Our previous study in Genesis 2 looked at God’s work, with the creation of human beings as the crowning jewel of all His acts of creation, being made in the image of God as a reflection of His glory to the surrounding world. And right there in Genesis 1:28, we are given a job, work that reflects the nature of God — to rule over the world as His image bearer. And then He rests. Our work is based on this, as we cultivate the garden we have been portioned we are to continue giving lordship to Him as His image bearers. This is the original design for work. Work is worship — the worship of God as we tend to the garden, that creation may flourish.
God’s good design for work included rest, modelled by Him. We talked about how God’s good design for work also included the provision of all things for man, as well as the commissioning of man to do his work - have dominion over everything, name everything. Main takeaways are that work is not a result of the fall, in fact work existed before the fall, God Himself worked, and God had a good design for work - work was a good thing. Point to online study for recap, plug website, continue.
Our study today is in Genesis 3, but the title of our study today is actually taken from Psalm 127:1-2: “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
This Psalm is a reminder that things are not the way they were designed to be. Work that was once fruitful, is now in vain. Somewhere between our last study and this Psalm something went very very wrong. Work that was perfect, is now anxious. And we know this all too well ourselves — how did your day go? How has 2024 been treating you? Genesis 3 holds the answer to that and we will look at the nature of sin, its impact on work, and what hope we have for an otherwise hopeless situation.
(A) The upside-down nature of sin: Deceptive, deficient, destructive and idolatrous (Gen 3:1-24)
Genesis 3 presents the fall of man, where sin was introduced into the world. This chapter helps us to see the nature of sin. Firstly, we see that sin is deceptive (Gen 3:1-5). The serpent started with a leading question (“Did God actually say”, Gen 3:1b), and jumped straight into lying (“You will not surely die.”, Gen 3:4). Notice the line of questioning here that introduces doubt. The serpent turns the creation order on its head, and paints God as one who holds out on His people, one who is stingy, one who wants to keep the good stuff to himself. It ultimately lies about the nature of God, that He is not good, and not good enough — the chief lie. In doing so, He is changing the image of God.
Next, we see that sin is deficient (Gen 3:6-7). We see the self-justifying half truths building on each other — “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. (Gen 3:6)” It builds its case, until finally it makes sense and seems only right to do. Yet the outcome was far from what she expected.
The lie that was sold was a half truth, and while the outcome was accurate, its effects were far from what was promised “then the eyes of both were open, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen 3:7). What was supposed to be better than good, ended up being horribly bad and shameful. The freedom and wisdom in sin turned out to be far from good. We see that sin is deficient — it promises and sells a lie. Sin looks fulfilling but results in anything but good. In a real twist of events we see a really clear picture of the upside-down nature of it all — the woman who was a helper fit for man, helped the man to sin.
Sin is also relationally destructive (Gen 3:8-13). We immediately see relationships crumble on both axes — man’s vertical relationship with God is destroyed, and man’s horizontal relationship with each other crumbles. Sin creates instinctive separation from God, and we know this well don’t we? It’s exactly what we do when we are guilty — we hide from God and His people, we withdraw from community, because we do not want to face what we have done. Sin creates fear and shame, and drives us out of relationship with a good and holy God.
Sin is sin. It is unholiness against God. And sinners cannot be in the presence of a holy God. It also causes human relationships to crumble. We immediately see finger-pointing and blame-shifting. Apart from the clear shirking of responsibility, perhaps the worst thing here is that they ultimately blame God — “The woman whom you gave to be with me” and “The serpent deceived me” (Gen 3:12-13). The terrible truth of sin is that it destroys all relationships, and is the root of all conflict.
