The King’s English

Click for source

Genesis 3:7,21

It’s a cover-up for something shameful.  But it’s hasty and inadequate.  That’s “fig leaves” in the popular understanding.  And it’s precisely the meaning of fig leaves in Genesis 3.

An hour earlier, Adam and Eve were walking around Paradise as king and queen.  They were naked and unashamed.

But the minute they eat the forbidden fruit, sin and shame enter their world and this brings a third power hot on its heels – fear.  Such fear drives them to something that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.  They sew fig-leaves together to make coverings for themselves.  Hasty and inadequate in the extreme.

When they ate from the tree they invited death, broke their friendship with God, forged an alliance with Satan, and unleashed chaos and curse on creation.  Fig leaves were not going to solve their problem!

Their paltry coverings are as ridiculous as their attempt to hide from the LORD in His own garden.  Fig leaves are fear-driven attempts to deal with the problem of shame and guilt.  But they are ridiculous.

Interestingly the Quran also has a story of Adam and Eve’s fall.  In Sura 7:26, Allah has a solution to the inadequacy of the fig leaves.  He tells the couple that the best covering they can strive for is “piety”.  They should clothe themselves in good deeds.

But in the Bible “piety” – our own moral efforts – cannot be the solution to our inadequate coverings.  Our moral efforts are the inadequate covering.  As Isaiah the prophet will say later, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

Human morality is not the answer.  Human morality is a fig leaf on fallen man – a vain attempt to cover our shame and reverse the curse.  The solution is not to clothe ourselves in good deeds.  The true solution is modelled in Genesis 3:21:

the LORD God made coats of skins, and clothed them.

The LORD determined that our covering would not be something we produce.  It would be the gift of the LORD.  And it would be through the death of another that we are clothed.  Blood would be shed.  An animal that did not deserve death would be sacrificed to cover those who did.

And in this way the true covering is modelled.

God does not want us to sew together the paltry fig-leaves of do-good-ery.  He wants us to receive a perfect and enduring covering:

Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 13:14)

Click for source

Proverbs 16:18; Isaiah 14:12-15

There’s something so fitting about an arrogant fool cut down to size.

—  The Bond villain declaring “I am invincible” seconds before his grisly death.

—  The cocky athlete slowing down for the cameras and then tripping before the finish line.

—  The deluded despot, overstretched and finally overthrown.

At these times we love to quote from Proverbs:

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.  (Proverbs 16:18)

Usually we just abbreviate it to “pride goeth before a fall.”

But there’s one scenario this phrase describes better than any other – the fall.  The fall of humanity.

Because in Genesis chapter 3 we see the ultimate pride and the ultimate fall.

In verse 1 the serpent appears on the scene.  The prophet Ezekiel assures us that he was not wicked when he was placed in the garden (Ezekiel 28:14-15).  What we see in Genesis 3 is not only the couple’s fall but also the serpent’s.  Genesis 3 is the fall of both men and angels.  It was in fact an alliance of earth and heaven against God.

Isaiah 14 puts the serpent’s desire brilliantly:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.  (Isaiah 14:12-14)

To be with the Most High was not enough.  Lucifer desires to be like Him – as a competitor.

And this desire is precisely what the serpent tempts the couple with.  When they eat the forbidden fruit he promises, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).

That was an offer too good to refuse.  So the couple trust Satan’s words over the LORD’s.  The alliance is formed.  They raise themselves up.  And the ultimate fall awaits.

Well, perhaps not.  Perhaps we shouldn’t call Genesis 3 the ultimate fall.  Because there has been an even greater climb-down than this.  And from an even higher throne.

Yet how utterly different is Jesus Christ to all this!

– We went from nothing to dust to delusions of grandeur.
– He went from eternal glory to flesh to crucifixion.

– We amounted to nothing and laid claim to everything.
– He had everything and made Himself nothing.

– Our come-down was deserved.
– His come-down was deliberate.

