The Consequences of the Fall

Video of TV show

The world has the idea about the Fall and about sin. That it wasn’t fair from the beginning, that God was just ruining the fun. The irony is that is the exact sin that the Serpent made Adam and Eve believe. That God wants to “restrict” us, that there is some dirty little secret that there is something good out there that God won’t enjoy. We have this idea that all knowledge is good knowledge. A lot of your experiences in life will have you saying something like “I just want to try it”. You will be offered alcohol at some point and you are going to say “I just want to experience it! What’s the harm!” You will hear people use curse words and you will think “I bet they are fun to say!” You will be told “what’s the harm in pornography or in sex” and you will think “I’m just going to try it”. The world will tell you that all knowledge is good knowledge. But what the Bible tells us is that not all knowledge is good knowledge. If there is something God doesn’t tell us, it is for our good.

But here is the thing about knowledge…it has consequences. Every thing that we learn has a consequence, some for good and some for bad. Every new idea, every TikTok video, every book, ever experience will have a consequence. Do you know the main reason that someone will have a fear of swimming? Because probably when they were a baby they had a traumatizing experience with water. They had an experience with water that totally changed their experiences moving forward.

A lot of us think that if we were God we would do things differently, that we would do things better. If we just had God’s knowledge, we would fix everything.

I was talking to somebody about this the other day. When Obama was first running for president one of His big promises was that He was going to get the US out of Iraq, that He would slowly withdraw troops during His term. By the end of His presidency we had more troops there no less. Why? Because there was knowledge that He didn’t have that once He gained He knew He couldn’t do that.

What we are going to see is that there was a reason God made things the way He did and the consequences of this new knowledge that Adam and Eve now have.

The authority of God is being questioned and undermined through both deception and through willful rebellion against Him.

Sin lies to us about the consequences of sin

The Serpent tells us a “noble lie”, something that makes us feel good for a moment but hides and sugarcoats the truth. It is deciding for ourselves what is good and evil so that we can pander to our own conscience.

The world will want to tell us that freedom comes when we leave God behind, but they only say this so that they can draw their own lines of good and evil where they decide to, so that they can become God.

The world wants to accuse God of not looking out for our best interest and they want us to believe they are looking out for our interests instead.

-That we have reliable “self-truth” and discernment, God just doesn’t understand us and what we have to deal with.

-We have to accept that we are unreliable arbiters of truth rather than believe we are the “masters of our own fate”

-There is a lot of pride that must go into our hearts to believe we have the answer that everyone has missed for thousands of years, that how define existence is correct.

God tells us the truth but stands by us

What does God sound like in the beginning? Does He sound angry? Does God know what they have done?

God comes with remorse, because He knows there is no turning back.

What we see is that God tells the truth even when the truth is harder than telling a lie like the Serpent did. God always does what is best for us and tells us the truth, even when we won’t like to hear it.

The consequences of sin

Sin requires us to admit our guilt

Why do you think that God asks Adam where He is?

We don’t like to admit our sin because it means we will have to bear responsibility for our actions. We may thing lying will fix it, but that just means we can’t be reconciled for our actions.

It also shows that guilt did not arrive because of God, it arrived as a result of Adam’s choice. It was his conscience. He had defied God’s command.

Causes shame

This is self-consciousness, of feeling less than what God had made us to be. Shame leads to an incorrect view of ourselves.

Shame includes humiliation and embarrassment. It is the fear of our self-image.

Sin leads us to act in self-preservation

What does Adam do when God comes to Him with His sin? He blames the woman, He says that she is really the one who has sinned.

But He doesn’t just blame Eve, he also blames God! “The woman YOU gave to me”

-This woman that God graciously gave to Adam, now is considered a mistake by Adam.

-During Christmas I always blame gaining weight on the people who put delicious food in front of me, not myself.

James 1:13 “No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.”

When faced with our own sin we often want to hold God responsible for actions. Why did He let this happen? How come He didn’t help us?

The when God asks Eve what happens, she blames the serpent!

Self-preservation is another way of us evading our responsibility.

When we make ourselves as “being like God” it leads to us believing that we are more important and valuable than others. We define our own worth compared to others and make a choice based off of our idea of who is more valuable.

So just like in that video I showed you what we see here is that...

The authority of God is being questioned and undermined through both deception and through willful rebellion against Him.

Then God discusses the the outflow of their sins. See, with sin there is always the direct consequence, but also the indirect consequences.

-The direct consequence of our sins will be things like guilt, shame, losing trust from others, broken relationships with those you have hurt.

-Indirect consequences are those that may not immediately precede your actions but are still the result of your choices. Indirect consequences are the consequences you didn’t know were going to happen as a result of your actions. Like losing your phone, or having detention, or because you sinned against another person they sinned against you and now they also have to deal with the consequences of your choices. As a sibling it might be that now you have taught your sibling something they shouldn’t be doing. As a parent you can impact what your child believes about the world because of your choices. As an employee a customer can have a negative view of the place you are employed at because of your actions.

Pain will be a part of image bearing

Romans 8:19–23 “For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

Men will have hard labor in working the ground

Rather than “picking” fruit from above” they will have to “toil” below from the ground.

Women will have pain in child-bearing

Pain is actually the path to blessing. Avoidance is the path to further pain.

Conflict will take place between people

This includes hostility between nations

Anger and hatred among individuals leading to murder

Conflict within the marriage relationship

-Instead of a desire to love and cherish there will be desire and seeking to dominate.

-There will always be suspicion, thought of hidden agendas, espionage.

See, the reason we need governments and authority is not because there are perfect rulers or perfect authorities. But because all of us have fallen, conflict will come, and there needs to be authority in order for there to be justice.

Death will enter the world

They will no longer have access to the tree of life

Creation will be in chaos and disorder

Mankind can’t enter into God’s Holy presence

Remember many of the figures of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden remind us of the tabernacle. God’s presence can’t dwell fully with His people yet.

God will have the final victory over sin and death

We also have a small glimpse of this in v. 21 that God provided clothes from them from an animal. He covered their shame by the killing of an animal. God will continue to cover their shame by the sacrifice of innocent animals at the Tabernacle. Until Jesus will finally comes and we will be “clothed” in His righteousness.

Revelation 2:7 ““Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

Revelation 22:2 “down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations,”

Revelation 22:14 ““Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.”

Adam then names His wife Eve, which means “life”, it is Adam’s hope from God’s Word that Eve will bring life into this world and that her offspring will bring life to all humanity again.