Perils In Paradise

Genesis 3

If Genesis 3 were not in the Bible, there would be no Bible as we know it. Why? Because the rest of Scripture documents the sad consequences of Adam's sin and explains what God in His grace has done to rescue us. By grasping the basic truths of this important chapter, you can better understand Paul's discussion of justification in Romans 5, his teaching in 1 Timothy 2:8-15 about men and women in the church, and his explanation in 1 Corinthians 15 of the future resurrection. Adam's disobedience brought sin into the human race; but the Bible gives us no explanation for the existence of Satan and evil before the fall of man. The record in Genesis 3 is not a myth. If the fall of man didn't actually occur, then the Christian faith is built on fables, not fact, and Jesus Christ suffered needlessly on the cross. From Genesis 3 to Revelation 21, the Bible records the conflict between God and Satan, sin and righteousness, and pleads with sinners to repent to trust God.

The enemy (Gen. 3:1a)

Satan has been caricatured so much by writers, artists, actors, and comedians that most people don't believe the devil really exists; or if they do believe he exists, they don't take him seriously. For example, the English novelist Samuel Butler wrote, "It must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case. God has written all the books." And Mark Twain wrote, "We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents." A popular television comedian always got laughs when he said, "The devil made me do it!"

Although we don't understand much about his origin, we know that Satan is real, Satan is an enemy, and Satan is dangerous. Here in Genesis 3, Satan is compared to a serpent, an image that's repeated in 2 Corinthians 11:3. In Revelation 12, he's called a dragon; and both names are combined in 20:2. But Satan is not only a serpent who deceives, he's also a roaring lion who devours (1 Peter 5:8). Among his names are "Abaddon" and "Apollyon" which mean "destroyer" (Rev. 9:11); "Satan" which means "adversary"; and "devil" which means "slanderer."

In John 8:44, Jesus called Satan a murderer and "the father of lies." He also called him "the evil one" (Matt. 13:19) and "the prince of this world" (John 12:31). Paul and John also called the devil "the evil one" (1 Thes. 3:3; 1 John 3:12), and Paul said Satan was "the god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4), the ruler of the world system (Eph. 2:2), and the leader of demonic forces of evil (Eph. 6:10-12).

In short, Satan is no pushover, and God's people must be careful not to give him a foothold in their lives (Eph. 4:27). That's why we're studying God's Word and seeking to understand the strategy of Satan (2 Cor. 2:11).

The strategy (Gen. 3:1b-5)

A temptation is an opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way. It's a good thing to pass a school examination but a bad thing to do it by cheating. It's a good thing to pay your bills but a bad thing to steal the money for the payments. In essence, Satan said to Eve: "I can give you something that you need and want. You can have it now and enjoy it; and best of all, there won't be any painful consequences. What an opportunity!" Note the stages in Satan's tempting of Eve.

Satan disguised himself (v. 1a). Satan isn't an originator; he's a clever imitator who disguises his true character. If necessary, he can even masquerade as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). When he came into the Garden, Satan used the body of a serpent, one of God's creatures that He had pronounced "good" (Gen. 1:31). Eve didn't seem disturbed by the serpent's presence or its speech, so we assume that she saw nothing threatening about the encounter. Perhaps Eve hadn't been introduced to this species and concluded that it had the ability to speak.

Satan still works today as the great impersonator. He has produced a counterfeit righteousness apart from the righteousness that comes only by faith in the Savior (Rom. 9:30-10:13). Satan has false ministers (2 Cor. 11:13-16) who preach a false gospel (Gal. 1:6-10), and he has false brothers (and sisters) who oppose the true Gospel (2 Cor. 11:26). The devil has gathered his counterfeit Christians into false churches that God calls "synagogues of Satan" (Rev. 2:9); and in these assemblies, Satan's "deep secrets" are taught (v. 24).

