Designed for Goodness: Who Told You That?
Focus: We fall into misshapen identities and become tortured souls when we do not allow God to define us. Jesus wants to cover us in ways that nothing else can.
Who Told You That?
The Blame Game
Covered By God
Who Told You That?
Learning to distinguish between beliefs that you maintain that were established by God versus absorbed by the world is key to walking in freedom in Christ.
Genesis 3:6-11 ESV
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 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 hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Who told you that?
When the serpent tempted Eve, he did so based on the fact that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was:
Good for food
A Delight to the Eyes
To Be Desired to Make One Wise
There was nothing inherently wrong with Adam and Eve’s nakedness.
Their perception of it began to change and become distorted after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, taking moral autonomy into their own hands.
They fell out of the good identity, security and peace of God that comes from trusting in Yahweh’s divine wisdom that is unique to him as Creator.
”Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
-St. Augustine, Confesssions
The beliefs that you absorb can be distorted by the enemy’s influence in the world and can be wide ranging affecting how you relate with:
God
Your Relationships with Others (Who am I if I’m unattached? Who am I as defined by my family, colleagues and friends?)
Your Idea of Success (What must I achieve to be important?)
Your Work (i.e. - What is satisfying work and a job worth doing?)
Money (How much is ever enough?)
Your Pursuit of a Meaningful Life
We need to learn to believe the report of the Lord.
"The great church father Augustine taught that true freedom is not choice or lack of constraint, but being what you are meant to be. Humans were created in the image of God. True freedom, then, is not found in moving away from that image but only in living it out. The closer we conform to the true image of God, Jesus Christ, the freer we become. The farther we drift from it, the more our freedom shrinks."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/october/bonds-of-freedom.html
God comes and asks Adam and Eve:
Who told you that you were naked?
It’s an important question for us all on various topics.
Who told you that?
For example: Who told you that about marriage?
As opposed to the confusion in the world today, marriage that God ordains is between a man and a woman, which was meant to be complete, complementing and good.
Adam forsook his headship role in covering and leading while Eve forsook her priestly role in going to God for clarification, to fortify her trust in the battle.
What resulted was the fall with sin entering the world and us reeling from the results ever since.
Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves for themselves to try to make up for their mistakes and loss of peace.
Adam and Eve thought that they would be empowered to be like God with their eyes being opened to determine good and evil, but what they got instead was insecurity, shame and instability.
Whenever we attempt to usurp God’s authority with moral autonomy, this is the result.
The Blame Game
When we are confronted with the consequences of existential autonomy, our proclivity is to find someone or something to blame for our unhappiness.
Genesis 3:12-19
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.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Sin around us and sin in us is the issue.
What should Adam have done and how did he abdicate his role?
Who told you that?
Husbands, your job is not to fulfill all of your wife’s dreams.
It is to lead her to the person, plans and purposes of Christ.
Your job is to lead your family in fulfilling God’s dreams.
Wives, your ambition is not to get everything you desire, but to help your husband and family obey Christ and all that he’s called them to be and do.
Frustration and regret in life result when we try to create life for ourselves vs. what God is trying to create.
Said another way, it becomes our dreams vs. God’s dreams.
Again - who told you that?
Who told you that about your value, identity and worth?
What is meaningful work?
God cursed the ground, but we curse our work.
Meaningful work is doing whatever God has given you to do for his glory.
It can be homemaking, business, being a barista, an entertainer, a medic, a minister or a person in law or politics.
The point is that you shouldn’t think too highly of yourself for any position and know that your work is simply your means of provision, your environment to cultivate and place to make disciples in God’s eternal purposes.
Don’t be too proud.
Romans 12:16 NIV
“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”
Your titles and positions do not equal your worth - being created in the image of God does.
(Identity and the circles from Weight of Glory)
People hold out from work because they think they are meant for a particular role or position as they have a picture in their minds of who they think that they should be.
God has times and seasons for us to fulfill his purposes (Remember Joseph in Genesis 37-50).
