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The Promised One | The Promised Human

November 30, 2025
Genesis 3:7-21

⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸And 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. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴The 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. ¹⁵I 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.” ¹⁶To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” ¹⁷And 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; ¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By 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.”

²⁰The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

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Purpose

To discover and experience Jesus Christ in our midst

To cultivate mutually encouraging relationships

To participate in God’s mission to the world

Opening Prayer

Responsive Prayer — Isaiah 2:1-5

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Summary

We are starting a new Advent sermon series called The Promised One looking at how Jesus fulfills the promises made to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David. In today’s passage, we see God’s promise to Adam — and all humankind — immediately after the fall. Our passage for this week narrates the immediate consequences of Adam and Eve’s first act of disobedience when God commanded them to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). Prior to this act, our first parents lived in a state of original righteousness and communion with God (Genesis 1:31; Westminster Confession of Faith [WCF] 4.2, 9.2). It was the serpent’s temptation that urged them to grasp wisdom for themselves apart from God and led them to rebellion. After partaking of the fruit, their eyes were opened to shame and guilt rather than the godlike glory they sought. As a result, they attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves (verse 7), signaling that innocence had truly been lost and communion broken. The promise of enlightenment only brought corruption, fear, and alienation.

God’s response in verse 8-19 reveals how sin fractures every relational sphere. Instead of running to God, the couple hides from him. Instead of protecting one another, they shift blame. Their withdrawal from God and mutual blame expose the relational collapse introduced by sin, setting the stage for the curses pronounced on each party. It is crucial to observe that these curses describe the disordered consequences of sin, not God’s original intention for human relationships and the good design for men and women in relation to one another. The serpent is cursed above all creatures, a visible symbol of Satan’s humiliation. The woman’s calling in the context of family becomes marked by pain and conflict. The man’s labor is now frustrated by thorns and toil, ending in death as he returns to the dust. Through the disobedience of Adam, humanity’s representative before God, sin and death enter the world and mar those who descend from him (Romans 5:12; Westminster Shorter Catechism [WSC] 16, 19). The harmony of Eden was shattered, and humanity entered into a state of alienation from God, from one another, and from creation itself.

Yet in the midst of this judgment, God announces the first gospel promise (the protoevangelium) in Genesis 3:15. God sovereignly establishes enmity between the serpent and the woman and between their respective offspring, and this conflict serves a redemptive purpose. God prevents fallen humanity from being wholly subsumed under Satan’s dominion, and a promised offspring — an individual “he” based on the Hebrew grammar — will one day bruise the serpent’s head even as his own heel is bruised. Here the entire trajectory of redemptive history begins. Scripture will track this line from Adam to Noah, from Abraham to Judah, and from David to Christ — the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), who destroys the works of the devil (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8). Where Adam failed to obey God in the garden, Christ obeyed perfectly in every respect, giving his own life over in a garden and securing the life and the righteousness that Adam forfeited (Romans 5:18-19). As the Westminster Confession helpfully explains, this is the first revelation of the covenant of grace, by which God freely offers life and salvation through a Redeemer (WCF 7.3; WSC 20, 21).

The passage concludes with grace triumphing over judgment. Adam names his wife Eve, meaning “mother of all living,” signaling faith in God’s promise of life through her line. God himself clothes the couple with garments of animal skin (verse 21), showing that restored communion with God requires the shedding of blood, anticipating the Levitical sacrificial system and ultimately the atoning death of Christ (Hebrews 9:22; WCF 8.5). Their expulsion from the garden is both a judgment and a mercy. God prevents them from, in their fallen condition, eating the fruit of the tree of life — a mercy which keeps them from being eternally confirmed in sin. Thus Genesis 3:7-21 details both the catastrophe of the Fall and the dawning of the gospel. Humanity ruins itself, but God immediately initiates, promises, and ultimately accomplishes redemption through the Promised One.

Discussion Questions

1. Looking at the Bible

• From the passage, share with the group some key phrases or ideas that stood out to you.

2. Looking at Jesus

• How does Jesus fulfill the promise made in verse 15?
• How does God’s response to Adam and Eve’s transgression help us understand the gospel?

3. Looking at Our Hearts

• Adam and Eve do not take responsibility for their sins and ultimately blame God for their wrongdoings. How does sin distort our ability to take personal responsibility?
• What could we say are humanity’s most important needs based on this passage?

4. Looking at Our World

• How do people today still try to “sew fig leaves” — in other words, attempt to cover themselves with self-made righteousness?

Prayer

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