Tag Archives: Genesis

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Why Do We Need to Prove We’re Okay?

There is something strange about the way human beings respond when someone questions our character. We want people to think we’re good parents, good spouses, good employees, good friends, and generally decent human beings. And when someone suggests otherwise, something inside us immediately starts building a defense to prove we’re okay.

WE WEREN’T CREATED TO PROVE OUR WORTH

The opening chapters of Genesis describe a world where Adam and Eve have nothing to prove. They have meaningful work and a meaningful relationship with one another. They are enjoying God’s creation and His provision. And Genesis 2:25 tells us they were naked and unashamed!

Can you imagine? There’s no need to impress anyone. They didn’t have to try and earn God’s acceptance through their accomplishments. Their identity and security were rooted in their relationship with their Creator.

But then Genesis 3 happens. Humanity decides we want God’s creation without God’s authority. Adam and Eve reject God, and sin fractures everything God created to be good. And almost immediately, something changes about how they see themselves.

AND THEN WE START COVERING OURSELVES

After Adam and Eve eat from the tree, Genesis says: “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” Isn’t that interesting? The first thing they do after turning from the Lord is to try to cover themselves up from the Lord. They were naked before, but now they feel exposed, ashamed, and desperately trying to fix it…with leaves!

I’m not sure how much experience Adam had with clothing at this point, but leaves seem like a terrible long-term strategy. Yet, we’ve been doing essentially the same thing ever since. We just have better fig leaves.

Some of us use achievement to prove to others and ourselves that were doing okay. And some use comparison. We know we have problems, but at least our problems aren’t as bad at that person’s problems!

For some people, going to church, volunteer, giving money, helping people, and trying to make the right decisions are just tangible ways for us to prove to ourselves and others that we’re okay. They are all just modern fig leaves!

WHEN COVERING DOESN’T WORK, WE START BLAMING

When God confronts Adam about eating from the tree, Adam responds: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” That’s impressive. In one sentence, Adam manages to blame his wife and God!

It’s not just that Adam did something wrong. He now feels the need to explain why it wasn’t entirely his fault. And we aren’t that different today. When someone confronts us, we immediately start looking for the circumstances that explain our behavior like, “I was tired.”

Sometimes our explanations contain legitimate context. But have you noticed how difficult it can be to simply say, “I was wrong.”? No excuses or explanations, just admitting that something is wrong with us. Maybe it’s because admitting we’re wrong threatens the image we’ve worked so hard to maintain? Our achievements are supposed to prove we’re okay. But when someone exposes something wrong, suddenly we have to defend ourselves. And if we can’t defend ourselves, we find someone else to blame.

AND THEN GOD SHOWS UP

One of the most remarkable moments in Genesis 3 happens after Adam and Eve have covered themselves, hidden from the Lord, and blamed one another. Genesis 3:21 says:

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” Don’t miss who’s doing the covering. God!

Adam and Eve have already tried to cover themselves. Their efforts haven’t solved the problem at all. They still hide when God approaches. And yet, God moves toward them and provides what they cannot provide for themselves. This doesn’t mean their sin has no consequences. They’re still going to leave the garden. But they leave wearing God’s provision. It’s a beautiful picture of grace that prepares us for something even greater.

AND THEN JESUS SHOWS UP

Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus arrives, He confronts the very things humanity has been using to prove we’re okay? He encounters religious leaders who are confident in their morality. Looking righteous isn’t the same as being righteous. In fact, Jesus tells a story in Luke 18 about two men who go to the temple to pray. One is a Pharisee. He thanks God that he isn’t like other people. He points to his fasting and giving. He’s essentially presenting God with his resume’.

The other man is a tax collector. He won’t even lift his eyes toward heaven. Instead, he says, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” Jesus says it’s the second man who goes home justified. How’s that possible? One man is trying to convince God he’s okay. The other man admits he isn’t.

