So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. And now the Gospel according to Luke chapter 1, beginning at verse 26, that's page 855 in the Blue Bibles. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel... So I'm at chapter 1 verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.' And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. Behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age is also conceived as son, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. And now Genesis 3, starting at verse 11. Genesis 3. That's page 3, actually, in your few Bibles. You know the story. We've read portions of this already for the last two Sundays. And here we are, right in the middle of it again. So I'm going to just start at verse 11. God said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. The 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. I 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. To the woman He said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And 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. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By 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. The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. And then verses 22 through 24, Adam and Eve are excluded now from the garden and kept out of the garden by an angel and a flaming sword. That which I've read to you and that which I've just summarized for you is all the Word of the Lord. Let's pray. O Christ, Word of the Father Most High, who has made flesh to dwell among us, enter into our hearts, that all we who have been redeemed by the mystery of your incarnation Holy life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension may remain united in the communion of your peace eternal. Amen. You may be seated. Just keep your Bibles open there to Genesis 3. That's our passage this morning. So we continue and kind of wrap up our series, our Advent series. O that birth forever blessed when the Virgin full of grace by the Holy Ghost conceiving bore the Savior of our race, and the Babe, the world's Redeemer, first revealed His sacred face evermore and evermore. And thus we sing carols and hymns like this year after year with renewed vigor at this time of year. And these carols normally have loads of memories attached to them. Our memories. Some of those memories are delightful, and others are distasteful. Some of those carols now bring tears, where once they used to bring smiles. Others that should lift our hearts and heads cause some to plug their ears and turn away in sadness and sorrow. And yet, even in the midst of all of that, we still persist, doggedly persist in singing these carols through happy and horrible periods at this time of year. Why? Because there's something lingering in the words and the rhythms that give us hope, even if it's only a glimmer or a spark. Now, over the last two Sundays, two Sundays ago... ...we heard as we were going through this Advent series... ...that Jesus is Adam revisited and redefined. And as Adam revisited and redefined... ...He recapitulates and remedies Adam sinning and shaping. And then last week we picked up and learned... ...as we were listening to Calvin especially... ...that grace restores and transforms nature. Today, this morning, we will gaze once more at the coming of Christ and pick up another aspect of what kind of a game-changer that first Christmas means. And maybe to our surprise, we find that it is a game-changer for creation. It is a game-changer for creation. So there's the two points. You'll have them on the back of your worship guide there. Creation afflicted, creation restored, There are two quotations. You will want to see those when we get to those points. Creation afflicted. We've been in Genesis 3 enough and know it enough that we realize that right at this moment that we just picked up here, that the image of God and the likeness of God is now shattered in shards and slivers piled on the ground right there. It's broken. Never, ever, ever will it be the same again, at least at this point. And so what God begins to do here in verses 14 through 19 is He begins to map out what He actually promised to Adam earlier in chapter 2. In chapter 2, 16 and 17, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. And so beginning here in chapter 3, 14, you shall surely die as being unpacked, and it leaks out like an oil spill, sloshing onto and soaking into creation, both the creature and the created biosphere. So in verses 14 and 15, which we looked at last week, specifically in reference to the serpent, but notice the connection of the serpent with livestock and other critters. And so we begin to see that the outworking of, in the day you eat of it you will surely die, how it begins to work out for critters. Critters crawling in the caliche, choking on the dust of death. And then in the first part of verse 16, the woman. The woman birthing offspring. find death creeping around conception and incubation and childbirth. Even though here it specifically says you'll multiply your pain and childbearing. Some of you know from experience yourself and some of you know from your mother and your grandmother telling you stories that pain and childbearing was not just giving birth, it was the miscarriages. It was the giving birth to a stillborn child. Death is lurking at the door all over, all around, the whole birthing process. And then at the last part of verse 16, the woman finds that death has come into her home, her home life, gagging on the debris of death. Listen to how he puts it here. