Genesis 2:15-3 & Romans 5:11-17. Back to the Garden

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, Port Alberni BC, 28 July 2019 and 30 March 2025 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2019 version; to view the updated 2025 version, click here:

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2025/03/genesis-215-324-romans-511-18.html

 

Doctrine 5: We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

Doctrine 6: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

Doctrines 5 & 6 are an important expression of our understanding of Salvation and what Salvation is all about… getting back to the Garden. Last weekend we were blessed to be a part of the Summer Rain Evangelistic Crusade here. Reinhart, Krista, Maryanne and others worked very hard and long on this event. Thank you. It was a great success. We had 6 people ‘saved’ this weekend.

In the last session of the weekend, Major Stephen Court led us in some great little tracts from www.the4points.com that give us in point form what salvation is and why we need to be ‘saved’. This corresponds nicely to Doctrines 5 and 6 of The Salvation Army.

Point 1: God loves me: God loves us: he created us innocent, happy and pure (Doctrine 5)

Point 2: I have sinned: this is true, Doctrine 5, as a consequence of the actions of our first parents, Adam and Eve

Point 3: Jesus died for me. Doctrine 6, the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

Point 4: I need to decide to live for Jesus. It is neat that last weekend when we were all practicing sharing the gospel with each other in the stands that one person did decide to live for Jesus – so these are proven to be a good aid.

Today, like I said, we are going to look at doctrines 5 and 6. Doctrine 5 again:

We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

This is our doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely originating sin) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine, based upon our text today. Reading again from Genesis 2:15-18:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Genesis 3:1-6

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it

And Genesis 3:21-24:

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Some people have explained salvation in terms of trying to get back to the Garden. The idea of Salvation is certainly about people and even all of creation returning to our full and proper relationship with God our creator. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to the presence of the Tree of Life and of God Himself.

Some people have asked do we need to be restored. Why do we need to get back? Why are we punished for what Adam and Eve did? I never ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge; how come I suffer the consequences? I look at the consequences of Original Sin like this: Our lives are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our actual parents and their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden of Eden; therefore Cain, Abel, and Seth weren’t born in the Garden of Eden. I was born and Susan and I were raised on Vancouver Island here – like Adam and Eve were raised in the Garden. However Heather was born and our eldest two daughters were mostly raised off the Island. We left the Island before Sarah-Grace was one year old for our work with The Salvation Army. It wasn’t sin that caused us to move away – like it was with Adam and Eve –but our children had no more say over the fact that they were born and raised off the Island than Cain, Abel, and Seth did that they were born out of the Garden. As our children live with the results of our actions –both good and bad: a life of serving the Lord but also growing up without family nearby – so we all live with the results of our ancestors actions – not just moving from one place to another – but the results of all kinds of choices they made: our parents, our grandparents, and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. That is why and how we are suffering the consequences of originating sin.

Walter Bruggemann, one of the foremost OT scholars today, has noted that Adam and Eve’s perfect fear here cast out love (Genesis 3:10) and notes that as Jesus sets everything right, perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18-20).[1]          

The Bible also speaks about the way that we and our parents can return to perfect love, to the Garden. In Genesis 15, through the ceremony of the smoking firepot and the covenant with Abraham we are shown that God will give up His Life (through Jesus Christ) as a consequence of our transgressing our covenant with God and as this will lead to our salvation insofar as Jesus will take the punishment for our sin. [2]

Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army reads: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

In The New Testament we are told a little bit about this. A few people today have some scriptures to read for us:

·        Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

·        1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

·        Romans 5:6: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

·        Romans 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

·        1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Again:

§         Galatians 3:13 says he became a curse by dying on the cross

§         1 Peter 2:24 says that he bore our sins and we are healed

§         Romans 5:6 says that he who was righteous died for the unrighteous

§         Romans 5:17-18 says that Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciles us all; undoing Adam’s death and banishment.

§         1 John 2:2 says that his atonement was for the whole world, all of creation.[3]

And let me read from near the end of the Book of Books here. Let me read from close to the conclusion of the concluding book in this more than a Devine anthology. Revelation 22:1-5 speaks about at the end of our age when God will come down with/from Heaven in the New Jerusalem and there once again will be the Tree of Life, freely available to all of us:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse [like Paul said in Galatians]. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night [Jesus is the Light]. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Even though sin and death entered into the world through Adam and Eve and we have been living life outside of the garden,  Jesus is the light and he is returning and bringing in the new city, back with Him the Tree of Life from the Garden.

