The Image of God Fallen

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 72:18-19
• Hymn — Blessed Be the Lord Our God
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — John 3:16
• Confession of Faith (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 5)
• Scripture Reading — Ezra 7:11-28
• Hymn — O Father, You Are Sovereign
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Preparation
• Hymn — God Be Merciful to Me
• Sermon
• Hymn — Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14
• Doxology

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Sermon Title: The Image of God Fallen

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-13

I. The Source of the Image of God Fallen

A. The serpent is introduced as the tempter, but he is not the ultimate source of sin

1. Jesus calls Satan the "father of lies" in John 8:44
2. James 1:14-15 gives the most concise definition of sin: temptation draws out the desire already within the heart; desire conceived gives birth to sin; sin fully grown brings death
3. The source of sin is the heart of man — Satan merely draws out what is already there

B. Satan distorts God's word

1. He begins with an absurd exaggeration: "Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree?" (Genesis 3:1)
2. Eve engages with the distortion, signaling that the bait has been taken

C. Eve compounds the distortion of God's word

1. She exaggerates the prohibition by adding "neither shall you touch it" — the first Pharisee, adding to God's law
2. She omits the name of the tree
3. She minimizes the penalty: God said "you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17) — the Hebrew doubles the word die; Eve reduces it to a single die
4. She minimizes the privilege: God said "you may surely eat" (Genesis 2:16) — again a Hebrew doubling; Eve reduces it to a single eat
5. Minimizing privilege and minimizing penalty always go together

D. Satan's deeper tactic: making man the autonomous arbiter of truth

1. Satan, ironically, quotes God's word more accurately than Eve (v. 4)
2. Eve is placed on the bench as judge; God is placed in the dock (C.S. Lewis)
3. Satan's goal is not to make outright Satan-worshipers but to convince humanity of its own autonomy — that each person can reason through God's word independently and decide what is acceptable
4. The fall stems from questioning whether the bare, unadorned word of God is sufficient — not the word clothed in rationalism, scientific reasoning, or Enlightenment thought
5. For fallen man, God speaks as creature and man speaks as creator

II. The Shame of the Image of God Fallen

A. The contrast with Genesis 2:25 is stark

1. "They were both naked and were not ashamed" — the finished masterpiece of creation
2. Genesis 3:7 demands grief: the beauty is now tainted with darkness and shame

B. Sin entered; shame entered simultaneously

1. Adam is described in 1 Corinthians 11:7 as "the image and glory of God" — glory (Hebrew kavod) means heavy; his fall produces a cosmic boom felt by all creation
2. G.K. Chesterton: only man can be absurd, for only man can be dignified — from honor and dignity to absurdity, from freedom to slavery

C. Adam and Eve make loin cloths — the first human act of making

1. The Hebrew word for make echoes the creation account of Genesis 1
2. God's order: God speaks → God makes → God sees that it is good
3. Sin reverses the order: Eve questions the word → Eve sees that it is good → Eve makes what covers what God declared good

D. Sin is completely and utterly backwards

1. Man who was to rule over land animals (Genesis 1:28) is now ruled by one
2. Adam who named the serpent in authority over it now bows down to it
3. Scripture uses many words for sin — transgression, iniquity, sin, evil, wicked, filthy, unclean — because sin is dynamically filthy in the same way Christ is dynamically beautiful
4. Shame is equally dynamic: it clings, it varies, it dominates fallen humanity
5. Fallen humanity continues to fashion loin cloths — autonomy, success, silence, isolation, bitterness, anger, sexual sin, alcohol — to cover shame

III. The Seal of the Image of God Fallen

A. God summons Adam and Eve to his judicial bench (Genesis 3:8-13)

1. The formal judgments on all three parties follow in vv. 14-19
2. Notably, God shifts from second person plural (serpent–Eve exchange) to second person singular, summoning Adam alone
3. The prohibition was given to Adam alone (Genesis 2:17) before Eve was made — Adam was the original prophet, to pass God's word to Eve; instead, Eve passed him the forbidden fruit

B. God's question is a gracious opportunity to repent

1. "Where are you?" — God is omniscient; like a father giving his child a chance to confess
2. The model response would have been Psalm 51:4: "Against you, and you only, have I sinned; your judgments are true and just"

C. Adam and Eve respond with blame-shifting, sealing humanity in total depravity

1. Adam: "The woman whom you gave to be with me — she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" — the man who sang a love song to his bride (Genesis 2:23) now deflects blame onto her and onto God
2. Eve: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate" — the first words from each reveal the pattern: the woman / the serpent
3. Even when confronted by the sovereign King, they remain autonomous and self-ruled
4. Adam, once a vice-regent king, now behaves like a narcissistic king — hand caught in the cookie jar, he says "not me, you"

D. Sin is not a small mistake but a hardened, confirmed, and sealed rebellion

1. A set-in-stone, backward, twisted revolt against the one who made us in his image for his glory
2. All fallen humanity — religious and secular — responds by attempting to work its way back into the garden; every such system is a works-righteousness paradigm
3. This proves the serpent still has humanity's ear: "It's not that bad. You don't need Christ alone. You can attain the heights of God on your own."
4. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is the only answer

E. Two and only two options for every person

1. Remain in Adam, serving the serpent
2. Come to Christ by faith alone and in the power of the Spirit serve God
3. "Choose this day whom you will serve"