THE HISTORY OF THE FALL

Up to this point in our study of Genesis, we have enjoyed the beauty and grace of God in creation. We have seen how God created everything with His speech. We witnessed the establishment of the Sabbath, that blessed and holy day of worship and rest. And lastly, we observed God hand-crafted man and woman, provided them with instructions on how to live together and honor Him.

However, like a parent informing their teenagers of news, here comes the bad news. This bad news is really bad news. In fact, it could be called the worst news. Our focus tonight is in , and the topic is the fall of man. I have mentioned several times how foundational the book of Genesis is for the Christian faith, and our focus tonight underscores that point.

It is absolutely essential for us to understand the significance of the Fall of Man. We call it the Fall of Man because, as God originally created us, we were made in the image of our Creator and enjoyed an intimacy with Him.

One group of theologians describe this sermon in this manner, “Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them whereby death came upon all: all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of the soul and body.”

Adam’s sin, as our representative (a thought Paul picks in in the book of Romans, chapter 5), caused the spiritual death of all. That is, Adam, acting in our stead, disobeyed God. In other words, we would have all made the same choice.

In brief, before diving into our text this evening, Adam’s Fall affected all humanity (we are all children of wrath, see ; ), and creation (creation groans for renewal, see ). Without the promise of Jesus Christ, we would be reading the most depressing passage of Scripture. However, there is the good news, the Gospel, that provides man with the answer, not only to man’s sin, but also the corruption of creation. We will save that, however, for another time.

We are going to approach our passage tonight with a literary focus. By that I mean, we are going to break this passage down into characters, the plot, and then the moral of the story.

I. THE MAIN CHARACTERS

The main characters are: the serpent, Adam and Eve, and God. Like characters in a book, it is helpful to have an understanding of who they are and their importance in the story.

A. The Serpent-

The Scripture breaks the beauty of the creation and the bliss of the Garden of Eden with the introduction of this serpent. What do we learn about the serpent from this passage?

1.) We see that the serpent is more than a serpent.

This may not seem incredible at first, but when we compare Scripture with Scripture. The Scripture’s best commentary is the Scripture. So, how does this picture of the serpent inform our understanding of this character? Well, looking at his actions and his doubt of God’s Word, we are given a clue. The serpent is more than an ordinary snake. Comparing this passage with ; , we see that Satan, or the accuser, is doubting God’s estimation of His servant Job. Though there are other passages that touch on this character, I want to focus on . This is a mention of the Devil, but in this passage he is called a great, fiery red dragon. One more passage should help solidify our view of who this serpent is: . Notice the apostle’s language: “that old serpent.”

There has been considerable debate upon when Satan, formerly known as Lucifer, fell. Our focus is not to debate this point. However, from God’s estimation in that all of creation was good, we can discern that, at least up to this point, Lucifer was still glorifying God. But sometime between then and Genesis chapter three, the length of time which we shall never know on this side of heaven, Lucifer fell and became the accuser; he became the devil.

2.) We see that the serpent is more crafty than any animal.

The King James describes the serpent as “subtil.” Other translations use cunning. The idea is one of shrewdness, a cleverness with an ill-intent. It is the idea Paul uses in , when he encourages believers to put on God’s armor in order to stand against the “schemes” of the devil. He has crafty tactics. Like a master fisherman who knows the exact lure to use in order to catch fish, Satan knows the temptations, the pictures and thoughts, and lures to use to catch his pray.

3.) We see that the serpent is different than the rest of creation.

The Scriptures declare the serpent “was more crafty than any other beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” He was completely different, and I think this is a clue, not to the nature of the creature we know as snake, but to the meaning behind. This was, as I have mentioned, no ordinary snake.