Strangers To Ourselves: The Fall (Part 1) ~ Genesis 3:1-10

July 19, 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson
Inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi is the ancient Greek maxim, Know yourself. Its at once
intriguing and perplexing. It has set many on a journey to discover the core of who they are. But it begs the
question: Why do we not know ourselves?

Friedrich Nietzsche, We knowers are unknown to ourselves.

Walker Percys Lost in the Cosmos, Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in
the cosmosnovas, quasars, pulsars, black holesyou are beyond doubt the strangest?

Were told the path to Know yourself has now become to Define yourself along the lines of ones feelings.

Last month, olympic star Bruce Jenner announced to the world that he is now defining himself as a
woman, deciding to undergo genital mutilation and receive breast implants and female hormones.

This past month, Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, came under fire when
it was revealed that she had in fact been born to caucasian parents. I identify as black.

Idaho State University, Self-Identified vampires subject of study by ISU Professor DJ Williams Most
vampires believe they were born that way; they dont choose this, said Dr. D. J. Williams, the studys
lead researcher and the director of sociology at Idaho State.

We are taught by our world to define ourselves in any number of ways based on our feelings: heterosexual,
homosexual, bisexual, transgender, transracial, trans-human. We are told to express our feelings b/c they
define us. Follow your heart. But what if our hearts are actually unreliable guides to knowing ourselves?

GK Chesterton, Every man has forgotten who he is. One may understand the cosmos, but never the
ego; the self is more distant than any star.... We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all
forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. we forget that we have forgotten.

Q: Is it possible that you have forgotten who you are? Have forgotten that you have forgotten?
To answer that question, we want to ask what Jesus has to say about this. And when we do, we find Jesus
inviting us into the Story that the Scriptures tella story about a Paradise spoiled and vandalized by human
choices motivated by destructive desires. And the reason he invites us into this story is because that story
ultimately points to him, and the implications of what he called The Good News. Were going to take a look at
that storyand what it has to say about the human conditionand think through the implications for us.
Context: Our primal parents were created in the image of God, and their whole beings were entirely oriented
to God. Now face a life-defining test. Will they pass it? Will they remember who they are?
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had
made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
1. Objection: You cant really expect 21st century, educated Calgarians to believe this!

The backstory seems to be this: an angelic being named Lucifer fell from his exalted position before
God and possessed this animal and spoke through it. No matter how strange this may seem to us, it
evidently wasnt strange in this paradise called the Garden of Eden.

Jesus believed in the historicity of Adam & Eve (Matthew 19:3-6). Considering that Jesus was, arguably,
the greatest thinker and wisest person who ever lived, is it at least possible that things really played out
like it says here? Is it at least possible that Jesus has greater insight into spiritual things than we do?

2. The Serpents Tactic: Doubt.

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2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God
said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch
it, lest you die.
Fatal mistake: misunderstanding / misconstruing what God really said.

4 But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
1. The Temptation: For the first time, Eve was confronted with a choice, and this choice was an alternative
interpretation of reality. Would she continue believe who God said she was OR what the Serpent said she
could be. // Would she continue to let God define reality for her, or would she seize the opportunity to
define reality for herself?

2. New Desires: With this seed of doubt planted and being entertained in her mind, she began to see things
dierently, and new desires arising within her.

6 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. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
1. Suppression of Truth: Instead of being defined by her Creator, she seized the opportunity to define
creation. Instead of living within reality as God designed it, she sought to define reality as she desired it. In
short, she willfully forgot who she was and made her life-altering choice based on her feelings. She
followed her heart which led her astray.

2. Their eyes were opened to an existence where nothing is what its meant to be. Immediately they
found themselves in the midst of their worst possible nightmare. A living death engulfs them as they orient
themselves away from God, and they are now acutely aware that they are strangers to themselves. And in
a desperate attempt to cover themselves, they don new identities made of fig leaves.

3. Everything is supposed to be dierent than the way it is now. This FALL rocked them to their core,
and their orientation away from God aects and infects everything: their thinking, feeling, emotions, their
desires, their identity, and yes, even their sexuality. Their entire lives are now oriented away from God.

8 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. 9 But
the LORD God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? 10 And he said, I heard the sound
of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
1. Hide & Seek? The question is not, Where is your physical location? but, Where is your spiritual
location? The question was an invitation to be found.
2. Our new condition: I am afraid, because I am naked, and so I hide myself. I sow fig leaves of new
identities and orientations desperately hoping that they will give us a sense of identity, and desperately
hope that others will accept and embrace our fig-leaves.
3. Our new ignorance: Christianity teaches that everyone is now born into this world not only strangers to
themselves, but strangers to God. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves is intricately
linked.
John Calvin, Institutes, 1560 French Edition opens with these words, In knowing God, each of us also
knows himself.
4. Our new orientationaway from God.
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Main Idea: Because of the Fall, our basic orientation is a falling away from our Creator.
The result? God has become a stranger, and we have become strangers to ourselves.
And Jesus has come to show us the way back to God through his life, death, & resurrection from the dead.

