Phil Gons

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The Fall of Man

I delivered this message at Spring Creek Bible Church on November 15, 2015, as part 6 of The Doctrines of Man and Sin series.

Prefer what I actually said? Read the transcript (lightly edited for readability).

1. Introduction

This is part six of our series on the doctrines of man and sin. We spent the first five classes talking about the doctrine of man, and now we’re going to transition to the doctrine of sin. We’ll begin this portion of our study by talking about the origin of sin and the fall of man.

2. Review

  1. 9/20: Introduction
  2. 9/27: The Origin of Man
  3. 10/11: The Nature of Man
  4. 10/18: The Image of God, Part 1
  5. 11/8: The Image of God, Part 2
  6. 11/15: The Fall
  7. 11/22: Original Sin
  8. 11/29: The Nature of Sin
  9. 12/13: Modern-Day Issues

3. Outline

We’re going to look at the Fall under these three categories:

  1. The Fall of Satan
  2. The Fall of Man
  3. The Fall and God

4. The Key Texts on the Fall

Genesis 1:28–31

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:8–9, 15–17

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. . . . 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:1–24

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

6. The Fall of Satan

At the beginning of Genesis 3 we’re introduced to the serpent, which raises several questions:

  1. Who was this serpent?
  2. What kind of being was he?
  3. When was he created?
  4. When and why did he become evil?

Who was this serpent?

This wasn’t just another ordinary animal. The first clue we get is that he speaks. There’s no indication that any other animal could speak. The New Testament removes all doubt and identifies this serpent as Satan.

2 Corinthians 11:3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Revelation 12:9–10: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God” (cf. Luke 10:17–20).

Revelation 20:1–3: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

1 Thessalonians 3:5: For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

This identification of Satan as the serpent is reinforced by how the New Testament talks about his offspring (Gen. 3:15).

Matthew 23:33: You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

John 8:44: You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1 John 3:12: We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

So this snake in the garden was really Satan.

What kind of being was he?

Since we know he was Satan, we can look at what the Bible teaches about him.

Satan is an angel. We know this from the following:

  1. Ezekiel 28:14, 16 may refer to him as an “anointed guardian cherub.” Cherubim were a class of winged angelic beings.
  2. He often appears with angels.
    1. Job 1 and 2 present him as reporting to God along with other angels (i.e., “sons of God”).
    2. He has his own angels (Mt 25:41), which suggests he’s leading others of his kind.
    3. Michael and Satan are paralleled in Revelation 12:7–9 as both having their own angels. We know Michael was an archangel (Jude 9; cf. Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1). Satan was probably in a similar position of elevated authority as a leader of other angels.
  3. He disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This may imply that he’s now an angel of darkness, but pretends to be good. What other being could masquerade himself as a good angel?
  4. There are only three classes of beings we know of that are capable of the kind of intelligence and communication that Satan exhibits: God, angels, and man. By process of elimination, he could only have been an angel.

He was created by God as a leader of some of the angelic heavenly host.

When was he created?

We don’t know the exact time of his creation, but it seems likely that it happened before the six days of creation.

But didn’t God do all his creating during the six days recorded in Genesis 1–2? Exodus 20:11 says, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

I don’t think it’s necessary to conclude that God didn’t create anything prior to the first day of creation recorded in Genesis 1.

  1. This text has as its focus the things Genesis 1–2 says God created then: the physical universe.
  2. Job 38:4–7 tells us that “all the sons of God,” the heavenly host, “shouted for joy” when God “laid the foundation of the earth.” While it’s possible that God created the angels on day one of creation right before he laid the foundation of the earth, it seems unlikely and unnecessary to insist on that. Since Genesis 1–2 outlines what God created during the six days, it would seem like a strange omission to leave out the angels.
  3. God creates outside of the six days of creation. (1) Regeneration is almost certainly an act of creation (Eph. 2:10; 4:24; 2 Cor. 4:6). (2) The soul is most likely created by God at conception. (3) The new heavens and the new earth will be created at some point in the future (Is. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). If any of these is truly an act of creation, we shouldn’t understand Exodus 20:11 in a way that precludes acts of creation outside the six days. If there can be acts of creation after, there could also have been acts of creation before.

It seems best to understand Exodus 20:11 as referring only to the original creation of the heavens and the earth and its inhabitants as recorded in Genesis 1–2, which would allow for an act of creation prior to then when God created the spiritual inhabitants of the heavenly realm.

