The Fall of Man (Genesis 3)

Introduction

If you haven’t yet, please turn your Bible to Genesis 3.

So far, as we’ve worked through Genesis, we have seen how things were originally created—we’ve witnessed the creation of all things by the very voice of God. We saw how God had made all things for specific purposes with mankind being the keeper or steward of all of God’s creation. Last week, we went into a little more detail about the creation of mankind itself—we saw that mankind was a special creation of God formed by His very hands. In addition, we noted the creation of Eve to be a helper fit for Adam and we noted God’s institution of marriage at the end of Genesis 2.

Or, in other words, Genesis 1-2 shows us what the world was supposed to be like—everything was created for specific purposes and for the glory of God.

What we see in Genesis 3 is the start of what all went wrong. And it’s Genesis 3 that tells us exactly why the world isn’t what it was like in Genesis 1-2. It’s Genesis 3 that tells us why the world is the way that it is—filled with suffering, pain, sorrow, sin, evil, and devastation.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) Sin (1-7), (2) Consequences (8-14, 16-24), and (3) Hope (15). We’ll witness the temptation that led to the original sin, we’ll see the sin itself, and we’ll get a glimpse into the consequences of that sin. Ultimately, we’ll end this morning’s message looking at the start of what we call the covenant of grace, which gives us all hope.

Prayer for Illumination

Sin (1-7)

Our text starts by introducing us to a new being—we’re told of a serpent and we’re told of a few details about this serpent—some of which might be surprising.

We’re told in v. 1 that this serpent was “more crafty” or cunning or clever than any of the “other [beasts] of the field that the Lord God had made.

Being crafty, cunning, or clever can be spoken of in an approving way or negative way—there’s nothing necessarily wrong with being clever or cunning or crafty, but it’s clear as we continue in this text that there is something wrong with this particular beast’s cunning or craftiness or cleverness.

We’re also told in v. 1, that this being was something that the Lord God had made, which instantly knocks down any idea that there can be a dualism between God and Satan.

Or, in other words, occasionally, there’s a picture that floats around social media with the devil arm wrestling Jesus as if there’s some sort of equality between the two.

This verse instantly squashes that idea, there is no equality between the being who created all things and the creation.

Note that it’s clear in this verse that the serpent or the snake was definitely created by God, but there’s really no attempt to explain the origins of sin and evil.

Or, in other words, the serpent is clearly a created being and it’s abundantly clear that the serpent is used by an evil being to tempt the woman, but we don’t really know where this evil being originated from.

We simply aren’t told that information.

At the end of v. 1, we see one other detail about this snake or serpent in that it speaks.

Now, we don’t know how common this was—for animals to speak, but we see in v. 2, that the woman wasn’t really surprised by the animal speaking.

Which leads me to believe that it was fairly common for animals to be able to speak, but I can’t be dogmatic with that—the woman could be absolutely shocked right now and the Bible just isn’t telling us that she is shocked.

So, we learn these details about this serpent before we see the devious nature of this being when he initiates doubt in the mind of the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Note, that he is already twisting God’s Words—if you go back to Genesis 2:16, God’s command was “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God’s command was a condemning of eating from one tree, but the serpent’s deceptive way of twisting God’s Word makes it appear as if God condemned consumption from all the trees.

It’s subtle, but what it does is it introduces doubt—in this case, it introduces doubt of God’s Word.

Now, of course, the woman responds by countering the serpent and she says that God really only said that they couldn’t eat from the tree in the midst of the garden.

She does add one statement that they can’t even touch it lest they die—where she gets that concept, we’re not really sure.

It could be that she was simply embellishing the command or it could be that Adam and Eve had determined to just play it safe by refusing to touch it.

Regardless, she counters what the serpent says with the truth that God had condemned the consumption of the fruit of the tree.

But remember, there’s already a little bit of doubt that has crept in from the serpent’s original question.

And then the serpent builds on that doubt, he says, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

At this point, the serpent then tempts the woman by doing two things—not only has he suggested that there’s reason to doubt what God has said, now he’s suggesting that there’s reason to doubt God’s motives—that the only reason that God placed a restriction on this fruit is to prevent mankind from being like God.

It is the very same trick that Satan has done ever since—we see it throughout Scripture and we even see it in the way that people are tempted to this very day. In fact, you might not know this, but Satan is Hebrew and in a context like this, it’s the Satan, which means the opposer or the obstructer, or occasionally the accuser or deceiver.

Satan is accusing God of having wrong motives, he’s opposing the truth, and he’s deceiving mankind.

And it doesn’t take much for mankind to be deceived, we see it in v. 6, “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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Now, let me point out one thing, the temptation itself wasn’t sin. There was not a sin committed by mankind until that fruit was actually eaten.