Do you want to reign with God forever? Do you want to be in this city, with the Tree from the Garden with no sin, no hate, no death, no deceit; where everyone is honest and loving and serving our Lord? Do you want to? You can. Salvation starts today and lasts forever.

Today, as you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and leader, you can be in the Garden, in the City of God. If you would like to live forever in this place, where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; where everyone is honest and loving and serving our Lord, you can. All you need to do is ask. Jesus has done the rest.

Let us pray.

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[1] Walter Bruggemann, Genesis (Interpretation: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982), p 53

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today, (Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm

[3] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 369.

John 1:1-18: The Life-Filled Word that Created Everything and More

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 14 July 2019. (Based on ‘Word Puzzles’ Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 10 April 2011) [a]

   

Doctrines 2-4 of TSA read as follows:

2. We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

3. We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

4. We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.

John 1:1-45 reads:

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome [or even understood] it.

These words open the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John is a letter probably written by the Apostle John sometime between 60-90 CE,[1] and as much as any other passage in the Bible speaks to one of the divinity of Christ and the Trinity through references to the ‘Word’ and the ‘Light’. Now John’s writing about the light and the Word here can be a little puzzling; so I thought that I would begin today with some word puzzles [2]:

Here are some one sentence clues to discover six mystery words:

1.      This word has every letter in our language in it; what is the word?

2.      This word contains many words but just one letter;

3.      This word is both queen and a capital;

4.      This word refers to both a Canadian citizen in general and a professional Vancouver hockey player in particular;

5.      This word is both a sharpened poll and a fish;

6.      This word is both an RCMP constable and a Salvation Army Captain;

7. Here is a ‘Who am I?’ word puzzle. There are 6 clues to find 1 word. Figure out the word if you can:

a.       It is in Port Alberni here,

b.      It is all over the world,

c.       You are it and you are in it,

d.      It is both people and a building,

e.       It is where people go on Sundays.

f.       It rhymes with perch.

This is the same sort of thing John is doing here at the beginning of this letter here…

a.                         In the beginning was this word, and

b.                         This word was with God, and

c.                         This word was God.”

He wants us to track with him closely as he reveals to us that Jesus is this ‘Word’. And he does give us a big clue right in the beginning…The hint is the phrase “In the beginning” This is neat. This letter, the Gospel of John, was written in Greek. Now, there is a very common ancient translation of the Old Testament with which the disciples were very familiar called ‘the Septuagint (LXX)’ which was also written in Greek. And the first Greek words of the creation story in Genesis are ‘En arche’/ ‘in the beginning’.[3] These are the very same words, in the very same language, that John chooses to start his book with.

I am going to play some theme songs and let me know if you can tell me what shows they are associated with…

1)      Suicide is Painless (Johnny Mandel and Michael Altman):

2)      I’ll be there for You (Rembrandts):

3)      William Tell Overture (Gioachino Rossini):

Now like we recognize theme songs to certain TV shows or movies, when the readers of John’s letter would encounter the words ‘in the beginning’, they would hear the theme song of Genesis 1:1 running through their heads again and again. And this is important – the WORD is there at creation and the WORD is with the creator, creating. John then goes on to make it abundantly clear that, Verses 3, ‘Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Verses 4: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” This WORD gave light to, created all of humanity. Not only that, but the psalms (104:29) even tells us that if He (that Spirit of God) is removed from us then we will all die. And Verse 5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome [or even understood] it. [5]” This light that comes from God cannot be overcome or even understood by darkness.

Verses 6-8: Now as we are reading this in Church today, we are all well aware that Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the Light of the World but in the first century some people who were even in and around the new growing Christian communities were not yet convinced. One such person that some may have thought this applied to was John the Baptist, thus Verses 6-8 and Verse 15 of Chapter 1:

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light… John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”

John, the author of this book tells us that John the Baptist who –even though he was dead long before the composition of this book, still had a lot of his own followers around- was not the light.

So John, the author has established a couple of things for us:

1)      The WORD was with God and is God who created and gave Life and the Light to all humanity [4]; and

2)      This Word, this Light is not John the Baptist; it is someone else.

Verses 9-11:

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Here as John reveals to us that the Light and the Word is Jesus, he tells us some important things about Him. Even though he made the whole world when he came to visit it, the world did not recognize him.

