THE FALL OF MAN
Genesis 3: 1-13
1
Now 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’?”
2
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat
fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but 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.’”
Genesis 3: 1-13
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.”
Genesis 3: 1-13
6
When 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.
7
Then 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.
8
Then 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.
9
But the LORD God called to the man, “Where
are you?”
10
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I
was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11
And he said, “Who told you that you were
naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I
commanded you not to eat from?”
12
The man said, “The woman you put here with
me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I
ate it.”
13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What
is this you have done?” The woman said, “The
serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
THE FALL OF
MAN
What really happened that day in the Garden of
Eden?
Theologians call it “the fall.” They mean that Adam
and Eve fell from a state of innocence into a state of
sin, shame, slavery and death.
What they did has been passed down across the
generations so that all of us inherit a nature that
causes us to rebel against God.
That day in Eden, man declared his independence
from God.
As a result, all of us are born with a clinched fist daring
God to tell us what to do.
Human nature is now thoroughly corrupt. All are sinners.
We are born that way, we live that way, and we will die
that way. Sin is now the environment in which we live.
Every relationship is corrupted because sin always
separates us from each other and from God.
Some would say that the reason why Christianity is falling
out of favor in our culture today is it is not popular to say,
“There is something wrong with you.”
But it’s the truth. There is something wrong you, and
with me too. We are sinful. We are broken. You are. I am.
We all are.
We teach our children to behave, not to be bad.
When we see the fall in Genesis 3, we see that sin drove
Adam and Eve to hide from God, just like our sin causes
us to flee from God.
That's not God's desire for us.
He doesn't' want us to hide from Him. He wants us to be
at peace with Him and know Him.
The devil wants to drive us away from Him, just as he did
Adam and Eve in the garden.
God knew before the foundations of the world that man
would sin. But He had a plan, and that was to send His
Son to reconcile us (bring us back) to Him. Christ died so
that we could be made clean and pure once again, and
therefore be at peace with God.
Until we accept the fact that Christ took the punishment
for our sins and we actually give the sins in our lives over
to Him, we can't fully know the Father’s goodness and
the the peace and joy that He has for us.
The good news is that through Christ all our sins can now
be forgiven.
In a true sense we are all like Adam and Eve. If we had
been there, no doubt we would have done exactly as
they did.
If we think otherwise, we don’t know ourselves as
well as we think we do. They failed, we would
have failed, and left to ourselves we fail every
day.
Apart from the grace of
God, we are capable of
committing all sorts of evil.
And through the cross of
Christ, even our worst sins
can be forgiven.
Special Relationships
God’s relationship with man was very personal. God
involved man in His own plans and work.
What we see in the account of creation is three kinds
of relationships.
1) Unique personal relationship of God to man
2) Relationship of man to his wife, preceding all
other human relationships
3) Relationship of man to other parts of God’s
creation under His sovereignty
Unique, Personal Relationship of God to
Man
Genesis 2:4-7 4 “This is the account of the
heavens and the earth when they were
created. When the LORD God made the earth
and the heavens— 5 and no shrub of the field
had yet appeared on the earth and no plant
of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD
God had not sent rain on the earth and there
was no man to work the ground,
Unique, Personal Relationship of God to Man
6
but streams came up from the earth and
watered the whole surface of the ground— 7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and the man became a
living being.”
God established the first and the most intimate
of all relationships between Himself and man.
God, the creator of the universe and maker of
man, set him up as His representative over the
rest of creation and commanded him to be
fruitful and multiply.
(Genesis 1: 28-29). 28 God blessed them and said
to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and over every living
creature that moves on the ground.”
29
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing
plant on the face of the whole earth and every
tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be
yours for food.”
God Loves And Cares For His Creation
Relationship of Man to His Wife, Preceding All Other
Human Relationships
After creating man and woman, God authored and
ushered in marriage between one man and one woman.
(Genesis 2:18, 23-25). 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good
for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for
him.” 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was
taken out of man.” 24 For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will
become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both
naked, and they felt no shame.
Ephesians 5:22-31
“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the
husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of
which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives
should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present
her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other
blemish, but holy and blameless.”
28
“In this same way, husbands
ought to love their wives as their
own bodies. He who loves his wife
loves himself. 29 After all, no one
ever hated his own body, but he
feeds and cares for it, just as
Christ does the church— 30 for we
are members of his body. 31 “For
this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united
to his wife, and the two will
become one flesh.”
