We’re going to look at the third chapter of Genesis; back to our prolonged series on origins. Origins, something that occupies our society a great deal; as philosophers and educators and politicians and scientists and just plain folks try to sort out why the world is the way it is, how it got this way and where it’s headed. Well, the Bible tells us all that God ever intended us to know about origins. And we are looking at the third chapter of Genesis, which describes the origin of sin, the origin of sin. Sin, of course, explains all the troubles in the world; all the decay, all the disease, all the dysfunction, everything evil, everything wrong, everything imperfect and, of course, death, all comes from an event that occurred and is recorded in Genesis 3. Genesis 3 is actual history. It is not myth; it is not legend. It is actual history. It is the true and accurate record from God about how sin came into the world, and it was sin that caused all the problems that exist in our universe.
It is important to understand how sin came into the world. It is important to understand the universal problem, in order that we can understand the cure. We cannot understand redemptive history and its ending, unless we understand its beginning. We cannot understand why it is important to have a Savior, why it is important that He dies, why it is important that He returns again, and restores this planet to a somewhat Edenic character, and then ultimately destroys the entire universe, and in its place, recreates a new heaven and a new earth.
We cannot understand all of the sweeping elements, the comprehensive elements of redemptive history unless we understand the problem and how it came about. We cannot understand why man is the way he is, unless we understand Genesis Chapter 3. It explains the universal condition of man. It explains why there must be a Savior, and why the universe must ultimately be destroyed and a new universe brought into existence in its place. And as I said to you a few weeks ago, understanding Genesis 3, as well as Genesis 1 and 2, is the only foundation for an accurate world view. If you do not accept Genesis 1, 2 and 3, if you do not understand them, if you do not believe them, you cannot fabricate a correct world view. You must understand that God created the entire universe as it now exists in six 24-hour days. You must understand God’s purpose in creating man in His own image, giving a helper to him; namely, woman. You must understand that as the substantial foundation of the physical universe, and of man’s role in it. You must understand Genesis Chapter 3, the fall of man. If you do not understand those and believe those to be exactly as represented in the Bible, you have a faulty world view, and you’re trying to understand the world in a way that it cannot be understood. All that comes out of that is wrong and misunderstanding, and leaves us without a proper answer.
Man did not evolve to the heights of where he is today through millions of years of physical evolution or psychological evolution. Man did not evolve from anything into what he is today. He fell into what he is today in one act, in one moment, on one day. He fell from what he once was, in perfection and innocence in the image of God, into the depths of sin and depravity. He did not ascend from anywhere. He did not, over millions of years, become what he is. He became what he is in one moment of time on one day. He descended from the wonder of his original creation in the image of God, to his current condition in sin and under divine judgment. It is critical to understand that he was created on one day in full maturity. He was created for fellowship with God and to enjoy the world that God had made. And he plunged from the perfection of that original creation into the fallenness which has marked him ever since. And it all happened in one event.
That event is described for us in the third Chapter of Genesis Verse 1. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” “And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’” “And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” “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. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
Now, we’ve already studied those seven verses. We met the solicitor, who is Satan; the one who, having fallen out of heaven because of his own rebellion, was cast down to earth. That wicked Lucifer, now known as Satan or the devil, comes and solicits evil from Eve, first of all, and through Eve, from Adam. His strategy is deception. His strategy is to lie about God, to plant thoughts in the mind of Eve that are untrue of God; that God is not kind, that God is not good, that God is harsh, that God is somewhat narrow, that God is holding back from her something that is good. And that you can’t trust God’s word. Even though He said you would die, you won’t die. So God doesn’t even tell the truth. And through the strategy of deception comes the seduction. The seduction starts to take place as indicated in Verse 6, when lust begins to conceive sin. She begins to realize the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and, if she ate it, that it would make her to know good and evil, and that would make her wise, and she would become like God. And so, she was seduced by the lust that arose in her own heart. Then you find the very act. At the end of Verse 6, she and her husband both eat. And that is the act of disobedience that results in the shame of Verse 7. Their eyes are opened. They understand evil, not by some academic process. They understand evil because it is now in them and they feel it. And they feel it even in the sexual realm, so that they became embarrassed about what they have never been embarrassed about; that is, their nakedness. And attempting to cover their guilt, they cover themselves with some leaves that they have sewn together to try to hide the shame.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
