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6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. ~ Genesis 3:6-7
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 3. The world had been created along with the woman and the man, and God had placed them in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden the man and the woman were given freedom and dominion. But that freedom and that dominion had a limitation; They were still responsible to God; They couldn't do whatever they wanted. Hence, God's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God is our Maker and all of His commands are given by Him for our good. His commands are not just a to-do list; they are an invitation to a relationship with God Himself. In Deuteronomy 32:47 we read, "For it is no empty word for you, but your very life." In context Moses was speaking to the children of Israel. He was trying to help them understand the importance of the word of God. For the believer in Christ, this means there is no thought of "imitating Christ" now! The beauty of the Christian life is that "Christ lives in the believer." The Lord Jesus is both the living word and the written word. Instead of "getting better," now that we have been born again, the Christian is not responsible to produce eternal life. No, we experience life, the very life of Christ lived in, to and through us. This is why the word of God is our "very life" because all of the word points us to the life that is eternal, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
In v.6 of today's passage we read, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."
This verse describes the four steps that Eve took resulting in sin. Sin is when we define something in a different way than what God has defined it. The four steps that Eve took that day in the Garden of Eden were that she looked at the forbidden fruit, she took of the forbidden fruit, she ate the forbidden fruit and she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam.
The first step that we are given here is one of conception and birth. The seed of an aroused desire had been planted in the heart of Eve. It was through Eve's eyes that sin became a temptation. As a result, Eve's mind came into play. Up to this point the serpent has worked upon Eve's feelings and aroused a strong desire within her for the forbidden thing. But now her mind came into action. It was the function of her mind that pressed Eve into the seemingly logical goodness of the forbidden fruit.
Eve had come to believe the lie of the serpent that the forbidden was "good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make her wise." The devil seized upon the opportunity to draw out of Eve her innocence in knowing good from evil. When he did, he drew out of Eve disobedience which resulted in fault and this fault resulted in death for all of us ever since that moment. After all it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve had not known evil until that day.
So, Eve gave in to sin that day because it made her feel good to give into sin by acting upon her pride. We are no different than Eve because sin always satisfies us in some way. It feels good to lose our temper for awhile! It feels good to hurt others when they have hurt us in some way. There is always a pleasure to be found in sin.
Interestingly, the Bible lays the blame for sin squarely upon Adam. In 1 Timothy 2:14 we read, "For Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression." Eve was deceived into sin. The deception of the serpent was made effective when Eve started to believe that what he said was true. Now, what the serpent said was not true and she was not off the hook, but it was still deception. With Adam, it was just flat disobedience. In 1 Corinthians 15 we read, "For in Adam all die." Sin and death came to all of mankind through Adam when he took and he ate of the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:6 is the complete example of every sin that has ever been committed in human history. Any sin that we can recognize in ourselves comes from this place, the place of trying to live our lives on our own apart from God.
In v.7 of today's passage we read, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."
This was the darkest moment of human history because every bad thing that has happened since can be traced all the way back to this point in time when sin was introduced into the existence of man. In Romans 5:12 we read "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." Sin entered, death entered, death spread, and death has reigned.
The Fall of man was so serious that we are blinded to the fact how serious it really is. When we listen to how people talk about sin, we hear words like "mistake" or "personal baggage." Most hate the word sin but God calls it what it is, it is sin. But we're so blinded to how bad our condition is, we don't even see it and that's the reason we have such problems with things like God's judgment and eternal hell. Since we don't understand how bad sin is; that it's bad enough to separate us forever from God, we downplay it. We will not go to a doctor unless we are convinced that we are sick. In like manner, we will never seek a Savior until we realize we are sin-sick sinners in need of a savior.
When Adam sinned, he acted as the representative for all of humanity. This is why the Scriptures refer to the Lord Jesus as "the last Adam." Everything Adam messed up, the Lord Jesus came to make right. When we try to use whatever God has given us in a way that is contrary to His definition of it, we distort the way God made it. That is what makes it sin. It was not until He went to the cross though that He overcame sin. Then He overcame death through His resurrection. It was on the cross that God judged all sin in the body of the Lord Jesus. And, it was through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that He overcame death.
There were others who were resurrected from the dead, but eventually they died a second time. After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus never died agin. He conquered death because He was sinless. The curse that came upon mankind in the Garden of Eden brought about our certain death. Ever since, we have been convinced that "the wages of sin is death." Since the Lord Jesus was never guilty of committing one sin, death had no power over Him. His death was a voluntary sacrifice for our sin, and, given His sinless perfection, His resurrection logically followed. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who said in John 10:17, "I lay down my life, only to take it up again."