Satan questioned God's Word (v. 1b). Second Corinthians 11:3 makes it clear that Satan's target was Eve's mind and that his weapon was deception. By questioning what God said, Satan raised doubts in Eve's mind concerning the truthfulness of God's Word and the goodness of God's heart. "Do you really mean that you can't eat from every tree?" was the import of the subtle question. "If God really loved you, He would be much more generous. He's holding out on you!" Satan wanted Eve to forget that God had told Adam (who had told her) that they could eat freely of the trees of the Garden. For their own good, there was a prohibition: they didn't dare eat from the forbidden tree in the middle of the Garden (Gen. 2:15-17).

Eve's reply showed that she was following Satan's example and altering the very Word of God. Compare 3:2-3 with 2:16-17 and you'll see that she omitted the word "freely," added the phrase "nor shall you touch it" (nkjv), and failed to say that God "commanded" them to obey. Note too that Eve copied the devil further when she spoke of "God" (Elohim) and not "the Lord [Jehovah] God," the God of the covenant. Finally, she said "lest you die"—a possibility—instead of "You shall surely die"—an actuality. So, she took from God's Word, added to God's Word, and changed God's Word, which are serious offenses indeed (Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Prov. 30:6; Rev. 22:19). She was starting to doubt God's goodness and truthfulness.

Satan denied God's Word (v. 4). "You will not surely die" (niv) is a direct contradiction of God's "You will surely die" (2:17, niv). But Satan is a liar (John 8:44) and God is the God of truth (Deut. 32:4), and our response to what God says should be, "Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right" (Ps. 119:127). At this point, Eve should have reminded herself of God's Word, believed it, left the serpent, and found her husband. It's when we linger at the place of temptation that we get into trouble, especially when we know what we're thinking is contrary to God's truth. God's truth is our shield and buckler (Ps. 91:4; Eph. 6:16), but it protects us only if we take it by faith and use it.

Satan substituted his own lie (Gen. 3:5). "You will be like God" is a promise that would get anybody's attention. "Glory to man in the highest!" has always been the rallying cry of those who reject the biblical revelation, whether they espouse godless humanism, materialism, or the so-called New Age religion. (Actually, the philosophy of the New Agers isn't new at all. It's as old as Genesis 3!)

Romans 1:18-32 describes how Gentile civilization from the time of Cain rejected the truth of God and turned to foolishness and lies. They "exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (v. 25, nkjv). Speaking about Satan, Jesus said "for he is a liar and the father of it" (John 8:44). In defiance of God, humans exchanged God's truth for "the lie" (note the singular), and followed Satan who is the father of "it" (note the singular again).

What is "the lie" (singular) that has ruled civilization since the fall of man? It's the belief that men and women can be their own god and live for the creation and not the Creator and not suffer any consequences. Believing this, they refuse to submit to God's truth but prefer to believe Satan's lies and follow his diabolical plan for their destruction. They don't realize that Satan is their master (Eph. 2:1-3) and the lake of fire is their destiny (Matt. 7:13-23; Rev. 20:10-15).

When you review the sequence, you can better understand how Satan leads people to the place of disobedience. Once we start to question God's Word, we're prepared to deny His Word and believe Satan's lies. Then it's just a short step to believing Satan's promises and disobeying God's commands. When our Lord was tempted (Matt. 4:1-11), He answered Satan's lies with God's truth and three times affirmed, "It is written!" Satan wants to deceive our minds (2 Cor. 11:3), but we defeat him by using the spiritual weapons God provides (Eph. 6:10-18; 2 Cor. 10:4-5).

The tragedy (Gen. 3:6-7)

Humans are so constructed that they must believe something; if they don't believe the truth, then they'll eventually believe lies (2 Thes. 2:10). But if they believe lies, they will have to suffer the consequences that always come when people reject God's truth.

Disobedience (v. 6). First Eve took the fruit and ate it, and then she took some fruit to her husband and he ate it, so that both of them disobeyed the Lord. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned willfully with his eyes wide open (1 Tim. 2:14). This is why Paul points to Adam, not Eve, as the one who brought sin and death into the human race (Rom. 5:12-21). "For as in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22).