When did he become evil?

We know it happened before the Fall of man, because the serpent was sinfully tempting Eve to disobey God (Gen. 3:1ff). 1 John 3:8 says that “the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” We know beginning can’t refer to Satan’s beginning. God doesn’t create evil beings. Satan was created good. It likely has in view the beginning referred to in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” But it needn’t refer to the first moment of creation. It probably refers to the period of time from the start of creation until the fall of man.

So Satan’s fall was sometime between his creation, which was likely before the creation of the world, and the fall of man. If Job 38:7 (which tells us that “all the sons of God,” the heavenly host, “shouted for joy” when God “laid the foundation of the earth”) includes Satan, that would put his fall after God started creating, maybe more closely associated with the creation of man. I don’t think it’s necessary, though, to include Satan in Job 38:7. Job 1 and 2 both exclude him from “sons of God.”

It may have been around the time of the creation of man. Some speculate that Satan was jealous of God’s and man’s relationship, which is why Satan targeted Eve in the garden. Ultimately, we don’t know the exact time, only that it preceded the fall of man.

Why did he become evil?

That brings us to the question of why Satan fell. There are four main passages that give us a glimpse into the reasons behind Satan’s fall.

Ezekiel 28

Ezekiel 28 is a message from God to the prince of Tyre. But there seem to be some allusions made to Satan in the garden. While it’s difficult to know exact what refers to the prince of Tyre and what refers to Satan, it’s likely that the majority of this is descriptive of Satan’s fall.

Ezekiel 28:1–19: 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god— 3 you are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you; 4 by your wisdom and your understanding you have made wealth for yourself, and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; 5 by your great wisdom in your trade you have increased your wealth, and your heart has become proud in your wealth— 6 therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you make your heart like the heart of a god, 7 therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon you, the most ruthless of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. 8 They shall thrust you down into the pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the seas. 9 Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who kill you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those who slay you? 10 You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, declares the Lord God.” 11 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. 19 All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever.”

Isaiah 14

Similar to Ezekiel 28, Isaiah delivers this taunt to the king of Babylon:

Isaiah 14:3–23: 3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! 5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, 6 that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. 7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. 8 The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’ 9 Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. 10 All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. 12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ 18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; 19 but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. 20 You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. “May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named! 21 Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the Lord. 23 “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Wisdom of Solomon 2:23–24

Though it’s not inspired Scripture, it is interesting to see the way the intertestamental literature talked about Satan’s fall.

God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity, 24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.

New Testament

The New Testament comments on Satan’s fall in 1 Timothy 3:6:

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

This passages doesn’t say explicitly that Satan was puffed up with pride, but it implies as much.

We don’t know all the details surrounding Satan’s fall, but these passages paint a picture of pride and covetousness and perhaps envy:

  1. pride in his beauty
  2. desire to be like God or be God
  3. envy
  4. conceit

7. The Fall of Man

This brings us to the fall of man. Let’s remind ourselves of the context leading up to the Fall.

The Context of the Fall

Genesis 1:28–31

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:8–9, 15–17

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. . . . 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God created the heavens and the earth in six days. On the final day he created man as the pinnacle of his creation. Everything he created was very good and for their enjoyment. Even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was very good. And God gave them authority over everything. And God himself fellowshipped with them in Eden.

God had given Adam and Eve one a command and a prohibition.

  1. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28)
  2. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:15–17)

The Events of the Fall

The Timing

How much time passed between the final day of creation and the Fall? The Bible doesn’t tell us.

Many have argued that the time was relatively short. The first command God gave Adam and Eve was to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). They were no doubt working on fulfilling that command. Adam and Eve would likely have conceived and had children relatively quickly. Scripture gives us no indication of any children existing before the Fall. Eve is called “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20) right after the Fall, which some have said suggest the existence of children before the Fall. But it’s not clear whether this is a forward looking designation or not. Genesis 4 doesn’t explicitly say that Cain was her first child, but that seems to be implied by the sequence of events.

While it’s possible that a longer period of time had passed between the sixth day of creation and the Fall, this view would have a difficult time explaining (1) why Eve didn’t conceive or (2) if she did, how to account for Gen 4:1, which implies Cain as the first child.

