THE FALL OF MAN

THE FALL OF MAN
The Sin of Adam

It is a common belief that Adam and Eve sinned upon eating the forbidden fruit, and I was once who believed in this teaching. In my analysis in the scenario in the Garden of Eden by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, or expressing spiritual truth with spiritual words (1Cor. 2:13), I found out that Adam and Eve have already committed all sins that is in the world prior to their eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree. How did they sin is explicitly clear in the Scriptures. Adam and Eve were not spiritually perfect when they were created. Did anyone wonder how they could have sinned when they were spiritually perfect, righteous and holy? I understand it is impossible for a perfect being to sin. Jesus said, “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Man was made in the image and likeness of God. The attributes of God’s image is found chiefly in man, that he is a personal, rational, and moral being, except for righteousness and holiness. Man is the only living creation of God inherent of being spiritually conscious. Adam and Eve were in their innocent stage of knowing good and evil. They don’t know what sin is, for they had not experienced sin in any way shape or form, and the consequences it may bring about. Being sinless doesn’t make them holy and righteous. They must first acquire the knowledge of good and evil (as God is), and the ability to handle such knowledge with godly wisdom. It is in God’s plan to process man to become holy and righteous and other attributes of God which is communicable to man. Adam was provided with all his needs in his physical life. God gave him the tasks to perform and to work from which he enjoys like keeping the garden and giving names to animals [Gen. 2:4-25]. There were no problems, no difficulties, and neither trial to overcome. There were no means for Adam to exercise overcoming evil to develop holiness and righteous character traits of God.

On the onset, God withheld His attributes of the knowledge of good and evil and allowed Adam to live and experience life without anything to worry to prepare him to be processed in His perfect image. Adam enjoys life without untoward circumstances, wherein he can relate this experienced when God starts the process of molding his character by encountering trials and problem for him to overcome that makes life sometimes difficult. To possess immortality with the knowledge of good and evil is a dangerous attributes for man, because of the carnal nature of his heart when he was created. He must first develop godly character to handle such power of being immortal. Man’s character is molded through the knowledge of good and evil, learning the difference between God’s ways and his own ways. He will experience the miserable consequences that sin can inflict in his life and other creations, against the blessings of joy and peace, and well being that comes from obedience to the law of his Creator.

In God’s due time, God began the process by intentionally placing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the MIDST of the garden to attract the attention of Eve. When Eve saw the forbidden tree her attention was glued to it, and later she had already desiring it and, her desire turned into lust. She remembered the commandment of God not to touch and eat of the forbidden tree, but her heart’s desire is stronger than the will of her mind to obey God. While her eyes were still glued to the fruit of the forbidden tree, Satan the devil started to stimulate [to tempt if you will] the heart of Eve into action. The devil said unto the woman (Gen. 3:1-4).

“Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent:
"We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’"

Eve was okay with that commandment of God. She was not yet deceived, and she set the serpent straight that he is completely wrong. She has the will to obey God, but the devil’s persistence agitated the more the nature of her heart. You know the rest of the story in the 3rd Chapter of the book of Genesis˗˗˗both Adam and Eve succumb to sin.

Their sinning nature is a strong proof that they were not holy, neither spiritually perfect. This is irrefutable, I can’t find Scripture in the Bible that is in conflict with their not being holy, righteous and perfect as I used to believe. They were still to be molded towards perfection in the character image of God by going through the experience of tests and trials, and endure sufferings (Rom. 5:3-4). This is the reason why Christians has to undergo and face various trials mention in James 1:2-4; likewise, in Ephesians 4:22-24, Christians has to go through such process to the end of what verse 24 say, “…CREATED TO BE LIKE GOD IN TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS,” that none of us have‒‒just like Adam when God created him.

Sin is an important ingredient in the plan of God in creating man in His image otherwise, God could have prevented them not to sin. God could have placed the forbidden tree in the obscured location in the Garden of Eden. God could have prevented Satan to sneak‒in in the Garden of Eden. Man’s tendency is to disobey God because of the nature of his heart. God created the heart with a nature of hostility against His law. Man’s will by nature is to disobey his Creator (Romans 3:10-18; 8:7), a perfect specification of God’s designed of man to be molded in the likeness of God. Therefore, sin plays an important role in the plan of God in creating man in His image.