Sin is not only relationally destructive, but is also thoroughly and exhaustively destructive (Gen 3:16-21). We see this clearly in God’s curse in response to sin and everything is cursed —cursed childbearing, cursed relationship, cursed desires, cursed creation, cursed work, cursed life, cursed to work fruitlessly, and ultimately cursed to die. The effects of sin cannot be self-contained and it spreads and spreads all over God’s good world like a cancer. Everything is cursed. It is the complete opposite of Genesis 1. Notice that God is the one is doing the cursing. The consequence of sin is judgement and ultimately death. This is the ultimate reason for all the brokenness in our world today.
Finally, we see that sin is idolatrous (Gen 3:22-24). At the heart of sin is the desire to be God — “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:22)”. It is our sinful response to the chief lie that God is not good enough — but we are. D.A. Carson calls this the de-godding of God. It’s important for us to understand what sin is. It is not just doing wrong things, but it is a fundamental rebellion against God. It is the upside down desire to be our own god, the desire to be the all knowing all powerful all controlling being of your life. Does that sound familiar?
Christians have a word for this — idolatry. It is scary how quickly we realise that we all struggle with this, and effectively, we have all tried to be our own gods in our own ways.
As we turn our eyes from Genesis 3 and back onto ourselves, we realise that sin is something that is in all of us. More than that, the nature of sin is the very flipping on its head of God’s creation order — it is deceptive, it is deficient, it is destructive and it is idolatrous.
We are all sinners. And when we realise this, it is a clear call for us to turn to Him because we need Him. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Let this sit with you! We have all de-godded God and replaced Him with ourselves — whether it’s for our control in our work, our finances, our security, our families. We are a sinful people, and just like Adam and Eve, our relationship with God and with each other has broken down because of it. And just like Adam and Eve, we sit under God’s rightful judgement.
Sin is the reason we need a Saviour. There is a gap -- separation from God — because of sin. God as He designed us, designed us to be in relationship with Him. We are not, and that’s because of sin. We are deficient and not how we were designed and what God has called us to. The curse of sin applies to us all, and the prevalence of sin in all of us is the very reason we need Jesus, because he did what we did not and could not. We’ll talk a bit more about that in our last section.
We see the effects of sin everywhere — in nature, in sickness, in death, in calamity, in broken relationships, and the list goes on. But perhaps we see the effects of sin most regularly in our work and the things we do and this brings us to our next section.
(B) Eating the bread of anxious work: The vanity of our work that reminds us of our sin (Gen 1-3)
Psalm 127 reminds us of the reality that because of sin, we work in vain. How has work been cursed specifically? We will use Genesis 3 again to help us to consider this. Work, which was a good thing, which existed before sin and the fall, which was a means of our worship of God has now been stained by sin. Like we saw in the previous section, work is now cursed, and we have been cursed to work fruitlessly.
Work was created to be true and good (Gen 1:28-30, 2:1-2) but is now deceptive.
In Genesis 1-2 we see how God put man to work in His garden to enjoy His creation and to maintain what He has done. As man works, he is also to be reminded of who God is as he has been designed to image God.
However, work doesn’t reflect what God is like and we may not be able to sense His character at work. When we work well and do what we are supposed to do, we reflect God’s character. Yet in our sin, our work doesn’t lead to good outcomes and we don’t follow through/others don’t and it leads to all sorts of problems.
Work ends up reminding us of how far off we are from where God designed us to be. Thus, we see that what promises life and meaning and purpose ultimately ends in disappointment and death. How many of you here are looking for meaning in work, pursuing their passions, desiring purpose and growth? Work cannot and does not meet that expectation. It does not scratch that itch. Even the less noble more worldly and ambitious things — money, status, promotions, recognition, awards — none of this will make you fully joyful or happy.
Work will never be enough. Desires will outstrip reality and that will never change no matter how hard we try or work. The goalpost will continue to move. You will not get happier. Life will not get more comfortable. Your work-life will not get more balanced. Things will probably not get better, or more easy, or more fair, or more anything. When you think you’ve achieved happiness and life and meaning and purpose, you look over and you see something else to chase.
Work is deceptive. If we look to work for meaning, purpose and fulfilment, we find that it will not always be the case.
