the way of Adam

We looked at the way of the Way last week. Did you check up on me? What did I get wrong? Did you add to the list of the “is” and “is not”s of the way of the Way? What did you come up with? You all know what I came up with. I gave you the verses on the worksheet. Did anyone think of any more? I did. The way of the Way is not a game, a path of talking and not doing. It is real, the only real important thing and it demands that we reply to the call of God. Any others?

Did you all think about what God is asking of you? You don't have to say what, but did the verses make sense? Can you see how all things are to be for God's glory, that everything that we do is important, is for God? That there are things we need to do, long to do, that we avoid? Let's do them and all things for God, through God, because God loves us and we love Him in return.

There is a song by Reliant K called More Than Useless:

What's the purpose? It feels worthless
So unwanted like I've lost all my value
I can't find it, not in the least bit
and I'm just scared, so scared that I'll fail you

And sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I'm even here at all
But then you assure me

I'm a little more than useless
And when I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

The first time I heard this song I thought, “Yeah, maybe I will do something right, for one, you know. I am more than useless, if just that.” Now I don't want to start some rumor about my bout with depression or whatever, but there are times, often long times, that I begin to think that I am useless or that what I do doesn't matter or that I can't seem to put all the pieces together and get it right for once. I just like this song, not for its musical brilliance, but for its honesty.

I think this feeling of inadequacy comes from an event that happened a long, long time ago. Let's look at Genesis 2:4-3:24. You all know the story. God creates the heavens and earth, the land, air, and sea, the sun, moon, and stars, the plants, birds, fish, and animals. And after all this, God created man “imago dai” (in His own image).

Genesis 2:4-9, 15-20 (NLT)
⁴ This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. ⁶ Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. ⁷ Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. ⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. ⁹ The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ¹⁵ The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. ¹⁶ But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— ¹⁷ except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” ¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” ¹⁹ So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. ²⁰ He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.¹

God breathed and the dust lived, lived the very image of God (Genesis 1:26). And then God made a utopia for man to live in, a place that people have longed for and searched for ever since: Eden. Can you imagine? All you can eat, a job that you were specifically made for, direct communion with God, no fuss with the fashion or fit of you clothes, lowest gas prices ever. There are no judges, no police, no DNR waiting behind the next tree. There is only one rule and everything else goes. “Don't eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil or you will die.” Sounds like an easy choice. Now, maybe Adam had not seen anything die yet, so there was less threat in his mind. And, although I have always heard that curiosity killed the cat, I think that, perhaps, curiosity really killed mankind, starting in Eden. But, we can see, there is an obvious job set before Adam. He was to do the upkeep of the garden. He was over all the animals, having been introduced to and naming them all. He was set.

Genesis 2:21-25 (NLT)
²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. ²³ “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ” ²⁴ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. ²⁵ Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.²

And he had God looking after him, knowing exactly what he needed for each situation and happily giving it to him. Adam had everything. Donald Miller says that nudity is the point here.³ They were naked and not ashamed. They had nothing to hide. They had everything but the knowledge of good and evil. How could he know it was wrong if he didn't know good and evil? I suppose it is because God had told him not to do it. Some things you just have to take His Word for and do His Way. Some things we don't understand, but we are still expected to obey. Why is the way of the Way the way of a servant? Why are we to love those who would harm us? They may not make sense to us, but we need to do them. We need to trust God.

Genesis 3:1-13 (NLT)
¹ The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” ² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ” ⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” ⁶ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. ⁸ When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” ¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”⁴

But Eve and then Adam chose not to trust God. They heard the newest idea, they heard that maybe God's Way was not the only way, or even the best one. “Thanks God, but I know better. Well, I'm about to, anyway.”

“Yeah, surely you will not die. God's just keeping knowledge from you.”

“Yeah.” As juice runs down the corner of her mouth and she hands it to Adam, Eve knows good and evil, and she knows that what they have done is of the latter. Adam knows, too. They were to watch over the garden, to eat of it, but not this way. They were naked, they would die. It was clear, now. God wasn't holding out on them, He was just holding them close. Now the would be at a distance. The curses were there: work would be hard, painful, so would childbirth. The utopia was gone. Eden was lost, guarded by the flashing sword of God's angel. And I can imagine the feeling of guilt, of uselessness setting in.

“There was just one rule, why couldn't we keep it? Things were so much better. I was close to my wife, now there's this blaming, mistrust, and fear that was never there. And God, I miss Him. He seems so far, now. We haven't as much as spoken in months. The beans won't come up, and the weeds are overrunning my plot. I can't do anything right. If I see that snake, so help me.”

And the sin, the aloneness, and the feeling of uselessness continue to this day. The “I don't care” or “I don't matter” or “I can't do anything right” all stick around amidst a cloud of sin and failure to live up to any standard that is set before us. We continue on unable to be the “who” we were created to be, unable to see the imago dai (image of God) that is so twisted and marred. And we can't get along, we have laws to keep one another alive and books on how to live with our roommate and find the right mate and find a new mate. We find ourselves constantly going our own way and being unhappy with it in the end. And often when we try to follow the steps of Christ we do it our own way and end up off on our own again, refusing help and desperately wanting someone to help, anyway. It seems we can't figure out what's missing. Luckily God has revealed Himself to us through His Word. Look at 2 Peter 1:3b-9:

[God's] divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.⁵

If these qualities, all of them, are yours and increasing, you are neither useless or fruitless in your knowledge. You know, you believe, you act, and it matters. Faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. This is the important part, so please listen: you are more than useless. God made everything, including man, and it was good. You are made in God's image. Sin does not have to rule your life. Through Jesus, sin is no longer master over you. You are free to live as you were made to, communing with God and your neighbor. Learning to love God and people. The way we can know we are doing this is by exhibiting these qualities, increasing in them through the grace given us by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the One True God. Do you get it? Adam failed. We fail. Christ saves us, takes us out of this mundane existence as we're treading through the muck of sin. We're doing something right, not through ourselves, by by the grace of God. Romans five lays it out for us. We can take the way of Adam, his sin imputed to us, or we can follow the Way and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us in stead, being more than useless, being the good creation of a good God.

1 Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. (2nd ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

2 Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. (2nd ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

3 Searching for God Knows What. Donald Miller. Thomas Nelson Publishers.

4 Tyndale House Publishers. (2004). Holy Bible : New Living Translation. (2nd ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.

5 New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.