Bible Study: The Fall

Genesis Bible Study – Genesis 3: The Fall

This passage has long been one of the low points in all of Scripture! We see the fall of man and all of creation suffers as a result. There are many questions that we have to evaluate in this passage and the ramifications of this passage are still felt today. Thankfully, even in the fall, we are reminded that God's grand plan of redemption continues forward even though we fell short and we are reminded that God does not abandon His creation, even though we sinned. With this said, there are clearly consequences due to the fall and we feel those consequences still.

PP: MacArthur opens up in our study book with a simple question: What are the results of adding/subtracting from God's Word? How would you answer this?

Adding/subtracting from God's Word is always a bad thing that leads to issues! People want to subtract the sections they don't like – they don't want to talk about the wrath of God, the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of man, that marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman, that God commands His followers to repent. Etc… They also want to add things to Scripture that are not there: that Jesus saves but that there are other ways to be saved, that everyone is saved, the various lies that we're studying on Sunday evenings, different beliefs about Jesus' second coming that simply are not found in Scripture. People add and subtract to Scripture all the time and there are consequences whenever this happens as we no longer properly understand Scripture and we can think that we are living a godly life when, in actuality, we are living in sin!

PP: Open with 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 – what is a consequence of the fall according to Paul?

We will die because we are all in Adam and because death came in through 1 man and his disobedience.

Division of text:

Genesis 3:1-5

Genesis 3:6-8

Genesis 3:9-13

Genesis 3:14-21

Genesis 3:22-24

1. Please read Genesis 3:1-5. How did Satan initiate this conversation? Why did he go this route?

a. He says, "Did God really say?" He tried to get Eve to doubt the goodness and authority of God. He went this way in order to get her to question God and to plant a seed of doubt in her mind. As Jared Wilson puts it, "The question has already begun its work. The infection has begun." Have you experienced a seed of doubt before? Perhaps you are leaving to go on a trip and your spouse asks you, "Did you close the garage door before you left?" Some of you all don't have garages, so insert your own situation here, but before the question you were certain that you did everything you needed to do and you were ready for this trip. Now, though, because the question has been asked, there is a seed of doubt… Did I actually shut the garage door? Did God really say to not do this…? This is how Satan attacks us routinely – he gets us to ask this question: What if God was wrong?

MacArthur notes that the first mistake that Eve makes is debating with the devil in the first place. James 4:7 reminds us of this as James writes, "Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Don't debate with the devil, flee from him! Why should we do this? Because the devil has nothing good for us – he misquotes Scripture in order to deceive us. He did this in the Garden and he does the same thing today. Some cultures believe that evil is eternal just as good is. Almost like a cosmic Yin and Yang of sorts. Because of this, some people think that Satan has always existed just as God so that there is an eternal good and bad force. The Bible speaks of something different, though, as Genesis 1-2 tell us clearly that creation was good or very good! This tells us that evil

Eve's next mistake is not as significant, but it is very important.

2. Please read Genesis 2:16-17. What does Eve get wrong when she replies to Satan?

a. There is great freedom and liberty in Genesis 2 whenever God gives Adam and Eve authority over the Garden and creation. They are free to eat from any tree in the Garden… except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve leaves out this as she simply says we can eat the fruit from the trees in the garden – God gives a positive command and Eve, as MacArthur notes, leaves out some of that freedom. Further, she says that we cannot touch the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden – this is not found in Genesis 2:16-17 as God says the "day that you eatof the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." There is nothing there about touching it. MacArthur is helpful as he notes that this is the birth of legalism – legalism is a weed that adds to God's Word. Maybe it has good intentions and many Christians are legalistic and have good intentions, but we have to understand throughout the New Testament there is great liberty in Christ. Just as Eve says we cannot touch this fruit, people today say Christians can't do all sorts of things: You can't go to the movies if you're a Christian. You can't wear shorts if you're a Christian. You can't read this translation or sing this song if you're a Christian because the Bible says this or that. We have to stick to what the Bible says. Legalism/Fundamentalism is a cancer.

