The Fall
Text: Genesis 3:1-7
Core Idea: Adam’s disobedience brought death upon mankind, but Christ’s obedience brings life to those who believe. Then, let’s cling to Christ today, knowing that He alone can raise us from the dead and satisfy our hearts.
INTRODUCTION
Well, we’re currently going through the Book of Genesis – looking at how all things started. And so far, we’ve learned that among all that God had created, Adam and Eve were unique in that they were made in His own image. God personally molded them, breathed the breath of life in them, and placed them in a perfect paradise called the Garden of Eden so that He could continue to shower them with blessing upon blessing. There were trees that were pleasing to the eye in that there was beauty to enjoy. There were trees that were good for food in that they had everything they needed to be happy and content. And if that wasn’t enough, God also gave them the gift of work so that they would be fulfilled and the gift of marriage so that their longing for companionship could be satisfied. All that to say, there was nothing they lacked. In fact, the chapter ended with these beautiful words – Genesis 2:25, “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” It felt like nothing could go wrong at this point – until it did. And as a result, everything changed. Then, with this in mind, please turn to Genesis 3:1-7. Let me read this for us.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
The story begins with the introduction of the serpent. And immediately, my mind was filled with millions of questions. “Was this an ordinary snake? If so, how could it speak? If the serpent is the personification of Satan, as some argue, where did he come from? How did he infiltrate the garden? Where was God when this happened? Why didn’t He stop the serpent from approaching Eve? But more fundamentally, if everything God created was good, where did evil come from?” I could go on and on with these questions, but I’m not going to address them today because they’re not the focus of our text. Maybe another time. One thing I will say is that we don’t have to guess the identity of the serpent because the Bible clearly tells us who this is. Revelation 12:9 says, “The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” In other words, Satan came in the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve. Just on a side, isn’t it interesting to see that the devil didn’t go to them plainly revealing himself to be what he really is but rather in disguise? This is important to note because he’s no different today – he still disguises himself so that we won’t see him as a threat and put our guards down. The word “crafty” in Hebrew literally means “to be shrewd or prudent,” which means that Satan is not simple. He’s more than capable of customizing his tactics in order to find the most effective way to bring us down. But even then, it’s rare that he’ll come with a direct assault. Most of the time, he’ll simply whisper lies to us, for he is the father of lies. In fact, that’s exactly what we see in our passage today. Then, let’s go through this under three headings.
· THE TEMPTATION
· THE FALL
· THE CONSEQUENCE
1) THE TEMPTATION
Now, before we look at the conversation between the serpent and the woman, it’ll be helpful for us to remind ourselves of the command that God gave Adam in the garden – Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” Note that this command was given to Adam before Eve was formed – which means that it was Adam’s responsibility to teach and help Eve carry out this command. So, when the serpent approached Eve, Adam should’ve stepped in and protected her from his lies. He should’ve corrected the serpent. He should’ve taken that opportunity to remind Eve of what God had commanded them to do. But he didn’t – he just stood there and did absolutely nothing, even when Eve was being tempted. We’ll talk more about this later – but for now, what I want us to see is that because Adam abdicated his responsibility, the serpent was free to engage in the work of leading her astray.
Verse 1, “He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’” Now, this seems like an innocent question, but he was actually planting a seed of doubt so that she would question God’s goodness and generosity. He was basically saying, “Wait, did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any of the trees in the garden? Are you sure that’s what He said? I’m just asking because it sounds a little harsh. Why would He create all these things only to keep you away from them? It sure feels like He’s holding back from you. It’s like He doesn’t really want you to be happy.” Of course, the truth is that God never said those words. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – God generously gave them permission to eat from any tree in the garden except one. But Satan diminished God’s kindness by twisting His words and highlighting the prohibition. I pray that you’ll have the eyes to see what the serpent is doing because this is precisely what the devil often does to us today. When we’re tempted to sin, he comes and says, “Are you sure this is forbidden? Did God really say that you shouldn’t do this? Where in the Bible does it say that? I’m just asking because if that’s true, God seems really stingy. He’s definitely a killjoy. Are you sure He wants you to be happy? Are you sure He’s trustworthy?” Satan is constantly trying to reframe the situation.