And Jesus says the man who stops defending himself is the one who goes home right with God. What? How is that possible? How can a holy God declare sinful people righteous? This is where the gospel becomes extraordinary.

It is at the cross that Jesus takes our sin upon Himself. He bears the judgment we deserve, and through faith in Him, God credits us with Christ’s righteousness. The apostle Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

We’ve spent our lives trying to prove we’re righteous. Jesus offers us His righteousness instead. That’s an incredible exchange. We bring our sin, our shame, our excuses, and our failed attempts to justify ourselves. Jesus gives us what we could never earn. We don’t have to convince God that we’re better than we really are. We can come to Him admitting exactly who we are because Jesus has already done everything necessary to make us right with God.

NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE

Maybe that’s why we work so hard to prove we’re okay? We know there are things about us that aren’t okay, and we’re afraid of what might happen if we stop defending ourselves. So, we point to our accomplishments, which are really just tired old fig leaves.  

But what if you didn’t have to keep putting on fig leaves? What if you could admit that we were wrong without immediately explaining ourselves? And what if we could stand before God without presenting a single accomplishment as evidence that we deserve His acceptance?

That’s what Jesus offers us. He knows everything we’ve done. He knows the things we’re proud of and the things we hope nobody ever discovers. And instead of asking us to prove we’re righteous, He invites us to receive His righteousness through faith.

Why Do We Keep Thinking Life Should Be Easier?

There is something strange about the way human beings think about challenges in life. We know life is hard. We have experienced difficult relationships, financial pressure, health problems, disappointing careers, aging parents, challenging children, and circumstances that didn’t work out the way we hoped.

And yet, somewhere in the back of our minds, we keep thinking: eventually life is going to get easier. As a student we think, “I just need to make it through this semester.” When we are parents we think, “I just need to make it through this stage.” And, in all of life we think, “I just need to make it to the weekend or my next vacation.”

But have you noticed that we never seem to arrive? There is always something else that is going to create challenges and yet we have this quirky part of our personality that keeps expecting life to be easy.

LIFE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HARD

The opening chapters of Genesis give us an interesting picture of life. Genesis 1–2 describes a world created by God where everything is perfect. There is work, but work isn’t frustrating. Somehow relationships and responsibilities are easy and seamlessly flow from one thought to the next. 

Adam is placed in the garden to work and care for it. But then Genesis 3 happens. In that moment, humanity decides we want God’s creation without God’s authority, and sin fractures everything God created to be good.

God tells Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” And then: “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” Something has changed. Adam will still work. But now his work will fight back.

He will plant something he wants and something he doesn’t want will grow alongside it. Have you noticed we don’t have to fertilize weeds? They just grow! They thrive! Nobody walks into the backyard and says, “Come look at all my crabgrass!” That’s still our experience today with every part of life!

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE THORNS

There are going to be seasons we work really hard on our marriage and conflict still shows up. Raising children can be a blast, but there’s no secret method. It’s going to be hard! Eating healthy and working out is always good for our bodies, but it can all be wiped out in a few weeks the moment we stop. It’s because thorns and thistles in life are going to show up!

We know this is a part of life, and yet we keep believing we’re one change away from finally escaping them. There is this sneaky thought in our head that the next job or next relationship is going to make it all better.

There’s nothing wrong with improving our circumstances in life. Sometimes we really do need to make changes. But eventually the new circumstances develop their own thorns, and that’s the tension in life.

WE KEEP TRYING TO FIND EDEN

Think about how much of life is organized around the pursuit of comfort. We genuinely believe if we made more money life would be easier. The allure of the next phase of technology is always giving us this illusion that our life could be easier.

How many mattress commercials have we seen where they prey upon our fatigue, exhaustion, and restlessness of our soul, and then say, “You need the next great mattress that will fix everything?”

