CHAPTER 3: THE FALL
In this section we will have a brief discussion about the Fall of man and its devastating consequences
• How Adam and Eve fell
• Three temptations
• The consequences of the Fall
Presentation
The Fall of Adam and Eve
Again, we will turn to Genesis to visit the beginning of all tragedies of mankind. Almost everyone is familiar with the story, whether he believes it or not. However, the interpretation of this story on our own part reflects much of our own relationship with God. Until the width of its implication and the depth of its application for us on a very personal level be reconciled and embraced, we will not be able to go further in our pursuit of truth and life in the Kingdom of God. This familiar story does call for serious consideration and careful scrutiny, done with the fear of God and at the same time with good faith in God’s word and His love.
Same Story but Two Results
We hereby will not dwell too much on the story itself but make some observations as needed in comparison with Jesus’ test in the wilderness.
Gen. 2:8-9 [NIV]
8Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Notice here that the trees given to man to eat are not bad; they were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
Ge 2:15-18 [NIV]
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
18The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
While God withholds nothing good from man, He did withhold what is bad from him. Some would argue, why He put the bad tree there in the first place? So, man can fall in tempation? Well, they have a misunderstanding of the way of the Lord. The way of obedience is that it is to be done when one has the freewill to disobey and will be provided with the test to ensure that obedience is done willingly, not out of compulsion or without any understanding. Faith and obedience are by nature to be tried and tested for approval. So is love. It is imperative of us to know that God created us to be matured up in His nature and wisdom through these. And His pleasure is that when we face the choice of our freewill, out of our love unto Him as our Father and our trust in His goodness, we would choose to obey Him, rather than to satisfy our own desires or pleasures. This is vividly exemplified by Jesus’ interaction with the devil in the wilderness. The author Hebrews says to this effect.
Heb 2:14-18 [NIV]
14Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Adam and Eve failed the test (temptation) as recorded in the Gen. 3, thus sin and death entered the world and snatched out of the seed of sonship. But Jesus triumphed over the devil, and more. He proceeded to willingly take on the will of His Father to become the sacrifice for the sin of mankind. He yielded totally to please His Father even to the point of death on the cross.
Ge 3:1-13 [NIV]
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Lk 4:1-13 [NIV]
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a
stone.’”
12Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
What Caused Man Fall
The serpent is crafty and its craftiness is used by the devil to deceive man. Interestingly, God had given man dominion over the serpent, so Adam and Eve should have enjoyed the ability to discern the lies of the serpent and rebuke it and it will have to flee in terror. The power God had given to man will enable them to judge the serpent. In this light, we, as sons of God, should have no fear of the devil and his demons, or evil angels. However, we need to have the fear of God so that we would not disobey God and let the devil have a foothold in our own lives and the lives He give to us for care and love. Let’s look closer at the lies the serpent spoke to Eve and let’s compare them with the ones he offered to Jesus:
He firstly twisted God’s command, tried to lure Eve to deny the goodness of God concerning provision.
It is about food! Only that when this happened, Adam and Eve was enjoying the abundance of the Garden of Eden, while Jesus was forbidden to eat or drink for 40 days. However the devil did not even bother to challenge Adam and Eve of being the son of God, while Jesus was challenged with His identity of being the Son of God. In mentioning of being of son of God, we will make no differentiation between male or female. It was obviously in the reply of Eve to the devil, God had treated Adam and Eve as one party when He gave the command. Here during the interaction between Eve and the serpent, Adam was present but gave no intervention. He totally failed to assume his place of authority and responsibility to exercise rule and judgment over the matter presently unfolding in front of him and concerning the parties involved. (Luk 3:37; Gal. 3:26-29) The reason is that as man of the flesh, he could not hold back the desire to touch what is unknown to himself. The same story repeated itself in the evil royal family of Ahab and Jezebel.
This is very sobering when we think of how many people, tempted by supernatural power and spiritual mysteries, lured into false religion, idol worship, spiritual mysticism, witchcraft, fortune-telling or mediums, ignorant of it is the kind of spiritual food God would not like His children to partake.
Secondly, he imputed doubt into Eve about the truthfulness of God.
This is concerning His judgment: “You will surely die.” Oh, how subtle is the devil! He did not say you will surely die, but challenge the judgment of God concerning His authority as if there are things that He can’t control, also His goodness as if He would withhold good things from man. The truth is that God intends for His sons to fully know Him as he knows them and there is nothing He withholds from them in terms of His goodness. He will give him all things. But obedience is definitely required to receive His rich inheritance. Jesus was tempted by the devil to throw himself down from the top of the temple to challenge God’s judgment of death and life as well. In all this, it is less of matter of the help of angels or not, but the son of God’s own faith in His Father’s judgment. We are not to tempt God, but in full trust to obey Him. How foolish, as we often witness, many will throw away all restraint and put God to the test, often not about His goodness, but about His judgment, which is His justice, righteousness and truthfulness. They would dare to provoke God to anger and to a point of having to demonstrate His power in judgment. Disobedience is by nature divination, as Samuel said, for it is to test God, His authority, power and judgment. John shared that sin is lawlessness, which is the doorway for the Lawless One or anti-Christ spirit to work through the instrumentality of man.
The third temptation is about our glory or perfection in God.