Work was created to be good, perfect, fruitful and flourishing (Gen 1, 1:11-12, 20-22, 24-25, 28, 31) but is now deficient.
Work was designed to be efficient, with 100% yield but we know that this is not the case now. Work is futile and fruitless. The picture of “thorns and thistles” remind us that we will fail and we will be disappointed. Not only that, the “system” will fail you and it will disappoint you. Think about that promotion or raise you were supposed to get but didn’t, because the other guy has been here longer. Haven’t lived long enough to experience that? Organisations often disappoint us. Work for yourself? Being your own boss is also problematic.
In school? Think about the bell curve that is so unfair, think about that project you put so much effort into that fell flat, think about that burden of a group mate, think about that immovable GPA that no matter how many hours you spend studying, just doesn’t seem to move.
And whether you are a student or an employee or/and employer — inefficiencies abound. You will not find or design a perfect system. We can try to do as much as we can to optimise everything, but it will never be good enough. We can have 101 hacks and listen to a thousand productivity podcasts but will not find or experience perfection on this side of the fall. Within the garden, work was an expansion, a flourishing of perfection, but outside the garden our work will never be enough.
Work was designed to be restful, beautiful and full of life (Gen 2:1-3, 8-14) but is destructive.
Work is toilsome, hard and painful to the point that we can no longer imagine what work was before the fall. But this isn’t news to us. Apart from work being hard, we see the breakdown of relationships everywhere. We experience organisational hierarchies that cause conflict but if we look closely, we see that it is often caused by self-interest that trumps common purpose.
Turning in, we know full well that greed and selfish-ambition drives overworking that destroys your heart, mind, body and soul. A positive way of viewing it is hardworking, industrious, diligent, conscientious, tireless, productive. But taken to an extreme, we see exhaustion, mental breakdowns, trauma, long-term health issues and everything that follows. God’s good design for work included rest, but we see that thrown right out the window. We work tirelessly so that we can be noticed or be promoted.
Work becomes a compulsory act of survival. (Gen 3:19). Work is relentless, and we cannot escape it until death.
Work was meant to beGod-centred, purposeful and worshipful, an outflow of our identity in God and a means of our worship of Him (Gen 1:26-28, 2:15). Instead, it is easily idolatrous.
Work can exist in a way that is idolatrous (and we will tackle it in the next section) but we are so easily tempted. We hear these whispers when we wake up to work everyday — almost like the serpent in the garden: “You are what you do. You are only as good as the quality of work you put out. Your value and self-worth are tied directly to your output and how your peers, your colleagues, your boss, your parents, your wife, your husband — how they see you. Your identity is so wrapped up in what you can do and have done and will do.”
We can be tempted to think that we can keep it as long as we are in control. Friends, remember that work will take over our lives if we keep feeding it.
Or maybe said in a more positive light — work is good, you can find meaning in your work, you can find true purpose as long as you align yourself, as long as you do ___. Work can be your god, and you will be alright because you can control what you do and you can play the game and psych yourself up enough and at the end of the day my hard work will pay off. Work so easily becomes an idol for us because we love the projects and the accomplishments and the highs, because we love being good and proficient and effective and the glamour. Work so easily becomes an idol for us because we love the control
And when we find work toilsome and futile, cynicism grows in turn. We can end up making and idol of idleness too, as we are discouraged by its futility before we even start. We can end up self-loathing and hopeless, and end up idle, apathetic because what’s the point of working? It can be tempting that there’s not point to work so hard, because a reward is not guaranteed. For some of us, we may argue that those who work hard still run the risk of getting laid off or have no job security. And perhaps the quintessential Singaporean young person conundrum — Working hard doesn’t guarantee that we can buy a house, a car, travel, get married etc. What is the point of working hard if results are not guaranteed?
Where do we stand here? What is our relationship with work?
