Genesis 3, Peter, and Hebrews 12 discipline

     In Genesis 3 we see sin and its ramifications, but also that our Lord is in the business of healing and hope. There are two types of people’s actions in Genesis three and we can see both in Peter.

     The Serpent sometimes speaks and acts even through people like Peter in our Gospel reading yesterday (this passage is what I believe Eugene Petersen sees as the turning point for all of Mark):

“And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Mark 8:29-33

    Peter understood that Jesus was the Christ and then spoke from Satan with only four verses in between. And Peter was one that the Lord spoke to as giving the keys of the kingdom (Matt 16:19)!  I was down teaching the elementary kids in Wow Worship and so I don’t know what Tim spoke to us about. But I love that God had a plan for even Peter who words were labeled from “Satan” by Jesus!  But we see in Peter also people who are willing to converse with the Lord even after they’ve sinned. There’s a huge difference between Peter and Adam—and those who hearts are hard like Cain who departed from the presence of the Lord.

     This means we forgive those who have sinned, through the Holy Spirit. But we are not to get so engaged in people’s  lives as to support them in their sin. We do have to be careful of co-dependency. Love is a Choice is a great book in this regard. You have to be careful that you don’t find yourself needing to be The Savior. Fortunately, God has shown in Genesis three that that is not our job. As John Stott asks, “is it then hinted at here, as it is plainly taught elsewhere, that the covering of human guilt in forgiveness is possible only through the shedding of blood in sacrifice, thus foreshadowing salvation through the blood of Christ? Maybe.” (p. 35).  It took me many years to learn that not all submission is good submission. We are to encourage and submit to people to assist them to become fellow rescuers with Christ, not to just bail them out of their current mess which can just enable them. Sometimes they need to feel the pain of their mistakes. But that pain should not include the refusal of our love for them. Going back to what I wrote on recently on how we see in Genesis 1:2 God’s desire to take us “under his wing,” we are to have this same heart of compassion and not destruction towards those in error. We understand this from Hebrews chapter 12:

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Heb 12:3-7

     Then verse thirteen is a verse that I constantly meditate on when considering how to counsel people; I have used this thought for years—“Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” Our Father’s desire is for our healing, and it often comes through straight paths. I used to really like chocolate, but not so much anymore. But my favorite were Fannie Mays “Mays” truffles, dark  chocolate on the outside and milk chocolate inside. At the store, they’d chuck a bunch of them into a bag—they were a little mashed but they were ever so good even without wrappers. Straight paths for me means that I cannot have bags of Fannie Mays on my counter!

     Well this is just a rambling initial draft of ideas concerning original sin.  But recognizing in Genesis three Peter and Jesus and the way God lovingly disciplines His sons, giving them straight paths to walk in, should give us hope rather than despair. Again, near the end of the Torah in Deuteronomy you see Moses giving the Israelites a chance to turn towards the LORD:

I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Deut 30:19-20