Question 17:
Did our first parents continue in the glad obedience for which they were
created?
No, but desiring to be like God, our first parents
forsook the obedience of faith, ate of the forbidden tree, sinned against God,
and fell from the innocence in which they were created.
DAY
1: Genesis 3:1-7
We are not told how much time
passed between the times when man was created and when sin entered the
world. It must not be too important, since
the Bible does not specifically give us a time frame. Whatever the time, we do know some things
about the situation that occurred. First
of all, it was Adam who was given a direct command to not eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. This
happened before Eve was made (cf. Gen. 2:15-22). So, we can gain some practical insight into
some spiritual truth that God has commanded.
That is that God’s revelation is to be taught from the husband to his
wife. Eve did not learn first hand about
the command. She learned via her
husband. We saw in Nehemiah how the
fathers of the families and the tribes were to be instructed in the Law in
order that they might be able to teach their own families (Neh.
It appears that in the scene
before us in Genesis 3 that Eve is by herself.
Somehow she finds herself near the tree of knowledge of good and evil
and the serpent, which we are told was more cunning than any beast of the
field, began to speak to her. The word
for cunning, aruwm, means, “subtle,
shrewd, crafty, sly”. That is still true
today. Serpents are very subtle and
sly. However, not only are we getting a
glimpse into the physical serpent, but also that Old Serpent, Satan. Ephesians
She stayed around too long and
continued to listen to the silver tongued devil as he began to twist the words
of God. You can almost hear the sarcasm
in the voice of the serpent as he says, “You will not surely die.” This seems good to Eve, because the more she
looks at the forbidden fruit and the more she listens to the voice of Satan,
the more she becomes inclined to forget the words of God through her husband
and think for herself (vs. 6; cf. 1 Jn. 2:16).
Notice that Satan uses some of the very same tactics that many of those
in the Faith Movement attempt to use. He
takes the Word of God and stands it on its head in order to deceive the
woman. He says that what God is really
telling her is not in her best interest, but that somehow God is hiding
something secretly. She must partake of
the fruit in order to be like God. He is
trying to convince her that she too can become a little god and that she will
be able to decide and determine for herself good and evil. Thus we see the difference that occurs. Before the Fall, man was dependant upon God
for his information and for his instruction in life. At the time of the Fall and thereafter, man
decided to do what was right in his own eyes and thus forsook his dependence upon
God for all things. And so, Eve did
take the fruit and ate it.
It is quite possible that Adam
is nearby and maybe even close enough to hear the dialogue going on between his
wife and the serpent. Now she comes to
him and it is quite possible that she is trying to persuade him as did the serpent
to her. However, in the case of Adam, he
had a direct command of God. He should
have stepped in between the serpent and Eve and put an end to her temptation
right there. But, he failed to affirm
his role as the head. It seems apparent
that he noticed that Eve had not fell over dead and maybe there were some
questions in his mind as to the truth of what God had said. Eve quite possibly began to press Adam and
debate him on the issue of what the fruit could do for him and how good it
tasted. In any case, Adam took of the
fruit and ate it. He came into
submission to his wife, not to God (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3), and thus brought not only
himself, but the whole human race into death (Rom.
I think it quite appropriate
that sin and death were passed on through the man. If only Eve had sinned, then only Eve would
have died. It would be easy enough for
God to have formed another woman for Adam so that he could have fulfilled his
mandate. However, because Adam partook,
his entire lineage partook with him and thus “all have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God” (Rom
Then, after their sin, their
eyes were opened and they knew they were naked.
Although this can refer to their spiritual eyes, there seems to be the
communication of the mind. The Hebrew
word for eyes can also mean the mental and spiritual faculties. We are also told that they knew that they were naked. So, there came about an understanding that
they say their nakedness as something to be ashamed of, rather than unashamed (cf.
DAY
2: Ecclesiastes 7:29
The wisest of the wise, Solomon,
is speaking here and has come three fourths of the way through his book of
Ecclesiastes. Though Solomon was a very
wise man, it seems that he gained much of his wisdom through foolishness. As he pens the words to the book
Ecclesiastes, which means “preacher”, he comes to a point where he states,
“Truly, this only have I found.” Solomon
has been speaking about the sinfulness of man.