God’s Design
Relationship of man to other parts of God’s creation
under His sovereignty
Man is entirely dependent on God and called to
involve himself in the assignments that God has given
to him.
But man is not a robot, merely
taking and carrying out the
Lord’s instructions. Man’s free
will requires him to carefully
exercise his will through God’s
loving guidance and strength
to accomplish God’s assigned
work.
A specific example of God’s guidance/Word is
seen in Genesis 2:16-17. 15 The LORD God took
the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
work it and take care of it.
16
And the LORD God commanded the man,
“You are free to eat from any tree in the
garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you
eat of it you will surely die.”
Genesis 1:29
Then God said, “I give you every seedbearing plant on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be
yours for food.”
Observe the expanse of freedom in this area. Man
could eat from every plant, fruit, and tree but the
one tree.
FREEDOM
We must never think that man was
positioned in a place of limited choice. Even
the presence of the tree of eternal life
indicated God’s intention for man.
God carefully guided them by informing them
of the negative consequences of eating from
that one forbidden tree.
The problem is we
don’t trust God!
Man’s Trust in the Lord
There is much more to the universe than our
limited minds can observe.
If He is not the utmost / supreme / highest in the
entire existent universe, then we have serious
cause not to put our trust or commitment in Him.
But, He is God. He is the God who sees and knows
the total picture.
God is the great Creator we read about in Genesis
1 and the founder of relationships as seen in
Genesis 2.
Crime, hatred, and evil invaded this beautifully
created world. This God who identifies Himself
here is the same who revealed Himself through
Jesus the Messiah (i.e. Christ) many ages later, the
only pillar on whom we should stake our entire
being, future, and ultimate plan for eternity.
He is worthy of all our trust.
God’s Deep Love for Mankind
It is from this perspective that God gives us His
Word and boundaries. He does not mean to
destroy us but to happily involve us in His
projects.
This is easily noticed through the way God has
cared for His creation. He is not mean-spirited
but generous and kind, and He delights in
pleasing those He created.
God’s Deep Love for Mankind
Adam received all his benefits from God. His
position and his assignments were from God.
He knew God and what God’s word meant to
him. He did not know guilt or shame, but had
complete fellowship with God. “And they heard
the sound of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day….” (Genesis 3:8).
The God of the Bible has revealed to us His truth
and what we need to know.
•We need to know what He has revealed
•We need to treasure it
•We need to wisely use it
...in worship, in making decisions, in carrying out
our life activities and in responding to Him.
GOD LOVES US!
God is our Father
Some people suggest that God makes all the
decisions for man.
This is not what we find here at all. God has given
us the necessary knowledge, strength, and
wisdom to carry out His commands.
Like a loving father, He guides us. However, we
need to make the right decisions.
God is our Father
It seems that on the one hand, we question the
fact that God is in control of everything that
happens, to accomplish His purpose.
Then, on the other hand, we question why God
left one tree in the Garden so man could freely
choose (or choose not to choose).
Yahweh God, in His delight, has created and
equipped man with what he needs to carry out
those activities that He has assigned him.
Many times man fails to complete God’s will. Yet
we find this same God, who created man,
designed a plan through Jesus Christ to get
mankind back on track.
We still, however, are not robots. We must
exercise our will to fill our minds with God’s Word
and precepts so that we might accomplish the
responsibilities that God has set before each one
of us.
God lovingly guides us by the Holy Spirit, if we
will listen.
The Lessons we learn from Genesis 3
1) The first lesson we need to learn is to resist
the temptation of failing to trust God.
2) The second lesson is to not listen to voices
that cause us to mistrust God’s love and
good purpose for our life.
3) The third lesson is to resist pride and the
desire to be like God.
Discussion Questions
 “Then 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”. . .
Why do we try to hide from God?
Discussion Questions
Some people would say that the reason
why Christianity is not for our culture
today is because it is unpopular to say
“There is something wrong with you.”
Why is it so hard for us to admit that we
are sinners and need God?
Discussion Questions
Some people say that when a person
believes in Jesus, he needs to ‘check out
his brains!’ They suggest that God makes
all the decisions for man. However, God
has given man freedom to choose.
Why do we sometimes blame God when
we make wrong decisions?
Discussion Questions
We must exercise our will to fill our
minds with God’s Word and precepts so
we might accomplish the responsibilities
that God has set before each one of us.
Why do we resist filling our minds with
God’s Word and precepts?
THE FALL OF MAN