The Temptation

Genesis 3:1–24: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 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.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise

The serpent tempts Eve by trying to get her to doubt or be confused about what God actually said. She correctly defends the truth. She reaffirms the prohibition given by God to Adam.

The serpent then directly contradicts God, essentially calling him a liar: “You won’t die.” You’ll actually become like God (or the angels). You’ll know good and evil.

Notice here that Satan was telling the truth. They would become like God and the angels and know good and evil. And there’s a sense in which they wouldn’t die. Satan is a master of distorting the truth, of carefully mixing it a little bit of falsehood in with the truth.

Eve was attracted to the idea of possessing something God hadn’t given her. She wanted the knowledge of good and evil. God had it. The angels had it. Why couldn’t she have it? It doesn’t sound so bad. It actually sounds good.

She then started to justify her illicit desire. (1) She may have even been hungry. Satan possible ate some of the fruit to show her that it was good. She saw that the tree produced edible fruit and that it would satisfy her hunger and craving. (2) And it looked really good. It was beautiful fruit and desirable to eat. (3) She was drawn in by the fact that she would become wise.

It’s worth noting that the same sin Satan himself had committed he tempted Eve to commit: to covet and take what was not hers to have, to not be satisfied with what God had provided, to think that you deserve more that you have, to rebel against the authority of God.

The Fall

Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

She gave in to the temptation and chose to take its fruit and eat it. It seems that Adam was with her, either right next to hear or nearby, and he ate as well. Instead of leading and protecting his wife, he followed and destroyed her. Together they plunged the entire human race, billions and billions of people, into sin and condemnation and death.

Several other passages in the Bible talk about the Fall. Let’s look at them and see what else we can learn about this fateful event.

Hosea 6:7: But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Romans 5:12–19: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

1 Corinthians 15:21–22: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

2 Corinthians 11:3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

1 Timothy 2:13–14: For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Observations:

  1. Eve was deceived (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14).
  2. Eve was a transgressor (1 Tim. 2:14).
  3. Adam was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14).
  4. Adam was a disobedient transgressor (Rom. 5:14, 19).
  5. Adam sinned by listening to Eve (Gen. 3:17).
  6. Death came by Adam; we all die in him (Rom. 5:12, 15, 17; 1 Cor. 15:21, 22).
  7. God’s judgment on one trespass, Adam’s, brought condemnation (Rom. 5:16, 17, 18).
  8. Adam’s sin made us sinners (Rom. 5:12, 19).

Two questions come up in discussions on the Fall:

  1. Who plunged humanity into depravity?
  2. What was the essence of the sin that caused the Fall?

Eve technically sinned first, but the Bible makes it clear that it was Adam was responsible for bringing guilt and death and corruption to the human race.

Sin is complicated and messy. There was a host of sins wrapped up in the fall.

  1. Eve doubted God and believed the serpent that she wouldn’t die. Instead of affirming her belief in God’s word, she doubted and sided with the serpent.
  2. Eve’s heart desired what was forbidden by God. She coveted the knowledge of God and evil.
  3. Eve willfully rejected God’s authority and acted against his clear command. She set herself up as her own god.
  4. Adam apparently stood by and let his wife be drawn into temptation. He failed to lead and protect.
  5. Adam, too, must have disbelieved God.
  6. He rejected God’s authority. In pride, he set himself up as his own god.
  7. He also coveted what God prohibited and desired to be like God in ways God didn’t want for him.

The Effects of the Fall

Genesis 3:7ff

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

God promised death in the day they ate the fruit. What happened? They died spiritually, and their bodies began to die.

Here’s what else happened as a result of their sin:

  1. They lost their innocence (3:7). Their eyes were opened. They knew they were naked. They knew good and evil (3:22).
  2. They had shame (3:7).
  3. They had guilt (3:8).
  4. They lost intimate fellowship with God (3:8).
  5. They had fear (3:10).
  6. They passed the blame (3:12, 13).
  7. Eve’s pain in childbirth would be multiplied (3:16).
  8. Eve would struggle to submit to Adam’s leadership (3:16).
  9. Adam’s work would be painful and hard (3:17–19).
  10. Adam’s body would die and return to dust (3:19).
  11. They were driven out of the garden (3:24).