He has warned us not to be overly wise or overly righteous (self
righteous) (vs. 16). He has also said in
verse 20 that there is not one just man on the earth who does not sin. In verses 21-22, he speaks to us about the
wisdom that should accompany taking everything people say to heart because many
times we are guilty of the same sin or cursing others in our own hearts. Though Solomon is giving wisdom, he also
realizes how much he lacks. Therefore,
he continues to search.
There is, however, one thing he
does understand, that man is sinful. He
says that God made man upright. God is
not to blame for the sinfulness of man.
God created him, as we saw before, in knowledge, righteousness,
holiness. He was made perfect. However, Solomon goes on to state that man has
sought out many schemes. The term
“sought”, in Hebrew baqash, means,
“to require, to seek, to desire, to demand, to exact”. It can literally mean “to lust after”. Solomon here is speaking of the cravings of
man. He has stated that god made him
upright, or straight and righteous. In
contrast, he tells us what man has done to himself. He has had lustful cravings about many
schemes. The word schemes, chishshabown, means “device or
invention”. Its root word has the idea
of those things which the mind is stayed upon or which the intents of man are
placed on. We can see this clearly in
Genesis chapter six. In verse 5 we see
that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the every intent of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The word used for thoughts comes from the
same root word, chashab, as
inventions in Ecclesiastes 7:29. In the
Genesis account man had become so corrupt that his whole thinking process had
become evil continually.
Today, we are not far from the
days of Noah. Nor are we far from the
days of Solomon. Solomon said it best
when he said that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecc. 1:9). We fall into the same category. However, it is the grace of God that limits
the actions we take in fulfilling the evil intentions of our own hearts. Most people and many Christians do not
realize their own potential to sin. We
often are very critical of “big” sins and say that we would never do them. However, it is God’s grace that becomes a
restrainer of our sinful nature. If He
were to let us go, we would find ourselves amongst those who He has given up,
according to Romans 1. No, we are not
righteous of ourselves. We find
ourselves in the same state of our parents, Adam and Eve. We are those who often times choose our own
way, rather than obey the words of God.
DAY
3: 1 Timothy 2:14
In the context of the verse we
are looking at, Paul is speaking about the roles of men and women in the
church. He begins to focus in on the
women. He says they should also not make
a big deal about their appearance (vs. 9).
In that, he is not saying that a woman should not present herself
beautiful appropriately, it just should not be overdone to where there is a
distraction from worship to her.
He also goes on to speak of
their role in the church. It is
identical to that of the home. They are
to learn in silence and submission. Paul
uses the word for submission, hupotage,
which comes from the Greek word hupotasso,
which has the idea of lining up under someone or coming under their
authority. Therefore, the women are to
come under the authority of men. This is
exactly why Paul states in verse 12 that they are not permitted to teach or
have authority over a man. The word that
Paul uses is a strong term that is negated and states that he does not give
them license to do these things.
Why is Paul so dogmatic in this doctrine? Is it because he hates women and wants to
oppress them, as some have said?
No. He gives us a reason in
verses 13 and 14. In verse 13, he makes known
that the authority a man possesses was given to him in creation. The man was formed first and then the
woman. She was given to him as a helper,
not visa versa. He is to be the head of
woman, not the other way around.
The second reason Paul says it should be this way is
because Adam was not deceived. Now he
does make clear that the woman was deceived.
She came out from under the authority that God had given her and she
failed to line up under the authority of her husband and act independently of
him. She allowed herself to be enticed
by the smooth sounding words of the serpent rather than the words of God that
came through her husband. Again, Adam
was not deceived. While it may be
assumed that Eve did fall, Adam jumped.
His was a clear, intentional disobedient act. There was no deception on his part. He clearly understood from God Himself what
he was to do and what he was not to do, but he allowed himself to be swayed by
the seduction of his wife and the temptation to eat the fruit.
Paul concludes by saying that women will be saved in
childbearing. This does not teach a
soteriology that women are made righteous by having children. Rather the implication is that because a
woman may have led the human race into sin, they may help to remove the stigma
attached to that by bringing up godly children. While the woman may have been
the one to take the lead and go into sin and then her husband follow her and
bring death to the whole human race, she is able through the nurturing of the
children to lead many of them to life through the second Adam, Jesus Christ.