– Our uprising was demonic.
– His uprising was divine.

– Our story is self-exaltation then humbling.
– His story is self-humbling then exaltation.

– Our pride brought the fall.
– His humility brought salvation.

“Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:5-11)

Click for source

Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-5

Just the phrase ‘forbidden fruit’ makes our mouths water.  And that fact tells us everything we need to know about the kind of humanity we have inherited.

“Forbidden fruit” is not a phrase directly from the Bible but it has become a shorthand to refer to “the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17).  This was the one tree from which humanity was not to eat.

The LORD had said:

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat (Genesis 2:16)

But there is one exception.  One tree.

There weren’t any maps with “out of bounds” areas marked in red.  There were no commandments nailed to trees.  No lengthy presentations from human resources, no health and safety videos to watch.  Just one tree off limits.

It’s very common to re-imagine the God of the garden as a petty Law-maker.  But the atmosphere of the garden was not law, but freedom, fruitfulness and fellowship.

You might ask, Why have even one boundary?  Well imagine if there was nothing forbidden at all.  There would be no opportunity for humanity to express either trust or mistrust of the LORD.  With the tree there is such an opportunity.  But only one.

So, what did this forbidden fruit represent?

This was the issue: would humanity leave knowledge of good and evil to God, or would they grasp it for themselves?

But perhaps you’re thinking, what’s so wrong about grasping this knowledge?

Well, think for a second about “knowledge” in the biblical sense.

We will soon consider that evocative phrase from Genesis 4, “Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived.”  “Knowing” is a deeply relational term.  Adam took Eve to himself in a profound union.  That’s the sense of “know” in the Bible.

So what does it mean for Adam and Eve to “know” good and evil?  It means taking the terms “good and evil” to themselves – being in a profound relationship with “good and evil” as possessors of those concepts.  Essentially it means playing God, making the ultimate declarations of right and wrong.

So actually Adam and Eve weren’t brave rebels fighting a petty Law-maker.  They weren’t overturning legalism with their sin – they were buying into it.  They were grasping at law-making themselves.

To put it in the kinds of terms the Apostle Paul would speak in, they bought into self-justification (“justification” is the declaration that someone is good/righteous/just).

The LORD in His kindness wanted to keep declarations of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in His hands.  But, insanely, we wanted such declarations in our own power.

From this point onwards, the children of Adam have borne a heavy burden.  Adam’s race carries goodness and evilness on our own shoulders, as our own doing.

And we see its dreaded results in Genesis 3.  All that hiding, all that shame, all that fear, self-justifying and blame-shifting – it’s all the natural outcome of a humanity that takes ‘good’ and ‘evil’ into its own possession.

There were very good reasons why this fruit should be forbidden.  Such a burden is not for man.  Or at least, not this man.  But when Christ was “born of a woman, born under law” (Galatians 4:4), He did take this burden onto Himself.

As true Man and true God He could ‘know good and evil’.  The yoke fit.  And He carried it to His own tree.  There the Righteous Man took the Evil verdict.  And He tasted that long-threatened death.  But He rose again to give us His Good verdict.

Good and Evil is known by Man, but it’s safe in the hands of Christ.

Therefore, humanity is divided into two.  Some continue to follow Adam and the forbidden tree.  They take heaven’s verdict into their own hands.  And shame, curse and death is the result.

But there’s another way.  There’s another Man with another tree.  And He’s the One we need to ‘know’.  Then we can leave our verdict, our judgements, our shame, our curse and our death entirely with Him.

Click for source

Genesis 2:24; Ephesians 5:21-33

There are three prominent prepositions used about Adam and Eve in Genesis 2.  For, From, and To.  She is for him.  From him.  Then brought to him.

