More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP : Gen 3, 22-24 Lest They Become Like Us
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!
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician Dr Robert Jackson. Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa.
Speaker 1:Gather around, grab your Bibles and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, today, we're at Genesis, chapter 3, verses 22 and 24. Then the Lord God said Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So he drove the man out and at the east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. Let me ask a question who is us in verse 22? Who is God talking to when he says Behold, the man has become like one of us? It's the same us involved in a conversation in Genesis 1.26, when he said if you remember, in 1.26, god says let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. You remember that us and that our? That occurred in Genesis 1, 26? In both of these verses, the triune God is conversing among Father, son and Holy Spirit, all of whom are present at the dawn of creation when God spoke the world into existence, all of whom are present at the dawn of creation when God spoke the world into existence and the Spirit of God brooded over the surface of the deep.
Speaker 1:And in John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, the Bible tells us that in the beginning was the Word. Who is the Word? Well, the Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. You see, god was referencing in John, chapter 1, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the living word. And then later, the apostle Paul informs us in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 16 and 17. For by Him talking about our Lord Jesus by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, where the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. That's our Lord Jesus Christ who was in the beginning with the Father. He was part of that us that the Father was talking about.
Speaker 1:And then the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 1 of Hebrews. He's referencing our Lord Jesus Christ when he says this of the Son. He says you, lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain and they will all become old like a garment and like a mantle. You will roll them up like a garment. They will also be changed, but you are the same and your years will not come to an end. He was referring in the Hebrew passage there to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Understand clearly that all three members of the Trinity Father, son and Holy Spirit were present in the beginning, in the garden and throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. The three may have different offices or functions, but the three are one in essence. So the great three-in-one convened a tribunal, a holy convocation, in the original garden, and the father said holy mackerel, what are we going to do now? These two eggheads have really messed up our plans. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:God doesn't wring His hands in frustration. He knows the end from the beginning. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. He is the rock of all the ages. He knew, before the pillars of the earth were laid and before he spread out the heavens with His hands, that Adam and Eve would sin and would rebel against His authority. And he had prepared for Himself a lamb before the foundation of the world was even laid. That lamb was not an afterthought. Jesus on the cross was not plan B. He was slain on the cross before the foundation of the world. As Revelation tells us. God was slain.
Speaker 1:God, who sees all and knows all, foreknew the sin of man and the need for a deliverer. He delivered up his only son for you and me before he even spoke light into existence, before Eve took the forbidden fruit from the tempter's hand. Eve took the forbidden fruit from the tempter's hand. The Lamb of God had already spilled His precious blood for you and me. If you comprehend the sovereignty of God, you will smile and rest easy in this life, because there are no oopsies with God. Even when Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit, god didn't fuss or cuss, or even raise an eyebrow. He is hidden from him, but all things are open and laid bare before him. I don't know about you, but this brings comfort to my soul, knowing that my heavenly Father knows all and controls all, and that everything that happens in my life is first sifted through his all-knowing and all-loving hands. Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now let me ask you another question. How was Adam like the triune God, now that he had experienced 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.
Speaker 1:The Scripture informs us that God's eyes are too pure to look upon iniquity and that nothing sinful can come into His holy presence. Indeed, the Scriptures inform I'm sorry, indeed, the seraphim in his presence cease not to cry out. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. More than that, he is described as the righteous judge of all the earth, who will always do right, who deals with all men with perfect equity, who will judge all the nations by the word of his mouth and the guilty will not go unpunished. So what does the statement mean? It means that God, who knows all things, knows right from wrong. He knows all about sin and the consequences of sin. His great heart is grieved by the consequences of sin that would eventually lead to the death of His own Son on Calvary's cross to redeem a lost and dying world. But he Himself was not touched by sin. He was and is unspotted by sin until he laid all of our iniquity on Jesus and he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The divine concern here is that he might stretch out his hand, talking about Adam, that he might stretch out his hand and eat of the other fruit, the fruit that would impart to him eternal life.
Speaker 1:Now can you imagine what would have happened if Adam and Eve had been able to live forever with sin and decay without the eventual blessing of death? Just look what happened when they lived 900 plus years. They practiced sin unchecked for 900 years until the Bible tells us, violence filled the earth and God regretted that he had made man upon the earth. God then sent a flood that eliminated man upon the earth, except for one righteous man and his family. That man was Noah.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that most of my very old patients that know the Lord long for the next life and yearn for the arms of Jesus. My very old patients that don't know the Lord cling to this life and fear death, because this life is all they know and they have no hope in the next life. So the Bible tells us that God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden and sent him to work cultivating planet earth. He had to do what you do every day, and that's go to work. I ask my male patients when I first go into the exam room so what have you been doing since I last saw you? And the male patients respond Doc, just going to work, just going to work. And I respond well, that's what a working man does. You see, ever since God excluded Adam from the garden. That's what men do we go to work? Men, do we go to work? It's a part of the curse.
Speaker 1:For 900 years, adam told his kids and his grandkids, and even his great-grandkids about the Garden of Eden and how wonderful it was and how beautiful it was. And do you think they looked for 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, and that's why God placed an angel there to guard the place. The garden didn't disappear completely until after the universal flood in Noah's day, until after the universal flood in Noah's day. But nobody found it because there was an angel there with a sword that turned in every direction.
Speaker 1:You and I can't go back to the garden, but we can walk hand in hand with Jesus. The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart, which is our tendency to sin, and you and I know that sin always divides, sin always separates. Sin separated Adam and Eve from God. It separated them from the Garden of Eden. Sin separates you and me from God, them from the Garden of Eden. Sin separates you and me from God and it separates us from one another. God, in His eternal love, sent us a sin-bearer, our Lord Jesus Christ. The challenge for you and me is to trust Him today as our only hope for deliverance from the penalty from sin, which is to be forever separated from God's presence in a place called hell. Jesus died your death and he paid your price, and now he offers you His eternal life. Would you accept the free gift of eternal life? The Bible says it, for by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, lest any man should boast.
Speaker 1:You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like what you hear, I pray that you would share it with your friends, that you'd like it, that you'd share it, that you'd download it and be back again with us next week when we begin Genesis, chapter 4. Until then, may the Lord bless you real good. Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production and bobsloancom.