The devil challenged Eve with two things: one is whether God has that in mind or not towards man; second is whether He knows how to accomplish it or not. Eve fell into the trap after fell from the last. Jesus did not fall into this false wisdom or bent into asking of a false glory or have any glory availed by His own means, even it is easy and convenient. Today, social or culture relevantism and pragmatism have permeated the doctrine of Christianity, as the other extreme of the yeast of modern Pharisees and Sadducees subtly find way to occupy the forum of God’s people. It is hard to stand firmly, undefiled and uncompromised, commit oneself to be totally dependent on Him for our wellbeing and fulfillment of life. But glory to God, a holy remnant is arising from the rubbles and ruins of man’s ways and establishments, with pure heart and holy passion, eagerly seeking to truthfully and diligently represent their Father in Heaven, going about for His business on earth. We will witness, in this unique day of mankind, light shines forth brightly as darkness begins to be intensified and covers the whole earth.
Consequences of the Fall
The consequences of the Fall are severe and grievous:
1. Man lost the privilege to fellowship with God who is the spirit, thus lost the chance to learn wisdom from Him. Much of man’s spiritual capacity unto spiritual life was shut down when the spirit of Sonship being taken away. This means that man is not able to communicate with God as He originally intended for man. That is the fellowship as a father would to a son, a process in which he would teach the son all things and have the son grow up just like Himself. In this sense, the process of producing sons through man of flesh and blood was cut loose.
2. Man lost the position and role to represent God to rule and impart wisdom and knowledge of God unto all creation. We lost our position of kings and priests: in kingship, we rule with righteousness on God’s behalf as sons of God, the Judge and King; in priesthood, we act as mediators between God’s creations to impute peace, love, and teach them His goodness, richness, and faithfulness.
3. Man lost power over the devil and the angelic realm, thus have not been able to withstand the evil one’s scheme and attacks. The devil usurped our dominion over God’s creation, in the angelic realm as well as in the earthly realm. The world thus is caught up in a war between the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of God and His Christ. Only in Christ Jesus are we free from the terror of the evil one. In this sense, we lost our protection in God as sons of Adam.
4. Man lost blessings from God of provisions. Man has to labor in the cursed world to make a living with sweat and blood. Woman is to suffer pain in child-birth. Man is to be born in suffering and pain as he is brought into this world, then he is to return into dust without a trace a life. How sad is His fall!
5. We lost eternal life in God. Man is doomed with all creation to decay and perish in the end. The tree of life is out of man’s reach after they were cast out of the Garden. It is guarded by water and fire, cherubim of might power to execute judgment of death. Oh, how sad, we are to be cast away from our earthly father and mother, and our home where our family gather! And man was cast away, from his family in heaven and the purest form of life and love, promised to be abundant and fulfilling.
6. Man lost peace, love and righteousness in life. As we can see, because of sin and shame, Adam began to blame Eve, Eve turned to the serpent. And their first born, Cain, killed his brother Abel. Blood began to be shed between brothers and within a family. Sin quickly ends in degradation of man’s heart towards his fellow beings. War and death is never to withdraw from the fate of mankind till this flesh is taken away and the creation is wrapped up.
7. We lost many abilities to create, to gain wisdom and understanding. Even the natural faculties of our being are locked up. Man’s age is shortened. Disease and pain began to assault mankind. Man is to witness and to be victimized all forms of sickness, wickedness, sorrow and suffering. In a sense, we become a creation of misery, burned with a sense of lost and dissatisfaction as our faculty of love is veiled by our flesh and marred our sins.
8. Etc….
Without God, we are doomed. Without God, we are lost. Without God, we are living beings of lack. Without God, we are creatures of misery. From dust we come, to dust we return, perish like grass, wither like flower, carried as in a flood, gone as with a wind.
Home, where is our home?
Scriptures
The Fall
Rom. 5:12-14 [NIV]
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
1 Cor. 15:45-49 [NIV]
45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
1 Cor. 11:3 [NIV]
3Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
1 Cor. 11:7-10 [NIV]
7A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.
On Temptations
1 Cor 10:13 [NIV]
13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
James 1:13-15 [NIV]
13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
2 Cor 2:9 [NIV]
9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
Heb 4:15-16 [NIV]
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Gal. 6:1-2 [NIV]
1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
On Overcoming
Luk. 10:19 [NIV]
19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
1 John 5:3-5 [NIV]
3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Rev 2:7 [NIV]
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Rev 2:11 [NIV]
11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Rev 2:17 [NIV]
17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.
Rev 2:26-28 [NIV]
26To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27‘He will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—
just as I have received authority from my Father. 28I will also give him the morning star.
Rev 3:5 [NIV]
5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
Rev 3:12 [NIV]
12Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.
Rev 3:21 [NIV]
21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Re 21:3-8 [NIV]
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Questions for Reviews
1. What stands out to you when you think about the Fall of man and its consequences?
2. Read these following verses. How do you think they correlate to the temptation facing Adam and Eve in the Garden and Jesus Christ in the wilderness?
1 Jn 2:15-17 [NIV]
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
3. Give your choice of the top two from the consequences of the Fall of man. Why?
Questions for Mediation and Application
1. All man sins in our adamic nature and fell into temptations. Why are the worst temptations facing you today?
2. Why should you overcome them?
3. How should you overcome them?
