Genesis 3

I. Temptation (3:1-6)

A. The tempter.

God is not the author of sin, nor does He tempt people to sin; this is the work of the devil (James 1:13). We have already seen that Satan fell into sin prior to the work of Gen. 1:3ff. He was a beautiful angel originally, rejoicing at God's Creation (Job 38:4-7), but he sinned and was judged by God (Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:11-19). Note that Satan came to Eve in the guise of a serpent, for he is a masquerader and appears to people in his true character. In Gen. 3, Satan is the serpent who deceives (2 Cor. 11:3); in Gen. 4, he is the liar that murders (John 8:44). We must take care to avoid his deceptive ways.

B. The target.

Satan aimed at Eve's mind (2 Cor. 11:1-3; 1 Tim. 2:9-15) and succeeded in deceiving her. Man's mind is a part of his being created in God's image (Col. 3:9-10), so Satan attacks God when he attacks the human mind. Satan uses lies. He is a liar himself and the father of lies (John 8:44).

C. The tactic.

As long as the mind holds to God's truth, Satan cannot win; but once the mind doubts God's Word, there is room for the devil's lies to move in. Satan questioned God's Word (v. 1), denied God's Word (v. 4), and then substituted his own lies (v. 5). Note that Satan seeks to undermine our faith in the goodness of God—he suggested to Eve that God was "holding out on them" by keeping them from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we question God's goodness and doubt His love, we are playing right into the hands of Satan. Satan made the temptation sound wonderful by making an offer: "You will be like God!" Satan himself had wanted to be "like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14), and centuries later he offered Christ "all the kingdoms of the world" if He would worship him (Matt. 4:8).

D. The tragedy.

Eve should not have "given place to the devil" (Eph. 4:27); she should have held to God's Word and resisted him. We wonder where Adam was during this conversation. At any rate, Eve took away from God's Word by omitting "freely" (v. 2); she added to the Word by adding "touch it" (v. 3); and she changed the Word by making God's "you shall surely die" into "lest you die" (v. 3, NKJV). In v. 6 (NKJV) we see the tragic operation of the lust of the flesh ("good for food"), the lust of the eyes ("pleasant to the eyes"), and the pride of life ("desirable to make one wise")—see 1 John 2:15-17. It is difficult to sin alone. Something in us makes us want to share the sin with others. Adam deliberately sinned and plunged the world into judgment (1 Tim. 2:14).

II. Condemnation (3:7-19)

A. Internal (vv. 7-13).

Immediately there came a loss of innocence and glory and a sense of guilt. They tried to cover their nakedness with their own works, garments that God did not accept (v. 21). Further, we see a loss of desire for fellowship with God. When they heard God approaching, they hid! Guilt, fear, and shame broke the fellowship with God that they had enjoyed before their disobedience. Note too that there was a growing attitude of self-defense: the man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. We see here the tragic internal effects of sin.

B. External (vv. 14-19).

It is likely that the serpent that Satan used was not the crawling creature that we know today. The name suggests brightness and glory, but because the creature yielded to Satan and shared in the temptation, it was judged and condemned to a lowly life in the dust. The woman's judgment involved multiple conception and pain in childbirth. She was made subject to her husband. Note that Paul suggests that Christian women who marry unsaved men may have special dangers in bearing children (1 Tim. 2:8-15). The judgment on man involved his work: paradise would be replaced by wilderness, and the joy of ministry in the garden by the sweat and toil in the field. It is not work that is God's penalty, because work is not sinful (2:15). It is the sweat and toil of work and the obstacles of nature that remind us of the fall of man. All creation is cursed and in bondage because of sin (Rom. 8:15-25).

C. Eternal (v. 15).

This is the first Gospel declared in the Bible: the good news that the woman's seed (Christ) would ultimately defeat Satan and his seed (Gal. 4:4-5). It is from this point on that the stream divides: Satan and his family (seed) oppose God and His family. God Himself put the enmity (hostility) between them, and God will climax the war when Satan is cast into hell (Rev. 20:10). Review the Parable of the Tares in Matt. 13, and note that Satan has children just as God does. In Gen. 4, Cain kills Abel, and 1 John 3:12 informs us that Cain was "of that wicked one"—a child of the devil. The OT is the record of the two seeds in conflict; the NT is the record of the birth of Christ and His victory over Satan through the cross.

III. Salvation (3:20-24)

The only Gospel Adam heard was what God said in 3:15, yet he believed it and was saved. How do we know he believed it? Because he called his wife's name "Eve" which means "life" or "lifegiver". God had said that Adam and Eve would die, and Adam did die physically after 930 years. But he also died spiritually, in that he was separated from God because of sin. God promised the birth of a Savior through the woman, and Adam believed this promise and was saved. God did not change the physical consequences of sin, but he did remit the eternal consequences—hell.

The coats of skins in v. 21 are pictures of the salvation we have in Christ. There must be the shedding of blood, the offering of innocent life for the guilty. Adam and Eve had tried to cover their sin and shame with leaves (3:7), but these good works were not accepted by God. Nor does He accept such works today!

Garments in the Bible are often a picture of salvation. See Isa. 61:10 and Zech. 3. The prodigal son was clothed afresh when he came home (Luke 15:22). The garments of self-righteousness and good works are but filthy rags in God's sight (Isa. 64:6). Note that God wanted Adam and Eve to be covered; He approved their sense of shame. It is always a sign of degeneration when a people reverse this and go back to nakedness. "Modest apparel" is always God's standard (1 Tim. 2:9).

Verses 22-24 show a strange action of the grace of God: He drove the man and woman out of the garden! They had forfeited their right to the tree of life by disobeying God. If they had eaten of that tree, they would have lived forever in their sinful state. This would mean that the Savior, the Second Adam, could not come to die to deliver humans from sin. Thus, in driving Adam and Eve out of paradise, God was showing His grace and mercy to the whole human man race. The sword that God placed at the garden barred the way. It is possible to translate this "a swordlike flame"—the fire of God that speaks of His holiness (Heb. 12:29).

Romans 5 and 1 Cor. 15:42-49 explain the contrasts between the first Adam and the Last Adam, Christ. Adam was made from the earth, but Christ came down from heaven. Adam was tempted in a perfect garden, while Christ was tempted in a terrible wilderness. Adam deliberately disobeyed and plunged the human race into sin and death, but Christ obeyed God and brought righteousness. As a thief, Adam was cast out of paradise. Speaking to a thief, Jesus said, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43, NKJV).

Note that in Romans 5 we have several "much more" statements (9, 15, 17, 20), indicating that the death of Christ did not simply put us back to where Adam was. It gave us much more than Adam ever had. We are kings and priests unto God and will reign with Christ forever!