Satan replies in verses 4-5 and gives 3 counterclaims to what Eve said in verses 2-3.

1. You will not die

2. Your eyes will be opened

3. You will be like God

His lie is that God is withholding things and doesn't want you to be like Him. Gnostics believe in this type of secret knowledge and MacArthur barely touches on them in our reading, they were very widespread in the early church and this is why Paul takes time to address them in Colossians and point to the need to study Scripture and Christ alone – not focus on this type of secret knowledge. People today strive to be enlightened (Buddhism) or evolve (New Age) by acquiring this secret stuff today.

4. Q3: Please read Genesis 3:6-8. Things move quickly in these verses. What stands out to you the most about the fall?

a. Their eyes were opened whenever they fell. Sin changed things, clearly, but not in the way that they likely expected.

Some people are confused as to the extent of the fall. They think that God is unfair for punishing all of humanity due to Adam and Eve's sin. In order for the picture of Christ being our new representative to make sense in Romans 5, we have to have a different head before Him. Herein lies the problem for humanity: our corporate head, Adam, sinned, and as page 28/29 shares with us, his sinful nature has spread its way to ourselves and still impacts us today. If you think that it's not fair for Adam's sin to negatively impact you, you also have to understand that it would be unfair for Christ's righteousness to positively impact you. We are either in Adam or we are in Christ – there are no exceptions.

Ramifications of the fall: Satan essentially tells Eve to take and eat and you'll be like God. The result is the exact opposite, though, as Adam and Eve. One of the interesting things that we see from the second Adam at the Last Supper is this: this is my body given for you… take and eat. Ligon Duncan preached a powerful sermon on this very thing several years back. The fruit that Eve took and ate was so small and tiny, but look at how difficult and long it took for these words to be positive. It took God sending His Son to the cross for take and eat to be verbs of salvation.

Because of the fall, Adam and Eve try to solve the problem on their own. What do they do in verse 7? They sow for themselves clothes of fig leaves. They knew that they were naked and they tried to address the problem. Sin promises more than it can offer and always leaves us further off than we were before. The serpent promised that they would be like God if they ate and in reality, they realized that they were not like God. Their actions made them ashamed and full of guilt and sin does the same today!

5. Please read Genesis 3:9-13. Why does God question them? Was He unaware of what had happened?

a. No! He knew. There was something new in their relationship and God, as MacArthur notes, was leading Adam to confess his sin. God does the same thing to Cain in Genesis 4:9 as He asks Cain where Abel is at. Why does God ask this of Cain? Is God unaware of what happened to Abel? No. He is leading His beloved child to repent. He is setting them up and leading them along the right path, yet Adam and Cain both fail. Adam passes the buck on to Eve. This is a warning for us to not do the same. Whenever we fail and fall short – we must repent of our sins and confess them to our God.

6. PP: Adam and Eve pass the blame to someone else. Are we tempted to do the same whenever we sin today? Why is this the case?

a. It is easier to blame someone else than to take ownership of our own mistakes and shortcomings.

b. Further, Adam didn't merely blame Eve, he blamed God. He says that God's wonderful gift of a partner in Eve is also the source of his trouble. Almost, as if to say, the woman did this and she made me do it. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have even thought about doing that!

i. Are we all that different? Sadly, no.

What are some ways that you have seen the effects of sin in your own life? Think of specific examples.

What happens whenever we try to "cover up" our sin?

7. Please read Genesis 3:14-21. The result of the fall is a curse by God on creation. Even in this sad section, though, is there some good news?

a. Yes! Genesis 3:15 shares with us that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent once and for all. There is hope of being reconciled to God.

God does not ask the serpent a question or give himself a chance to defend himself – this is significant and we could give this a lot of study as our study book talks about how there is no offer of salvation to Satan or his fallen angels. Much is left unsaid here, though, and we have to be careful not to insert ideas that are not plainly found here. We do see examples in the New Testament of demons inhabiting people and animals. Jesus, in Mark's Gospel in chapter 5, drives many demons out of a man and they beg him to go into a herd of 2,000 pigs and the demons possess them to fall off a bank and drown into the nearby water. Demons, and Satan is no exception, can take possession of animals and cause them to do things. Therefore, with confidence, we can say that this was not a simple serpent doing this because the serpent was created good – we can say with confidence that there was more behind the scenes here and that Satan was possessing the serpent. MacArthur talks about the serpent a lot – did it have legs or wings? Was this serpent what we think of in modernity as a dragon? These are all speculations, but what we see clearly is that something changes as the serpent is cursed to slither on its belly.

