For 2 days, 2 hours, and 10 minutes in August 2006 a Croatian named Veljko Rogosic swam, without stopping, 139.8 miles across the Adriatic Sea from Grado, Italy, to Riccione. It was the longest distance ever swum without flippers in the open sea. When he finished they gave him an appropriate nickname, “King of Cold Water”.
Years ago, before I left my 40s, I played basketball every
Thursday night at a local elementary school. For 3 years, every week, I was
known as Doug. I had total anonymity beyond the basketball court. Then it
happened. One night one guy said to another, “You know who he is? He’s the
senior pastor of Hebron Church.” However, by that time, my identity as “one of
the guys” was finally fixed, so there was no shunning or raised eyebrows. But I
did begin noticing some minor differences.
One night, a guy came into the gym having just heard of an
arrest in the upper Midwest. The news reported that the authorities had been
tracking the killer for months. They had suspected him of a series of murders, but
when they arrested him they were shocked to find more victims than they had
previously suspected. Under the floorboards of his house, were a number of
mutilated bodies wrapped in plastic bags.
As my fellow hoopster was putting on his sneakers, he looked
at me and said, “How could such a thing ever happen? What would cause a guy to
do something like that?” The continuity of his stare made it clear that these
weren’t rhetorical questions. He wanted an answer. So I said to him, “Are you
shocked by this news?” He said, “You bet I am. I can’t believe someone could do
this!” I said, “Well, frankly, I’m surprised that it doesn’t happen more
often.” He was stunned. “What are you talking about?” he said. I said, “The
human heart is deceitful and corrupt beyond all things, to the point that none
of us can ever really know what’s in our hearts. The truth is, without the
grace of God, any one of us is capable of everything that guy did and more.
That’s why Jesus says, ‘It’s not what goes into a man that corrupts him, but
what comes out of his heart.’ You see, without God’s grace, common and
particular, every one of us could be that guy. I know I could.” As I spoke he
just stared at me. When I finished he said, “That’s deep, man, really deep.” I
said, “It’s true, man, really true.”
Now why could I say that? On what grounds could I turn the
tables on him, saying, in effect, your surprise is misplaced? Genesis 3. We
live in a world that assumes grace. We live in a world that believes that
everybody’s good, except for a few bad actors. Nothing could be further from
the truth and Genesis 3 tells us so. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 3:
“None is righteous,
no, not one;
No one understands;
No one seeks for God.
All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
No one does good,
Not even one.”
Where does he get that? Genesis 3. You see, the problem we
have is our standard of judgment. We like to compare ourselves to others,
especially those we believe are inferior to us. But the Bible never allows
that. God’s measure is not horizontal, it’s vertical. The difference in the
condition of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 and 3 is day and night.
Think of it. If Mr. Rogosic, the “King of Cold Water”, was
dropped off in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and told to swim to safety, he
could clearly go a lot further than you, but never far enough. He could never
save himself. Neither can you. The testimony of Genesis 3 is that unless God
does all the saving, from beginning to end, we’re sunk. Where do we see that
for the first time? Genesis 3.
This Sunday, in a message entitled, “Forbidden Fruit”, we
are going to dig in to all of this. In preparation you may wish to consider the
following:
1. What is the heart of the serpent’s challenge in verse 1?
2. What does Eve affirm in verses 2 & 3?
3. What is the ground of the temptation in verses 4 & 5?
4. What did Eve’s heart tell her in verse 6?
5. What was it that they discovered in verse 7 that they didn’t
know before that?
6. Why the fig leaves?
7. Why is their reaction to their condition the same as ours?
8. What do verses 15 and 21 tell us about our ability to undo
what sin has done?
9. How is our sin like Satan’s sin? (See Isaiah 14:12-15 and
Ezekiel 28:12-19)
10. How is Genesis 3 the heart of the Gospel?
See you Sunday!