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband. But He shall rule over you. And notice whatever else that means, and it means several things. Whatever else it means, it's related to the same vicious language used of Eve's son, her first-born son in chapter 4. Look over to chapter 4, verse 7. There Cain, who's now angry because God has accepted Abel's sacrifice and not his. He sits there and sulks in his anger. And notice what happens in verse 7. Listen for it because it's actually almost verbatim in the Hebrew with chapter 316, the last part. If you, Cain, do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Notice before Eve, as God is talking to Eve, what He's driving at is that the place where there should be domestic harmony in her own home. Death comes in by bringing domestic tussles, to say it nicely. Conflict. Crashing dishes. Contests for domestic domination in the home. have this pungent tang and caustic stench of the fall and the outworking of death. What should be a place of joy becomes a battlefield. And then, verse 18, the man now sees his career, his vocation, covered in sweat and shortfalls. In chapter 2, there's none of that. In chapter 2, think about what it'd be like to have a job where it never fails. If you garden, okay? How many of you garden in here? Okay, thank you very much, yes. Imagine gardening and never having a crop failure. Whoa, baby! That'd be awesome. That's Genesis 2. And now Genesis 3. Adam sees his career and his vocation covered in sweat and shortfall. He finds his career and vocation always now an uphill battle, filled with literal and metaphorical weeds, thorns, and thistles. And then, verse 19, he dies. In the words of the pop group, The Verve, in their song, Bittersweet Symphony. Some of you know it. I saw you look at me. Listen. "'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life. Try to make ends meet, try to find some money, then you die." That's verse 19. "'By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.' For out of it, out of the ground, notice the connection between you and me, and the dirt, creation, the created biosphere. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And so then, verses 22-24, all of this will happen. All of this dying, and then death. all of this dying and death, all of the created biospheres tainting and staining with death, and all of our lives, whether it's our marriages or vocational, whatever, being choked on the dust of death, all of that dying, and then death itself, verses 22 through 24, is now being done, it's going to be done outside the garden, outside the warm companionship of the Creator. Cut off. from the intimacy that once was. The creature and the created biosphere are splattered now and stained with the suffocating, death-inducing consequences of the fall. Creation afflicted indeed. But there's a slight and a subtle promising hint that God will not allow it to remain in this new normal. And it's in verse 21. Just look at verse 21. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. It's not loud, it's not lurid, but it catches our attention. Because you remember the earlier part of the story. What does Adam and Eve do as soon as they have disobeyed God? They now know that they are shameful, exposed to God. And what do they do? On their own initiative. Taking being proactive, trying to find themselves. What do they do? Make their own stuff with fig leaves, right? Make their own clothing to cover their shame. And then when God comes calling, inviting them to come back, they run away. All of that. Notice what happens here then in verse 21. It's not loud, it's not rambunctious, but it does catch our attention. God takes the initiative. He steps across the aisle. He takes the initiative to address human shame. The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin. And He clothed them. Notice that a creature is given up to be God's remedial answer to their shame. What are they clothed in? A garment of what? Skin. Somebody died. The Creator took the initiative and a creature was given as remedy for human shame. Just keep the thought in the back of your head. Notice that God is not disgusted by His creation, and He is not disgusted by creatures, but He gets His hands, so to speak, into creation to bring forth a remedy. Maybe, just maybe, there's a hint here that God will use created, a created being, a creature, to bring about restoration. And so then, sure enough, if you think to Luke chapter 1. Notice that in Luke chapter 1, if you want to go there, you can go there, what we read earlier, but especially verses 30 through 35. God is not disgusted by his creation or his creatures, and he gets involved in creation. He says to Mary through the angels, That which you will be bearing in your womb is the Son of the Most High. Verse 32. The Son of the Most High. The Son of the highest God, as it were. The Son of God at the highest will be conceived in Mary's virginal womb. What does that mean? It means the Son of the Most High becomes part of creation. through the normal processes of conception, gestation, and the trauma of the blood and the water of the birth canal. But more surprisingly, it is the Genesis 1 language that is humming in the background of this whole idea of the conception of the Son of the Most High. It's in verse 35. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, And the power of the Most High, those are synonymous. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the power of the Most High. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the earth, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. It's not accidental that the language is similar. Because this one, this one conceived and carried in Mary's womb, is the beginning of creation restored, creation transformed. There is the beginning of re-creation, if you will. The one who is in her womb is now part of creation itself, conceived very similar to the way we are conceived, and yet not quite so similar. And this one who is in her womb is taking upon himself creatureliness and createdness. He's taking upon... Get the language. He's taking upon himself creatureliness and createdness. Okay, maybe that's all shadowy. Let me just say it. Here you go. This is the point. Here is the creator of the world. You could peer into Mary's womb at this moment, the time of conception. Here is the creator of the world, humbly becoming part of His creation. The creator of the world, who does not disdain and find creation disgusting, becomes part of creation. Why? Why? Why? Why would you do that? Why? That's a great question. I'm glad you asked it. Let me answer it for you. It was in our call to worship from Colossians 1. It's also Colossians 1 we use every six weeks as our confession of faith. Listen again to Paul as he talks, beginning in chapter 1, verse 16. For by Christ all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him, and He's before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And then Paul goes on unpacking that, and then he says this, For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him. Through whom? Jesus the man who is fully God, in whom dwells the fullness of Godhead, fully God, and yet now fully part of creation, through this One, conceived on that day and birthed on that night in Bethlehem. