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6. The Fall of Man into Sin If God created a perfect world in the
beginning, why do we have such a chaotic cosmos now? Did the world that God
created have a built-in flaw that caused it to unravel? Did God create the
human race with a genetic defect that gave them the tendency to sin? It's easy for us to ask
questions like this when we look at the situation in our world today. What
happened? When god made the world,
he made it a perfect ecosphere for the human race. Then he made man. 1. HOW DID HE MAKE OUR
FIRST PARENTS? 1FM Gen. 2:7, 18, 21-23 God made man out of mud. Clay, most
likely. He formed every part of the body and lay it in place, covered it over
with skin and looked at the body of His most marvelous creation. But Adam was
not alive. So God bent low to kiss the statue He had carved from clay. He
"breathed into His nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul." (KJV) Later on the same day God
caused Adam to go to sleep and performed the first surgery: He removed a rib
from Adam's side. From this material, God formed the lovely woman who was to
become the mother of all living—Eve. Since Eve was taken from
Adam's side—and not from his head or his foot—we come to understand that God
intended that Eve was made Adam's equal in every way. She was "a helper
suitable for him," (vs. 2:18 NIV). 2. AFTER GOD MADE THE WORLD—AND
LAST OF ALL MAN—WHAT WAS HIS ASSESSMENT OF HIS WORK? 2FM Gen. 1:31 God's assessment of what He had
done—of the world He had made—was that it was "very good." It was
perfect in every way. There was not a flaw in the fabric of the entire
creation. 3. INTO WHAT
ENVIRONMENT DID GOD PLACE ADAM AND EVE? 3FM Gen. 2:8-10 God put Adam and Eve in a garden
in which He had planted every kind of tree and flower. Everything that the
pair needed was in that garden—all kinds of fruits and nuts grew in abundance
on the trees and vines. And in the middle of the garden, God placed the
"tree of life" which, as they continued to eat of its fruit, would
give them sustenance that would cause them to live forever. (cf. 3:22) 4. WHAT RESTRICTION DID
GOD PLACE ON THE FIRST COUPLE'S DIET? 4FM Gen. 2:16, 17
God gave His new people the freedom
of choice because He wanted them to serve Him out of choice, rather than
program them to serve as automatons. And He wanted to teach Adam and Eve that
He was the owner of Planet Earth, and that they were His managers. It's
possible to get confused about this, and God wanted to teach this to them in
a way they would never forget: so He kept back one tree from them. You see, only the owner
had the right to restrict access to the trees of the garden. As long as our
first parents obeyed God and stayed away from His tree, they would live in
perfect happiness—and they would live forever. We don't know the length
of time which passed between creation and the most disastrous day in the
history of the planet. But the fatal day came when God's children decided to
destroy everything they held dear. It was not a conscious suicidal decision,
but that's the way it turned out. For on that fateful day, Eve and Adam
decided to disobey their loving Creator. 5. NOTICE THE EVENTS
THAT LED UP TO THE FIRST SIN. 5FM Gen. 3:1-7 The day dawned like any other
glorious day, and the first couple went about their business like on any
other day. (The work they did in caring for the garden isn't revealed in the
story.) But sometime during the day, Eve had a unique experience: she had a
conversation with a snake. 6. WHO WAS CONTROLLING
THE SERPENT SHE MET IN THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL? 6FM Rev. 12:9 Satan played ventriloquist that
day and talked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. 7. COMPARE THE LANGUAGE
OF GOD'S COMMAND TO NOT EAT THE FRUIT, WITH EVE'S QUOTATION. 7FM Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:3 God had told them not to eat of
the fruit; Eve evidently decided to put a "hedge" about God's
command by making a rule of her own. She reasoned, I suppose, that if she
didn't touch the fruit, she wouldn't eat it. But by doing this she blurred
the distinction between obedience and disobedience. All Satan had to do was
get her to touch the fruit and she would believe she had disobeyed God's
command. Then getting her to eat the fruit would be an easy matter. And
that's just what happened. Eve tripped over her own hedge and fell all the
way. 8. WHO WAS THE FIRST
EVANGELIST FOR SATAN? 8FM Gen. 3.6 Eve ate the fruit, and then
committed the first act of genocide by getting Adam to eat it. On that
terrible day, Satan used Eve to get to Adam. Eve—Adam's beautiful and loving
companion; Eve—the only other human in the garden; Eve—the key to God's plans
for the building of the human family: Eve became the first deceptress. Eve brought the fruit to
Adam and told him about her conversation with the snake. It's clear from the
story and from other texts in the Bible that Adam knew what Eve had done. He
knew that if he ate of the fruit he would disobey his Creator. All he would
have had to do is to call out to God for help, and his Maker would have
guided him through this terrible ordeal. But instead of turning to
God for help, Adam made his own decision: he ate the fruit. He committed
suicide and destroyed his world for all time to come. But don’t blame Adam to
harshly. Every time we act in an unloving or selfish way, we cast a vote in
favor of his decision—his sin. 9. WHAT WAS THE
IMMEDIATE AFFECT OF THEIR EATING OF THE FRUIT? 9FM Gen. 3:7 A sudden chill swept over the
pair. The robes of light which they had been wearing disappeared, and they
suddenly realized that they didn't have any clothing on. (cf. Rev. 4:4 et.
