Since this is Chapter 3 (and chapter and verse are manmade designations) of fifty chapters, we assume the original sin is early on in the history of humankind. But we don’t know for sure.
How long did it take the woman to sin? The way it reads is one question and one rebuttal.
That didn’t take long!
Don’t we think that Garden of Eden citizens should have put up a bigger resistance? Doesn’t sound like it happens in this case.
They had one test. Yes, they had all but unlimited access to the fruit in the Garden of Eden, but their grade was based on one pass or fail test.
And they failed.
Yes, Adam wasn’t a murderer, as his son was. We would rank that as a worse sin than disobedience. (God probably wouldn’t, but we would.)
If we don’t obey God, none of the other sins matter. If we do obey God and don’t do what would be considered sins, it still doesn’t matter either.
What matters above all else is that we obey God.
It isn’t a salvation of works, but works are an important part of showing our salvation.
Part of me thinks God would want the test of our obedience right away. Are you surprised at that?
It would be easy to think that God would want the perfectness of the Garden to last as long as possible. Well, it would be easy to think God wouldn’t want it to happen at all.
If it wouldn’t be allowed to happen at all, that would make God a dictator. God isn’t that.
The man and the woman were offered a choice starting in Genesis 2: 15-17. We had to know right away what their choice will be.
Even though humankind was made in God’s image at creation, Adam and Eve became more like God in knowing the difference between good and evil.
Wait! What??? What happened to made in God’s image?
I take this to mean that the singular issue we are discussing here is we now possess knowledge of good from evil. We are still like God because we have the fundamental aspects of His character.
But then, this was part of the truth part that Satan told them when he was tempting Eve to sin. “‘You won’t die!’ the serpent replied to the woman. ‘God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil’” (Gen. 3: 5 NLT emphasis added).
Satan is going to use scripture, tell us half-truths, not explain things fully, flat out lie – anything – to get us to sin against God. He will use whatever it take to make his story bright and shiny to attract us to the sin.
But let’s think about this a second. We become like God. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?
Well, yes, but not this way. The ends do not justify the means.
We aren’t to become like God and have His character any way we can. Our godliness is grown through the long process of sanctification.
Adam and Eve tried to be gods — which, to a point, was possible — but fell on their face because that took them to the opposite of God. They were like God “on the outside” but not on the inside.
In finding out that it is the inside that is most important, Adam and Eve lost access to the Heavenly Father. Their selfish desires destroyed their relationship with Him.
The problem is that Satan was promising them something that was never going to happen. We will never be divine like God. We won’t even become angels.
That is further evidence that the “… have become like us …” (Gen. 3: 22 NLT) only refers to gaining the knowledge of sin’s existence.
Committing the Sin
If Satan thought God was going to strike Adam and Eve down right then when they bit, he was wrong. God is a God of mercy. That means He doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve.
Once the woman took the bite and nothing really happened, it made it look like Satan was telling the truth and God was lying. She didn’t fall down dead. She kept right on breathing.
But then, there are times when there is something going on spiritually while we are expecting only the physical. There were things happening to her spiritual condition.
What we don’t always catch is the first sin occurred in church. The Garden of Eden was designed as our Heaven on earth. God’s Temple is holy, but our free will switch is not switched off when we traverse its threshold.
If they, who had a face-to-face relationship with the Creator, couldn’t not sin, how are we to withstand temptation so we don’t sin?
The couple was no longer innocent. Even though they were still made in the image of God, they also now had a sinful nature.
The couple just wanted to be independent. They didn’t think they needed to obey God. They thought that they could be just as important as He is.
The couple were promised by Satan that they would become gods. Instead, they are called before God by God Himself, trying to justify their actions.
We could suppose that Adam and Eve, when they took the bite, did not lose their basic faith that God is Sovereign Lord and Creator. Yes, it was bad that they wanted to be gods themselves.
It is interesting to note that the woman’s judgment was just this one verse. Satan got two verses; the man got three verses. But the man’s punishment was for humankind regardless of gender.
The Woman’s Sin and Punishment
The woman was going on about her business, planning on obeying God. Then this snake popped up and blindsided her. She probably thought she was working and worshiping, and here came this temptation.
But Eve’s answer to Satan’s initial question wasn’t exactly correct. She didn’t say anything about eating freely from all the other trees. God didn’t say anything about not touching this one tree.
We can’t change God’s laws to fit our opinions.
When Satan asked Eve if she couldn’t eat from any of the trees, look what she said the punishment was in the King James Version. “… Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3: 3 KJV).
To me, lest you die means you run the risk of dying – but maybe not.
That is not what God said. He said, “… you shall surely die” (Gen. 2: 17 ESV).
Maybe the woman was already having doubts about being obedient before Satan started in on her. We really don’t know.
The woman made a choice to sin. She disobeyed God’s direct command. She bit.
The woman must have thought the fruit tasted okay, so she gave it to the man to eat. Not only did Eve sin, but she also led others to sin. She became a stumbling block to Adam. Satan loves to get one person to lead another person away from God.