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Why did the creator become part of creation? To reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Why did the creator of all things, the creator himself, become part of creation? To redeem, to restore creation. Creature and the created biosphere. Or to put it in the words of Saint Irenaeus, this is your first quotation in there. Irenaeus who fought hard in the 2nd century, by the way, against the Gnostics of his day. And the Gnostics of his day shone eerily 21st century-ish. They despised creation and thus they despised human bodies. And so human bodies, you could do whatever you wanted to with your body. You could identify yourself as whatever you wanted to identify. It didn't matter because a body is disposable. And Irenaeus fought against that. Irenaeus says that we Christians, unlike the Gnostics, believe, quote, in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth and all things therein, by means of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who, because of His surpassing love towards His creation, condescended to be born of a virgin, He Himself, uniting man through Himself to God. Why did God, why did the Creator become part of His creation? Because of His deep love for creation. It is not the devil's, and the devil ain't gonna win. Hallelujah! And so, if in God the Son becoming part of creation at conception and displayed there in that barnyard crib, is God Himself launching and inaugurating the restoration and the transformation of creation and creatures, then those who bow the knee to Him and embrace Him as Lord and Savior will come to participate in the renewed and renovated creation of creatures and created biosphere, all coming together to enter into God's warmth and joyous pleasure forever. And so I want you to notice the second quotation. This is from John Calvin as he is quoting and looking at our passage in Romans that we read at the very beginning, Romans 8. Specifically verse 21. I want you to listen to the bad news. Sorry, bad news is important because good news ain't so good without the bad, you know what I mean? Listen to the bad news and then listen to the good news. Quote, we may, it is true, infer from this how dreadful is the curse We all deserve, since all innocent creatures from earth and heaven are punished for our sins. It is our fault that they struggle in corruption. The condemnation of the human race is imprinted on the heavens, the earth, and all creatures. That's bad news. Here's good news. Again, this passage shows us how great and excellent of glory the sons of God are to be exalted. And all creatures shall be renewed to magnify it and declare its splendor. All creatures will share in their own manner in the better state because God will restore the present fallen world to perfect condition at the same time as the human race. All of that begins to happen and tumble out and unfold at the conception of Christ, the Creator becoming part of creation, and laid out in that barnyard crib. It is there declared, God has moved in on our turf to save us and all creatures. That's good news! No wonder then, my friends, at this time of year, as we are remembering the coming of the eternal Son of God, We sing loudly that that first Christmas was a cosmic game changer. I challenge you to go through the Christmas carols, and notice how often creation is brought into the carols. They're there in several of them. Like, joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let Him their songs employ. While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains recount, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the is found, far as the curse is found. Oh, how rightly do we perceive that it is a good and right thing to even call upon all creation to come and join, join in with us as we sing these happy lays. Here's the verse from the hymn. We'll sing at the end of the service. All creation, join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son evermore, your voices raising to the eternal three and one. Come and worship Christ, the newborn King. Let us then, brothers and sisters, join all of our hearts and all of our voices in faith, even when the clouds over our lives are blackened and bleak and bullying. Let us sing the amazing grace that restores and transforms nature Sing the praises of the one who abhorred not the virgin's womb, and thus wants the new beginning. Let's pray. What great news, O Creator of the world, that You became part of creation. What great news! That You have come, that Your blessings may flow far as the curse is found. What great news. Lord, may our hearts be filled with swelling, to bursting with praise at what you have done for us and for our salvation, for the salvation of the world. We pray that anyone who hears this, who's here maybe even now, has kept you at an arm's distance, who maybe has been bitter towards you for some reason, is turn their back on you more than once, that they would hear, and that, oh, creating spirit, you would hover over their hearts and bring forth new life and new creation. It's in your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.