1b The First Sin [Genesis 2:16-3:24]
The Bible passage: [Genesis 2:16-3:24]
The Story:
God told Adam that he was allowed to eat fruit from every tree in the garden EXCEPT the tree of “the knowledge of good and evil”. God told him that he would die if he ate the fruit of that tree. God also gave Adam the assignment to name all of the animals.
God decided that it wasn’t good for Adam to be the only human being. God put Adam into a deep sleep. God took out one of his ribs and closed up the flesh where He had removed it. God then made a woman from the rib that He had taken out of Adam. When Adam woke up, he was very pleased with the woman that God had made. He named her Eve and said, “This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.”
The Bible tells us that the man and his wife were naked but felt no shame.
The serpent was the most cunning animal that God had made. One day the serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
The woman replied, “We may eat from any of the trees except the tree in the middle of the garden. God said if we eat it or touch, we will die.”
The serpent said, “That’s not true. You won’t die. God only told you that because he knows if you eat that fruit you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
The woman looked at the tree and its fruit looked tasty and pleasing. She also thought that if she ate it, she would know everything. So, she took a piece of fruit and ate some. Then she gave some to her husband (who was with her) and he ate it, too.
After eating the fruit, they realized that they were naked. They took fig leaves and sewed them together to cover themselves. Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden in the evening breeze and they hid from God among the trees.
God called out to Adam and said, “Where are you?”
Adam replied, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
God asked Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from?”
Adam said, “The woman that you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate some.”
Eve then said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate some.”
God told the serpent, “You will be cursed forever. You will slink around on your belly and eat dust all your life. Your offspring and the offspring of man will be enemies.” He told the woman, “You will now have great pain in childbirth. You will want to please your husband, but he will rule over you.” To the man He said, “From now on, working the ground will be hard and painful work. There will be thorns and weeds to get in your way. You will have to work hard for your food. I made you from the dust of the ground and one day you will return to the ground.”
God killed an animal and made clothing for the man and woman from the skin of the animal.
He then drove them out of the garden to live elsewhere.
The Lessons:
- Anything that a person does that is outside the will of God is called “sin“. Sometimes, that is doing things that God has told us not to do. The Bible also tells us that not doing the good things we know that we should do is also sin. [James 4:17] Sin has been described as “missing the mark”, such as when an archer shoots an arrow that misses the target.
- Adam and Eve sinned when they ate the fruit that God had forbidden them to eat.
- In the Biblical sense, when a person has offended God (called sin), they must ask God to forgive them. In a similar sense, when we have offended others, we need to ask for their forgiveness. Forgiveness is very similar to mercy. Mercy is not receiving the punishment that we deserve.
- Grace is unearned favor. It goes beyond forgiveness and mercy. One of the simplest examples that I have seen is this: I tell my son to clean his bedroom and I will give him one hour to accomplish this. If he doesn’t do it, he will be punished. I go there in one hour and the room is not clean. Even though he hasn’t completed the task that I gave him, I decide not to punish him. Not punishing him is mercy. If I then decide to take him out to get ice cream, that is grace. Giving him something good that he didn’t deserve is grace.
- Sacrifice: The Bible tells us that the wages (or payment or punishment) for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus. [Romans 6:23] The concept of a sacrifice for sin runs throughout the Bible. A sacrifice for sin is usually an animal that is killed, with the sacrificed animal paying the penalty for the sin.
- God transferred Adam and Eve’s death penalty to an animal, which he used to cover Adam and Eve’s sin and shame. God forgave their sin, but we also see God’s grace when he covered up their shame.
- Punishment: There are consequences for our sin. Sometimes those consequences are immediate. Sometimes the consequences come later. The consequences for our sin can also be permanent, even after God has forgiven us for our sin. In our story, there were immediate consequences: they became ashamed, life became harder, and they had to leave the garden. There was also a delayed consequence: they later died and returned to the ground. Even after God forgave their sin, the consequences continued.
- The enemy, Satan, this time in the form of the serpent, is sneaky. Instead of trying get Eve to directly disobey God, he took a more roundabout approach. He asked, “Did God really say you couldn’t eat from any trees in the garden?” Once he had Eve questioning God’s word, it was easier to get her to disobey Him.
- Notice that they both tried to put the blame for their decisions on someone else. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. In a way, Adam even tried to blame God: “the woman THAT YOU GAVE ME”.
- Some people like to blame Eve for the first sin, but Adam was with Eve through all of this and he didn’t correct her or stop her.
- People have also talked about the fruit as being an apple, but the Bible doesn’t say what kind of fruit it was. There are a lot of things that people believe are in the Bible that are not there.
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