Which means that up to the point of the consumption of the fruit, mankind hadn’t sinned. And that’s important to note because many people assume that temptation itself is sinful.

But if temptation is sinful, we have significant theological problem in Hebrews 4:14-16, which says, that Jesus is our high priest, who sympathizes with our weaknesses because He is “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus experienced temptation, if temptation was sinful, He would’ve sinned; and yet, He was without sin.

When the woman saw the tree and noticed that it was a good tree with good food that looked nice, she hadn’t sinned. When she recognized that the tree had this ability to “make one wise,” she hadn’t sinned yet.

When she picked the fruit off the tree, she hadn’t yet sinned—they sinned when they ate because it was the consumption of the fruit of the tree that God commanded them not to eat.

They sinned when they disobeyed God’s Word.

From a purely practical standpoint, what that means for us today is that facing temptation isn’t the sin itself—we can be tempted all day; every day. And we can beat ourselves up for struggling with temptation, but temptation isn’t sin, it isn’t until we succumb to the temptation that we actually sin.

In the case of Adam and Eve, they sinned when they ate the fruit and the eating of the fruit opened their metaphorical eyes. And the opening of their metaphorical eyes caused them to experience something new.

They experienced guilt and shame for what they had done, we see it in v. 7, “they knew that they were naked” and they did their best to cover themselves—that’s shame.

We see it in v. 8, they hear God coming through the garden and they hide—that’s guilt.

The immediate consequences of their sinful disobedience included shame, guilt, fear, and a breaking of their relationship with Almighty God. We see these consequences in vv. 8-24, but there’s something more added in the text beyond just these consequences—we see something, which we now know as the curse.

Consequences (8-14, 16-24)

Genesis 3 continues with God walking in the garden to meet up with the man and his wife, but the two humans hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. There are a number of details here worth talking about:

For instance, their sinful disobedience resulted in their feelings of shame, guilt, and fear.

Because of their sin and their new ability to recognize right from wrong, they tried to hide themselves from the person who told them what was right from what was wrong.

Likewise, when we succumb to sin today, we experience the same sorts of feelings (or at least, if our consciences aren’t seared, we ought to)—when we’re caught in sin, we feel shame and we feel guilt and we even feel a bit of fear.

And we tend to do exactly what the man and woman in Genesis 3 does, we hide ourselves—we hide ourselves from other people and we hide ourselves from God, which is the exact opposite of what we ought to do when we experience shame, guilt, and fear for our sins.

The man and the woman hide from God, but, of course, this is God—and He knows that they’re hiding themselves from Him, and so He calls out with what’s essentially a rhetorical question (He doesn’t need them to answer, but He still chooses to ask), “Where are you?”

Which leads us to a few verses of what typically happens anytime we’re caught in our sins and we aren’t ready to repent—we shift blame.

The man says that he heard God and he was afraid because he was naked, so he hid—remember, that up to this point, the man and woman didn’t realize that they were naked, and in their union of husband and wife, there was absolutely no shame nor fear because of their nakedness.

But after eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they knew and they felt shame and fear for their nakedness.

Again, God asks a rhetorical question (He doesn’t need them to answer, but He still chooses to ask), “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Again, this is God, He already knows the answer, and yet, He asks and the man responds by shifting blame. He essentially says, it’s really not my fault, it’s really the fault of the woman, she gave me fruit and I ate.

And if you’re reading carefully, you’ll notice that in a roundabout way, the man blames God, “the woman whom you gave to be with me” did this.

God then confronts the woman and the women shifts the blame to the serpent, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Sin, unless you’ve seared your conscience, will always cause you to feel guilt, shame, and fear—this stems from the Holy Spirit’s work within you to draw you back to repentance.

Our sinful tendency is just like the man and the woman in Genesis 3, we will experience that guilt, shame, and fear and instead of repenting and turning to Jesus, we’ll hide and blame everyone else—whether that’s our spouse, our friends, our family, or even God Himself.

Now, we know that God is a god of justice, which means that any sin regardless of whether we think its a big sin or not deserves punishment. Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death” or in other words, sin has a price and we really see the price spelled out in vv. 14-19 as God pronounces a three-fold curse.

The serpent’s curse (14-15a)—it’s notable that in pronouncing a curse upon the serpent, we don’t necessarily need to think that the curse is directed at a literal serpent, but rather the being who was controlling the serpent.

So, while the tendency is to look at a passage like this and assume that its completely about physical things—that a physical snake is cursed and that the physical snake will go on its belly and eat dust forever, but remembering that this was Satan working through a serpent helps to explain the ideology here.