God Started the Process
“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:” All is set for molding man in the image of God, after His own likeness. Man has already acquired the knowledge of good and evil by disobeying God’s commandment through the forbidden tree. He now learned what sin is through the miserable consequences he experienced in disobeying God; “and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22).

At this stage, it is dangerous for man to take the tree of life. He is not yet ready to take the tree of life and live forever without the ability to rightly handle the knowledge of good and evil with godly wisdom. The record of history bears eloquent testimony to the fact that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s HEART was only evil continually [Genesis 6:5], such attributes of the heart is dangerous to acquire immortality. Since God is the creator of the nature of the heart which is hostile to God and it does not submit to His law (Romans 8:7), it is only Him who can change the evil heart into a holy heart (Jeremiah 24:7). Changing man’s character is the process man has to go through in his physical life. Through this experience man will know his own ways brings only miseries and destruction, and he will also experience that God’s way is the way toward life abundance and peace, and all things that man could desire that will bring real joy. Man will realize that he needs God, for apart from Him he can do nothing with his sinful nature (John 15:5). These are all the works of God (Phil. 2:13) which no man has a part that he can boast (Eph. 2:8-10), it’s all of God.
God Is the Author of both Good and Evil
Many are so familiar with the song that “God is good in all the time,” which is true, and so says the Scripture in James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shadow of turning.” With God’s goodness embedded in the believer’s heart, it’s too hard to conceive in one’s mind and accept that God could also be the author of evil. Yet, it is equally true that God is both the author of good and evil. The Scripture say, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and CREATE EVIL: I the LORD do ALL these things” (Isaiah 45:7). The veracity of Isaiah 45:7 is re-affirmed by the following Scriptures:

God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Gen. 2:9.
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem…Judges 9:23.
Saul's attendants said to him, "See, an EVIL SPIRIT from God is tormenting you,” 1 Sam. 16:15.
God used Satan to inflict EVIL upon Job.
God pronounced EVIL upon King David that another man will come to his concubines before the eyes of Israel.
“The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared DISASTER against you” (1King 22:23).
God, Himself, caused evil on His own people, where seventy thousand men alone died in 2 Samuel 24:10-15.
GET THIS ONE:
“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be EVIL in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” Amos 3:6.

Let me make one thing clear at this point; Evil is not good nor is it eternal. Nevertheless “knowledge” of evil is good and is eternal. All evil will take its place in the lake of fire, but a knowledge of evil is eternal just as sure our God, Who possesses a knowledge of evil, is eternal.

God Created the Human Heart
God imparts to man his attributes of knowledge of good and evil through the forbidden tree. God said in Gen. 3:22 “…Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil…” But, there is something else God creates in man˗˗˗it’s the nature of the heart. God creates the heart of man [Not the literal heart that pumps blood, but the feelings and emotion where human nature emanates]. God perfectly designed the heart according to his plan. The heart didn’t create itself, or by chance to be what it is. There is a cause for the effect of what the heart is to be what it is. God is the cause of every effect in the universe, and God is the cause for the heart to be what it is. Psalms 139:13-14 (NIV) we read:

“For you created my inmost being [The heart]; you knit me together in my mother‘s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

The following Scriptures declare God’s creation and designed of the heart which is the seat of human function:

“The HEART IS DECEITFUL above all things and DESPERATELY WICKED; who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV).
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth COME FROM THE HEART and they defile a man. FOR OUT OF THE HEART PROCEED EVIL THOUGHTS, MURDERS, ADULTERIES, FORNICATIONS, THEFTS, FALSE WITNESS, BLASPHEMIES” (NKJV) Matthew 15:18-19.
“The HEARTS OF MEN, moreover, are FULL OF EVIL and there is MADNESS IN THEIR HEARTS while they live” (NIV), Ecclesiastes 9:3.
“Because the CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” (KJV), Romans 8:7.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY,” (KJV), Gen. 6:5.
“If you then, being EVIL, know how to give good gifts unto your children…” Matthew 7:11.