God sees the first Adam as the head of the human race, the old creation. When Adam sinned, we sinned in him and through him suffered the consequences of sin and death. But God sees Jesus Christ as the Head of the church, the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17); and through His righteous act of obedience in dying on the cross, we have life and righteousness. Yes, sin and death are reigning in this world, but grace and righteousness are also reigning through Christ (Rom. 5:14, 17, 21). Faith in Jesus Christ moves us out of Adam and into Christ, and we are accepted in His righteousness.

Eve sinned because she was attracted to the fruit of the forbidden tree. She was walking by sight and not by faith in God's Word. Genesis 3:6 parallels 1 John 2:16: "good for food"—"the lust of the flesh"; "pleasant to the eyes"—"the lust of the eyes"; "desirable for gaining wisdom" (niv)—"the pride of life." These are the things that motivate the people of the world today; and when God's people start thinking like the world, they start living like the world.

We know why Eve succumbed to the temptation, but why did Adam willingly sin when he knew it was contrary to God's will? Did he see a change in Eve and realize that his wife wasn't in the same sphere of life as she had been? Did he have to make a choice between obeying God and staying with the wife he undoubtedly loved? These are questions the Bible neither raises nor answers, and it's unwise for us to speculate. Adam made a choice, the wrong choice, and humanity has suffered ever since.

Knowledge (v. 7a). Satan promised that they would "be like God" and know good and evil, and his promise was tragically fulfilled. Adam and Eve lost their innocence and for the first time had a personal realization what it meant to sin. It wasn't necessary for their happiness that they have this knowledge, and it would have been far better had they obeyed and grown in their knowledge of God (John 7:17).

In Scripture, shamelessly exposing the naked body is connected with idolatry (Ex. 32:25), drunkenness (Gen. 9:20-23; Hab. 2:15), and demonism (Luke 8:26-39; Acts 19:16). It's a mark of a decadent society on the threshold of destruction when people make a business out of flagrantly exposing naked human bodies to be the objects of sensual pleasure, either in person, in pictures, or in films. Pornography is big business in today's society.

Shame (v. 7b). Realizing their nakedness for the first time (2:25), they quickly made coverings for their bodies. Sin ought to make us ashamed of ourselves. God has given us an inner judge called "conscience" that accuses when we do wrong and approves when we do right (Rom. 2:12-16). A Native American Christian compared conscience to an arrowhead in his heart. "If I do wrong, it turns and hurts me until I make it right. But if I keep on doing wrong, the arrowhead keeps turning and wears down the points, so it doesn't hurt anymore." The Bible calls that a "seared conscience" (1 Tim. 4:2) or an "evil conscience" (Heb. 10:22) that no longer functions properly.

When people are no longer ashamed of their sins, their character is just about gone. "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed. Nor did they know how to blush" (Jer. 6:15; 8:12, nkjv). "Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame" (Jer. 3:3, niv). Sins that used to be committed under cloak of darkness are now exhibited openly in movies and on television, and when people protest, they're called "prudes" or "Puritans."

Fear (v. 8). Sin produces both shame and guilt, and both make sinners wants to (Judg. Adam and Eve felt ashamed because of what they were (naked), and they felt guilty because of what they had done (disobey God). Guilt and fear usually go together, which explains why the pair didn't want to enjoy their evening fellowship with the Lord in the Garden. Adam admitted, "I was afraid" (v. 10). Trying to (Judg from the Lord is certainly a futile endeavor (Ps. 139:1-12), and yet guilty sinners still attempt the impossible.

Shame, fear, and guilt so transform the inner person that Adam and Eve could no longer enjoy their beautiful garden home. The trees they had tended and admired, and from which they had eaten, were now only "things" to be used to (Judg two frightened sinners from the face of God. This wasn't what the trees wanted to do, but they had no choice. Nature is a window through which we see God, but Adam and Eve made it into a locked door to keep God out! One day the Savior would die on a tree so that frightened sinners could come to the Lord and find forgiveness.

