamed.
What is that Paul writes that we have hope about? “we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God”
The glory of God. That is what we share in. In the early chapters of the book of the prophet Isaiah we read about a vision he had of the Temple and the glory of God. He is overwhelmed by the sight of God, high and lifted up, and the angelic beings worshipping God, and he cries out, “woe to me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
He is ashamed and his vision of God’s glory brings that shame to the surface. Then one of the angels takes a coal from the altar, touches Isaiah’s lips and says, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” God’s glory does two things to shame. It brings it to the surface and it burns it away. We are never more aware of our shame than when we look at the glory of God, and we are never freer from it than when the glory of God destroys it.
It may feel like our collection of physical ailments just keeps on increasing and that can be immensely frustrating. The good news is that the disease of our sin, all its root causes and symptoms have been dealt with by Jesus. Let us rejoice in the hope that this gives us, be freed from regret and shame, and live in the freedom and fulness of life that is ours in God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
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