It is as you embrace his available provision that he uses that time to shape you into who he has designed you to be and ultimately do what God, in his goodness, has designed for you to do.
I Timothy 5:8 ESV
“But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Do what is significant in Christ.
God is not impressed with our titles, roles or positions, especially if in the pursuit of them, we forsake who he’s called us to be and what he’s called us to do - in our homes, in the church, in our communities and the world.
There is freedom when we embrace this and stop the comparisons between us and others who are not called to walk in our shoes (John 21).
The question is:
From whom are we trying to get validation and do we have our eyes on the eternal things that really matter?
“Either we will offer our work to God as worship, or we will worship the work of our hands.”
-JOE RIGNEY
*In the age of influencers, you need to remember that God called you to be faithful, not famous.
Taking the place of honor - what did Jesus teach?
*Honor and recognition should be a by-product of obedience and glorifying God, not ourselves (Remember that Jesus said “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted - Matthew 23:1-12).
We blame our work and our responsibilities for our unhappiness - not acknowledging them as good.
Yet any work that you do with diligence, integrity and do unto the Lord is good and is considered worship to God.
Colossians 3:17 ESV
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:23-24 ESV
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Part of the repercussions of the curse of the fall is not only the difficulty of childbearing and work, but the way that we distort and demean their value.
Child rearing can be challenging but is a gift.
Yet how many of us despise the beauty and importance of this stewardship in the home?
Work can be frustrating, but if seen as our field to cultivate for God and our field to build relationships and make disciples, it can all be rewarding.
This means that whether you are a doctor, lawyer, teacher, homemaker, barista, artist, entertainer, consultant, scientist, researcher, academic, businessman, coder, mechanic, child-care worker or politician, all of your work is valuable if it is done with eternal perspective and as worship to God.
The judgements reflected a (fall) from what Adam and Eve were originally intended to be and do.
God’s redemption is a return to these good and fulfilling things.
Covered By God
What we truly need - the salvation of our minds, bodies and souls - is found through a reconciled relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
We’ve made false coverings to hide our sin and shame, but God has come looking for us.
Genesis 3:8-10
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 hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
God told you that…
*The only way to fight back against the lies of the enemy is to be transformed by the renewing of your mind - to see God’s will that is good, pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:1,2).
Jesus did this by properly interpreting and applying the words of God to every area of his life where the devil was attempting to distort and enslave him (Luke 4:1-13).
There are none who seek God but God has come looking for us (Romans 3).
“Of Course God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is)... Continue seeking Him with seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.”
-C.S. Lewis, Letters of C. S. Lewis
The good of God is that the gospel was foreshadowed in the midst of the curse:
Genesis 3:14,15
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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.”
The cross and resurrection were God’s source of salvation because he was, in Christ, putting to death both the lies of the enemy and the penalty for following him into sin.
Though the enemy would continually try to nip at our heels to undermine the truth of God, Jesus, the true offspring would eventually crush Satan underneath his feet.
Romans 16:20 ESV
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”
Repentance (changing our mind and going towards God in a different direction) and faith in Christ (leading to regeneration by the Holy Spirit), gives us the ability to return to our God given relationships, identity and roles.
Genesis 3:20,21 ESV
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
God makes his own covering for us, covering over our failings and sin.
In the case of Adam and Eve it was garments of skin, the foreshadowing of a blood offering that would pay the penalty for humanity’s rebellion.
Jesus would be the fulfillment of that guilt offering and covering for us as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Jesus lived a perfect life of humility, submission and obedience to Yahweh’s good design.
Jesus then died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, so that as we repent and put our trust in his substitutionary work, we could be forgiven of our sins and be new creations in him.
Jesus then restores our holy identity to us and gives us the ability to call true value and eternal purpose out of one another.
This is what Adam did for Eve naming her with the word which in Hebrew means “life-giver”, where before her sin only introduced death.
God restores our identity, security and sense of purpose in Jesus Christ.
And this is what God calls good.