The discovery (Gen. 3:9-13)

How God appeared to our first parents when they fellowshipped with Him in the garden isn't explained to us. He probably assumed a temporary body that veiled His glory, as He would do when He visited Abraham many years later (18:lff).

Seeking (v. 8). Adam and Eve should have been running to God, confessing their sin, and asking for His forgiveness. But instead, they were hiding from God, and He had to find them. "There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God" (Rom. 3:11, nkjv). Evangelist Billy Sunday said that sinners can't find God for the same reason criminals can't find policemen: they aren't looking! The Father interrupted His Sabbath rest to go find the man and the woman He had made in His own image. When Jesus ministered on earth, He said, "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). He too interrupted the Sabbath to heal a sick man (John 5:1-16) and a blind man (John 9), and His defense before the bigoted religious leaders was, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working... the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does" (5:17, 19, niv). Today, through the witness of the church, the Holy Spirit is seeking the lost and bringing them to the Savior (16:7-11; Acts 1:8).

Speaking (vv. 9-13). God doesn't ask questions because He needs information. Being God, He knows everything. Rather, He asks questions for our good, to give us the opportunity to face facts, be honest, and confess our sins. However, we must not think of God speaking to Adam and Eve the way a cruel master would speak to a disobedient slave or an angry judge to a convicted criminal. It was more like a brokenhearted father speaking in love to his wayward children.

First, God called to Adam to give him opportunity to answer and come out into the open. That God called him at all was an act of grace, for God could have spoken the word of judgment justly destroyed Adam and Eve. Another gracious wonder was that Adam could hear God's voice and respond, for his inner nature had been so polluted by sin that he didn't want to face God.

Once Adam and Eve came out of hiding, Adam confessed their shame (they were naked) and their fear (they were guilty). Without saying it openly, Adam was admitting that they had eaten from the forbidden tree. However, when God asked him pointblank if he had eaten of the tree, Adam never said, "Yes, I did!" Instead, he blamed both God and his wife! When God questioned Eve, she blamed the serpent. (She didn't say, "The serpent that You created," but perhaps she thought it.) There were excuses but no confessions.

To quote Billy Sunday again, "An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie." Yes, Eve gave Adam the fruit because the serpent deceived her; but that was no reason Adam had to disobey God. When people start making excuses, it's evidence that they don't sense the enormity of their sins or want to confess them and repent. If sinners can find some loophole, they'll run through it as fast as they can!

The penalty (Gen. 3:14-19)

God's love for sinners in no way eliminates His holy hatred for sin, for while it's true that "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16), it's also true that "God is light" (1:5). A holy God must deal with sin, for the good of the sinner and for the glory of His name.

The serpent (vv. 14-15). God pronounced sentence first on the serpent and then on the devil who had used the serpent. It seems that the creature Satan used was originally upright, because God humiliated it by putting it into the dust (Ps. 72:9; Isa. 49:23; Micah 7:17). While God did curse the serpent and the ground (Gen. 3:17), He never cursed Adam and Eve.

God's words to Satan (v. 15) are called the protevangelium, "the first Gospel," because this is the first announcement of the coming Redeemer found in the Bible. To God's Old Covenant people, this verse was a beacon of hope (Gal. 4:1-4); to Satan, it was God's declaration of war, climaxing in his condemnation (Rom. 16:20); and to Eve, it was the assurance that she was forgiven and that God would use a woman to bring the Redeemer into the world (1 Tim. 2:13-15).

The offspring ("seed") of the serpent and of the woman represent Satan's family and God's family. In the Parable of the Tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43), Jesus states clearly that Satan has "children," people who profess to be true believers but who are actually counterfeits. The parable reveals that wherever God "plants" a true child of the kingdom, Satan comes along and plants a counterfeit. The two grow together and won't be separated until the harvest at the end of the age.

