Apprentice

In Part 1 I wrote about our built-in need for community and how loneliness is a universal pain because it robs us of the fellowship and community we were made to have. Part 2 will deal with the sin and how it ruins community and fellowship.

Back to Genesis and after the sin of Adam and Eve we witness a tragedy that still goes on today. Sin ruins fellowship.

Life before sin is one of happiness and contentment:

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:25 (ESV)

Compare that to what happened immediately after the sin:

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 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 b hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:7-8

The picture painted for us of life before sin is one of fellowship, innocence and contentment. Adam and Eve are completely open, no deceptions, no pretension, no needy striving to look perfect – they are quite literally naked, everything is open and that’s okay because they’ve never felt shame. When they sin however that vital link that they had with God that gave them their sense of security, contentment and value was severed and they felt shame and hid.

Fellowship is broken. Humanity is alone again, and this is not good. Adam and Eve have lost their peace because they have lost that vital link to God that they had before sin,. They feel wrong. For the first time in their lives they feel shame and they are not at peace with themselves. Now, the couple who had been so totally content that they could walk around naked and feel not a hint of embarrassment, fashion underpants out of leaves to cover up, hiding from themselves and from each other.

Upon hearing God in the garden they hide from Him too, as if one can hide from God. The Father who fashioned them, gave them life and everything they needed for peace, joy and security is not run to with open arms and happiness, but is run from out of shame. Fellowship is tragically broken, and not only are they not at peace with themselves, they are not at peace with the One they were made to enjoy fellowship with.

We see also that man and wife are no longer at peace with each other:

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:12-13

When Adam first saw Eve he recited poetry expressing that the longing he had for fellowship and companionship was met perfectly, he rejoiced. Now it’s all finger pointing and blaming. Adam blames his wife and there’s even a hint that this is God’s fault in his speech – “the woman whom you gave to be with me” (my emphasis).

Sin shattered the beautiful picture of God and His people living together in harmony, totally happy, comfortable, secure. In order to restore this picture sin must be done away with so that we can be united again with God and with each other. God dwelling with His people. So God set about to do away with sin and restore fellowship

In the midst of this disaster there is the glimmer of hope that the early church called the protoevangellium:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.

This is God speaking to the serpent (who represents Satan in this story) and he announces that one day a descendant of Eve will defeat him. He will be hurt in the process but He will defeat Satan. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament we are looking for and being pointed towards this Hero and we find Him, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament. Jesus is the Hero who came to fix things, to defeat sin and death and restore our fellowship with God and each other, taking the pain and damage onto Himself so that we would no longer be separated from God. He was hurt, but He prevailed. In the next installment we’ll look at the church that Jesus founded and the roll this has to play.

Hopefully I’ve gotten across that if God is going to fix things then the restoration of fellowship and community plays an important part in that. The Gospel is not just that we can be forgiven, that we can be let off the hook, it is also the wonderful news that we orphans can be adopted. Because of what Jesus has done for us through his death on the cross we can be children of God. God is fashioning a new humanity, a new family and we can be part of that, with that vital link between us and God restored so that we can now have peace again; peace with God and with one another in Christ.