It was also appropriate that Eve’s sin was addressed first as she sinned first. When God started questioning her, she deflected as Adam had done. Her excuse was the serpent
If we read this another way, we can read it as Eve was taking responsibility for her sin. He deceived me, and I ate. She didn’t say so I ate.
God had blessed the woman and man, calling them to multiply. The childbirth processes happens exclusively within the woman’s body. This may be a reason why it was chosen for the woman’s judgment.
Childbirth would no longer be easy. A woman would now suffer from physical pain during the birth process.
We know it takes two to tango, but God talked about her offspring, not theirs. The woman was the first to sin, but it is through her offspring that salvation would come.
· Even after we disobeyed Him, God interacted with the couple in grace and truth.
· Adam, being created from dust – therefore made of flesh – was as he was. He became sinful, so even if we believe that he asked for and was granted forgiveness for his sin, there was nothing he personally could do to rectify the matter.
· The woman, on the other hand, through childbirth, could fulfill the promise of a Man to be born in the future, Who would save the world from its sin.
This creation of a new life (the ability to have children) is what salvation through this Man is all about. Eve is “… the mother of all who live” (Gen. 3: 20 NLT).
The woman’s punishment is also psychological and social because it deals with Eve’s relationship with her husband. A woman’s desire is psychological; a man’s rule is social.
No, this does not mean all women are to be submissive to all men. God expects wives to be obedient to their husbands, only submissive to her husband. This is to be a loving role, not subjugation. Our work has to be done from the heart, not just going through the motions.
This submission was not present before the sin. In God’s perfect world, men and women are equal.
Our relationship with each other was damaged. Shame, jealousy, envy, and hate were now elements causing that damage.
The relationship between people and God’s creation was strained. Adam was told that “… All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it” (Gen. 3: 17 NLT).
But that also changed the way we view God’s creation. Some can view our role as owner or controller. God has not given us authority over the earth. He maintains that for Himself.
Our view of ourselves have changed. We became self-conscious. We see ourselves as fat or ugly – along with a lot of other derogatory ways.
True, God sees us as sinners now – until we accept His Plan of Salvation. Then He seems us as redeemed.
It is only through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that we are able to restore our relationship with God.
Was the Couple Together?
Some sermons I looked at said that the couple were not together at the woman’s temptation. I can see that. In Genesis 3: 1-3, the serpent addressed the woman alone.
It is easy to think that the man wasn’t there. It is easier for Satan to talk us into a sin when we are by ourselves.
Satan didn’t want them to double-team him. He didn’t want to have to convince both at the same time. One may have convinced the other not to bite.
Plus, Satan may have thought the woman would cave before the man did. Maybe it could have been better if the man would have been there to talk her out of it. More on that later.
Moses said differently, however. “… Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too” (Gen. 3: 6 NLT).”
It doesn’t say the woman went to the other side of the Garden, to their home, or to wherever the man was working. Yes, that might have been scriptural shorthand not adding in unneeded clarification.
The couple earned the consequences of sin. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God.
I see God mainly focused on our spiritual conditions. Because of that, the consequences of sin would address those conditions.
The couple’s solution was to sew fig leaves together so that they could hide from God, but our efforts do not disguise sin. Adam and Eve tried to atone for their sins their own way. They failed miserably.
Only God can fix the stain of sin. He can only do that when we believe that Jesus died just for that purpose.
The couple’s sin opened the door for the consequences of their actions. It may not have seemed like a big deal, but it sure was. Humankind have never been the same since the couple sinned.
We went as a race from not sinning at all to sinning multiple times in a variety of ways.
There was a good reason to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden – and not just for punishment reasons. Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden for their own good.
A very important component of our disobedience to God means we become His enemies when we sin.
We’ve gotten really blasé about sinning against God. We look for the boundaries of what is and isn’t sin, we look for levels, and we look to argue what is an isn’t sin.
Our looking is not true obedience.
We must never gloss over the fact that we choose whether to sin or not. We could just as easily choose to obey than disobey.
True, we might have to realign our beliefs and actions to His Will. We might have to let go of some very important things — even people — in our lives.
We are obedient and blessed when we obey God’s laws and commandments. In other words, we gain salvation.
Salvation is a change of nature when we choose to obey God.
Having a regenerated heart lets us eat from the tree of life. It shows we have the right character, the character of God. That character is shown through our obedience to God’s laws.
We shouldn’t feel guilty that we were caught. We should feel guilty because we disobeyed and committed the sin.
Eden was about purity and devotion — most of all obedience. Adam and Eve would no longer be happy there.
In other words, sin made that choice for them, too. They chose the impure and disobedient, so they chose against staying in the Garden of Eden.
We can’t forget that there was a vast world outside of the Garden of Eden. The problem was it was condemned and uncultivated.
The Man’s Sin and Punishment
Adam ate it, but Eve didn’t force him to eat. He made his own decision. He didn’t have to eat it, but he chose to do so.
There is no indication that the man raised any objections. But neither does it say that he even questioned her decision or her offering. It looks like he just chowed down.
We don’t make someone else sin. Satan doesn’t even make us sin. (Sorry, the devil made me do it isn’t a valid argument.)