These are people who reject Jesus Christ and confidently depend on their own religious self-righteousness to get them into heaven. The Pharisees were "children of the devil" according to John the Baptist (Matt. 3:7-10) and Jesus (12:34; 23:15, 28, 33; John 8:44). There's no record that Jesus ever called the publicans and sinners "children of the devil"; He reserved that title for the self-righteous Pharisees who crucified Him.

So, throughout history, there has been a conflict between Satan and God, Satan's children and God's children. As we'll discover in our next study, the battle continued with Cain murdering Abel, for Cain was "of that wicked one" (1 John 3:12), that is, a child of the devil. During Jewish history, the enemies of the true prophets were the false prophets who spoke in the name of Jehovah.

Both Jesus and Paul pictured false teachers as pretenders, "wolves in sheep's clothing" (Matt. 7:13-15; Acts 20:28-31). Satan the counterfeiter has always had his children ready to oppose the people of God. At the end of the age, it will culminate in Christ versus Antichrist, Satan's counterfeit masterpiece (2 Thes. 2; Rev. 13). At the cross, Satan "bruised" Christ's heel; but because of His death and resurrection, Christ crushed Satan's head and won a complete victory over him (Eph. 1:17-23; Col. 2:14-15).

The woman (v. 16). God reinforced His word of hope to Eve by assuring her that she would bear children and therefore not immediately die. But the special privilege of woman as the childbearer (and ultimately the one who brings the Redeemer into the world) would involve multiplied pain in pregnancy as well as submission to her husband. This submission isn't identified as part of a curse or as a mandate for husbands to have sovereign power over their wives. The New Testament makes it clear that husbands and wives who love each other and are filled with the Spirit will be mutually submissive (Eph. 5:18ff; 1 Cor. 7:1-6).

The man (vv. 17-19). Eve would have pain in the labor of childbirth, but Adam would have pain in his daily labor in the field. As he worked to get his food, Adam would encounter obstacles and have to toil and sweat to get a harvest; and this would remind him that his disobedience had affected creation (Rom. 8:18-23). Even more, as he tilled the soil, he would remember that one day he would die and return to the soil from which he had come. Adam the gardener became Adam the toiler.

The recovery (Gen. 3:20-24)

For the sake of His own character and law, God must judge sin; but for the sake of His beloved Son, God is willing to forgive sin. Remember, Jesus is the Lamb "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8; see Acts 2:23; 4:27-28), so that God had already made provision for forgiveness and salvation.

A new name (v. 20). Adam believed God's promises (vv. 15-16) and called his wife's name "Eve," which means "living." Faith simply takes God at His Word and acts upon it.

New clothing (v. 21). God's response to Adam and Eve's faith was to remove their flimsy man-made garments and clothe them with acceptable garments that He Himself provided (Isa. 61:10). Innocent animals had to die so that the man and woman might have a new beginning and be back in fellowship with the Lord. It's a picture of what Jesus did for sinners on the cross when He died for a sinful world (2 Cor. 5:21).

A new home (vv. 22-24). If Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Life, they would live forever on earth as sinners, and their future would be bleak. They must one day die because "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, the Lord banished the couple from the Garden; in fact, Genesis 3:24 says that He "drove" them out. (See 4:14 and 21:10.) God put angelic guards at the entrance of the Garden to make sure Adam and Eve didn't try to reenter. The way to "the Tree of Life" would one day be opened by Jesus Christ through His death on the cross (John 14:6; Heb. 10:1-25; Rev. 2:7; 22:1-2, 14, 19).

Daily life would now become a struggle for the man and woman outside the garden as they toiled for their bread and raised their family. They could still have fellowship with God, but they would daily suffer the consequences of their sin, and so would their descendants after them. The law of sin and death would now operate in the human family until the end of time, but the death and resurrection of the Savior would introduce a new law: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2, nkjv).