Again, none of those things are necessarily bad. The problem is what we expect from them. We keep thinking: maybe this will finally give me rest. And sometimes it does. For a while that vacation can be just what we needed. The new house will give us the space we have been wanting for our family. But, then something happens! Another thorn pops up that ruins it all and it feels like we have to start all over.

AND THEN JESUS SHOWS UP

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus enters a world full of exhausted people and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It’s almost as though Jesus is speaking directly into this ancient longing humanity has carried since Genesis 3.

We say, “I’m tired.” Jesus says, “Come to Me.” We say, “I just need life to settle down.” Jesus says, “Come to Me.” We say, “I just want some rest.” Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest. Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Come to Me and I’ll make your life easy, remove difficulty, never get sick, and remove all those thorns from our life.” Jesus offers rest without promising ease, which is an important distinction. The rest Jesus offers isn’t the absence of difficult circumstances. It’s life with Him in the middle of those circumstances.

LIFE IS STILL GOING TO BE HARD

Following Jesus doesn’t take us out of Genesis 3. There are still thorns and thistles with Jesus. There are still nights when we wake up at 3 a.m. and suddenly our brain decides this is the perfect time to solve every problem in our life.

But the gospel changes how we walk through those moments. In Christ, we don’t have to know how everything is going to turn out and know the answer to fix every person. Sometimes we are going to cry out in bold prayers and sometimes it will feel like nothing is changing.

But, because we are with Jesus we can walk through those circumstances and we can wait on Him and His will to be accomplished in our life, because we’re with Jesus. The follower of Jesus is only going to find so much rest in the comforts that this world has to offer. Our ultimate rest comes through faith in Jesus as we rest in Him. 

MAYBE COMFORT ISN’T WHAT WE’RE REALLY LOOKING FOR

So why do we keep thinking life should eventually get easier? Maybe because we were made for something this world, in its present condition, cannot give us. We were made for life with God without thorns.

Genesis tells us why the thorns came. And Jesus shows up offering the thing we’ve been trying to manufacture ever since. One day, Jesus will remove the thorns completely. The curse will be gone and all things will be made new.

But until then, maybe we can stop being surprised that life is difficult? Maybe we can stop believing we’re one circumstance away from finally arriving at comfort. And maybe the next time life gets difficult, instead of immediately asking, “How do I make this go away?” We can also ask, “How do I walk through this with Jesus and wait on Him?”

Everything We Really Want is Also Really Hard

Most people want meaningful relationships, but relationships take work. Many of us want children, but parenting can bring some of the deepest joy and deepest pain of our lives. We want meaningful work, but work can exhaust us. We want community, but then we discover community involves people…and people are messy! Why is that?

Genesis 3 Gives Us the Answer

In Genesis 1–2, God creates the world and calls it good. Adam and Eve are created in His image, brought together as husband and wife, and given meaningful work. Everything is as it should be.

Then sin enters the story. By Genesis 3:16, God tells the woman: “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children; yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Suddenly the very things God created as good become difficult.

Something Isn’t Right

Pain in childbirth isn’t God randomly deciding to make life miserable. It’s His judgment and our sin has consequences. But it isn’t final judgment. Adam and Eve are still alive. God is still speaking to them. Children will still be born. Marriage still exists. God’s purposes for humanity haven’t disappeared. Even in judgment, there is grace.

But, the difficulty in humanity becomes an alarm ringing through creation: Something isn’t right. We weren’t created to live apart from God. That’s one reason the things we love can sometimes become the places of our greatest frustration. We keep discovering that we can’t make life work exactly the way we want it to. And sometimes that difficulty is the very thing God uses to draw us back to Himself.

Even Our Pain Can Point Us Home

One verse earlier, in Genesis 3:15, God had promised that the woman’s offspring would eventually defeat the serpent. Then, thousands of years later, the Apostle Paul writes:

“God sent His Son, born of a woman.” (Galatians 4:4)

Do you see it? The very place where we see the consequences of sin becomes the place through which God brings forth the One who becomes the answer to our sin. His name is Jesus!