al. Sinless people are usually pictured as being dressed in white—light.) Adam and Eve were married,
and nakedness before each other should not have caused them shame. But they
knew that their Creator visited them daily, and they feared meeting Him
without any clothing. So they did the first
thing that came into their minds. They tried to make up with their own
efforts what only God could do for them now: they tried to replace their lost
robes of light with hand-made fig-leaf garments. 10. WHO WAS THE LAST
PERSON EVE AND ADAM WANTED TO SEE RIGHT THEN, AND WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE CAME? 10FM Gen. 3:8-13 Adam and Eve had no desire to see
God at that point in time, but God crashed their dress-making party.
Evidently God made Himself known before they saw Him, and their first
reaction was not, run to Daddy and hug him, but to run and hide. And I suppose we'd think
they really should have hidden themselves, because they had been eating
forbidden fruit and they remembered what God had said: "when you eat of
it you will surely die." But God didn't break in
suddenly and say, "Aha, I caught you eating my fruit. Take that (ZAP),
you guilty sinners." Instead He called to them, as though He didn't know
where they were. God asked: "Where are
you," and Adam confessed that they were naked and felt unworthy to
appear before God in that manner. God asked "Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat
from?" (vs. 11) The conversation quickly
descended into a blame-the-other-guy contest. Of the woman for which Adam had
shown such "undying" affection when God had presented her to him,
he said: "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the
tree, and I ate it." When asked about her deed, Eve passed the blame on
to the serpent: "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." In affect, both
Adam and Eve blamed God for their disobedience. Instead of destroying
the pair for their transgression, God extended to them his grace. 11. WHAT PROMISE DID
GOD MAKE THAT GAVE THEM HOPE? 11FM Gen. 3:14, 15 In the curse placed upon the
serpent, Adam and Eve caught the first glimmer of the plan of salvation;
(remember, the serpent was at that point Satan's representative, so the curse
was really placed upon Satan). The seed (offspring) of
the woman—a child that would come—would take the punishment that Adam and Eve
should have received. But in taking that punishment, this child would give
the serpent—Satan—a deadly blow that would eventually cause his end. 12. WHO WAS THE CHILD
WHO WOULD DIE FOR THEIR SINS AND DESTROY THE DEVIL? 12FM Gal. 3:16 The descendant of Adam Who took
the punishment for his sin—and for every other sin past, present, and
future—was Jesus Christ our Lord. 13. WHAT DOES JESUS DO
FOR ALL WHO ACCEPT HIM AS THEIR PERSONAL SAVIOR? 13FM 1 Cor. 15:22 Christ is the only Hope for the
human race. He died for our sins so that we could live with Him. 14. AFTER TELLING US
WHAT WE EARN WHEN WE SIN, WHAT CHOICE DID GOD GIVE US? 14FM Rom. 6:23 By our sins we've earned our just
wages—death. But God didn't leave Adam and Eve, or us either, to die in our sin.
Instead, He has offered to give us the free gift of eternal life. 15. AS WE LOOK BACK ON
THE FALL OF MAN AND GOD'S PLAN TO SAVE HIM, WHAT STARK TRUTH DO WE LEARN? 15FM 1 Cor. 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, so
in Christ all will be made alive."
• "The condition of eternal life is now just what it always
• "It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a
• "More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in |