Corruption: Sin Enters the World

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Studying God’s Word

Introduction

Today we are going to move on to the second of the Seven C’s of History—Corruption. Over the past weeks we have been looking closely at the events and doctrines connected to God’s creation of the world. We have seen that God created everything in the universe in six days about 6,000 years ago. That included the special creation of man and woman in God’s image.

• What are some of the topics we’ve covered that have helped you understand these various issues more fully? Discuss various answers.

The Fall of Man into Sin

God created a perfect universe and placed Adam and Eve in a perfect garden where they enjoyed communion with God. These next several lessons will look at how that perfection was marred and how the world we live in today is a corrupt version that will someday be restored. We can all look forward to that glorious day.

Let’s begin our look at the fall of man into sin by reading Genesis 3:1–7 together. Have someone read the passage aloud.

• Who are the characters? The serpent, the woman (Eve), and Adam, with God being referred to.
• How is the serpent described in verse 1? More crafty than any other beast of the field God had made.
• Whom did the serpent approach? The woman (Eve).
• Slide #7
  How does the serpent’s question in 3:1 compare to God’s command to Adam in Genesis 2:16–17? The serpent basically reversed the command by insinuating they couldn’t eat of any of the trees.
• How did the woman’s response compare to God’s command? She corrected the serpent’s mistake, but added that they could not touch the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• What was the penalty for eating the fruit in 2:17? Death.
• What was the serpent’s reply to God’s warning? The serpent told the woman that they would not die, but would be like God, knowing good and evil.
• What did the woman notice about the fruit? It was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, and it would make her wise.
• How did the woman respond—by listening to God or to the serpent? She believed the serpent and ate the fruit.
• Where was Adam? It is hard to say. Verse six says that he was “with her.” Some people think this means present with her physically right then, while others think that it means he was in the general vicinity, or that she came to him a little afterward. There are good arguments for all the views, and fortunately, it hardly makes a difference what the answer is. The New Testament seems to imply that the ultimate fault falls upon Adam, whether he was right there present with her or not.
• What was the result of eating the fruit? Their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
• How did their reaction to their nakedness change from how it is described in 2:25? They were not ashamed prior to their rebellion, but after it, they were working to hide their nakedness from one another.
• How did Adam and Eve respond to their realization that they were naked? They sewed loincloths of fig leaves for themselves.

• Slide #8
  Many people mock the biblical account of the fall for including a talking snake, but there is more to the story. What extra information about who was behind the serpent’s words do we find in Revelation 12:9? Have someone read the verse. Satan was behind the words—he is often referred to as a serpent.

Discover the Truth

This is where the corruption of God’s perfect creation begins. Satan had rebelled against God and had now led mankind into rebellion against God. Passages in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 talk about how Satan fell from his position as an angelic being. This must have occurred sometime after day seven of the creation week since God had proclaimed everything he had created “very good” at the end of day six, and this would have included the angels since they are created beings.

So, Satan must have been cast out of heaven sometime after day seven and prior to his temptation of Eve. Although Scripture does not give a clear time frame, most scholars would suggest the fall was not far removed from the creation—just a few days or weeks.

Many religious and spiritual movements have repeated the same lie that Satan offered to Eve—you can be like God. But the Bible clearly teaches that God is infinite, and we have no hope to ever be like him—apart from the righteousness that we can claim as those redeemed with the blood of Christ. As we read the Old Testament, we cannot forget to look for Christ in its pages. Jesus does not first appear in the pages of the New Testament in the opening chapters of the Gospels; he was present before creation, at creation, and throughout all of history.

Let’s finish reading Genesis chapter 3 as we continue to look at the fall of man and its corrupting influence on the world and humanity.

God’s Curse and Mercy

We are going to read the remainder of chapter 3, but we will come back and look at more of the details over the next few weeks.

We are going to focus on verses 15 and 21 for the rest of our study today. Have someone read the passage aloud, possibly dividing it into two parts: verses 8–17 and verses 18–24.

• How did Adam and Eve respond to hearing God walking in the garden? They hid among the trees.
• What question did God ask of Adam? God asked Adam where he was.
• Was God unaware of Adam’s location? No, he is omniscient and knew exactly where Adam was and what he had done.
• Why did God ask Adam where he was if he already knew? While we cannot know God’s motives unless they are revealed in the text, it seems that God was offering Adam a chance to approach him in confession.
• What question did God ask in verse 11? God asked him if he had eaten of the forbidden tree.
• Did God know the answer to the question? Yes. Again, God knows all things and was asking so that Adam might confess.
• How did Adam respond to God’s question about his obedience? He shifted the blame to the woman for giving him the fruit and to God for giving her to him. He acknowledged he ate it, but tried to shift the blame and deny his own responsibility.
• How did Eve respond to God’s question to her? She shifted the blame to the serpent for deceiving her.

