DWDP : Gen 3, 22-24 Lest They Become Like Us

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Have you ever wondered about the mysterious "us" God refers to in Genesis? Or why Adam and Eve were really banished from Eden? Dr. Papa tackles these profound questions and more in this eye-opening exploration of Genesis 3:22-24.

Diving deep into scripture, Dr. Papa reveals how the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—was present from the very beginning of creation. Through connections to passages in John, Colossians, and Hebrews, we discover Jesus as the living Word who was with God before time began. Perhaps most comforting is the revelation that Christ's sacrifice wasn't a divine afterthought or emergency response to human failure. "Jesus on the cross was not plan B," Dr. Papa explains. "He was slain before the foundation of the world." This powerful truth helps us understand God's perfect sovereignty—there are truly "no oopsies with God."

The episode also illuminates God's mercy in the garden banishment. By preventing access to the tree of life, God actually protected humanity from an eternal existence trapped in sin. Dr. Papa draws a fascinating parallel between very elderly patients who know the Lord and those who don't: believers look forward to eternity with Christ while non-believers desperately cling to this life, having no hope beyond it. Through this lens, even difficult passages like the garden expulsion reveal God's compassion and foresight.

Sin's fundamental problem—separation from God and others—remains our greatest challenge today. Yet Christ bridges this gap, offering reconciliation freely to all who accept it through faith. While we can't return to Eden, we can walk hand-in-hand with Jesus, experiencing the relationship Adam and Eve lost.

Subscribe to Devotions with Dr. Papa for more scriptural insights, and join us next week as we begin exploring Genesis chapter 4!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more
than enough for the ills thatplague our culture and our
country.
Hosted by author and physicianDr Robert Jackson.
Papa, can you tell me a story?
Do you really want me to tellyou a story?
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell

(00:24):
you a story.
Well, you go, get your brotherand your sisters and I will tell
you a story.
Welcome to Devotions with DrPapa.
Gather around, grab your Biblesand let us look into the written
Word, which reveals to us theliving Word, which is our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Now, today, we're at Genesis,chapter 3, verses 22 and 24.

(00:47):
Then the Lord God said Behold,the man has become like one of
us, knowing good and evil, andnow he might stretch out his
hand and take also from the treeof life and eat and live
forever.
Therefore, the Lord God senthim out from the garden of Eden

(01:08):
to cultivate the ground fromwhich he was taken.
So he drove the man out and atthe east of the garden of Eden
he stationed the cherubim andthe flaming sword which turned
every direction to guard the wayto the tree of life.
Let me ask a question who is usin verse 22?

(01:31):
Who is God talking to when hesays Behold, the man has become
like one of us?
It's the same us involved in aconversation in Genesis 1.26,
when he said if you remember, in1.26, god says let us make man

(01:55):
in our image, according to ourlikeness.
You remember that us and thatour?
That occurred in Genesis 1, 26?
In both of these verses, thetriune God is conversing among
Father, son and Holy Spirit, allof whom are present at the dawn

(02:22):
of creation when God spoke theworld into existence, all of
whom are present at the dawn ofcreation when God spoke the
world into existence and theSpirit of God brooded over the
surface of the deep.
And in John, chapter 1, verses 1through 3, the Bible tells us

(02:48):
that in the beginning was theWord.
Who is the Word?
Well, the Word is our LordJesus Christ, and the Word was
with God and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning withGod.
All things came into beingthrough Him and apart from Him,
nothing came into being that hascome into being.
You see, god was referencing inJohn, chapter 1, our Lord Jesus

(03:11):
Christ, who is the living word.
And then later, the apostlePaul informs us in Colossians,
chapter 1, verse 16 and 17.
For by Him talking about ourLord Jesus by Him all things
were created, both in theheavens and on earth, visible

(03:38):
and invisible, where the thronesor dominions or rulers or
authorities, all things havebeen created through him and for
him.
He is before all things and inhim all things hold together.
That's our Lord Jesus Christwho was in the beginning with

(03:58):
the Father.
He was part of that us that theFather was talking about.
And then the writer to theHebrews in chapter 1 of Hebrews.
He's referencing our Lord JesusChrist when he says this of the
Son.
He says you, lord, in thebeginning laid the foundation of

(04:25):
the earth, and the heavens arethe works of your hands.
They will perish, but youremain and they will all become
old like a garment and like amantle.
You will roll them up like agarment.
They will also be changed, butyou are the same and your years
will not come to an end.

(04:47):
He was referring in the Hebrewpassage there to our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Understand clearly that allthree members of the Trinity
Father, son and Holy Spirit werepresent in the beginning, in
the garden and throughout thepages of Holy Scripture.

(05:09):
The three may have differentoffices or functions, but the
three are one in essence.
So the great three-in-oneconvened a tribunal, a holy
convocation, in the originalgarden, and the father said holy

(05:34):
mackerel, what are we going todo now?
These two eggheads have reallymessed up our plans.
No, no, no.
God doesn't wring His hands infrustration.
He knows the end from thebeginning.
He is the Alpha and the Omega,the first and the last.

(05:59):
He is the rock of all the ages.
He knew, before the pillars ofthe earth were laid and before
he spread out the heavens withHis hands, that Adam and Eve
would sin and would rebelagainst His authority.
And he had prepared for Himselfa lamb before the foundation of

(06:25):
the world was even laid.
That lamb was not anafterthought.
Jesus on the cross was not planB.
He was slain on the crossbefore the foundation of the
world.
As Revelation tells us.
God was slain.

