CHAPTER 2
THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3
Most Christians have understood that as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden, the entire human race was catapulted into the bondage of sin and separation from the life of God. While this truth is understood by most, the reasons they fell are not completely understood because if they were, we would be seeing the glory of God being manifested in and through His children in a greater way than we are today. I’ll pose this question: Why did Adam and Eve fall into sin?
The drugstore answer is almost always, “Because Eve was deceived by the devil and when she and Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they had rebelled against God.”
For lack of time and space, I cannot delve into all the possible answers, but this answer, while correct, reveals only a superficial understanding of why Adam and Eve fell. In order to get to the truth, one must do as Jesus said, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. [Luke 5:4] In each case, we will first examine what God had said, and then look at the subsequent temptation from the devil.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. [Genesis 1:27-28]
It Bears Repeating
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God created man in His own image. It wasn’t enough to say it once, but the writer Moses, being inspired by the Spirit of God, repeated this truth, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. It’s important to understand when the Bible repeats itself, this is a clue to you that you really should take heed to what it is saying. When Jesus said, Truly, truly I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [John 3:3] the Lord was stressing this point by repeating not only the fact that He was telling the truth, but in that He repeated the same words in verse 5.
The apostle Paul repeated himself at times as well. In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul used the word “rejoice” ten (10) times. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, Rejoice. [Philippians 4:4]
Blessed With Power and Authority
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
After creating Adam and Eve, God blessed them with His word and with power and authority over all the earth. I know some of you may struggle with what I’m about say, but God had made Adam and Eve gods over the earth. They weren’t God with a big G, but gods with a small g, in that God had created them to be godly beings, and had also given them complete power and authority over everything in the earth. So, in truth, God is God; and Adam and Eve were, as images of God, gods of the earth, as it written, You have crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. [Hebrews 2:7-8; Psalm 8:5-6] Let us also remember that when God blessed them, Adam and Eve had not yet sinned, and were perfect.
When we examine God’s word, we find, in two places, references to men being “gods”. The Lord Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 when He said, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, You blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God? [John 10:34-36]
Psalm 82:6 says: I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the most High. Understanding the words of Jesus and the quote from Psalms, we can rightly conclude that since we are children of God, and we are to whom the word of God came, this scripture applied to Adam and Eve as well.
The Temptation
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat. [Genesis 3:1-6]
Their First Mistake—Doubting God’s Word
While many people have criticized Eve for engaging in a conversation with the serpent, I believe the Bible reveals that her reply was according to what the Bible teaches. Her answer was similar to that of Jesus when tempted in the wilderness. She answered with God’s word: God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Here the serpent was attacking God’s integrity—in that God had deceived them (You shall not surely die) and had blinded them from knowing the “real” truth. How often does this come up in the world today? How often do people say that God’s word doesn’t work—that God doesn’t desire you to be healed in your body and mind—that God doesn’t want you to be prosperous?
Eve’s first mistake was allowing the serpent to cause her to doubt God’s word concerning the consequences of disobedience; then following up with the inference that God was withholding something from them. If these verses reflect the sequence of events, which I believe they do, then it was Eve’s doubt of God’s word that led her to look upon the tree, causing her to consider what the serpent had said. Read the verses again. It was only after the serpent questioned God’s word that Eve looked upon the tree. Before the temptation, had Eve ever considered the desirability of the fruit? I doubt she had because the scripture infers that this was the first time Eve had ever noticed it in this way. There is no question that she and Adam had seen the tree before since it had been placed in the midst of the garden, but it was like she said, “Wow, I never noticed how appealing this fruit looks!” Then, as the Scripture teaches in James 1:14, she was drawn away of her own lust.
Satan was trying to exalt something against the knowledge of God, and as the Scripture teaches, it should have been cast down and/or taken captive to the obedience of God’s word (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).
What we can learn is that the serpent caused Eve to do something she probably had never done, which was to consider her own self. The fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Selfishness is the root of all sin, and by casting doubt on God’s word, the serpent induced Eve to esteem her own needs over the word of God. Once she looked to her own needs, she had fallen into the trap that always leads to destruction. If the devil can get you to doubt God’s word, then he’s on the way of leading you into sin. Doubt caused Eve to hesitate and consider the serpent’s lies when she could (and should) have completely trusted in God’s word and countered again with what God had said.
I want to add a parenthetical point to this verse if I may, because I think it reveals a lot about the person of Adam. In Genesis 2:16-17 we read: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
The next verse gives account to the formation of the woman, and we can rightly conclude that since Eve was not present to hear God’s command (and scripture does not tell us that God had given the command directly to her) Adam must have conveyed this command to his wife. We can see from Eve’s reply to the serpent that Adam had added to God’s command by saying that she could not even touch the fruit of the tree. I liken this “addition” to a parent warning his child against playing with a fragile item. Not only should they not “play” with the item, but they should not even “touch” it.
We can look at Adam’s additional warning as either a “stroke of divine wisdom” or a manifestation of pride, which eventually led to his downfall. Ask yourself these questions: Did Adam need to add to God’s command? Did he know her better than God? Although we see that this additional warning was not effective in keeping Eve from succumbing to the temptation, we do learn another lesson from it, in that the greater the law of prohibition, the greater the desire to do what is prohibited. Perhaps, Adam’s additional warning served as a seed of unbelief in what God had told him, which may have been what eventually lured Eve into partaking of the fruit. This truth reveals the effects of legalism and how the law will actually make you lust for sin. Paul’s letters to the Galatians and Colossians clearly explain this issue.
Their Second Mistake—Not Knowing Who They Were
Similar to the temptation of Jesus, the devil did not stop after one attempt. After her reply, the serpent turned God’s word around and attacked who God had said she was. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die. For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
In addition to calling God a liar, the serpent questioned her identity, or who God had said she was, which is the very root of the problem we face today: Doubting what God has said, and not knowing who God says you are. Eve’s reply should have been this: “God has said that I was created in the image of God and He has blessed me and given me authority and dominion over the earth. Now, I take authority over you and command you to leave!”
However, we know that she didn’t say anything—at least no further response is recorded—and we see that their transgression propelled the entire human race into the bondage of the devil, for which the Lord Jesus had to pay the ransom to make us free.
If you recall the previous passage from Genesis 1, God had already made Adam and Eve “gods” over the earth. Therefore, they had no need to be “like gods” because they had been created in the image of God. Now we clearly see the consequences of not knowing who we really are.
Chapter 2--The Fall of Adam and Eve