Which means the whole thing is heading towards a fourth preposition.  And I’m afraid I can’t avoid all the connotations of this next word, but let’s hold our breath and be as grown up as possible.  No sniggering…

The whole thing is heading towards in.  Consummation will mean union.  They become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

Shakespeare’s Iago may have called it “the beast with two backs” but in Scripture there’s nothing beastly about it.  Here is the glory of humanity in consummation.  They were made male and female and intended precisely for such oneness.

This unity is not monstrous or demeaning.  The two do not lose their distinctives in this union.  In fact this union preserves and upholds their distinctions.  Sex makes sexes.

Their one-ness does not come at the cost of their differences.  This is a one-ness that depends upon deep differences and which doesn’t dissolve those differences.  Instead it’s a oneness of intimacy and love.

This word for “one”, which the Authorized Version translates, is the same word used to describe God’s oneness.  “The LORD our God is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Again, this is not a oneness that crowds out distinctives.  There is plenty of room in this one-ness for distinct Persons – but Persons who are bound together from all eternity in love.  This is the one-ness of God, a one-ness that affirms and upholds the delightful distinctions and roles of the Father, Son and Spirit.  God is one because God is love.  And God is love because God is trinity.  So Adam and Eve’s oneness tells us about the oneness of God.

But more personally for us, Adam and Eve’s oneness tells us about our oneness with Christ.

The Apostle Paul quotes this verse about ‘one flesh’ and he says:

This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.  (Ephesians 5:32)

Genesis 2:24 is meant to teach us about our union with Christ.  It is not a moral union, as though our oneness consists in ethical conformity to Christ.  It is a union of covenant faithfulness.  It is a union in which our distinctives are not abolished but affirmed.  It is a union of delight.  It is a union of love.  And it is a union of being.

Those united to Jesus are one flesh with Him.  Bone of His bones, flesh of His flesh.  We are the body, He is the Head.  We are so close that we are in fact “in” Him.  And you can’t get closer than in.

The Christian has not just come into some gospel privileges.  We are brought into Christ’s very Person.  Unbreakably and immovably.  We are one with our Lord, now and forevermore.

Genesis 2:25; 3:6-13

Genesis chapter 2 is a very common wedding text.  And then at the rehearsal the minister has to coach a blushing bridesmaid through the final verse of the reading.  Gulping, they exclaim, “Is this really in the Bible?!”

“They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”  (Genesis 2:25)

It just goes to show how very fallen we are.  What was so natural and liberating in the garden feels too embarrassing to even name in church.

It sounds so foreign – nakedness with no shame.  For most people, being naked before others is the stuff of nightmares.  We hate the idea of being so exposed.  We want to cover up.  And even if we’re all by ourselves we feel our nakedness.  It’s rare to be naked and not be very aware that we’re naked.

Not so for Adam and Eve.  While they were in innocence they didn’t even know they were naked.  “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” asks the Lord in chapter 3 after they’ve sinned.  Before they sinned they were just themselves.  They had no concept of lacking anything.  What is “naked” when clothes don’t exist?  What is “exposed” when you’ve got nothing to hide?

But then, once sin enters in, their very atmosphere is hiding.  Immediately they hide from one another and the Lord.  Immediately they sew together coverings.  That’s what clothes are – portable hiding places.  And they sew them out of fig leaves.  Fig leaves! Let’s hope they had a good moisturizer!

It’s ridiculous.  But it’s so recognizable.

There’s a story that Arthur Conan Doyle once sent a telegram to 12 London gentlemen as a joke.  The telegram read “Flee, all is revealed.”  Immediately 6 of them left the country.

We are deeply afraid of exposure.  This fear is driven by shame and since Adam’s sin, it’s been the drum-beat of fallen humanity.  Sin → Shame → Fear → Hiding.  We run around planet earth hiding ourselves from God and each other.  Both physically and emotionally we work hard at concealing our ugliness and adorning our best features.

We’re afraid of our defences being stripped away.  We fear to bare our souls.  We may shrink back in ‘shyness’, or we may step forwards under the cover of humour, intelligence, looks, good manners, etc.  But being naked and unashamed?

