Back when I was just getting started in ministry in St. Louis, I got out of my car to head into the ministry center where I lived and worked. A young man pulled up in his car, rolled the window down, and asked me if I could break a $10 because the laundry mat only takes singles. I knew I had the money on me, so I pulled out the wallet, counted out 10 ones, and traded for the folded up 10 he offered me. As he drove off, I unfolded the 10 to put it in my wallet and discovered that I was holding a gospel tract of no fiscal value whatsoever.
As we look at the events involving the fall of man today, I want us to keep this in mind- sin is often dressed up to look appealing, but in the end, we’re left holding on to something that is useless, even detrimental to our well-being. So it was with Adam and Eve on the day they fell from God’s grace. Let’s begin by looking at the factors that led to their choice to sin.
First of all, there was the craftiness of the serpent. Satan often uses partial truth to draw people into sin (read 2 Corinthians 11:14). As you saw in the slide, Satan may dress himself up like an angel of light, but underneath it all, he’s still a snake.
Satan speaks to Eve, saying, “Did God ACTUALLY say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Of course, the answer is no, but I think Satan used that to plant a seed of doubt. Eve was able to answer correctly about only one forbidden tree, but she wasn’t present when God gave the order, maybe she begins to wonder if she got it right. I saw a meme this week that declared, “Satan didn’t tempt Adam & Eve to murder, steal, or even tell a lie. He tempted them to question the word of God. Just know his tactics haven’t changed.”
Then Satan continues, telling Eve that she won’t surely die. He was partly right- she didn’t take a bite and immediately drop to the ground dead, but the dying process was put into motion at this moment. Satan isn’t finished spinning the truth- God knows that if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you’ll be just like Him, knowing good and evil. God forbade eating from this tree because He’s trying to hold you back. God’s “the man” trying to hold you down. The serpent was crafty, playing fast and loose with the truth.
Another factor in the decision to sin was the appeal of the tree. After the serpent spoke to Eve, bending the truth to deceive her into eating, she takes another look at the tree. It intrigues me that the description at this point appears to line up with the description John gives of temptation in his first letter (read 1 John 2:16). The desires of the flesh- she saw that the tree was good for food. The desires of the eyes- she saw that it was a delight to the eye. The pride of life- she realized that eating from the tree would make one wise. In that moment, Eve faced every temptation known to man and gave in at the point of decision.
There are a lot of jokes out there about whose fault it is that sin exists. But if we’re honest about it, there’s plenty of blame to go around. When writing to Timothy, Paul gives correction as he writes of Eve’s responsibility for the fall (read 1 Timothy 2:13-14). When he writes to the Romans, he tells of Adam’s responsibility for the fall (read Romans 5:12). So we see that both are responsible. While the passage begins by saying the serpent was speaking to the woman, he uses the plural form of you throughout the conversation. Then we’re told that Adam was there with her when she offered him the fruit. He could have told Eve not to eat, but he didn’t. She could have chosen not to listen to the serpent, but she didn’t. They both chose to give in and sin.
Let’s take a look at the consequences of their sin. The first thing we’ll see is that sin destroys relationships (read Genesis 3:7-8). On the human level, people stopped trusting each other. The author tells us that their eyes were opened (just like Satan said would happen), they realized they were naked, and they immediately sought to cover up from each other. We see this lack of trust today in the form of broken marriages, families being torn apart, friendships lost.
Sin also breaks our relationship with God. When Adam & Eve heard the sound of God walking in the garden, they tried to hide from Him among the trees of the garden. How often have you done something you know you shouldn’t have and then wished there was a way to keep your sin hidden from God?
Growing up, our neighbor had some very beautiful rose bushes that she took pride in. I remember the time my youngest sister decided she needed to pick some of the flowers, then got to thinking about how she had picked the flowers without asking first. To hide what she had done, she plucked the petals from the roses and spread them around on the neighbor’s driveway because no one would ever notice all the rose petals on the drive. We’re the same way when it comes to hiding from God. He is everywhere, we can’t hide.
When God calls Adam and Eve out from their place of hiding, the blame game begins (read Genesis 3:9-13). How often do we catch ourselves blaming others for our sin? I see it with students all the time. They get caught in the act but it’s because that person did this or this person did that or someone else did the other. God asks Adam if he ate from the one tree that was forbidden and Adam responds, “It’s her fault.” Eve immediately chimes in, “I was tricked by the serpent.” God doesn’t even give the serpent a chance to start making excuses as He begins handing out the consequences (read Genesis 3:14-15).
The serpent is cursed to travel on its belly while eating dust because of how it must now carry itself. There will also now be enmity or hostility between the woman and the serpent which will continue with their offspring. We’ll look at that more in a bit.
(read Genesis 3:16) Because of her choice to eat the forbidden fruit, woman must now go through pain in childbirth (you can all thank Eve instead of getting upset with us men while you’re giving birth, I’m just saying) while being subject to her husband.
(read Genesis 3:17-19) Adam’s consequences include a curse to the earth that means we all have to work a lot harder to produce the food we need for survival. Death has now been introduced to the world- from dust we were created, to dust we will return.
God also removed Adam and Eve from the garden, recognizing that access to the tree of life would extend their lives and mankind wouldn’t be in need of the savior that God would provide in Jesus Christ. He also placed cherubim (not the little cupids we often picture them to be) with a flaming sword to guard the garden and ensure no one would gain entrance until the garden was destroyed in the flood.
But the story doesn’t end with God being the judge and executioner of mankind for their sin. He still cares for and provides for His creation (read Genesis 3:21). God made Adam & Eve clothes made out of skin. One might think of this as the first sacrifice as an animal had to die to provide the material for this new clothing.
Let’s return to verse 15 (read). This verse points to the cross. God sent Jesus to earth to repair the relationship man had broken. Satan doesn’t want this to happen.
He begins to oppose Jesus in Matthew 4 by tempting Jesus. Remember how Eve failed to resist the three types of temptation listed by John? Jesus rose to the challenge. The desires of the flesh- Jesus refused to turn bread into stone even though He’d been fasting 40 days. The desires of the eyes- Satan wanted Jesus to force God to display His power by jumping from the highest pinnacle of the temple, but Jesus refused to put God to the test. The pride of life- Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He only bows to him, but Jesus tells him to be gone. Jesus was able to resist these temptations because He knew what God had said in His word.
I’m sure Satan thought he’d finally won when he convinced Judas to betray Jesus and the Jewish leaders to have Him crucified on the cross. But as was prophesied in Genesis 3:15, Satan only bruised His heel. Three days later, Jesus rose from the grave- defeating death, conquering sin, crushing Satan’s head.
Do you remember how we read Psalm 8 last week and talked about how David was pondering the value of man? When we were discussing this over lunch, Jeff pointed out how the author of Hebrews took the same passage to point forward from David to Jesus (read Hebrews 2:6-9). Because of His death, burial, and resurrection, God has crowned Jesus with glory and honor, giving grace to all of us.
To summarize this idea of new life, I’ve got one last passage to look at (read 1 Corinthians 15:45-49). We see two Adams here. The first was a living being. The last was a life-giving spirit. The first was natural, the last was spiritual. The first came from dust, the last came from heaven. We have a decision to make. Are we going to follow the path of the first Adam or are we going to pursue the path of the last Adam. We have all borne the image of the first Adam, it is our choice whether we bear the image of the last Adam, to receive new life.
Invitation
