The Beginning of Sin | Genesis 3:1-13
Read Genesis 3:1-13
The Point: Sin is rebellion towards God; it is lawlessness, and it was brought into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
--Genesis 2:24-25
The last line of Genesis 2 reveal to us the state in which Adam and Eve were living in before sin entered the world. “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” There was no reason to be ashamed of their PERFECT bodies—Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, they were made to cultivate the garden, to name the animals, to take care of God’s creation and to walk with God. God had commanded Adam and Eve to worship Him, to obey Him, to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This was the beginning of God’s instruction, of God’s law to given to them, God is instructing them on how to live with Him, how to worship Him and how to obey Him.
“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day tha you eat from it you will surely die.”
--Genesis 2:16-17
This word “command” in Hebrew is
צָוָה tsâvâh, tsaw-vaw'; a primitive root; (intensively) to constitute, enjoin:—appoint, (for-) bid, (give a) charge, (give a, give in, send with) command(-er, -ment), send a messenger, put, (set) in order.
God had given charge to Adam to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil—this was God’s first commandment given to the first man ever created.
- The serpent did not create sin; the serpent tricked Eve into committing sin, into disobeying God.
In this series, “Genesis: The Beginning of Everything” we are learning about the foundations of the world, God’s divine and perfect order of making the world within six days, with purpose, intention and in Genesis 3 we witness the beginning of something that aims to tear down God’s created order, that aims to generate chaos we see the beginning of sin.
When talking about sin we must define what sin is—what is sin according to God’s Holy Word?
God’s word defines sin as “lawlessness.”
“Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.”
--1 John 3:4
Sin is to literally disobey what God commands us to do. To disobey God is a transgression which means to violate a law. Sin is not just based on something that we do or not do rather sin is a nature, a state of living. This is called imputed sin. Imputed means to “take something that belongs to someone and to credit it to another’s account.” Every human has imputed sin in their nature as we have all inherited Adam’s sin—therefore Adam sinned, and out accounts get charged for that sin.
King David laments his “inherited sin” found within himself and his life in Psalm 51:1-5
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” –Psalm 51:5
To be a sinner is to be forever imperfect; to have your natural thoughts speak against God Himself. It is to be tempted to do what is always wrong, to be tempted at all times, and to be at odds with God’s holiness and perfection at all times.
Sin takes us away from the Light of God. We always justify sin because of how it makes us feel (pleasure, justification, vengeance, lies).
“The Last type of sin is personal sin, that which is committed every day by every human being. Because we have inherited a sin nature from Adam, we commit individual, personal sins, everything from seemingly innocent untruths to murder. Those who have not placed their faith in Jesus Christ must pay the penalty for these personal sins, as well as inherited and imputed sin.”
--Gotquestions.org
In this series, “Genesis: The Beginning of Everything” we are learning about the foundations of the world, God’s divine and perfect order of making the world within six days, with purpose, intention and in Genesis 3 we witness the beginning of something that aims to tear down God’s created order, that aims to generate chaos we see the beginning of sin.
--Genesis 3:1-6
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;”
--Genesis 3:4-6
This is the beginning of sin! The beginning of humankind’s transgression towards God—Adam and Eve were given one command—do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil—and they willingly broke that command. Genesis does not deliberately call the serpent Satan, but other portions of scripture portray Satan as a serpent, a dragon, a an angel of light, Satan is crafty and can take many forms.
“He quieted the sea with His power, And by His understanding He shattered Rahab. ‘By His breath the heavens are cleared; His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.’” –Job 26:12-13
“No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.” – 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
“As Satan can change himself into an angel of light, so did he abuse the wisdom of the serpent to deceive man. God allowed Satan to make the serpent his instrument and to speak through him.”
--Geneva Bible Study Guide.
It is known that Satan was either the serpent himself OR he was using the serpent to deceive Eve in the garden. The serpent was crafty, deceiving and Satan is the master of deception. Satan presents himself as appealing, pleasurable, fun and self affirming but that is a mere smoke screen, Satan’s main goal is to cause humanity to sin and bring them away from God’s holy presence.
- Eve fell into sin because she didn’t fully know God’s command; it is Adam’s blame to why sin entered the world, not Eve’s.
Eve tells the serpent that God’s command is:
“From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat form it or touch it, or you will die.’”
--Genesis 3:3
When Eve reiterates the command give to Adam from God; it is clear that she doesn’t know what the tree is called but she knows not to eat from it—this give the serpent a foothold, it gives him an opening to twist God’s command into meaning something else.
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘ you surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat form it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ 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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to the husband with her, and he ate.”
--Genesis 3:4-6
“Satan brought his temptation against the woman because he perceived she was more vulnerable to attack. This is because she did not receive the command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil directly from God but through Adam”
--Enduring Word Commentary
It is clear that Eve did not fully know God’s command, the weight behind it and what it truly meant. Eve also saw the serpent and ate from the tree while Adam was standing with her!
“…and she gave also to the husband with her, and he ate.”
“…and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” –(KJV)
“ Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” –(NLT)
Adam was with Eve while she was being deceived and he LET Eve eat the fruit—he even ate some of the fruit also—Adam deliberately disobeyed God. This is why the entirety of scripture blames Adam for the originator of sin. WE inherit our sin from Adam’s first sin.
“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”
-Romans 5:19
- Sin separated Adam and Eve from God’s holy presence. Humanity loves sin. God hates sin. We are called to repent of sin and receive God’s gracious forgiveness.
--Genesis 3:7-10
The serpent’s main deception to Eve was that she deserved what God was hiding from her; and that the sin would not be a big deal—God was the bad guy for withholding knowledge of good and evil from them. Satan was challenging God’s word, telling Eve that God was lying to her.
“Satan first wanted Eve to forget all about what God said about the consequences of sin. When we know and remember the consequences of sin, we are more likely to give up the passing pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25).”
--Enduring Word Commentary
“Satan and the flesh will present a thousand reasons to show how good it would be to disobey His command.” – Donald Barnhouse
Sin will always be tempting, it will always look pleasurable, it always wants to destroy relationships, cause division and to bring people farther away from their perfect and heavenly creator. Adam and Eve felt shame, they felt repulsion to God, they feared God after their sin which is why they wanted to put clothing on.
“Do not love the world nor the things in the world…For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
– 1 John 2:15-17
In this advent season, as we look forward to the birth of Christ and we light the candle of hope today we are reminded of our depravity, of our sin. We are also reminded that God has loved us so much that He has taken this broken relationship; and He has fixed it, He lives as one of us, a perfect man, and He died on a cross while coming back to life three days later to defeat our sin. To give us hope. A hope that shows us that our sin can be broken, it can be forgiven and we don’t need to stay in our sinful ways.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
--Matthew 5:17-19
Jesus came to uphold the moral law, he has fulfilled the ceremonial law and the civic law which is why we no longer practice animal sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. God has given us His law (Torah means, instruction or/and direction. God’s law directs us away from our sin to the loving holiness of God. It teaches us how we can please God, how we can worship God and reveals the sin I our lives which we need to confess.
Jesus lives a perfect life so that we can put our imperfections onto Him—we do not walk in this world alone as Christians, we have Jesus and we have the church.
“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” –Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
“For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”
-Romans 5:19