Could we ever step out of our hiding places and find freedom from these fear-bound, shame-driven urges?  Could we ever be seen by the LORD and others and know complete rest and acceptance?

Well in Genesis 3, the LORD does something shocking.  He clearly doesn’t think the fig leaves are adequate coverings.  So He makes His own.  From skins (v20).  Animals had to die.  Blood had to be shed.  And humanity is clothed in the sacrifice of another.

All this was modelling a deeper truth.  The Apostle Paul speaks of Christians having clothed themselves with Christ (e.g. Galatians 3:27).  Rather than hide in morality, religious observance, busyness, comfort, pleasure-seeking, achievement, fame, worthy causes, etc, etc, – the Christian is hidden in Christ.  We no longer seek to be known for our achievements but His; not our life but His death; not our shame but His glory.

Once we give up our own coverings and “put on Christ” we can know tremendous freedom.  Christ Himself covers over our sin and shame.  This is not a man-made covering.  This is the LORD Himself offering to be my hiding place.

And once we grasp this, we can know true freedom.  We can step out of our little hiding places – where we rob God and the world of our presence.  We can stop dancing to the beat of fear.  Instead we have Christ, the ultimate covering, who goes with us wherever we are.  And, most importantly, who looks very good in the eyes of God Most High.

Confident in this covering, we’re enabled to be honest about our sin.  With Jesus, we can be ‘naked’ before God and before trusted Christian friends.  No more shrinking away from God and others.  No more self-justifying, no more mask-wearing.

Transparency.  Openness.  Naked but not ashamed.  Glory!

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.  (Isaiah 61:10)

Click for source

Genesis 2:24; Psalm 63

It’s no accident that the key verbs of Genesis 2:24 rhyme.  The King James translation was written to be read aloud.  They would have been glad to find a rhyme that so naturally arises from the Hebrew.  And certainly preachers for the last four centuries have enjoyed the fact that their sermons on marriage can have rhyming points – couples leave and they cleave:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

But here’s something odd.  Who is it doing the leaving and the cleaving?

Think about it – Adam is the original and Eve is the late-comer.  Eve is made for Adam.  Therefore you might think that verse 24 should be the other way around.  Surely she should be the one to leave and cleave.  Surely she needs to make the sacrifices and join him in his kind of life.  Surely she needs to ensure she’s holding fast to him.

But the verse puts the obligations on Adam.  He needs to leave his old family and he needs to cleave to his wife.

This word ‘cleave’ is often used in the Bible to describe how body parts stick together – like the way skin ‘cleaves’ to bone.  How appropriate, since Eve is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.  Now he ‘cleaves’ to her like she’s his own body.  Actually she is.

But this is the uniting power of the marriage.  And it’s primarily Adam’s role to cleave.  It is his resolve to unite to his wife that determines the marriage.

So it is with Christ and His bride – the church.  He is the One who leaves Family – the Father and Spirit.  And He is the One who cleaves to His people.  It is ultimately His sacrifice and His determination to ‘cleave’ that is decisive.

That is so important when we think of our relationship to Him.

Sometimes our relationship to Christ feels like what the Psalmist describes here as he addresses the LORD:

My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.  (Psalm 63:8)

Sometimes we follow hard after the LORD.  But then again, sometimes our souls feel dry, our ‘following’ strays and our grip on the LORD seems weak indeed.  Our cleaving to the LORD waxes and wanes.

But here’s the bottom line: His right hand upholds me.  Whatever ups and downs we feel, our hope lies in His enduring love.

If we’ve come to Jesus to be joined to Him, this is what we need to know: It’s His cleaving to us that upholds our union, now and forever.

Genesis 2:18-25

“Spare Rib” was a feminist magazine launched in 1972.  Its title was a defiant play on the account of Eve’s creation in Genesis 2.   ‘Woman is far more than a spare rib’, was the message.

