Effects of the Fall

Prepare

Lesson Preparation

CCome On In

AStudying God’s Word

Optional Supplements

Video Clips

PowerPoint

Studying God’s Word

Introduction

In our last lesson, we began our look at the corruption that entered into God’s perfect creation. We saw that Adam rebelled against God’s command and ate the fruit after Satan deceived Eve. Because God is just, he must punish sin. However, he showed mercy to Adam and Eve by covering their sin with the skins of an animal. This was a foreshadowing of the blood sacrifice which was used to cover mankind’s sin until the Perfect Lamb who would come to take away the sins of the world offered himself on the cross.

Adam and Eve had tried to cover up their sin and shame with some leaves, but their efforts were insufficient, and God stepped in to cover their sin. We often act the same way, trying to make up for our sins by praying more or serving more in order to please God, or by doing other good works. We have to remember that Christ was the perfect sacrifice for sin—once and for all—and that we cannot add to that work. God’s grace and mercy are the basis of our standing before him. He planned to redeem us before he even created us, and we can find great comfort in knowing that Christ has covered our sins.

Today, we are going to look at the effects of Adam’s fall and the curse which God pronounced on his creation as the result of sin, as well as the future hope of those effects being reversed when God restores the creation.

A Cursed Creation Activity

We are going to start our lesson with an activity. We have been learning a lot about how to look at a biblical text in order to understand what the text has to teach us by using the basic framework of observe, interpret, and apply. I am going to turn you loose to look at the curse that God pronounced in Genesis 3. I want you to scour the text for all the information you can find about the curse, and we will discuss the passage in a few minutes. Refer them to the activity in their Student Guides.

Monitor the students and offer them questions to ask of the text if they are getting stuck: How many curses are there? What does each curse involve? Are there figures of speech that need to be understood? Etc.

Connect to the Truth

Discuss the various aspects of the curse from the following list:

Understanding the effects and extent of the fall is essential if we are to understand the nature of the world that we live in and the nature of mankind and the relationships between people and God.

One major effect of the fall and God’s curse is the tension in the relationship between husband and wife. In Genesis 3:16, Eve is told that her desire will be contrary to her husband and that he will rule over her.

• The curse on the serpent included parts aimed at the serpent (crawling on belly and eating dust) and parts aimed at Satan (enmity/hatred between the offspring of Satan and the woman, and a Savior who would eventually bruise/crush Satan’s head). The curse is split into two different aspects directed at two different creatures. We will see similar layering of prophecy as we move through the Bible.
• Eve’s punishment included increased pain in childbirth and a desire to rule over her husband.
• Adam’s sentence included hard labor to produce food from the ground and his eventual death (returning to dust).
• The ground was cursed and would now bear thorns and thistles.
• Since the serpent was cursed “above” the other animals, we can infer some sort of curse on all animals, even though the details are not spelled out.
• What authority structure did God establish at the creation of Adam and Eve? Adam was to lead, under God’s authority, and Eve was to be the helper of Adam. This is confirmed throughout Scripture and expressly described in Ephesians 5:22–33 and other passages.

  Since the fall, women have the desire to be in control in the marriage, and husbands have a tendency to not be the leaders that God has called them to be. Only the gospel can reverse this condition. With the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we can overcome these sinful tendencies and live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. When we try to do this apart from Christ, we fail.

  Although you didn’t study this part of the passage, in Genesis 3:22–24 God cast the couple out of the garden. He did this to prevent them from continuing to eat the fruit of the tree of life; it was also a sign of their broken fellowship with God.

No Death before Sin

Another impact of the fall was on the food supply. This might seem like a trivial issue, but it ties into a very important concept—the connection between death and sin.

• Slide #8
  Let’s look at a cross-reference as we seek to let Scripture interpret Scripture. What does Deuteronomy 32:4 tell us about God’s works? They are perfect. This helps us define all the works of creation that God called “very good” before he rested from his creative work. The original creation was perfect.
• How would you summarize the diet of everything God had created? Everything had a vegetarian diet.
• If we accept evolutionary thinking—that animals evolved—were animals and man vegetarian as they were evolving? No, animals would have been eating one another and the “pre-human” ancestors would also have been killing and eating other animals.
• Assuming that God used evolution to create the world, and that animals were eating one another and man eating animals, would they have been obeying God’s command to eat only plants? No.
• If the animals and man were disobeying his command to eat only a vegetarian diet, would God have called this “very good”? No.
• The fossil record contains much evidence of death, suffering, disease, and destruction such as cancer and animals eating one another. Would God call these things “very good”? No, this is inconsistent with God’s character. Evidence of all of these things is found in the fossil record in layers we understand to be from before the flood and in layers that evolutionists believe were deposited before man evolved.