Now, if you thought the serpent’s question was bad, Eve’s response was even worse. She said in verse 2, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” Three things. First, she downplays God’s generosity by omitting the part where God says that they were free to eat fruit from any tree. She just says, “We can eat from the trees.” But, as a result, the idea of God’s bounty is lost. Second, she misquotes God by adding the fact that God had forbidden them from even touching the tree. To be fair, this could’ve been Adam’s fault in that he may have instructed her incorrectly. Either way, she didn’t have a clear understanding of the Word and made God look harsher than He really was. Third, she softens the threat of God’s judgment. Even though God had said they would certainly die if they ate the fruit, here, she lessens the impact by removing the word “certainly” – “You shouldn’t touch it, or you’ll die.” The result? The weightiness of His Word has been taken away, and the fear of God disappeared.
Now, you might think that I’m just nitpicking. You might say, “These are such minor things. They could’ve been just an honest mistake.” True. But because Eve did not have a clear and precise understanding of the Word, she did not have a proper understanding of who God was. And because she didn’t have a right understanding of God, she made herself more vulnerable to sin. Do you see that? If she knew that God was good, that God was holy, maybe she wouldn’t have fallen for these lies. What’s the implication? Your knowledge of God’s Word matters in your battle against sin. Let me explain. Let’s say that you and I were in the garden looking at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the most beautiful tree in the garden, if it had an amazing aroma, and if the fruit looked absolutely delicious. All that to say, we would’ve never come to realize the deadliness of the tree just by looking at the tree. There would be no reason for us to think that the tree could do us harm except for one thing – the Word of God. We know that eating the fruit is unsafe only because God had said so. All that to say, everything in our lives must be perceived through the Word of God. We don’t get to choose what’s right or wrong – God does. Then, how important is it for us to have an accurate understanding of the Bible – God’s spoken Word? If we want to have a healthy relationship with God, if we want to guard ourselves against the lies from the enemy, we must be in the Word – which means that we should never be satisfied with a surface-level understanding of the Word but endeavor to know the Word clearly, thoroughly, and completely. Brothers and sisters, we should never take our reading of the Word lightly. We must be intentional in studying the Word. We need to make every effort to know the Word and obey the Word because this is how we come to know God.
Now, if we go back to our text, Satan must have known that Eve’s understanding of the Word was shallow – there was no clarity or precision to her knowledge. Then, this was his chance to win her over – so, verse 4, “You will not certainly die.” The serpent flat-out lied. At first, he may have tried to obscure what God had said – but now, he completely went against what God had told them. In fact, this is much more insidious than you think because the serpent is implying that God had lied to her. Verse 5, “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” In other words, the serpent was basically saying, “What are you talking about? You’re not going to die. Seriously, did God say that to you? Clearly, He lied to you. He’s just saying that because He doesn’t want you to be like Him. He said that because He wants to be in control all the time. He’s definitely trying to hold you down. If not, why would He restrict your freedom? Come and look at the tree. Look at the fruit. Doesn’t it look good? Take it. It’s for your own good. You’ll be happy. Take control over your own life. Don’t let God tell you what to do. You can be as wise and powerful as God.” Undercutting the Word of God wasn’t enough, and questioning God’s goodness and generosity wasn’t enough – the serpent goes on to make God out to be a liar, a manipulator. In fact, it’s no coincidence that the first lie ever spoken was aimed at downplaying the holiness of God and the reality of divine judgment. Liam Goligher writes, “The first doctrine that is ever denied explicitly is the doctrine of sin. We are still tempted to think that God’s bark is worse than His bite, that He is not quite as holy as the Scriptures say He is.” Aren’t these the same lies that we hear today? So, we say, “A loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. The God of wrath is such an OT idea – Jesus is a God of love. He’ll understand if I do whatever I want as long as I turn to Him later.” The serpent will lead people to think that God wouldn’t really judge them for their sins. But nothing could be further from the truth. Friends, if you’ve bought into these lies, I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the truth today. The truth is that sin may promise you pleasure and happiness, but sin will always bring despair, disappointment, and destruction. The truth is that God is loving, but He is also holy. The truth is that God’s righteous wrath will fall against those who rebel against Him, but those who choose Christ will have life and life to the full. And the most sobering truth is that we don’t know what the future holds for us in that we may not have all the time we want to enjoy life and turn to God later – which is why I want to urge you to turn to God today. Don’t put this decision off until later. Don’t be deceived by the devil’s lies. Don’t let him distort your understanding of God. He is good and trustworthy. Then, turn to Jesus and ask Him to be your Savior. Let this be the day that you surrender to Him.