  We are going to talk in more detail about the effects of the fall and the curse in two weeks, but we are going to focus on one specific aspect today.

• In general, how did God act toward these three parties? God announced curses on the three.
• We said earlier that the serpent was acting as a mouthpiece for Satan. Looking at verses 14 and 15, how is that distinction present in the curse? Verse 14 seems to be directed at the serpent and indicates some type of physical change and cursing, while verse 15 seems to be directed at the one influencing the serpent. Prophetic passages often have an immediate and future fulfillment, and prophecies are sometimes directed at a creature or human who is ultimately influenced by Satan.
• As God pronounced the curse on the serpent, what does verse 15 say about the future? There is mention of enmity (hostility) between the seed of the serpent and the offspring of the woman.
• How should we understand the imagery of offspring/seed in this verse? The word offspring is often translated as Seed in some Bible versions. Satan’s seed is the demonic realm and those he influences (John 8:44). Eve’s Seed is Jesus (and so it is capitalized in some translations). Later on, the promise is given to Abraham for an offspring (singular, see Genesis 12:7) who will be given the land. Paul ties this offspring to Christ in Galatians 3:16.
• What will the Seed (offspring) of the woman do to the serpent? The Seed of the woman (he) will bruise (crush) the head of the serpent.
• What truth about humanity is clearly stated in verse 20? Eve is the mother of all living, so all humans are descended from her, not through some evolutionary process.
• After pronouncing the curses, God expelled the couple from the garden. But before that, what else did he do for Adam and Eve before kicking them out? Verse 21 says that God made garments of skins and clothed the couple with them.
• Was it necessary for God to punish the sin of Adam and Eve? Because God is a holy and just God, he must punish sin. If God did not punish sin, he would be denying his own character.
• If God made tunics of skin, where did he get the skins? He must have killed animals in order to make the garments.
• How had Adam and Eve tried to cover up their shame of being naked? They had tried to use fig leaves.

• Slide #16
  What does Hebrews 9:22 add to our understanding of God’s killing of the animals? Throughout Scripture, sin is covered by blood (Leviticus 17:11) offered by a priest. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their own sins, but the fig leaves were not sufficient. A blood sacrifice was necessary to cover their sin.
• Why do we refer to this event as the fall? It represents a fall from the perfection of creation and the sinless state of man to a corruption of creation and the corrupted state of man—we are fallen people living in a fallen world.

Discover the Truth

Adam had been told that he would die when he ate of the fruit of the tree—when he disobeyed God’s command. This included both physical death and spiritual death—spiritual separation from God. Adam died spiritually immediately when he sinned, and his fellowship with God was corrupted. But the promise of physical death was ultimately fulfilled more than 900 years later when Adam died and returned to the dust he was made from.

God displayed his mercy when he covered the sin of Adam with a sacrificial animal. God could have rightly given Adam the wages of his sin—death—immediately, but he allowed a substitute to stand in Adam’s place. Ultimately, the substitute would be the Seed of the woman who would take the penalty for Adam’s sin—Jesus.

It is remarkable that even this early on we see glimpses of God’s grace, and how his gospel, or good news, is woven together throughout all of Scripture. Even when people first rebelled against God, he provided for them. Throughout Scripture, there is a concept called atonement that is taught. In Scripture, atonement is the reconciliation of the relationship between people and God. God and his people are thought of as being at one with him (thinking of “at-one-ment” is a way some people remember the meaning of the word).

In the Old Testament, animals were used to represent atonement, as they were sacrificed in place of the people. All of this foreshadowed Christ’s ultimate, once-and-for-all atonement on the cross. He died for his people so that they do not experience any condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1). Atonement is described by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:18 when he tells us that “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” It was God’s merciful provision of a substitute that offered Adam hope. This is the same hope that the Apostle Paul spoke of in Romans 5:19 when he said, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

The Plan Activity

Have the students look up the passages under “The Plan” in their Student Guides and identify the time frames and then discuss the implications.