Discover the Truth

This idea of a vegetarian diet is confirmed in Genesis 3 when God told Adam that he was to eat the “plants of the field” in the sweat of his labor (Genesis 3:17–19). Adam would also be fighting against the thorns and thistles that were a part of the curse on the ground. God had provided food from the garden, but he was, in essence, saying, “Go plant your own garden, you rebel!”

Another important passage that confirms this idea is found when God addressed Noah after the flood. Turn to Genesis 9 and listen as I read verses 1–3. Read the verses.

This is the first time that man was allowed to eat animals (but probably not the beginning of rebellious people eating meat). God says very clearly that he had given them herbs before. If there was not an earlier command to eat only herbs, then this allowance to eat meat is nonsensical.

This raises some interesting questions from skeptics of the biblical view—why did T. rex have giant teeth? Why do snakes have venom? Why do armadillos need protective plates?

Creationists have suggested several answers to explain these defense/attack structures that make sense and fit within the biblical text:

• Originally, these features had a good purpose, but as the environment changed, the purpose for these features changed as well.
• God added new features to creatures at the curse so that they would be able to withstand the onslaught of violence provoked by sin.
• Although unnecessary in a perfect world, God designed the original creatures with the features they would need to live in the fallen world that God knew was coming.
• God placed designs for these features in the genes of the original creatures, but they did not become active until after the curse.

While we do not know exactly how the animals acquired these defense/attack structures, this we do know: according to God’s Word—our final authority—animals were originally vegetarian, and one day they will once again get along with each other and with man as it states in Isaiah 11:6–7. Read the passage which talks about a future state of restoration.

A Groaning Creation

Let’s read Romans 8:19–22 together so that we can understand the true extent of the effects of the fall. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• What does “the creation” refer to? This is a shorthand way to refer to the entire universe—everything God had created.
• What is the creation waiting for? The revealing of the sons of God.
• Why is it waiting for this event? It was unwillingly subjected to futility.
• How did the creation come to be futile? God subjected it to a curse.
• How is the creation acting in light of its curse? It is groaning as if it is in labor.
• In light of this passage, how much of the creation is suffering under the curse? The whole creation is suffering under the curse.
• If the whole creation has been impacted by the curse, how much of the creation needs to be redeemed? The entire creation needs to be redeemed.

In Revelation 21:1–5, we read about the curse being reversed. Have someone read the passage.

• What does this passage tell us about the extent of the reversal of the curse? John wrote that the first heaven and earth had passed away, so the reversal of the curse was complete. Also, “all things” are to be made new, so the entire created order is in view.
• What parts of the curse are specifically mentioned in this passage? No more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain.
• If death, disease, and suffering have always been part of God’s creation, from an evolutionary perspective, does it make sense that this would be reversed as part of the result of Adam’s sin? If the curse is a result of sin and there was already death and suffering before sin, then there is a significant inconsistency in the explanation of why death and suffering are in the world.

Discover the Truth

If death, disease, and suffering were part of God’s “very good” creation from the beginning, the reversal of those aspects of the creation seems to be a bit backward. Why would God reverse something that was very good?

The fact that there was a fall of mankind shows that there was a previously perfect creation and the need to restore it to that perfect state. If the creation is to be restored to its original condition, that original condition could not have included the death of animals or the suffering we see from diseases and natural disasters.

When we talked about the Seven C’s of History, we called the final C—which is actually a future event—the Consummation. God has promised to reverse the curse that mankind brought into the world through sin. That future state—a new heaven and new earth—is compared to the past condition. If that past state included death and suffering and earthquakes and tsunamis, we can expect the future state to include those things, too.

