Author : Keith Sharp
Bible Survey : Lesson Three (Genesis 2-3)
Since God pronounced His creation to be “very good” at the end of the sixth day, and since the first people lived in a beautiful home where they knew no death, disease, pain, or sorrow, how did the world get to be so full of pain, evil, and death? Genesis chapter three, the story of the Fall, tells how all these evil things began. But, in tribute to the grace of God, the chapter also introduces the story that will be told in the remainder of the Bible, the unfolding over the ages of the divine plan for our salvation.
Satan, the great deceiver of man, slanderer of both God and man, and ruler of the spiritual hosts of evil, is present and ready to begin his evil work of leading men to sin when the story begins. The Bible does not tell us where he came from, and it is vain and sinful to speculate (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Satan came to Eve through a serpent (cf. Revelation 12:9; 20:2). He tempted her to do the only thing God had forbidden, to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-5). To prepare her to succumb to temptation, the devil made it appear that God’s law was harsh, whereas in reality Adam and Eve were lavishly blessed. He caused Eve to doubt the goodness of God (Genesis 3:1-3).
He turned God’s true warning of death into the lie of false security by adding just one three letter word, “not,” to the divine decree (Genesis 2:17; 3:4). He became the originator of lies and death (John 8:44).
Then he tempted her through the lust of the flesh (“the woman saw that the tree was good for food”), the lust of the eyes (“that it was pleasant to the eyes”), and the pride of life (“a tree desirable to make one wise”) (Genesis 3:7). Satan tempts us to sin in the same three ways (1 John 2:15-17).
Eve took the lead, although she was created to be man’s helper, and gave of the forbidden fruit to Adam. Whereas Satan deceived Eve, Adam saw through the deception but sinned anyway (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14).
Immediately Adam and Eve received the wisdom they sought and Satan promised, but it was not the blessing they thought it would be. With the knowledge of good and evil came the fear and shame that sin brings.
Both the man and the woman tried to shift the blame to someone else. In essence, Adam blamed God.
Sins brings a curse. The serpent, Satan’s tool, was reduced to a contemptible creature. Woman was condemned to painful, difficult, dangerous childbirth and to submission to her husband. The man, who was to rule God’s creation (Genesis 1:26), was condemned to eke out a difficult living from an unruly world.
The decree of physical death, along with the pain and suffering that precede it, entered the world.
Adam and Eve were cast from their beautiful home and lost the close communion with God they had enjoyed. Thus, just as God threatened, they died that very day. Being separated from God, they died spiritually.
Adam and Eve passed on physical death to all their offspring, the human race, because of their separation from the tree of life. But the guilt of sin and the spiritual death it brings is not inherited, but we each are accountable for our own sins (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 5:12).
But, even as we read the horrible results of sin entering the world, we are introduced to the grace of the loving Lord God. The first faint promise of a Savior accompanies the curse of sin. The seed of woman, Christ, will one day destroy the power of the serpent, Satan (Genesis 3:15).
The remainder of the Bible unfolds the story of the development of this divine purpose brought to perfection in Christ. Therefore, the story of the Bible can be summarized thus: Christ is coming; Christ has come; Christ is coming again.