Because Satan tempted the woman to sin, he is cursed—he is lower than even the livestock. He is the lowest of the low.

Because Satan tempted mankind to sin, he will be utterly humiliated—on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

Because Satan tempted our first parents to sin, there will be a constant battle between Satan’s own offspring and the offspring of the woman.

Satan will cripple mankind, “you shall bruise his heal,” but ultimately, the seed of the woman will bruise or crush Satan’s head.

So, while this can speak of a physical snake being punished, I think we would all admit that the larger meaning is really about this battle between Jesus and Satan.

Satan at this point in history has been cursed—he’s lower than the lowest of the low, he will be humiliated, he will ultimately be destroyed.

The woman’s curse (16)—in v. 16, we read about the curse given directly to women. In involves pain in childbearing and a sinful desire to reject the husband’s leadership in the home.

The pain in childbearing actually provides a unique paradox because though it is part of the consequence of sin, it’s through the pain of childbearing that Messiah comes approximately 4,000 years later.

Not to mention that beyond the curse and Messianic promise, there is the simple truth that every woman from this point forth who has a child will experience the consequence of this curse paralleled with the hope of having a child.

The idea of rejecting the husband’s leadership comes from that statement, “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

The idea being complementarian in nature—that God has created an order for husband and wife in the home and in the New Testament an order for leadership in the church.

Now, I will say that this verse is often abused by men who seek to do harm, but when you remember this verse in light of Ephesians 5, it helps us to better understand what God actually means concerning how the roles of manhood and womanhood are supposed to function.

Ephesians 5:22–30 “22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.”

Yes, there is a submission that’s supposed to occur as part of the creation order, but that doesn’t give way to abusive relationships or men thinking that they’re better than women.

Ephesians 5 makes it clear that even though wives are to submit to their husbands, husbands are to love their wives so much that he would be willing to die for her—this eliminates any sort of abusive mindset that could come from a faulty understanding of complementarianism.

A husband who genuinely loves his wife wouldn’t be abusive towards her because he treats her as he would treat his own body—he nourishes and cherishes just like Jesus does for the church.

The curse in Genesis three concerning the marriage union is simple—there will be a battle between who is in charge and who leads the family; and that’s a result of the curse from sin.

The man’s curse (17-19)—Adam’s curse is a bit more extensive because his part of the curse extends beyond just himself; His curse involves cursing of the ground and plant life. Adam is still to tend or steward God’s creation, except, unlike Genesis 2 when everything seems to work out in his favor as he tends the garden, now the creation will work against him.

The Bible says, “in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Whereas prior to the curse, everything seemed to work without much strength or energy consumed, the stewardship of creation will now be hard work.

Anyone who works at all recognizes how difficult work can be and is and that’s the point.

Sin coming into the world through Adam and Eve made what was a perfect paradise into what we see today—a world filled with pain, suffering, sorrow, and death.

But there is hope, and its wedged into these verses. We see it in v. 15, when God pronounces the curse on the serpent, he gives what most scholars consider the first glimpse of the Gospel in the Old Testament, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Hope (15)

But there is hope, and its wedged into these verses. We see it in v. 15, when God pronounces the curse on the serpent, he gives what most scholars consider the first glimpse of the Gospel in the Old Testament, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Again, remembering that this is speaking about Satan who deceived and tempted mankind, what we see in v. 15 is a promise of Messiah.

In the overarching context of the Bible, v. 15 actually speaks of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This idea that Satan will bruise the heel of Eve’s offspring is seen during the crucifixion itself—when Satan believes he has won the battle.

The idea that Jesus will then bruise his head or crush his head is found in the resurrection, when Jesus proclaims victory over Satan and death itself.

What we see in Genesis 3 is this battle between God and Satan and its initial start. Satan has started this war by deceiving mankind into sin.

And, of course, sin has its consequences, which we see some of in the curse pronounced by God; and, of course, sin has temporarily marred the creation of God, which was created with absolute perfection and was very good.

But it is only temporary—and Jesus has already won the war, we’re just waiting for the day when Jesus initiates His Kingdom on earth.

Which brings us this morning to our application. What we’ve seen as we’ve studied through Genesis 1-3 is that the world (really the universe) was created perfect and very good by God. That God created all things including the special creation of mankind. What we see in Genesis 3 is what happened to cause life to be the way that it is today—filled with pain, suffering, sorrow, sin, evil, and devastation. Knowing what we know from Genesis 1-3, our application is actually rather simple.