The New Testament indicates many other effects of the Fall:

  1. Clouded image
  2. Spiritual death and blindness
  3. Physical death
  4. Depravity
  5. Irrational mind
  6. Broken emotions
  7. Loss of freedom / enslavement to sin
  8. Enmity toward God
  9. The wrath and condemnation of God
  10. Broken relationship with God
  11. Broken relationship with others
  12. Selfishness
  13. Eternal punishment

The Redemption from the Fall

Even in the judgment of God, we see God’s grace.

  1. God promised that Eve’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head (3:15). This is called the protoevangelium (i.e., first gospel).
  2. God killed an animal and provided covering for Adam and Eve (3:21). It’s not explicit, but it’s possible that this was a sacrifice to show that their sins had been covered and foreshadow the sacrificial death of the offspring of Eve.

Approximately four thousand years later, God fulfilled his promise and brought the reality that was foreshadowed in that first sacrifice.

Both Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 parallel Adam and Jesus. Romans 5:14 calls Adam a “type of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:45 calls Jesus the “last Adam.”

God put him through testing just like he did with Adam. Unlike Eve, Jesus hadn’t eaten in 40 days.

Satan tempted him to

  1. prove to him his deity and use his power for his own benefit (3–4)
  2. test God by acting foolishly (4:5–7)
  3. worship someone other than God (7–10)

In all cases he resisted the temptation and began reversing what Adam caused by giving into sin.

By his perfect like and vicarious death, Jesus began to crush the head of the serpent.

8. The Fall and God

The Fall raises a host of theological questions.

  1. Where did sin come from? Didn’t it ultimately come from God since he made all things and knows all things?
  2. Why did God create man with the ability to sin?
  3. Why did God create man at all when he knew the Fall was going to happen?
  4. Why did God give Satan access to the garden and allow him to tempt Adam and Eve? Why didn’t he simply banish Satan from the garden and protect them from his influence?

The Bible doesn’t directly answer these question for us, but it does give us some truths that help us think through them.

Reformed or Calvinist Christians have affirmed that God’s sovereign rule extends over all things, that everything is ultimately a part of his good and wise plan.

The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way:

God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. (WCF 3.1)

Same are prepared to say that God didn’t know what would happen, and that he took a risk by creating angels and humans. This is a dangerous view that’s incompatible with larger portions of Scripture. We won’t take the time to address it, but I can point you to some resources if you’d like to read more.

Any view that embraces God’s full omniscience has to acknowledge that angelic sin and human sin were part of God’s plan. Attempts to talk about free will as the ultimate explanation merely skirt the issue. Affirming that Satan and Adam and Eve acted freely doesn’t negate the fact that God decided to create them, knowing full well that sin would wreak havoc on his universe. He didn’t have to create. He didn’t have to create beings that had the ability to sin. But he did, for his own holy, good, and wise purposes.

What I believe is most faithful to the teaching of the Bible is that the fall of man was part of God’s plan to glorify himself through the gracious gospel of his Son.

I believe that the Bible teaches this in several ways:

  1. God is sovereign over all things, including evil.
  2. God’s plan of election and salvation was already decided before he even created man.
  3. God pursues his own glory in all that he does.
  4. God is infinitely wise and always chooses the best means to accomplish his good ends.

Creating a universe in which sin would exist and man would rebel against him was part of his wise plan for pursuing his own glory, and lavishing his rich grace on undeserving sinners.

We get glimpses of this in Romans 9:

Romans 9:13–24: As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

The glory of God’s grace shines all the more brightly in the backdrop of sin. These are deep questions, and we mustn’t go beyond Scripture. It’s fitting to end this discussion where Paul does at the end of chapter 11:

Romans 11:33–36: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

9. Conclusion

10. Resources

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11. Review Questions

12. Next Week

Next week we’ll turn our attention to the effects of Adam’s sin on all of humanity, what theologians call the doctrine of original sin.

13. Pray and Dismiss

Two other passages talk about the fall of Satan:

Revelation 12:9–10: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

Revelation 12:9 doesn’t seem to be describing Satan’s fall into sin but Satan’s expulsion from heaven at Jesus’ earthly ministry.

John 12:31: 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Luke 10 seems to coincide with this:

Luke 10:17–20: The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

But wasn’t Satan expelled from heaven when he first sinned? It doesn’t seem so, according to Job 1–2:

Job 1:6–7: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Job 2:1–2: Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Zechariah 3 confirms this:

Zechariah 3:1–2: Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

Satan had access to heaven.