Without understanding the plan of God, the above description of human heart which is attributed to God’s creation is blasphemous. How could a holy God create evil heart in man whom He created in His own image? The Scripture says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness, blasphemies..” Again, the heart didn’t by chance to be what it is˗˗˗it was cause. And the same God will also cause the same heart to be changed at the culmination of His plan, when everything is fulfilled, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh or from evil to holy righteous heart (Ezekiel 11:19). “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God,” says the LORD (Jeremiah 24:7).
Man’s tendency to disobey the command of God comes from the heart˗˗˗not from the so called free will. Man’s will is not free to obey God˗˗˗he is a prisoner of sin (Galatians 3:22 NIV). The scenario in the Garden of Eden works perfectly according to God’s plan. Eph. 1:11 says,
“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the PLAN of him who works out everything [including sin] in conformity with the purpose of his will.”
Sin works perfectly in conformity with God’s plan. Is God contradicting Himself by making a command not to touch and not to eat of the forbidden tree, while it is in his plan that they should do so by using Satan to fulfill His purpose? Certainly not! God’s purpose in his plan has something to do in creating man in His image˗˗˗it is a process.
Likewise, God has a purpose when He hardened the heart of Pharaoh, so as not to let His people go. God said to Moses, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt" (Ex. 3:10). “The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. BUT I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART SO THAT HE WILL NOT LET THE PEOPLE GO” (Ex. 4:21). “Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert' "(Ex. 5:1).
Is God contradicting himself by saying, “Let my people go,” and then, He turned around and say, He will harden the heart of Pharaoh so as not to let his people go? God’s purposed in raising up Pharaoh is to make His power be known throughout all the earth (Rom. 9:17). God was not contradicting Himself in his intention for Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit despite of his command.

Sin Begins In the Heart
“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes) and a tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).
And certainly man’s will is not the originator of sin. God did not say: “O that there were such a will in them…” Deut. 5:29 says, “O that there were such a HEART in them, that they will fear me, and keep all my commandments.”
What does all these stuff mentioned above have to do with Mother Eve’s sin in the garden? The Apostle John classifies all sins into three categories under one heading, which is in 1 John 2:15-17 together with Genesis 3:6.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever.”

The Three Categories of Sin
“For all that is in the world”
Genesis 3:6 1 John 2:15-17
(1) “And when the woman saw that the tree was GOOD FOR FOOD”…LUST of the FLESH
(2) “And it was PLEASANT to the EYES”………………………………..LUST of the EYES
(3) “And a tree to be DESIRED to MAKE ONE WISE………………….The PRIDE of LIFE

The Bible defines the above Scriptures of Genesis and 1 John as one of the descriptions of sin. Eve committed every category of sin there is in the world, before she actually ate of the forbidden fruit. All of Eve’s evil thoughts of pride, vanity, lust, greed, disobedience, and finally thievery proceeded NOT from Eve’s supposed “free will,” but rather from out of her HEART. Adam was not deceived, but he listened to the voice of his wife rather than God. He loves his wife more than his Creator. His mind was over power by the emotion of his heart in spite of his awareness of God’s commandment not to eat of the forbidden fruit; his decision comes from the emotion of his heart˗˗˗not from what is believed to be free will. At this point he had already committed the sin of idolatry and began to “will” the act of formulating in his mind that comes from his heart the actual physical action of doing the eating. Adam sinned before he actually partakes eating of the forbidden fruit. Both of them sinned first before the eating.


Sin Is In the Plan of God
I found myself deviating from what is written in the Bible and what God intended to do, by creating in my own mind how we would be living in a world of paradise if Adam had not sin. Such speculation will never happen, because that was not in God’s plan. In His plan, God prepared a lamb to be slain before the foundation of the world to redeem us from the condemnation of sin that begins from Adam (Rev. 13:8; 1Pet. 1:20-21). God never forced anyone to sin. Man’s heart is inclined to sin. They don’t need to be forced; man by nature is hostile against God and doesn’t want to be subjected to His law (Rom. 8:7). Adam and Eve sinned as planned by God in conformity with the purposed of His will. Sin plays an important role in forming man in His image. GOD HATE SIN and He want man to learn through the bitter and horrendous experience of the consequences sin can inflict to humanity, that man, himself, will hate sin. Man is in the making of being formed in the spiritual image of God, house in the body of flesh which is by nature subject to deteriorate and decay and eventual death. Remember Ecclesiastes 3:19 that man has no advantage over the animal in the physical aspect. Man, in the final stage of being molded in the image of his Creator will be given a spiritual body which is not subject to decay and death. This is what 1 Corinthians 15 says about spiritual body which is incorruptible. Adam’s physical body was corruptible even before the fall. This is the time 1 Cor. 15:44 will be fulfilled that says, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Then and only then, man will live forever, ruling the universe with his Creator. #