- Original picture from Dan Cristian Pădureț from Unsplash
The Fall of Man
Introduction
The exact phrase "the fall of man" does not appear in the Bible but it
aptly describes a most important turning point in the history of
mankind and God's plan and purpose with His creation.
The theory of evolution is in direct
opposition to the teaching of the Bible and offers us no purpose in life.
In the Bible, God offers a plan of salvation for us and a hope for the
future. This topic explores the early stages of the development of God's
plan.
God clearly tells us several times in the Bible, the reason for the
creation (see for example Isaiah 45.18; Revelation 4.11). In the
beginning, God created man for a special relationship. Unlike any other
part of the animal creation, human beings were given the power to
reason and understand things, whereas animals are creatures of
instinct.
A simple mission
God gave Adam and Eve a simple mission and a very simple code to live
by:
"Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
The mission to "be fruitful and multiply" was given before they sinned.
"... the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it."
Adam and Eve were given the task of looking after the garden where,
we later learn, the Lord God walked with them. In summary, they were
created to rule over the animal creation, procreate, subdue the earth
and tend the Garden of Eden. They were given one rule to live by:
"... the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'From every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat the fruit of it you shall surely die'"
There are some important principles established here:
- God has the right to demand obedience from His creation.
- Adam and Eve had freewill to obey or disobey.
- They had a moral obligation to their Creator.
- Death was the penalty for disobeying God.
This sets the scene for the topic of 'the fall of man'.
Disobedience introduced sin and death
A serpent was in the garden that had limited ability to reason, and at
the time was able to speak. It spoke to Eve (Genesis 3.1-6). Read this
passage carefully and notice how the serpent told the woman halftruths.
The woman fully understood her position. Nevertheless she and her
husband took and ate the fruit (nowhere is it described as an apple).
There was conflict in the woman's mind based on the serpent's
reasoning. Eve believed the serpent more than God. Adam didn't
oppose the suggestion of doing wrong. The act of taking and eating the
fruit was a calculated decision in direct opposition to God's simple
command to eat any fruit in the garden, except the fruit of that one
particular tree.
There was an immediate realisation of the magnitude of what they had
done. They realised, being naked, that they should cover themselves
up, so that they could hide from God. They sewed fig leaves together to
make simple clothes (read Genesis 3.8-11).
The first sin in history had been committed
The Bible teaching about sin is very clear. The problem for us is that we
are descended from Adam and Eve and we have inherited their sinful
human nature, which means we are similarly open to temptation. This
point is made because modern thinking about sin is clouded by the
same thought process that Eve went through before taking the fruit.
The Apostle John wrote:
"Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness"
This is something that a largely godless world today finds irrelevant and unacceptable.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, thus death came to all men, because all sinned"
So, all mankind has descended from Adam.
Christian beliefs that ignore the Genesis account, leaves us with no
explanation as to why we die or how we can be saved from death. Paul
also wrote that:
"For the wages of sin is death ..."
In other words death is the payment for sin.
A curse and a promise
It is important to read the entire passage in Genesis chapter 3 verses 8
to 21 and pay particular attention to verse 15 which is addressed to the
serpent:
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
The outcome of this passage is that the serpent was cursed. Most
importantly, the 'seed' or offspring of the serpent would be the enemy
of the 'seed' of the woman. Anyone exploring religion should note this
verse carefully. The seed (offspring) of the serpent would fight with the
seed (offspring) of the woman. Her seed would bruise the head of the
serpent's seed (a fatal wound) but the serpent's seed would only bruise
the heel of the woman's seed (a non-fatal wound).
The whole narrative of the Bible hangs on Genesis 3 verse 15. The seed
of the serpent is sin – the serpent caused it to come into the world by
tempting Eve. The seed of the woman refers to one man and points to
the Lord Jesus Christ. His death was like a bruise to the heel for he rose
from the dead. In succeeding in his mission he dealt a death blow (a
bruise to the head) to the seed of the serpent. A very important
principle is established here. God was carrying out His plan to
eventually take away the sin that had been brought into the world as a
result of the events in Eden.
The punishment on Eve was to suffer pain in child-bearing (Genesis
3.16). Again, important principles were established here. Ephesians 5.
21-33 and 1 Peter 3. 1-7 are very helpful in understanding this point.
The punishment on Adam was that the ground was cursed. Food would
only be obtained by a continual battle with pests, weeds and disease. It
would mean hard labour ending in death. Man was formed of dust and
to dust he would return (Genesis 3.19).
The necessity for sacrifice
The point has already been made that Adam and Eve tried to hide from
God having become conscious that they were exposed to Him (Genesis
3.7). Their remedy was unacceptable to God. He provided them with
animal skins as a covering (Genesis 3.21). This introduces the concept of
sacrifice. Blood was shed in the killing of animals to make 'tunics' of
animal skins for Adam and Eve.
The man and woman were ejected from the Garden of Eden where they
had effectively lived with God (Genesis 3.22-24). They were now
subject to sin, disease and death as a result of disobeying God's
command. Neither was Adam able to bring about their own deliverance
or reconciliation with God.
The finality of death
The Bible teaches that death is final, apart from divine intervention.
Death is a cessation of life and we return to the dust of the ground.
Read Ecclesiastes 3.19,20, Ecclesiastes 9.5,6 and Psalm 6.5 to confirm
the points being made above.
We can see that without God's help there is no way back to Him. But we
learn from the Bible that He is a forgiving God, and has made possible a
way back to Him through the work of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Bible hope contained in the 'gospel' which Jesus preached.
The word 'gospel' literally means 'good news'.
The entire narrative of the Bible is about how God has been working out
His plan for men and women to be reconciled to Him. It is this good
news which Light Magazine is drawing to our readers' attention.
Despite the fall of man, recorded in the opening chapters of Genesis, we
have this message of hope summarised by the Apostle Peter:
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
2 Peter 3.9
Author The Editor
Country UK
Source Light on a New World reprint from Volume 30.4
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