We’ve talked a lot about the hopelessness and the brokenness of work. It’s really not a pretty picture. If we stopped our study here, it would be very depressing — we’ve effectively said, from the Bible, that from here on out the next one third of your life will be absolutely fruitless and by and large, you will fail. You were designed perfectly, as we saw in this section, but that design has been cursed, and so now you are doomed to thorns and thistles.
The title of our study is anxious toil, and honestly, don’t we all feel some form of that? How would you not, with everything we’ve heard today? Sin that results in toilsome and fruitless work produces fear and anxiety — and all of that is rooted in a separation from God. We have no peace, we have no assurance, we have no hope for what’s to come when we are not with God. The effects of sin that we see so clearly and regularly in our work — the anxiety, the vanity, the sleeplessness, the restlessness, the disappointment, the depression — friends, these are reminders that the world is not the way it is supposed to be.
There are some of us here who do struggle with these things and I want to encourage us to hold our anxious and depressed feelings in one hand and sin in the other, and to see that they are related. What we struggle with is a result of the fall, and it is a clear picture that we are not designed as God meant us to be.
The vanity of our work that reminds us of our sin — what hope and help do we have then?
(C) Hope and help in a fallen world: Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and the Spirit’s restorative work in us
Genesis 3:15 contains the first glimpse of the Saviour. Even in the midst of the curse, we see God’s promise of salvation.
Christ is our true hope and His true work is to redeem us from the curse and reconcile us to God. He declared on the cross — it (the work he had been given to do) is finished. People are redeemed, but work is not — work in this world remains toilsome, futile and compulsory. Even Paul, even Christ got tired working hard to bring the word of God to people.
What difference then does our redemption have on work? What does this mean for us? Firstly, see that redeemed people repent of their idolatrous identity in work because their identity is now in Christ. Our hearts are no longer set on work anymore, but our identity is tied to Christ instead. It changes how we view work because our identity is not titled to something changing, but on Christ who is sure and steadfast. You work with all your heart because you work for The Lord, and not for the material success.
Secondly, we worship God through our work and worship brings us joy. The way we worship God most of the time is by getting up and going to work and working for The Lord, as opposed to singing songs in church. Worship is not just singing. Rather it is the complete engagement of my entire life going about my work as a servant to the King — to promote flourishing in that little portion of our garden. It changes attitudes, actions, beliefs, and the fact that we can worship through our work once again tells us there is more to come — restoration. If every facet of your work was geared to glorifying God — imaging Him and point others to who He is — how would your work be different? How would your motivations change?
How are we then to live in light of this, and how has God provided for us even now?Jesus promised His disciples that as he left, His Spirit would be with them. Friends, what great comfort it is that we are not left to our own devices to figure things out on our own. Just like He saw that it was not good for man to be alone and created woman as his helper, God gives us his spirit as our helper — to sustain us, to encourage us, to guide us, to convict us, to show us Christ, and to restore us.
Romans 8 is a glorious chapter in a glorious book, and we are highlighting just a few verses from here:
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:1–2)
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Rom 8:5–6)
“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 will 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, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom 8:18–27)
Romans 8 points us to the reversal of the curse, the redemption of all things. It points us to the promised day that will come when God will make all things new, making work in paradise just as it was preceding the fall. Work will not cease, rather it will be made perfect once again. In paradise we will no longer need to struggle and fight to provide for ourselves. Freedom and abundance is not a picture of a world without work, but instead one where work has been restored to its original design, and can be engaged for God’s glory — the one true purpose of work. The chief end of work is God - this changes our work now, and energises our work forever.
So view work rightly. This is a far cry from stoicism, nor is it hopeless apathy, nor is it striving for self-gain or self-preservation. View work as worship, as it was originally designed. This is the difference between peace vs anxiety, fulfilment vs emptiness, fruitfulness vs fruitlessness, life-giving work vs life-draining work. We can work this way, because in Christ we have the Holy Spirit as our helper.
In light of the living hope we have in Christ, how does this change you at work?