In light of this, what kind of community of Christ-followers should we be?

1. We welcome all who are broken and need healing.
(1) We are called to extend the very welcome of Christ: To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest,
to all who mourn and long for comfort, to all who struggle and desire victory, to all who sin and need a
Saviour, to all who are strangers and want fellowship, to all who are broken and long for healing, to all
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and to whosoever would come, New City Church opens wide
her doors and offers welcome in the name of Jesus Christ. We do this because.
we remember that we are more broken, sinful, flawed, wrecked, dazed and confused about
ourselves than we often have the courage to admit
we remember that we too were once strangers to ourselves and strangers to God
we remember that we too are sexually broken people who have unwanted sexual attractions and
are tempted to use our sexuality in illegitimate ways
(2) To say that we welcome all who are broken and need healing means that we even welcome
folks who on some level dont know they are broken and need healing.
In the Gospels, isnt it interesting that the religious leaders despised Jesus calling him a glutton & a
drunkard because he ate and drank with sinners (Luke 7:34)? Lets be clear, Jesus didnt condone
anyones sin. But he also didnt let anyones sin to be an excuse to not be friendly with them and
interested in them. In a very real sense, Jesus created space for people to be with him because he
came to seek and save the lost. He came to show people their way back to God.
We need to create space for people to be known. And this is especially the case for those of us with
unwanted desireswhether heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual or transexual. We are all
broken, and NCC should be safe to talk to one another about this, to know one anothers brokenness so we can pray for one another, encourage one another, challenge one another, and spur one
another on in the faith.

2. We enter the Story that Jesus is telling.

(1) Our first parents stepped out of Gods life-defining story when they forgot who they were and selfidentified with an orientation away from God. But when we take the step of following Jesus and
knowing him, he actually brings us back into Gods story and we embrace the identity he gives us.
CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Your real, new selfwill not come as long as you are looking for it. It
will come when you are looking for Him."
(2) That means that we leave all other stories behindincluding stories that say our identity is nothing
more than our sexual attractions. To enter the story that Jesus is telling means that Jesus gets to
name us and give us a new identity.
Peter Hubbard, Love Into Light, Our orientation toward greed, work, pride, porn, gossip, lust, fear, or
homosexuality is not naming us; Jesus naming of us goes deeper than our accomplishments, our
bank accounts, our failures, or our genitals.

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 Peter Hubbard, Love Into Light, He died defined by our sin, so that we live defined by his righteousness.
3. We battle our fallen desires, not endorse them.
(1) When we step back into Gods story, we learn to distrust our warped desires to seek meaning and
identity apart from God.
Sam Alberry, Is God Anti-Gay?, All of us have desires that are warped as a result of our fallen
nature. Desires for things that God has forbidden are a reflection of how sin has distorted me, not
how God has made me.
Wesley Hill, Washed & Waiting, The gospel resists the fallen inclinations of Christian believers.
When we engage with God in Christ and take seriously the commands for purity that flow from the
gospel, we always find our sinful dreams and desires challenged. From Gods perspective, our
[sinful] inclinations are like the craving for salt of a person who is dying of thirst. Yet when God
begins to try to change the craving and give us the living water that will ultimately quench our thirst,
we scream in pain, protesting that we were made for salt. The change hurts. In the long run, the
cruelest thing that God could do would be to leave us alone with our desires.
(2) Scripture calls us to battle well
1 Peter 1:14-15, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former
ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also should be holy in all your conduct.
1 Peter 2:11, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against your soul.

4. We contend that Jesus is better, and he is always worth it.

(1) Jesus is Better, In all my sorrows, Jesus is better, make my heart believe / In all my victories Jesus
is better, make my heart believe / Than any comfort Jesus is better, make my heart believe / More than
all riches Jesus is better, make my heart believe / Our souls declaring Jesus is better, make my heart
believe / our song eternal Jesus is better, make my heart believe!
Glory, glory, we have no other King but Jesus Lord of all.
(2) Jesus is our Lord, not our desires, not our feelings, not our self-constructed identities. In him, the
stranger has been brought near, and because of Him, we know God and can finally begin to know
ourselves.

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