The Fall of Angels

We already saw that Satan had angels. Did they fall with him?

One passage connects the fall of Satan and the fall of angels? Does that mean that angels fell with Satan at the same time? Not necessarily.

Revelation 12:9–10: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”

But as we saw, Revelation 12:9 doesn’t seem to be describing Satan’s fall into sin but Satan’s expulsion from heaven at Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Apart from Revelation 12:9, which doesn’t seem to be referring to the fall into sin, but their permanent expulsion from heaven, the only two passages that talk about the fall of angels are in 2 Peter and Jude.

2 Peter 2:4–10

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Jude 5–7

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Both of these passages talk about the fall of angels. Notably, there’s no direct connection to the fall of Satan. 2 Peter seems to give a chronological ordering of events to illustrate false teaches, starting with the angels, then the world destroyed in the flood, then Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jude adds a few additional pieces: their sin was in (1) not staying within their own position of authority and (2) leaving their proper dwelling. Another key piece is in verse 7: “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire.”

Likewise makes a connection between the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and the sin of the angels that fell. Some interpreters make the connection to Genesis 6, where the sons of God come to the daughters of man. This fits the chronology of 2 Peter the descriptions in Jude about leaving their position of authority in the heavenly realm and their proper dwelling. Notice also the connect to indulging in the lust of defiling passion in 2 Peter.

11. Did Adam and Eve have a free will?

Any discussions of free will need to take into consideration the various states of man:

  1. Before the Fall
  2. After the fall, but before redemption
  3. After redemption
  4. In glory

Since we’ve not yet gotten to the fall and sin, we’ll focus here primarily on the nature of Adam’s and Eve’s will before the Fall.

What is the will?

The will is part of the complex of our inner person. It operates in conjunction with our intellect, emotions, and desires.

It’s the part of us that makes decisions.

What is free will?

Part of the reason free will is such a debated topic is that it’s poorly defined and means different things to different people.

There are at least three sense we can talk about free will:

  1. Freedom to act willingly
  2. Freedom to do anything
  3. Freedom to act spiritually

Free to Act Willingly?

In one sense, all that’s necessary for the will to be free is that it acts voluntarily according to its desires. In that sense, all human wills are free. We really want to do everything we do. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t do it.

You might say, “What a minute? I didn’t want to get up this morning, but I did. I chose to against my desires.” Very well. But you only chose to act against that desire because there was a stronger desire inside of you.

We always choose to act according to our strongest desire at the point of decision.

Free to Do Anything?

In another sense, the will is not free. It’s bound by our desires. And desires aren’t things you can turn on and off like light switches. In a very real sense, we are controlled by our strongest desires.

“What a minute? There are plenty of things I really want to do more than other things that I can’t do. For example, I want to dunk a basketball or fly, but I can’t.”

Very well. Our will is bound and limited by our nature. I can’t choose to be omnipresent or to fly by flapping my arms. In this sense, all human wills are not free. They can’t choose to act outside of the bounds of their nature.

Even God isn’t free to choose something that’s not consistent with his nature. For example, God cannot choose to sin. He can’t choose to stop being omniscient.

In the first sense, everyone is always free in all of their choices. In the second sense, no one is completely free. We’re all operating within the bounds of our natures.

Free to Please God?

What most people have in mind when they talk about free will, though, it whether we can choose to do the things that please God: love him, obey him, trust him, etc.

Did Adam and Eve have free will?

Like all people, Adam and Eve had a free will in the first sense. Like all people, Adam and Eve didn’t have a free will in the second sense. The real question is whether Adam and Eve had a free will in the third sense.

The answer to this is found what the Bible teaches about Adam and Eve’s nature. In Genesis 1:31 after God created man we read that “God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 says that “God made man upright.” Man’s nature before the fall was morally good. Therefore, he was free to choose to love, believe, and obey God. That was consistent with their nature.

So, yes, Adam and Eve had a free will in the third sense.

Is free will compatible with God’s sovereignty?

The Bible teaches that man’s actions are free; that is, there are voluntary outworkings of his own desires. But the Bible also teaches that God is sovereign and that that sovereignty has no limits. It extends to the free acts of his creatures.

1 Samuel 2:25: If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?” His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.

Proverbs 19:21: Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 20:24: A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?