6. Please read Revelation 12:9. What does this verse tell us about the serpent?

Revelation 12:9 tells us a little more about the serpent and its fate, "So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him." When does this happen? It happened before the fall as Satan possessed the serpent. Again, lots of questions arise here naturally that we are not given the answer to.

Ultimately, we know that the serpent will meet his fate and will have his head bruised by the seed of the woman. You can survive a bruised or crushed heel, but you cannot survive a crushed head! This is what the seed of the woman will do to the serpent. The natural question is this: Who is the seed of the woman? This is what Genesis helps show us. Genesis never gets to the answer, but we see the importance time and time again. Why is there a covenant made with Abraham to bless all the nations of the world? To fulfill this redemptive promise in Genesis 3. The coming savior will not only bless all the nations, but He will also crush Satan.

Even whenever mankind fell short and sinned – God's plan of salvation is clear. There will come a Savior who will, as Matthew 1:21 tells us, "Save His people from their sins." Paul, in Galatians 3:16 makes it clear that this is a reference to Christ (the protoevangelion – first announcement of the Christian Gospel pointing to Christ) "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed,,who is Christ." This picks up in Genesis 4 as we see that Adam and Eve have Seth and the Bible takes great care to show us the lineage of Seth/Adam leading to the promised King who would liberate His people from evil and crush the serpent.

The penalty to the woman is twofold – impacting childbearing and her husband. Walter Kaiser is helpful in talking about the pain but joy in childbirth, "Birth pains are not merely a reminder of the futility of the Fall; they are as well a sign of an impending joy." These pains are a reminder of the fall, yes, but they are also a time of joy in knowing that something good is coming out of the pain – a baby! Thinking Christocentrically, we know that these pains will lead to Christ coming from the seed of the woman and being our Savior and the destroyer of the evil one!

The second part of the penalty has been debated – some translations say, "Your desire will be contrary to your husband, yet he will rule over you." Others leave out contrary and say that the desire will be for your husband. What gives here? Genesis 4:7 is one of only 2 other places where this structure is found in the Old Testament and it says, "If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Here we see that sin is something that desires to control Cain and he must master it in order to not fall into that desire. Taking that same understanding to Genesis 3:16, we see that there is a struggle between man and woman as a part of the fall – this is what MacArthur describes on page 32. The only way to not have this struggle is to rule over it – to fight against it as a couple!

The penalty/curse on Adam is on the ground. No longer would there be food bountiful and free to eat – he would have to work the land and toil to find and gather food. "As a result of the Fall, however, man must return to the ground and the dust from which he was taken (3:19). The author’s point in showing such a reversal was to stress that the verdict of death, warned of before the Fall (2:17), had come about." Even though mankind did not immediately die from eating the fruit, death was the result and man would return to the ground from which he had been created from.

PP: Genesis 3:22-24

The conclusion of our text talks about how God had to kill animals to clothe Adam and Eve. MacArthur wisely points out how the shedding of innocent blood was the only way to cover them from the consequence of their sin and the same is true of our salvation. Only through the substitutionary death of Christ can we be saved.

As Psalm 16:11 shares with us, it is not being like God that makes us happy but being with God!

PP: Psalm 16:11

He had to put these angels at the entry to the Garden in order to prevent Adam and Eve from eating of the Tree of Life. On one hand, this is God's judgment – kicking them out of the Garden. But even in judgment, God is full of grace and mercy! It is a blessing in disguise because we know that there is eternal life awaiting us after death. Imagine if we lived forever on this side of heaven and had no hope of eternity with God – that would be bad news! The judgment on Adam and Eve is great but the salvation and mercy is even greater!