2) THE FALL
Verse 6, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” Because of her doubt and suspicion, because of her shallow understanding of the Word, and because of her desire for pleasure and control, she listened to the lies and ate from the tree. In other words, the state of her heart determined the action – she sinned because she didn’t trust God. But that wasn’t the end of the story – she gave some to Adam, who was with her, and he ate too. Many people wrongly conclude and make a joke out of the fact that Adam fell because he listened to his wife – but that is absolutely absurd. Alicia has given me many great counsels. She has helped me understand and apply the truth. I am who I am because of her influence in my life. Adam did not fall because he listened to his wife – he fell because he did not exercise headship when she said things contrary to God’s Word. Adam is not a victim of Eve’s sin – not at all. If anything, the fault is ultimately more on him because he abdicated his responsibility to lead. He should’ve corrected the serpent. He should’ve protected Eve. He should’ve led her in holiness. But he didn’t. And they both fell.
Now, it’s at this point we should be careful because it’s so easy to look at this story from a moralistic view. Here’s what I mean. We could take this story and conclude, “Well, let’s look at what Adam and Eve didn’t do well – and let’s make sure that we do the right thing so that we won’t fall like them.” In other words, this story just becomes a lesson on how to overcome temptation. Of course, I’m not saying it’s wrong for us to do that. We should most definitely learn from their examples and guard ourselves so that we won’t fall into the same sin again – which is why I said that we should continue to immerse ourselves in the Word and guard ourselves against the lies from the enemy. But what I want us to see is that that is not the ultimate purpose of this story. It can’t be because the best of us would’ve been no different from Adam if we were in his shoes. How do I know this? Because we all continue to sin every day. No matter how righteous we think we are, we’re still all sinners before God. Then what’s the ultimate purpose of Genesis 3? It’s to teach us how the sin of Adam as our federal head affected mankind.
What’s federal headship? It’s the idea that a representative or “head” acts on behalf of a group, and the consequences of their actions apply to those they represent. So, for example, if a king declares war against another kingdom, everyone under his reign will be in a state of war, whether they like it or not. If the king rules wisely, the people will benefit – but if the king is foolish, the people will suffer. Similarly, a CEO’s decisions can impact the entire company, and parents’ decisions can affect their children. Then, what the Bible teaches is that Adam served as the federal head of all mankind. So, if Adam obeyed, we would’ve been at peace with God. But because he disobeyed, the rest of mankind is now alienated from and at war with God. His guilt and the consequences of sin were passed down to all humanity. Paul explains it like this in Romans 5:12-14, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned – to be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.” This explains why every person is born with a sinful nature – which is also known as the doctrine of original sin.
Now, what does this mean for us? Paul explains in Ephesians 2:1-3, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” In other words, we’re not just sleeping in sin. We’re not merely lost in sin. No, we’re all dead in sin and in desperate need of resuscitation. And if that’s not bad enough, as God’s enemies, we’re also by nature deserving of God’s wrath. This is so important for us to understand because without embracing this bad news, we won’t understand the need for the good news – we’ll never be desperate for His grace if we don’t recognize our hopelessness in sin. Some people equate salvation with being shipwrecked in the middle of the sea. They say, “You’re desperately trying to stay afloat, but you’re running out of energy. But then God throws a life preserver – and only those who grab onto that life preserver will be saved.” But that can’t be what the Bible is teaching because dead people don’t grab onto life preservers. They can’t because they’re already at the bottom of the sea. Then, in salvation, God doesn’t merely cast a life preserver for sinking souls to grasp – no, God Himself dives into the water, takes you to the shore, resuscitates you, and brings you back to life again. Brothers and sisters, the Bible tells us that we were dead in our transgressions and sins. We were incapable of seeking God on our own. In fact, our predisposition was to rebel against God – which means that no one is forcing us to sin. We want to sin. We enjoy sin. And at times, we even boast in sin. We don’t really take sin seriously because we don’t realize against whom we’re sinning. No wonder Paul cried out in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” Friends, do you feel the hopelessness of your state? Do you feel the weightiness of your sins? If not, pray that God will open your heart to experience the gravity of the situation you’re in. On our own, we don’t have what it takes to lift us up from the bottom of the sea. Genesis 3 is not ultimately about us learning to do better as the adversary comes at us. No, Genesis 3 is ultimately about the nature and the extent of the fall. It’s about the radical depravity of man. But most importantly, it’s about our desperate need for a Savior because we can’t save ourselves.