Proverbs 21:1: The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

Psalm 105:25: He turned their hearts to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.

Ezra 6:22: And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

Isaiah 63:17: Why, Lord, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.

Lamentations 3:37–38: Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

Romans 11:8: as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

Revelation 17:17: for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

There are two ways people try to reconcile these two strands:

  1. God isn’t really sovereign over men’s hearts and wills. They try to explain away all the passages that seem to teach that God can and does act upon men’s hearts and minds so as to guarantee that they make certain choices.
  2. Man isn’t really free. Others affirm the passages that teach God’s sovereignty over men and their decisions and instead deny that true human freedom can exist That instead they act against their wills or are mere robots.

I don’t think we have to choose. We simply need to shape our understanding of freedom so that we don’t compromise God’s exhaustive sovereignty. If we define free will as acting willingly, in accordance with one’s desires, we can affirm that men act freely even when God is sovereignly working in our desires and hearts.

Adam didn’t die right away. He lived to be 930. Why?

Genesis 5:4–5: The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

Questions:

The Origin of Sin and the Fall

  1. Where did sin come from?
  2. When did Satan fall?
  3. When did the angels fall? 2 Peter 32:4; Jude 6
  4. Are fallen angels demons?
  5. Who sinned first: Adam or Eve?
  6. Was their sin before human sin? Did evil exist when God said everything was good?
  7. Did Adam and Eve have free will?
  8. Did God ordain the fall?
  9. Did gender roles get introduced after the Fall?
  10. Does the garden still exist today?
  11. Could mankind have fallen in another way?

Other issues:

  1. Free will [I already have a section on this from week three.]
  2. The role of God and evil

Genesis 9:2–4: 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

  1. It appears that it wasn’t until after the flood that animals became scared of humans.
  2. God gives mankind meat as well as vegetables.

Isaiah 65:25

Adam gives Women her name after the Fall.

On the other hand, the Bible records only three of Eve’s children, all males, but we know she would have had to have had many more for Cain and Seth to have wives, and for Cain to fear for his life (4:14–15) and build a city (4:17).

What if Eve had had children before the Fall? Would they have been expelled from the garden as well? A seminal headship view would seem to require that they sin as well in order become sinners. A federal headship view, however, would have them falling into sin even if they didn’t participate in the sin of their parents. The same could be said for Eve. If Adam had sinned and not Eve, would Eve have been expelled from the garden? It seems so. In Adam all sinned. That would have included Eve.

  1. Satan’s temptation brought Eve’s deception (2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:14).
  2. Eve’s deception contributed to Eve’s sin (1 Tim. 2:14).
  3. Eve’s sin preceded Adam’s sin (Gen. 3:6).
  4. Adam’s sin brought God’s judgment (Rom. 5:16, 18).
  5. God’s judgment was death.
  6. Adam’s sin brought our sinfulness (Rom. 5:19).
  7. Our sinfulness brings our sin (Rom. 5:12).
  8. Our sinfulness and sin bring our death.
  1. Why did God allow him in the garden?
  2. Why was Eve not scared by a talking snake?
  3. Was the snake cunning, or was Satan? Or both?

What Satan told them was true, at least partially. Their eyes were opened. Their innocence was lost. They knew they were naked and immediately covered themselves.

It’s possible Satan’s fall happened at the fall of Adam and Eve.

When did the fall happen? When Eve ate? Before she ate and desired what was not to be desired? She seems to have coveted in her heart what God had not given her. When she questioned God’s word and chose to believe Satan instead? What about Adam? The Bible seems to assign the first sin to Adam. Did he sin by observing and not stepping in to lead and protect his wife? Did he sin by passively going along and eating with her? Or was the sin in the actual eating. Could the fall have happened in some other way? What if Adam was unkind to Eve? Would that have plunged mankind into sin?

What was the

  1. God may have protected Adam and Eve from being confirmed in their fallen state by eating the tree of life (3:22).

All sorts of other questions arise:

  1. What if Eve had stopped at the last minute and thrown the fruit to the ground after putting it to her lips?
  2. What if Adam hadn’t eaten?
  3. What if Adam had eaten, but Eve hadn’t?
  4. Could the Fall have happened through another sin?
  5. Could the Fall have happened without the serpent’s temptation?
  6. How could morally good beings be tempted in the first place?