Application

The universe was created by God to be perfect, but sin has marred what God has created and mankind without Jesus is totally depraved—unable to do any good; and yet, through Jesus, who crushed the head of the serpent named Satan, has provided us with the only way to be made new. Our application is then two-fold: (1) for unbelievers and (2) for believers:

For unbelievers, what you’ve seen through Genesis 1-3 is what the world was created to be and what caused it to be the way that it is today—sin. Knowing that God created all things to be very good, but mankind messed it up by succumbing to sin really leads to a simple application for you.

You have only experienced life in a sin-cursed and marred world, but we’ve seen in Genesis 1-2 exactly how it was meant to be; and according to Revelation 21, how it will be for those who genuinely believe in Jesus Christ and have repented from living in their sin—living according to the marred world that we live in it.

What Genesis 1-3 does for an unbeliever is that it ought to open your eyes to not just see what the truth is, but to want and desire to be a part of how the world was supposed to be.

And the only way to experience how the world was supposed to be is by knowing Jesus.

So, let me encourage those of you that are here that aren’t certain as to whether you believe—or for those of you online watching, if you don’t know Jesus and you’ve never repented from your sins, you will never experience life the way that it was meant to be.

And though life as it was meant to be is really just a perk of knowing Jesus, it is a perk that the Bible points out at its beginning and at its end.

Knowing Jesus is the only goal, but knowing Him also allows you to partake in the very good creation as God intended for us to take part in it.

Your application for this passage is simple—take time to reflect on why you don’t believe.

More times than not, people choose not to believe because they would rather stay in their sin, but there is a consequence for continuing in your sins Romans 6:23 “23 For the wages of sin is death.”

Let me encourage you as you reflect on Genesis 1-3 to repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

For believers, a passage like Genesis 3 does two things:

First, it helps us to not just know, but understand why life is the way that it is.

Sometimes we look at how everything around us is and we wonder why exactly it is the way that it is—it’s summed up in one word—the world is like this because of sin.

And a passage like Genesis 1-3 reminds us that this really isn’t how it was meant to be; and we can actually expand on that—just think:

In the world that we live in, there are several things in life that are absolutely stunning—for instance, those that have gone to the Grand Canyon and have seen the rock layers and traveled down the canyon have described the beautiful intricacies of creation.

I’m not a huge fan of the ocean, but I have been to the Caribbean and on the island of St. Thomas there’s a beautiful cay that you can swim in—where the water is crystal clear, you can see to the bottom and you can witness God’s creation swim around you.

In several places of Central Pennsylvania, there are plenty of opportunities to be out at night; to look up; and see the thousands and thousands of stars lighting up the night sky.

These are all instances in which we see the absolute stunning beauty of God’s creation, but it is all marred by sin—it’s beauty is just a fraction of how God actually created it because as Romans 8:22 “22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together” waiting for the day when Jesus makes all things new.

We live in a world in which the very creation that is around us isn’t as it was supposed to be—and mankind has continued to be influenced by sin and its effects.

So, we live in world where people fear being around other people because we don’t know if they’ll sin against us.

And we live in a world where people are on their guard when leaving their home at night because we don’t know what might happen.

And we live in a world in which illness, and cancer, and disease take the lives of those we love because our bodies are riddled by the effects of sin and the world around us is marred by sin.

The world is the way that it is because of sin and there is absolutely nothing that we can do to fix it because we as humans can’t remove sin or its consequences.

We live in a world that is but a fraction of what it was meant to be, but there is hope.

Because a passage like Genesis 1-3, reminds us of the hope that is found only in Jesus.

Jesus is the one who crushes the head of the serpent. Jesus is the one who makes all things new. Jesus is the one who fixes the problem of sin within the lives of those who believe.

Jesus gives us hope despite the fact that we live in a world that is a fraction of what it was meant to be. Jesus gives us hope despite the fact that we live in a world that’s absolutely marred by sin.

Jesus gives us hope when those around us (and really when we) struggle with illness, and cancer, and disease.

Jesus gives us hope even when we can’t trust those around us.

Jesus gives us hope because He is the one who created and He is the one who recreates.

And for those of us who believe in Jesus and have repented from our sins, knowing this ought to do something in particular—it ought to compel us to praise and worship Him, it ought to cause us to shout for joy, it ought to well up within us the need and the desire to keep pursuing Him; and if it doesn’t, then we simply don’t understand how big of a deal any of this is.

Put simply, what we’ve learned from Genesis 1-3 is that God created all things very good, but mankind succumbed to sin and sin marred the creation of God. However, there is hope in Jesus because Jesus is the one who creates and recreates. For those of us who believe in Him, Genesis 1-3 gives us the simplest reason to praise, worship, and honor Him; it gives us the simplest reason to follow Him—because He is the Creator who creates and recreates. So, praise Him, worship Him, honor Him, and follow Him.

Pastoral Prayer