And the Bible would agree.  Eve’s origins are far more exalted than Adam’s.  He came from dirt!  She was dust twice refined as Matthew Henry, the 17th century Bible scholar, put it.

And the progression of creation is very revealing.  The climax is Eve.  From plants, to fish and birds, to land creatures, to man… to woman. Man may be the head of creation, but woman is the crown!  She is not only included in the divine image but necessary to it.

And her creation from the man’s side was a wonderful testimony to Eve’s equality with Adam.  As Matthew Henry went on to say:

“Eve was not taken from Adam’s head that she should rule over him, nor from his feet, to be trampled under foot, but she was taken from his side that she might be his equal, from under his arm that she might be protected by him, near his heart, that he might cherish and love her.”

The background to Eve’s creation is Genesis 2:18:

The LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

Adam needs companionship and help.  He needs another alongside him – his complement.  More than this, he needs her because he can’t do what he’s supposed to. “Helper” means Adam is inadequate.  And it’s a term that is most commonly used of God in the Bible.  It’s not at all intended to be diminutive.

And so a bride is created for Adam.

But the way she’s created is quite incredible.  Remember that this is paradise.  This is before sin, curse and death have entered the world.  Nevertheless, to create a bride, Adam must go down into a death-like sleep.  Great violence will be done to him.  His side will be pierced.  And from him will come another – his complement, his bride.  Then he is raised up and brought together with her in a time of praise, singing and consummation.

This is what it takes for the man to get a bride.

And of course the whole thing is a preview of Christ and His bride, the church.  Even before sin, the gospel is preached.

It is not good for The Man – Jesus – to be alone.  God the Father desires the very best for His Son – a wife, a bride to share life with.  But the creation of the bride will be costly.  Christ must have violence done to Him.  His side is pierced.  He goes down into death, but rises up again new to be united to His people.

And we look forward to the consummation – the marriage feast when there will be much praise and singing.

Click for source

Genesis 2:4-7

What does dirt have to do with deity?  Quite a bit actually.

Here’s our verse for the day:

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  (Genesis 2:7)

It doesn’t get any more earthy than ‘the dust of the ground’.  Genesis is asking us to imagine the LORD God with dirt under His fingernails, so to speak.

There’s no “Let there be a man” here.  Instead it’s hands-on.  So obviously this isn’t the Father we’re speaking of.  This is definitely the Eternal Son since no-one has seen the Father (see John 1:18; Colossians 1:15).  This is Christ before He became dust.  Here he sketches out the humanity He would later assume.  Christ is the Potter, Adam is the clay.

But it’s not even as dignified as ‘clay’, or even ‘mud’.  Instead it’s ‘dust.’  So fragmentary.  And so quickly blown away.  It’s the sense of ‘easy come easy go’.  Plenty more where that came from.

He is dust.  More than that, he is dust of the ground.  Adam is very connected to the earth.  He is made of earth.  Adam has not been flown in by the angels to trouble-shoot in this new-frontier start-up called earth.  The man who will have dominion won’t just stand over the earth, he will be earth.

Here is the man of dust springing up from the ground – just like the trees soon will (Genesis 2:9).  It’s another indication that humanity is a crop.

And yet, notice what happens to this very terrestrial, horticultural, ephemeral pile of dirt – Christ the LORD breathes into his nostrils the breath of life.

The earth-creature is blessed by heaven.  No other creature is formed like this or breathed into like this.  No other creature has their earthiness or their spirituality highlighted in such a way.  In man there is an intersection of creation’s two great realms.

Throughout Genesis chapter 1 the stage was being set.  The heavens and the earth were prepared.  And now at centre-stage stands man – moulded from the earth, kissed by heaven.

Here is man face-to-face with the Hands-On God, freely receiving life from his Lord.  This is man in intimate fellowship with God and, at the same time, at the pinnacle of creation.  He sums up the earth and the whole crop of humanity in himself.

