The Origin and Consequence of Sin

Part 4

THE TRANSGRESSION

Ultimately, predictably, the doubt and covetousness in Eve’s head gave way to evil behavior. When sin penetrates the mind, emotions, and will, it will always be manifest in sinful actions.

Genesis 3:6 says, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Adam appears to have been a full participant in the act. The extreme brevity of the concluding phrase indicates a swiftness of action, as if she immediately turned to her husband and he ate the fruit.

Further support for Adam’s presence is found in the fact that, when speaking to the woman in verses 1-5, the serpent repeatedly uses the plural as if he is addressing them both.

Adam submissively followed his wife. He went into sin with his eyes wide open. In fact the apostle Paul in 1 Tim. 2:14 says that Eve, not Adam was deceived.

Paul goes on to say that “the woman was deceived, and sin was the result,” which seems to place the main blame on her, accounting for her being cursed and made subject to man.

It is ironic that the one whom God had given to Adam to be his helper became the instrument of disaster and death to him.

But Adam’s guilt was greater, not less, than Eve’s. His sin was deliberate, wicked, and inexcusable. In fact, it was not by Eve’s sin, but by Adam’s that “sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Romans 5:12).

As the representative head of the human race, Adam bore the ultimate responsibility for the fall, and his sin was imputed to all his offspring.

The death which comes from sin involves more than just the separation of the soul from the body (physical death); it also involves spiritual or eternal death.

As the sin of the first Adam was the ground of our condemnation resulting in death, so the righteousness of the last Adam is the ground of our justification (to all who by grace believe on Christ for forgiveness and righteousness) resulting in life.

Through the disobedience of the first Adam paradise was lost, through the obedience of the last Adam paradise is gained for those who turn from their sin and put their full trust in Him for forgiveness of sin and for righteousness.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF SIN

3:7 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.

The consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin were felt immediately. Their eyes were opened, just as the serpent had predicted in verse 5. Yet the result of their awareness was not what they expected: they did not become divine beings, but rather lost their innocence and freedom from guilt.

To hide their guilt Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. You wonder, if when Solomon wrote Proverbs 28:13, he was thinking of this event: He who covers his sin shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes his sin shall find mercy.

Later in verse 21 God gives Adam and Eve a graphic object lesson showing that only He can provide a suitable covering for sin, and that the shedding of blood is a necessary part of that process (Hebrews 9:22).

Now that Adam and Eve knew evil by personal experience, their minds were open to a whole new way of thinking. They were susceptible to evil thoughts. They were drawn by evil desires. Above all, they were conscious of their own guilt.

Instead of their eyes being open and being like God as the serpent had promised, their sin had brought them into a state of spiritual blindness from which they could never recover without a divinely-wrought miracle of regeneration.

Adam and Eve now had a knowledge of evil that was like the terminal cancer patient’s knowledge of lymphoma. It was not the kind of knowledge Satan had led Eve to believe she would obtain. She and Adam did not become like God, but like the one who deceived them.

This is why we come into this world “children of the devil,” because until God causes us to be born again and makes us His children, we are like our father the devil and under his control.

Like Satan, Adam and Eve fell so far that now there was nothing good in them. They were unable to do anything to undo what they had done. They were now spiritually dead to the things of God.

Adam and Eve’s heart was now deceitful and desperately corrupt. Their wills were no longer free but in bondage to their fallen sinful nature. Therefore, of themselves, they would never choose good over evil in the spiritual realm.