The Fall
“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
(Genesis 3:4-5 NLT)
So, what happened in the Garden of Eden? What went wrong? In this segment we are looking at the doctrine of the Fall. This teaching says that when our human ancestors – Adam and Eve – gave into temptation, and transgressed against God, this resulted in a broken relationship with God, made us lose our innocence, and made us start doing bad things, which finally leads to death. (1)
As we read in the third chapter of Genesis, a fallen angelic creature (Satan) communicates with Eve through a serpent, convincing her that God cannot be trusted, foremost in what He says (see Genesis 2:15-17; 3:4-6). Satan uses deception by starting with a question (in which he already had distorted God’s Word): “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (3:1). So, instead of trusting God – obeying His only initial command, not to eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (2:16-17) – which both Eve and Adam (who was with her at the moment of temptation) knew, she enters a dialogue with the serpent (not questioning why an animal is talking to her, thereby listening to the ‘wrong’ voice).
Giving in to the enemy’s temptation, through free will, both man and woman eat the forbidden fruit (3:6), which results in disastrous consequences. These include the serpent being forced to crawl (v.14), enmity between the serpent and the woman (v.15), pain during child birth (v.16), the woman being subjected to the man (v. 16), the need for humanity to work for sustenance (v.17-19) and the expulsion from the garden (Genesis 3:22-24), as part of God’s judgment. In line with the doctrine of the Fall, sin, death and spiritual separation from God are introduced into the world (Genesis 4). (2) Note, that we are looking closer at both sin and salvation later in segment seven.
However, as we understand the Fall as a real event in history, and Adam and Eve being real people, and the existence of Satan, sin and evil as real (the Bible revealing a true spiritual dimension, which must not be denied in any way) we realize the importance of all of this, having inherited from our first two human ancestors, a broken sin nature (also called “original sin”). Here, we can see the reality of Satan and get a glimpse of his evil nature, as well as the demonic realm (Ephesians 6:12). This brings us to an important understanding of our own suffering and helplessness in the face of sin and evil – since, we cannot make ourselves right with God in our own strength, or through ‘good deeds’ (Romans 3:20).
This is where we realize our need for a divine redeemer, and this is our Lord Jesus Christ (whom we are turning to in the next segment), who is announced in the Protoevangelion (‘the first Gospel’) God’s eternal plan of salvation (Genesis 3:15): “He shall bruise you on the head,” means that Christ deals the decisive blow to Satan by dying on the cross. This is the victory for Christ (Colossians 2:14-15, Hebrews 2:14). Hereby, the phrase “you shall bruise Him on the heel,” signifies an apparent minor victory of Satan in causing Christ’s death. However, this event ultimately leads to Satan’s own defeat (which we are examining more closely in the subsequent segments). (3)
Notes
(1) Brown, Derek. 2016. “Fall, the.” In The Lexham Bible Dictionary, edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
(2) Brown, “Fall.”
(3) Enns, Paul P. The Moody Handbook of Theology: Revised and Expanded. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014. p.321-324.
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