Genesis (Pt. 8) (The Fall of Man)
Text: Genesis 3:1-8
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
What we just read there was the saddest moment in all of human history. Now I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this point, but the genre of the book of Genesis is history. This isn’t meant to be allegorical, or a myth. This is written as an actual historical and factual account of what took place. Without this; we have no doctrine of sin, and if we have no doctrine of sin, then why on earth did we need a Savior? In the NT, the apostle Paul takes this account as factual when he writes in the book of Romans chapter 5 that sin came into the world through the offense of one man. Now there are some people who would argue that man is not inherently sinful. They would say that man is born into a “sin principle” but not born with a sinful nature. They would say that we’re really not that bad at all… it’s just a mature of nature verses nurture. And those are usually the type of people who think that the Gospel is some sort of “self-help” mechanism… some sort of guide to help us pull ourselves up by our proverbial boot straps and earn our way into heaven. But the fact is; if we don’t understand this doctrine of original sin, if we don’t understand that we are born… ruined with sin, then we will also have a faulty understanding of God’s grace.
Grace is not a ladder that we have to climb to get to heaven. It’s not even a hand up. Grace is a resurrection. The Bible teaches that we are dead in trespasses and sin, and so if grace is a ladder, then what happens is Jesus climbs down it, picks up a dead body carries it back up the ladder and then brings it back to life. We do not save ourselves. It is all of God. His grace! His mercy! His compassion! His doing! He saves us. He does it all. It is not of him who wills or him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
So this morning; I want to look at this passage of Scripture with the understanding that this is the foundational passage for our doctrine of sin, and I want us to look at three main points. First; Sin is lawlessness, – second; sin is deceptive – and 3rd, Sin brings shame.
So let’s look at that 1st point – sin is lawlessness. If you read through 1st John you’ll see that’s exactly what John says, but I imagine that John drew that phrasing right out of our text this morning. Sin is lawlessness – it is breaking the given commands of God. Another way we could say it is by saying, “sin is rebellion.” And it’s not just rebellion against a king or country, it’s rebellion against God Almighty! Mankind are traitors against God. Take a look at those 1st five verses (Read Vss. 1-5). The first thing I want you to notice here is that God is sovereign. Even the “serpent” who is in rebellion against God, is simply one of His creations. Satan is not an equal but opposite power that opposes God, he is a created being in rebellion against the eternal, omnipotent, omniscient God Himself. There is not a balance between the forces of good and evil… it’s not a Star Wars film. Evil is shown to us here as rebellion against the Creator of the universe. I want you to notice here also; that sin, was not always present in God’s creation. When there was no rebellion against God, there was no sin. And like I said before, I think what happened was that God had created the heavens and the earth, and all the angels and the creatures of the earth and seas and skies. And then… God created man. He created man a little LOWER than the angels, but then turns around and gives man dominion over his creation. He says, “You are to have dominion over the earth.” And I think what happened was that Satan’s pride caused him to become jealous of this. Satan thought that he was the pinnacle of God’s creation. He thought that he was the one who deserved to be given authority and dominion over the other objects of creation. When Paul was instructing Timothy on the qualifications of pastors (1 Tim. 3:6) one of the warnings was that he could be puffed up with pride and fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
The point is; evil hasn’t always been around. Satan’s rebellion against God was the beginning of sin and evil.
And so we have Satan tempting Eve, and there’s some discussion as to whether he transformed into a serpent, or possessed the physical body of a serpent, or if the word “serpent” is just used to describe Satan, but he wasn’t actually a snake. I tend to think it was an actual serpent, possessed by Satan. We see demons enter into a herd of pigs later on in the NT, so that’s not an impossibility. And this is interesting because Adam and Eve had been given dominion over the animals, but here is an animal (albeit possessed by Satan) tempting Adam and Eve to rebel against God. There is also a lot of discussion about the serpents ability to talk. Science will tell you that it’s an impossibility, but science would also say that a donkey couldn’t talk either – but you would never convince Baalam of that. So basically; man failed in his obligation to have dominion, and since that time, cultures all over the world have willingly put themselves under the dominion and authority of the creation by worshiping the things that are created rather than the Creator! I mean, that’s what we see happen all throughout history – the Egyptians worshiped crocodiles and the Nile River, and cats. The Greeks worshiped gods who were created in their own image. Native American’s worshiped the sun and moon, and even coyotes.
