Revision as of 19:00, 26 February 2019

Objectives

Opening

• According to Genesis 4:22, what knowledge did mankind now possess after The Fall?
  • Man now had knowledge of good and evil. Note: The verse states "man has become like on of Us, to know good and evil." God is omniscient and so knows everything. Man now knew good and evil but instead of knowing good and evil in a holy omniscient way, man knew good and evil through experience. The knowledge of good and evil is passed down to each of us today.

In each dispensation God works to demonstrate his goodness and man's need for God. Before The Fall, God demonstrated that even without a sin nature, man was still capable of sinning and in need of God. After The Fall, God gave man the opportunity to knowingly choose good instead of evil. In other words, in The Fall, man was given a conscience. Someone might ask the question, is a conscience enough for man to choose good?

• According to Genesis 6:5, what was the result of man's dependence on conscience?
  • In Genesis 6:5 we see man totally failing. Conscience was not enough.

• In Genesis 6:3 and 6 we see something that might look like God is changing. Does God change? How can we explain these verses?
  • We know that God is unchanging so these verses cannot possibly mean that God is Himself changing. Instead the word that the KJV translates as repented could also mean was sorry. The ESV says regretted. I think it might even be good to think about this as mourned or bing mournful. When someone close to you dies you can be sorry as you mourn. What we must realize is that the God of the universe mourns sin. John 11:35 is a great picture of the mourning that is appropriate in a fallen world. So what has changed about God? Nothing, God has allowed man, to fail in the dispensation of conscience demonstrating that we need God.

As an aside, God had everything He needed in the trinity. We see God’s sorrow over man’s inability to do good even with a conscience in Genesis 6:6. God mourns man’s sin. Not only does God not need us, but He is mournful about our need. I think sometimes it is easy for us to get a hero complex and while it is ridiculous, our hero complex can be so great that we need other people’s problems to solve so we can feel complete. But God does not need this, He is genuinely mournful of our sin problem.

Main Body

The Flood

• According to Genesis 6:7, 8, and 13, how did God plan to teach mankind that he was merciful yet just?
  • God used a flood to demonstrate that sin has severe consequences that God, as a just bing, cannot overlook. However, As noted in Genesis 6:8 God also taught that He is unchanging and still provides grace.

The Noahic Covenant

The Dispensation of Human Government

Conclusion

References

1. ↑ Geisler, Norman L. Systematic theology: In one volume. Bethany House, 2011. pg 797