3) THE CONSEQUENCE
Verse 7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.” We’re going to see the comprehensive effects of the fall more thoroughly the next time we’re in Genesis, but we can clearly see that sin immediately caused Adam to feel guilt and shame. Richard Phillips writes, “Just as the serpent predicted in verse 5, Adam’s eyes were certainly opened only to find that he had not ascended to the throne of God but had fallen from his righteous state and become like Satan in the guilt of his sin.” In other words, sin made Adam and Eve not like God but more like the devil. And realizing what they had done, a flood of guilt and shame overwhelmed them. In fact, they couldn’t even bear to see each other’s nakedness and brokenness – verse 7, “So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” This is incredibly tragic because instead of turning to God and asking for His forgiveness, they hid and tried to make things right again on their own. And yet the clothing of fig leaves reminds us how futile our efforts are. Friends, does this describe you today? Are you under the weight of guilt and shame for all that you’ve done? And as a result, are you so desperately trying to cover it up? Are you putting on a mask to cover up the agony you feel because of your sin? Are you trying to have the appearance of a good Christian by serving and giving because you don’t want to be exposed? Are you intentionally being more aggressive in order to hide your frailty? Are you distracting yourself with work, entertainment, or social media because you’re utterly overwhelmed by the weight of your sin and you cannot bear to know who you really are? Are you running from God and others in an effort to hide your sin and maybe in an attempt to even hold onto your sin? If this is you, I pray that you’ll have the eyes to see the truth of the gospel because it’s telling us to stop trying because God has come to our rescue. Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Because of His love for us, God extended His hands to us first, even before we turned to Him. Because of His love for us, He gave us Jesus Christ so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn. 3:16). In other words, He makes us alive through Christ. Let me explain this in terms of federal headship. Paul says in Romans 5:19, “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” What this means is that just as Adam struggled in a garden over a command about a tree, Jesus too struggled in a garden over a command about a tree. But whereas Adam failed to obey, Jesus obeyed even though He knew that it would cost Him everything. Even though He knew that it would crush Him, He obeyed because He also knew that His obedience would bring life to us. Then, what the gospel teaches us is that even though Adam as our head disobeyed and brought sin into the world, Jesus Christ as our new federal head obeyed and brought life to those who place their faith in Him – those who choose to believe that Christ is their head. We’re alive because He obeyed. We’re a new creation because of His work on the cross.
Now, some of you might say, “Wait, I thought God required repentance and faith. Doesn’t this mean that we still have a part to play in the work of salvation?” Not at all – which is why Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” In other words, even the faith that you place in God is from God as well – it’s a gift. There’s nothing that we contribute to making our salvation possible – which is why the work of salvation is often described as monergism rather than synergism. Synergism means that you work together to bring out the best result. But in monergism, God alone does the work – we’re simply recipients of His labor. Then, what does this mean for us? Well, we should definitely praise God because we have nothing to boast about. We’re not Christians because we’re better than others, smarter than others, or holier than others. We’re saved purely because of His grace – which means that we should continue to look to Christ. And with the power that comes from the Holy Spirit, we should declare the message of the gospel to others so that they, too, will be saved. In fact, what a perfect season to do this, as Advent is just around the corner. Let’s invite people to come so that they can hear the truth of the gospel – but, at the same time, pray that God will graciously rescue them from the bottom of the sea and breathe life in them because unless He works, this work of salvation will never get done.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, Adam’s disobedience brought death upon mankind, but Christ’s obedience brings life to those who believe. Then, let’s cling to Christ today, knowing that He alone can raise us from the dead and satisfy our hearts.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) The serpent’s question to Eve began with, “Did God really say...?” How does doubt play a role in temptation, both in this story and in our lives today?
2) Satan twists God’s words to emphasize prohibition rather than His generosity. How does focusing on perceived restrictions affect our relationship with God?
3) Why is a clear and accurate understanding of God’s Word essential in resisting temptation? Share examples from personal experience.
4) Discuss the concept of federal headship. How does Adam’s failure as humanity’s representative highlight the need for Christ as the new head?