Next weekend Stephen Court is coming here. He is The Salvation Army’s Territorial Evangelism Consultant. We served with Steve and his wife Danielle Strickland when God used them to start 614 Vancouver, a corps in Vancouver’s DTES around the turn of the 21^st Century. Imagine if he poked his head in there unannounced on this visit and no one recognized him. That could happen. I have met many Officers who don’t have many at their old corps who remember them. Can you imagine if you invest all the time, heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears, into starting something (like a church or a business) – sacrificing much of or your whole life for it - and that something no longer recognizes you? Or more than this: we know many people who were taken from their parents when they were very young or who had their children taken from them. Can you imagine if you invested in your own child until they were a certain age and then you were separated and when you were able to return they didn’t know you? This is the scene painted before us today. Jesus, the Word who made the world and the Light who sustains the world, walked into the world and the world for the most part had no idea who he was.

Verses 14 and 12-13

John, the author then tells us some good news, Verse 14,

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. [And Verses 12 & 13:] “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Though the greater world did not and does not even yet recognize Jesus; some of us do, just as some of us did. And for those of us who do recognize our creator and sustainer and rely on Him to recreate and continue to sustain us, He gives us the honour of being children of God. Like an earthly father returning home from a war, long journey, or for some other reason a long time away, to a child who may not at first remember him, but when reintroduced loves and accepts his dad; so, the same with God; the same with Jesus.

  

Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is God; He is the Word and He is the Light and each and every one of us, John 1:16, “Out of his fullness we have all received grace.” So then the question for us today, 2000 years after the light came into the world, is ‘what do we do about it?’ If we know that the Word is Jesus and if we know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and if we understand that Jesus Christ is God, what are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about it? I think in that we only have two options after we realize that Jesus is God [6]:

1)      We decide this is 'fake news' nonetheless and still deny His divinity and His oneness with God and so sadly miss out on that amazing intimacy with God which He is offering to us; or

2)      We accept Jesus as our Saviour and we serve Him with our whole lives, experiencing forever the fullness of life that comes only from the grace and love of God

We can serve God forever and always and if any of us haven’t made that decision yet, what is stopping us? Next weekend is the Summer Rain Evangelism Crusade.  If you have any friends or family who are not yet experiencing the joy of life with Christ, bring them out; maybe as they hear the gospel, it will get ahold of their lives and transform them as only the Spirit of God can do.

And today here, at The Salvation Army, we have a Mercy Seat, where we can come and make our choice public to serve our Lord and Saviour forever or we can come and pray for the salvation of a loved one. If you –or a person close to you- have never made that commitment before or if you have any questions and would like to reaffirm that commitment to serve God today I invite you, in these next few moments as the piano continues to play, to come here, to the Mercy Seat, to pray.

Let us pray.

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[a] Michael Ramsay, “John 1:1-18: Word Puzzles.” John 1:1-18: Word Puzzles, Sheepspeak.com, 8 Apr. 2011, 10:40am, sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-11-18-word-puzzles.html.

[1] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 4), S. 24, 31

[2] Alphabet; Envelope; Regina or Victoria; Canuck; Pike; Officer; Church. The final answer is located near the end of the preach.

[3] Gerard Sloyan, John (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox Press, 1988), 14.

[4] Cf. Martin Luther’s comments on this phrase. Cited in R.C.H. Lenski, ‘The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel’, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), p. 33.

[5] Either translation is equally valid and neither translation alters the intent of the passage significantly. Cf. Gail O’Day, NIB IX: The Gospel of Luke, The Gospel of John. ‘John’, p.520.

[6] Doctrine 10: We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; Doctrine 11: We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked

Devotion 4.06/160: Hebrews 11:13-14: Wonderworks

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries Men's Breakfast, 13 July 2019, by Captain Michael Ramsay

When we were visiting Pigeon Forge, my youngest daughter was quite taken by a tourist attraction that we never did actually have the time to go into and look around. Wonderworks is an upside down building. It is that fact that really attracted her to it. I am sure we have seen similar buildings in Florida and Niagara.

What struck me, as relating to our Faith walk, is how much our world seems turned upside down. I don't know how many conversations I have had over the last few years with people who are just honestly confused. Things that were good when they were a kid are now considered bad, Things that were considered evil and now exalted. The popular view on some topics when I was a teenager, if anyone was to espouse it now they would be shunned. The world seems very much upside down.

As followers of Christ, we are always like that to some regard. The Christian message has always been a radical one: offering mercy in place of vengeance and forgiveness in place of hate. Loving God by loving your neighbour among other things. Healing and wholeness instead of retaliation and division. We know Christ's Kingdom of Forgiveness will come and many have died while still walking in faith only seeing this Kingdom in a distance. We still must walk in faith, mercy, forgiveness. As we do we will find that our lives seem upside down to many others. At Christ's return, we will see, however, that we are really the ones who were rightside up all along. At that time he will set everything right in His Kingdom to come.

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