Here at the intersection of heaven and earth lies the operating system of the world.  Whatever happens to this man in his relationship to God will happen to all reality.

When this man turns from the LORD, everything falls apart.

But, take heart.  When Christ takes Adam’s flesh He will turn man back to God… and then, the whole world is raised up and set to rights.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

Jesus makes sense of man.  He is the true intersection of heaven and earth.  Yet He invites us to share in His life and status.  What incredible honours are lavished on us, the creatures of dust!

Click for source

Genesis 2:7-8; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23

Let’s think about two modern sayings where ‘Adam’ features.

We say “as old as Adam” when we mean ancient.  And, at least whenever I use it, it has the connotation of intransigent.  If there’s a stubborn fact of existence and if it has ever been thus, it’s “as old as Adam.”  Frustrations with work, the battle of the sexes, in-growing toenails – as old as Adam.

When it’s used in that sense, there are overtones of blame being laid on Adam too.  Which, I guess is appropriate.  He is the ultimate fall-guy after all.

There’s another common phrase: “He doesn’t know me from Adam.”  It means “he doesn’t know me at all.”  You could say “he doesn’t know me from a sack of potatoes.”  But it’s interesting that “Adam” is the one we’d like to be distinguished from isn’t it?  A stranger needs to know my difference from Adam.  But right now I might as well be Adam to this person.

I find that fascinating.  Because in the Bible, Adam is both ancient and universal.

‘Adam’ is the Hebrew for man.  And we could think of his name denoting three things:

‘a man’ – a real and actual human being

‘Adam’ – his personal name.  That particular man who did those particular things.

‘man’ – in general.  Humanity itself.

Adam is 1) a member of the human race, 2) a particular person, but also, 3) he is humanity.

Think about it.  At the head of everyone’s family tree stands Adam.  As we’ll see, even Eve comes from Adam.  We all find our origin in this one fountainhead.  Trace us back to the source and we’ll find the whole human race comprehended in Adam.

Watching Adam walk around the garden is therefore watching humanity walking around the garden.

To put it in language we’ve already considered, he is the original tree who bore bad fruit.  And I am from his seed.  All the genealogies of the Bible could be re-written: Adam begat Adam begat Adam – all after his own kind.

Therefore there’s a deep sense in which you won’t know me from Adam.  Because I am Adam.  He is the human race.  And I’m a chip off the old block.

Now if Adam lived in righteousness and joy before the LORD, this would be good news.  All is well with the world when Man is rightly related to God.  But there’s bad news.

We’ll explore this next week, but in Genesis 3 Adam becomes estranged from the life of God.  He becomes like a Christmas tree – perhaps vibrant for a while but cut off from the Source, devoid of life and decaying by the minute.  You can dress it up with all kinds of decorations but it’s not going to last.  And we all know what happens to such trees.

Yet, by nature, all of us share in that humanity.  We are born into that kind of human life.  Flourishing for a moment but soon to perish apart from our Life-Source.

Step forward the true Man.

Jesus Christ is described as another Adam.  He is “the Last Adam” to answer the first (1 Corinthians 15:45).  And He is

a member of the human race;

that particular man who did those particular things, and

humanity itself.

The true Man takes on our humanity and lives our life before God in true righteousness and joy.  He stands at the Head of another kind of life. Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded. This Man then offers us His humanity to share in.  We can be grafted into Him.

We were born once in Adam, but Jesus invites us to be born again into His kind of human life.

Ultimately there’s only two kinds of human being.  Adam-people and Christ-people.  If we’ve never come to Christ to share in His life then, no matter how we’ve “decorated” our lives, we share Adam’s life, Adam’s status and Adam’s fate.

But anyone who comes to Christ for new life is immediately adopted into something astounding: we share in Christ.  In Christ Himself. The Bible calls us a part of His very body!  And we have, right now, Christ’s life, Christ’s status and Christ’s fate.  Alleluia!