It usually doesn’t take long after we have sinned to realize we have broken God’s laws. The way it is written says that she ate, he ate, and they knew. Boom, boom, boom.
We don’t see it until after the sin has been committed that, instead of being a good thing, it led to our ruin. And sin always leads to our ruin.
God gives us time to make sure our repentance is genuine. He doesn’t want lip service. In other words, our faith has to be genuine.
When God began questioning Adam, he must have been feeling really guilty. He immediately tried to deflect, showing his guilt. Adam blamed it all on the woman — except where he blamed God.
Excuses won’t work with God any more than our dog ate our homework does with teachers.
It is interesting that Adam really didn’t say anything about his decision. It was all couched in wording that put the blame on the woman.
That isn’t the way confessions work. Adam may have been admitting, but he definitely wasn’t confessing.
We have to say, “I disobeyed You, God. I’m sorry, and I repent.” God doesn’t accept, “I was duped.”
If God would have looked at the woman the way Adam wanted Him, too, all guilt for the sin would have fallen on her. He wanted God to look at him as, basically, an innocent bystander who went along with crowd. Going along with the crowd is a sin when our actions commit sins.
The man was trying to say the woman sinned because she tempted him, but he did not sin because he yielded. Wrong.
Even though the man just went with the flow, he encountered punishment, too. The man didn’t get a pass when God was handing out punishment because someone else led him to sin. While he was offered the fruit, it was his decision alone to go ahead and bite.
Maintaining life became a struggle. It takes work to till the land. It takes more work now than it did before the original sin.
This may be where weeds came into being (thorns and thistles). Those may have been around before the original sin. At a minimum, this means the weeds took on a more invasive existence.
Some of us don’t see work as a blessing. For some, working for a living is a curse in itself.
That goes against some thinking that there should be more leisure time and less work time. At the same pay, of course.
Instead, we should see secular work a being done for the Lord. When we work in His name and for His glory – regardless of the hob we are doing — we will be fruitful.
The sanctification process – spiritual cultivation – is hard and a slow process. In other words, we have to toil in order to restore our relationships with God. We have to want to.
We can only be sanctified by God’s power. We can’t do it on our own.
Because of the original sin, every human will suffer physical death. Before the man and woman bit the fruit, they would have lived eternally as they were. That was a reward of obedience.
That ended when they disobeyed God. Physical death – brought about disease, natural causes, murder, accidents, etc. – became the new normal.
Since death had entered the picture (Gen, 3: 19), we had to have a cause of death. This is where disease reared its ugly head. Everything from wars to I-want-the-money-in-your-wallet-or-I’ll-kill-you also showed up. This is where the body started to just wear out (with the help of accidents).
Returning to dust shows how fragile the human body really is. The consequences and results of the original sin are still being felt today in a significant way.
When we read Genesis 3: 17-19, do we sense any anger? I don’t. I don’t know if I even read severity in them.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. The punishment is severe.
I think God’s attitude is more of discouragement here. It is rimmed with sadness.
The sadness doesn’t come, I think, from all that God has lost. He lost the couples’ companionship, as well as their worship and obedience.
I think, more, the sadness comes from what they have lost. He knows what a huge price they have paid for disobedience. What a huge price humankind has paid for their disobedience.
If God was this sad, why did He put us through all of this? Why have us disobey just to be reinstated?
There is a couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head. Doing it any other way wouldn’t have given us free will.
Think about it. How we would have kicked back if we would have been forced into it! Even something as good as what the couple had!!!
God isn’t a dictator. He doesn’t force us.
People still to this day have the option to choose to not obey God. Yes, they will have to pay the consequences for that choice in the end, but it is their choice.
God isn’t going to send them to hell. They chose to go there themselves.
The man — and the woman and all of us — lost the initial salvation.
God, the man, and the woman had a unique relationship. They met face to face.
If they had not lost their salvation – the perfect condition in which they were made – how could anyone who chose to sin be separated from God?
Aren’t sin and salvation are all about that? Sin makes us lose access to God. Salvation restores it.
Old Testament salvation is based on obedience. Yet, the man wasn’t killed immediately. He was given the opportunity to repent.
God’s Word really doesn’t say the man repented, but I think he did. Just because he wasn’t allowed back in the Garden of Eden doesn’t mean he won’t be in Heaven.
Obedience – therefore salvation – was something they would have wanted to keep. Their free will should have been ruled by the desire to keep that.
But instead, they weren’t content with the status quo, implying they were experiencing from mental suffering. Both the fruit of the tree and the knowledge it would impart was attractive to the couple. If they weren’t having qualms about their obedience to God, they would have not been in this situation.
In other words, their doubts would have sabotaged their contentment. Their disobedience was neither sudden nor unpremeditated to some degree.
The couple chose what they could see rather than choose to modify their actions.
The couple who committed the original sin were punished, but not with judgments aimed specifically at them and no one else.
That is true. All women suffer in childbirth and are to be submissive to their husbands. All men must struggle to earn a living. All suffer the consequences and results of sin.
Sin changes the person who committed the sin. The effects of sin are felt for generations.
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Devotions in the The Influence of Sin series