Many people think that God had to come up with a “Plan B” after Adam rebelled, but Scripture teaches us something quite different. Look over the passages in your Student Guides, and see what they have to say about God’s plan and when it was put into place.

Connect to the Truth

God knew before he created the world that Adam would rebel against him, but he created mankind anyway. Not only that, but the triune Godhead had a plan to redeem mankind. The Father would send the Son to bear his wrath against sin, and then he would credit Christ’s righteousness to those who repent and trust in him and send the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, sealing their redemption. The gospel was not “Plan B.”

What a gracious and merciful God to provide a way for those who have rebelled against him—that includes each of us as we have sinned in Adam and individually—to be restored to a right relationship with him! This should give us great hope in what God has done for us and give us a great reason to praise him for his kindness extended to us before we were even born. (Consider reading Romans 5:6–11 to emphasize this point.)

• Slide #17
  What are the four phrases that describe when God had planned to redeem mankind?
• 1 Peter 1:17–21—Christ’s sacrifice as the Lamb of God was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
• Acts 2:22–24—Christ was delivered up to his death by the purposeful foreknowledge of God.
• Ephesians 1:3–6—God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, having predestined us to adoption according to his good pleasure.
• Revelation 13:8— Our names were written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world.

Application

God created a perfect world where Adam and Eve enjoyed a perfect relationship with God. He provided everything they needed and had forbidden them from eating only of one tree. Eve was deceived when Satan, speaking through the serpent, questioned the words of God. Adam ate of the fruit after his wife and willfully rebelled against God.

Rather than carrying out immediate justice for their rebellion, God was merciful and covered their sin and shame with a sacrificial animal. This foreshadowed the sacrifices that would cover the sins of people until the Lamb of God would come as the final sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.

The scarlet thread of the coming Messiah who will eventually come to crush the head of the serpent is woven throughout the narratives of the Old Testament. The gospel message is not isolated to the New Testament—its foundation is in Genesis, and we see glimpses of it throughout the 4,000 years that passed until the Messiah was born in a humble state in Bethlehem. Born as the Seed of a woman, Jesus Christ crushed Satan on the cross and bore the wrath of God for those of Adam’s race. His resurrection demonstrates that he has conquered death, and his sending of the Holy Spirit empowers us to live a life of holiness in a corrupted world. One day, those who have trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins will live forever with him in the new heaven and the new earth where the curse has been removed and the perfection of the original creation is restored. This is the hope that every Christian has and the hope that we have the privilege of sharing with a world full of people that are still in rebellion against their Creator.

• Slide #18
  Slide #19
  Slide #20
  Slide #21
  How is the question that Satan asked Eve in Genesis 3:1 still found in our world today? Many people question the Word of God in various ways. Sometimes it comes as direct attacks, and sometimes it comes in subtler forms. “Did God actually say . . . ?” is the root of all forms of skepticism and false religious systems. Even among churches, the interpretation of Scripture has become a huge issue, one that we cannot afford to ignore.
• Many people, even some who claim to be Christians, will make the claim that God did not know Adam and Eve would sin when he created them. How could you use the Bible to demonstrate the flaw in their thinking? This could be approached by using the many Scriptures that speak of God’s foreknowledge and prearranged plan to provide redemption. There would be no need for a plan to redeem sinful creatures if God did not know that they were going to sin.
• If you were discussing the gospel with someone and they said that God was too harsh in cursing Adam and Eve for eating a piece of fruit, how would you respond to help them understand the gravity of the situation? Most people fail to understand God’s absolute holiness, and that leads to a diminishment of the severity of sin. When we compare God’s perfect holiness to our rebellion against our Creator and Sustainer, the problem becomes clearer. When we exalt God and show people the sinful nature of mankind, we help them see their need for a Savior.
• Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin by sewing leaves together. This was an attempt at self-atonement—trying to cover up their own sins. God stepped in to provide a proper atonement according to his prescription and plan. In what ways do we try to cover our own sins today, even though we know Christ has already paid for them? We might miss a day of quiet time and make up for it by doing twice the time the next day, or deny ourselves a cookie the day after being gluttonous in an attempt to make up for a sin and earn God’s pleasure. It is not our performance but Christ’s righteousness that we should look to, knowing that his work on the cross has covered our sins, not our own efforts.

Group Prayer

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

• Praise God for providing a sacrifice to take away our sins.
• Ask God to embolden each person to share the gospel with others.
• Thank God for his mercy in pardoning us from our sin.