Paul tells us that death is an enemy who will finally be destroyed in the consummation (1 Corinthians 15:26). If death was God’s tool to bring about the different kinds of life on the Earth, it cannot be called an enemy.

Application

To recap what we have talked about today, Adam’s fall impacted everything in creation. From the death that would come to Adam—and every person—to the death of animals, beginning with those that were used to cover Adam and Eve’s sin, the entire creation is now groaning under the effects of sin.

We must remember that the judgment of the curse reflects God’s character. Because he is a holy and just God, he must punish sin. If he did not, he could not claim to be just. A just judge (Psalm 7:11) cannot turn a blind eye to sin.

• How does God demonstrate his mercy toward sinners? As he promised, God the Father has sent the Son to pay the penalty for sin, and the Holy Spirit has come to empower God’s children, true believers, to fight against the sin remaining in this world. Just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam, Christ—the Last Adam—has reconciled us to God (Romans 5:8–12).

  God’s mercy is seen in the plan that he established before the foundation of the world. In providing Jesus as a substitute to pay the penalty for sin, God demonstrated that he is both just and the justifier even though all people have sinned and fallen short of his glory (Romans 3:23–26).

  We can look forward to a time when the curse that God pronounced on his creation will be reversed. Just as the original curse impacted everything from personal relationships to the growing of thorns and thistles from the ground, the coming consummation will reverse all of those. Just as there was no death, disease, or suffering in the original creation, the future will be the same. The hope we have for a perfect state in eternity is founded on the nature of the original perfect creation God made in six days.

• Slide #15

  Slide #16

  Slide #17

  Slide #18

  Slide #19

  Slide #20

  Slide #21
  We have been using the phrases “the fall” and “the curse” throughout this lesson and others to refer to the events of Genesis 3. What things do we need to watch out for as we speak to one another and others with this type of biblical jargon? We need to make sure that we don’t assume everyone knows what we are talking about, especially new believers or unbelievers. They can be helpful shorthand phrases, but we can’t assume everyone will understand exactly what we mean by them.
• To be fair, many people who claim to be followers of Christ and accept evolutionary teachings have never thought through these issues. What approach might you use to demonstrate the inconsistency in this type of thinking? Sitting down with someone with an open Bible and asking them why they believe what they believe would be a great strategy. A few questions might expose some of the inconsistencies in the ideas of a person who believes there were millions of years of death and suffering before sin.
• What assurance do you find in thinking about the future consummation, knowing that the original creation of God was perfect and included no death or suffering? Knowing that God could create an original creation that was perfect, we can be assured that he can restore the creation to its original perfection.
• How might your view be different if you believed that the original state of God’s creation included animals eating each other to survive? To be consistent, you would have to accept that the future state would include animal death since there is a restoration or a return to the original state. Depending on what you believed about how humans appeared (evolved or specially created), there would have to be human death after the consummation as well. Since these ideas directly contradict Scripture, people have developed explanations that limit the perfection to only the garden of Eden, or they say that “very good” doesn’t mean perfect, without sin and death.
• How can an understanding of the nature and extent of the fall help you to understand the evil that exists in the world? In the face of the corruption that we see in the world today, we can know that God did not intend for it to be this way. His original creation was corrupted by sin.
• How can understanding the fall help you find comfort when you face a situation like cancer, the death of a child, or the chaos of a tornado striking your town? Rather than being mad at God for causing such trouble, a proper understanding of the fall allows us to see that man has brought sin into the world. God’s creation was perfect, and it is our sin that has corrupted what God intended to be good. We can trust the future to God, knowing that we will surely face trials in this world, but that heaven waits for us as an incorruptible inheritance for those in Christ (1 Peter 1).
• How could you use that knowledge to proclaim the gospel to someone you know who is facing those trials without Christ as their Savior? Using the explanation of the originally perfect creation and the fall into sin offers a perfect opportunity to explain the need for a Savior. Adam’s sin can be connected to the sin in each individual’s life, and the hope of Christ restoring a perfect creation can be explained as the hope of eternal life.

Group Prayer

Be sure to pray with your class and take requests if time allows.

• Praise God for providing a way to restore the brokenness that came through our sin.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to convict the students of sin in their lives and give them boldness to share the hope of Christ with those who are lost.
• Thank Jesus for offering himself as a sacrifice on our behalf.