(06:46):
God, who sees all and knows all,foreknew the sin of man and the
need for a deliverer.
He delivered up his only sonfor you and me before he even
spoke light into existence,before Eve took the forbidden

(07:07):
fruit from the tempter's hand.
Eve took the forbidden fruitfrom the tempter's hand.
The Lamb of God had alreadyspilled His precious blood for
you and me.
If you comprehend thesovereignty of God, you will
smile and rest easy in this life, because there are no oopsies

(07:30):
with God.
Even when Adam and Eve tastedthe forbidden fruit, god didn't
fuss or cuss, or even raise aneyebrow.
He is hidden from him, but allthings are open and laid bare
before him.

(07:50):
I don't know about you, butthis brings comfort to my soul,
knowing that my heavenly Fatherknows all and controls all, and
that everything that happens inmy life is first sifted through

(08:14):
his all-knowing and all-lovinghands.
Behold, the man has become likeone of us, knowing good and
evil.
Now let me ask you anotherquestion.
How was Adam like the triuneGod, now that he had experienced

(08:39):
evil and rebelled against God?
Was God somehow tainted by sin,by sin Because of Adam's sinful
choice?
And now they were alike?
Well, of course not.
The Scripture informs us thatGod's eyes are too pure to look

(09:00):
upon iniquity and that nothingsinful can come into His holy
presence.
Indeed, the Scriptures informI'm sorry, indeed, the seraphim
in his presence cease not to cryout.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,god Almighty.
The whole earth is full of hisglory.

(09:21):
More than that, he is describedas the righteous judge of all
the earth, who will always doright, who deals with all men
with perfect equity, who willjudge all the nations by the
word of his mouth and the guiltywill not go unpunished.

(09:42):
So what does the statement mean?
It means that God, who knowsall things, knows right from
wrong.
He knows all about sin and theconsequences of sin.
His great heart is grieved bythe consequences of sin that

(10:02):
would eventually lead to thedeath of His own Son on
Calvary's cross to redeem a lostand dying world.
But he Himself was not touchedby sin.
He was and is unspotted by sinuntil he laid all of our

(10:25):
iniquity on Jesus and he becamesin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him.
The divine concern here is thathe might stretch out his hand,
talking about Adam, that hemight stretch out his hand and

(10:46):
eat of the other fruit, thefruit that would impart to him
eternal life.
Now can you imagine what wouldhave happened if Adam and Eve
had been able to live foreverwith sin and decay without the
eventual blessing of death?

(11:07):
Just look what happened whenthey lived 900 plus years.
They practiced sin uncheckedfor 900 years until the Bible
tells us, violence filled theearth and God regretted that he
had made man upon the earth.

(11:29):
God then sent a flood thateliminated man upon the earth,
except for one righteous man andhis family.
That man was Noah.
It's interesting that most of myvery old patients that know the
Lord long for the next life andyearn for the arms of Jesus.

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My very old patients that don'tknow the Lord cling to this
life and fear death, becausethis life is all they know and
they have no hope in the nextlife.
So the Bible tells us that Goddrove Adam and Eve out of the
garden and sent him to workcultivating planet earth.

(12:19):
He had to do what you do everyday, and that's go to work.
I ask my male patients when Ifirst go into the exam room so
what have you been doing since Ilast saw you?
And the male patients respondDoc, just going to work, just
going to work.
And I respond well, that's whata working man does.

(12:39):
You see, ever since Godexcluded Adam from the garden.
That's what men do we go towork?
Men, do we go to work?
It's a part of the curse.

(13:00):
For 900 years, adam told hiskids and his grandkids, and even
his great-grandkids about theGarden of Eden and how wonderful
it was and how beautiful it was.
And do you think they lookedfor the Garden of Eden?
You bet they did.
They all wanted to go see it,they wanted to find it and they
looked for it for 900 years, andthat's why God placed an angel

(13:20):
there to guard the place.
The garden didn't disappearcompletely until after the
universal flood in Noah's day,until after the universal flood
in Noah's day.
But nobody found it becausethere was an angel there with a
sword that turned in everydirection.

(13:41):
You and I can't go back to thegarden, but we can walk hand in
hand with Jesus.
The heart of the human problemis the problem of the human
heart, which is our tendency tosin, and you and I know that sin
always divides, sin alwaysseparates.

(14:03):
Sin separated Adam and Eve fromGod.
It separated them from theGarden of Eden.
Sin separates you and me fromGod, them from the Garden of
Eden.
Sin separates you and me fromGod and it separates us from one
another.
God, in His eternal love, sentus a sin-bearer, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
The challenge for you and me isto trust Him today as our only

(14:29):
hope for deliverance from thepenalty from sin, which is to be
forever separated from God'spresence in a place called hell.
Jesus died your death and hepaid your price, and now he
offers you His eternal life.
Would you accept the free giftof eternal life?

(14:54):
The Bible says it, for by graceare you saved, through faith,
and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God, lest anyman should boast.
You're listening to Devotionswith Dr Papa.
If you like what you hear, Ipray that you would share it
with your friends, that you'dlike it, that you'd share it,

(15:15):
that you'd download it and beback again with us next week
when we begin Genesis, chapter 4.
Until then, may the Lord blessyou real good.
Thank you for listening to thisedition of More Than Medicine.
For more information about theJackson Family Ministry, dr
Jackson's books or to schedule aspeaking engagement, go to

(15:38):
their Facebook page, instagramor their webpage at
jacksonfamilyministrycom.
This podcast is produced by BobSloan Audio Production and
bobsloancom.