So Satan tempts Eve and she makes two mistakes in her reply to him. In verse three she actually adds to God’s words. God never told her or Adam that they couldn’t touch it, just that they couldn’t eat it. Mistake #1 is that she made God’s command more strict than it originally was. Sometimes you’ll see people do that sort of thing… they think that if they can take it one step further, then they are really getting at holiness. Her second mistake was her motive for obedience. Her motive for obedience was fear of death. She says, “We can’t eat it, or even touch it. If we do we will die.” It’s a motivation of self-interest. Let me put this in another way that will help us to understand it better. If MariJo tells Leslie and Gabriel to clean their room, and they come to me and say, “Why do we need to clean our room?” My answer is usually, “Because you’re mother said so!” It’s not because I will spank your bottoms until it hurts to even think about sitting down. It’s because you’re mother has told you to do something – PERIOD. Well in the same sense; our number one motivation for obeying God should be because He IS God. He is the One who created us. He is the One who sustains us. He blesses us, He provides for us, He is all powerful, and all knowing. He’s God, you’re not. He has said to do it, and for no other reason, you should obey simply because He’s God.
Then in verse 4, Satan openly contradicts what God has said. And what this is… is the perfect opportunity for Adam to exercise his God given dominion. Because if you look down at verse 6 you’ll see that Adam was there, but he really blows it by not stepping up and being a man. This was Adam and Eve’s opportunity to show loyalty to God, but instead of loyalty, they rebel against Him.
Sin is lawlessness.
Point #2, Sin is Deceptive.
This passage shows us that the very first doctrine ever denied was the doctrine of judgment. The modern idea that God is too loving to send people to an eternal hell isn’t modern at all. And the reason that this notion is so harmful is because it does away with the idea that God is not just. God’s attributes do not trump one another. Love does not trump justice, or vice versa. All that God demands stem from Who He is. God demands you be holy because He is holy. God demands you love one another because He loves us. God demands that you do right and seek justice, because He is a just and righteous God. And all of these demands must be met… and were met in the person of Jesus Christ. But what sin does is that it gets you to thinking wrongly about God, and about His Word, and it deceives you into believing lies. In verse 5 we see that even more clearly (Read vs. 5).
What’s the lie here? What’s Satan saying to them? He’s saying, “God doesn’t want you to meet your full potential.” “God’s holding you back.” “God’s keeping the best things from you.” Or, “God doesn’t want you to enjoy yourselves.”
I recently spoke with someone about becoming a Christian. Now this particular person was talking to me and they had a beer in their hand. And they asked me, “If I became a Christian, would I have to stop drinking?” Now I could’ve been like Eve and added to God’s Word and said, “Yes.” But I didn’t. I told them that God’s Word condemns drunkenness. I told them that we see wine at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when He created it at the wedding feast, and we see wine at the end of Jesus’ ministry, when He drinks it during the Last Supper. But then I went on and said, “So no, you don’t have to give up drinking… but when you are born again and you become a new creation in Christ Jesus, you will no longer WANT to engage in drunkenness.” And the closer you get to Him, the less you want of those worldly things.
But sin is deceptive. Look at what Satan told Eve. He basically said, “Hey, if you want to be MORE like God, then disobey His commands.” Jesus say’s just the opposite. He said, “I always do the will of My Father… My Father and I are One.” So what sin does is it fools us into believing that if we reject God’s standards, we will find “true” happiness and contentment. That’s always the devil’s strategy. Drugs and alcohol will make you happy, sex outside of marriage will make you happy, money and power will make you happy, possession of material things will make you happy. But God tells us that there is an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness; between obedience and satisfaction.
Sin does not bring happiness; it brings guilt and shame. Look at verses 6 & 7 (read). Here we see Adam and Eve disobey and the result of their disobedience. You notice their sin didn’t make them anything like God. In-fact it did just the opposite. It alienated them from God. They’ve been enlightened and what’s the result? Shame! Not satisfaction, not happiness, not godliness, but shame and guilt. And look what they do… they try to cover themselves with fig leaves. That’s the first attempt at works based righteousness. And it’s a pretty sorry attempt at that. But the story doesn’t end with this bad news. Satan deceived Adam and Eve by telling them “take and eat,” but Jesus would later use those same words as a kind of picture of how our fellowship with God would be restored when He instituted the ordinance of Communion at the Last Supper. We have the luxury of hindsight & can look back at the cross and the victory that was won there.
CLOSING AND PRAYER
