Lesson 26 - Man: His Fall

• "The early chapters of Genesis record the fall into sin by Adam and Eve. The various interpretations of this record either take it as a literal event explaining the sinfulness of the human race or attempt to explain it away as unhistorical or a myth. The orthodox interpretation, however, is that the event took place exactly as recorded in Scripture, and this is the way it is treated in the rest of the Bible."[1]

Adam Before the Fall

     Adam and Eve were created sinless and placed in the perfect environment God prepared for them. After their initial creation, God had declared everything “very good” (Gen. 1:31). The coupled represented the human race at that time. Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God introduced sin into the human race (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21-22).

     The record of Adam and Eve’s sin is set forth in Genesis 3:1-7. Satan, in the form of the serpent, approached Adam and Eve and enticed them to rebel against the only negative command God gave them, not to eat of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:17). Satan’s enticement started with a question about what God said (Gen. 3:1), which implied God was withholding some good thing from them. Eve’s reply modified God’s Word. “Eve in her reply fell into Satan’s trap by leaving out the word ‘freely’ in God’s permission to eat of the trees of the garden, and she left out also the word ‘surely’ in God’s warning. The natural tendency of man to minimize God’s goodness and to magnify His strictness are familiar characteristics of human experience ever since.”[2] Satan’s question to Eve turned to an outright contradiction in which he told her, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). The Bible then states, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Gen. 3:6).

Adam After the Fall

Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in far-reaching and long-lasting consequences.

1. They became subject to both physical and spiritual death (Gen. 2:17).[3]
2. God’s judgment also fell upon Satan, and the serpent was condemned to crawl on the ground (Gen. 3:14-15).
3. A special judgment also fell on Eve, who would experience pain in giving birth to children and would be required to submit to her husband (Gen. 3:16).
4. A special curse fell on Adam, and he was assigned to the hard labor of bringing forth from the soil, now cursed with thorns and thistles, the necessary food for his continued existence (Gen. 3:17-19). Sin also impacted the entire creation (Rom. 8:22).

The Effects of Adam’s Sin Upon the Race

     The sin of Adam and Eve brought immediate spiritual death, which means their relationship with God was severed. By grace, God restored their relationship by providing a sacrifice and covering, which they accepted (Gen. 3:21). However, Adam and Eve would live out their days with a fallen nature and in a fallen world. Adam’s sinful nature would pass to all his descendants and the effects of sin would become more and more obvious as time progressed. In Scripture we learn about several important imputations that concern our relationship with God: First is the imputation of Adam’s original sin to every member of the human race (Gen. 5:3; Rom. 5:12-14; cf. 1 Cor. 15:21-22). This means that every biological descendant of Adam is charged with the sin he committed in the Garden of Eden which plunged the human race into spiritual death. Jesus is the only exception, for though He is truly human (Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:23-38), He was born without original sin, without a sin nature, and committed no personal sin during His time on earth (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 3:5). Second is the imputation of all sin to Jesus on the cross (Isa. 53:5; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; 1 Pet. 2:21-24). Here, God the Father took every sin of every person and imputed it to Christ while He was on the cross (John 3:16; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2). God the Father judged Jesus in our place (Mark 10:45; Rom. 5:6-10; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; 1 Pet. 3:18), cancelling our sin debt by the death of Christ (Col. 2:13-14; 2 Cor. 5:18-19). Third is the imputation of God’s righteousness to those who believe in Jesus for salvation (Rom. 4:3-5; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9).

 

[1] Lewis Sperry Chafer; John F. Walvoord; Major Bible Themes (Grand Rapids, Mich. Zondervan Publishing, 2010), 171.

[2] Ibid., 173.

[3] These four points are taken verbatim from Major Bible Themes, pages 173-174.