The fall of man - a picture of grace
Don Fortner
If
we would understand anything about the grace of God, and the workings of grace
for and in elect sinners, we must understand something about the fall. Genesis
3 is one of the most important chapters in all the Word of God.
Here
is laid the foundation upon which all gospel truth is
built. If you trace all the rivers of truth back to their source, you will find
that source in Genesis 3. Here begins the revelation of the great drama of
redemption, which even now is being acted out on the stage of human history.
In this one chapter of inspired Scripture
we see;
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The present fallen, ruined condition of our race explained
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The subtle devices of the devil disclosed
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The utter inability of man recorded
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The effects of sin displayed
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God's attitude toward fallen man set forth
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Man's pride and self-righteousness demonstrated
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God's gracious provisions for fallen sinners proclaimed
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And the necessity of a mediator revealed
There is no understanding of the rest of
the Bible until Genesis 3 is understood. If we go wrong here, we will err in
our interpretation of all the rest of the Word of God. If, by the Spirit of
God, we can grasp the message of Genesis 3, we will not greatly err in the rest
of the Book.
A problem of the heart
This
much is evident. If Genesis 3 is true (and it is!) then both the scientists and
the sociologist of our day are wrong. The evolutionary scientists tell us that
man is slowly but surely evolving into a perfect being, that though he began
very low he has climbed very high.
God tells us something different. He made
man perfect, but man has ruined himself. He made man very high, but man has
fallen very, very low.
For a hundred and fifty years,
sociologists, psychologists, educators, and philosophers have been saying that
man's problem is his environment. Religious leaders tell us that man has great
potential and that his problems are external.
But God tells us that our problem is our
heart. The fact is, man is a fallen, depraved
creature, under the wrath and curse of the holy God, standing in need of
redemption, regeneration, and grace. That is the message of Genesis 3.
The fall of man
The
first six verses of this chapter reveal the sin and fall of our father Adam,
and of all the human race in him (Romans
Man was made to serve God, to glorify his
Creator by his obedience to him. As a symbol of God's sovereignty and of man's
responsibility, there was planted in the midst of the garden a tree which man
was not permitted to use for himself (Genesis 2:16-17).
The only restriction placed upon man's
liberty was that the fruit of the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ was
denied to him. This tree symbolised the relationship in which man stood to God.
Adam was created as an intelligent, responsible creature, subject to the rule
of God, the Creator.
But soon he became a self-seeking,
self-willed, self-centred, self-serving rebel. How did this happen? It is not
my purpose here to give a full exposition of these verses. But there are three
things that we need to understand.
The first temptation
Firstly,
Satan tempted, beguiled, and deceived our mother Eve. Satan knew how God
created Adam and how that he made Eve from Adam's side. He knew that Eve was
the weaker vessel. And he knew Adam's love for Eve.
Therefore, he set his sights on Eve. He was
confident that if he could get Eve, Adam would fall. With great subtlety, the
old serpent beguiled the woman. The steps that led to her ruin were these.
First, she heeded the voice of the tempter.
Instead of saying, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’, Eve
quietly listened as the wicked one assaulted the Word of God. The door was
opened when she began to discuss and debate what God had revealed with one who
denied it.
Second, Eve then began to make additions to
the Word of God. Tampering with God's Word is always fatal. It is just as wrong
to add our words to God's as it is to diminish his
(Proverbs 30:5-6). According to Eve, God had said, ‘Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it’, but God had actually said nothing about touching
the fruit.
Third, the woman proceeded, not just to add
to God's Word, but also to subtly alter it. God had declared, ‘In the day thou eatest there of thou shalt surely die’, but
Eve introduced an element of doubt saying, ‘lest ye die’ or, ‘we might die’.
Fourth, she then went on to disregard God's
Word altogether. She had began by being careless about
the Word, but finished by turning her back upon it completely.
Wilful rebellion
This,
then, is the way sin entered into the world. As A. W. Pink put it; ‘The will of
God was resisted. The Word of God was rejected. The way of God was deserted’ .
In verses 4-5, Satan cast doubt upon the
Word of God, the justice of God and the goodness of God. In verse 6, Eve saw,
she coveted, and she took. She desired the wisdom, and freedom, and superiority
that Satan promised. She took that which belonged to God alone.
The second thing we need to understand is
that while Eve was deceived Adam was not. ‘For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into
transgression’ (1 Timothy
Adam wilfully and deliberately rebelled
against the express command of God. Because of his love for Eve, he defied God.
He willingly plunged himself and all his posterity into spiritual ruin and
enmity against God, rather than refuse Eve.
The third thing to realise is that when
Adam sinned against God, all human kind became sinners and died spiritually. We
all became separated from God (Romans
The record of the fall, given in Genesis 3,
is the only plausible explanation for the condition of the human race. Original
sin is revealed here. It is verified everywhere. How else can anyone explain
the universality of sin, the universality of sickness and sorrow, and the
universality of death? These things are universal because we all have our being
from one man, Adam. We all sinned in him. We all died in him. And we all
received our nature from him.
Redeeming love
Yet,
amazingly, all this happened according to the wise purposes of God, ‘who
worketh all things after the counsel of his own will’ (Ephesians
Had there been no fall at the beginning,
there would always have been the possibility of such a fall in the future.
Had there been no fall, we could never have
known the wonders and beauties of redeeming love and saving grace (1 Peter
Had there been no fall, we could never have
been brought into union with God in Christ, the God-man.
Furthermore, since we fell by one
representative, Adam, there is hope that we might be restored by another
Representative (Hebrews
Paul puts it thus; ‘As by one man’s
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one [Christ] shall
many be made righteous ... That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord’
(Romans 5:19-21).
We shall consider these matters further
next month.