Blessed is he who has
learned to admire but not to envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but
not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.
—William Arthur Ward
To be innocent means not to be guilty of any crime or offense. It means to
be within the law, uncorrupted, and pure in heart.
Paul tells us in (Eph 4:24 and Col 3:10) that we as Christians are to put
on the new man which is renewed after the image of God in righteousness and
true holiness. This renewing is a clear statement of what man lost through
Adam's fall. Although its important to know that the Bible teaches we
have gained much more in Christ than we lost through Adam (Rom 5:15-17).
The Dispensation of Innocence
From -(Gen 1:26-3:24) Length: Uncertain - We see there is indication
it was a brief time in that they had no children? A friend of mine brought out
the fact he thought it was 1000 years, because the millennium was a time of
refreshing, and restoration. I don't know why the Lord chose exactly 1000 years for the
millennium. Although it is possible Adam and Eve could have lived in the garden a 1000
years, but not probable? Possible because there was no death and no
curse. God had created the perfect environment to test man. Another reason it
appears to be a very short period of time is they had not eaten from the tree of
life (Gen 3:22). It is much easier to date the time of the fall than the length
of their innocence. Some scholars date this time to be about 4000 B.C. The
earliest archaeological findings of pottery agree and so does the
genealogies in the Bible if mathematically calculated. Also seven is the
number of completion in the Bible seeing how a thousand years to the Lord is
as one day according to Peter and God rested on the seventh day after
creation (2 Pet 3:8 and Gen 2:1-2). The number seven may be the prophetic
year of the new heavens and the earth. Seeing how that it was 4000 years
before Christ came and a little over 2000 years sense then. There still
remains the thousand year millennial reign of Christ adding up to the number
seven. Which also might give us an estimate of the age of the earth and time
of the fall which would be about 4000 B.C.
Adam and Eve our first parents were the very crown of God's creation.
Adam was to be a King and a King must be tested, in a perfect environment God tested them
giving them a Law as to there obedience and dedication. Can you imagine creation
without a curse? I can't and don't believe anyone can with perfect accuracy, but
the Bible dose give us some clues. Because Adam was the head federation of all
creation, man made in God's image when he sinned all creation was effected. The
ground produce thorns because of the curse pronounced by God. The earth never
knew thorns or decay nor any creature death for that matter.
There's a story about an ant and an elephant playing football. While the ant
was running for a touchdown the elephant stepped on him. The referee blew his
whistle and asked why did you step on him? The elephant replied I'm sorry I was
trying to trip him. Well I told that little story to illustrate how hard it is
for us to imagine a perfect environment where there was no accidents or pain and
no death. The world before the fall is something we have a hard time grasping,
because we see now everything after the fall. I would have been surprised if a
serpent began to talk with me, but there is no expression as such with Eve. I
can't imagine a snake with legs, but without doubt they did. Adam and Eve had satisfying work in an unblemished world with no
headaches, no pain, no problems, and best of all no bills. That's right I
believe even if Adam fell down and hit his head hard enough to kill someone
today it wouldn't have killed him. Actually that statement falls short in that I don't know
if it were possible for him to fall down in a world that God Himself was
upholding, and sustaining by His omnipotent power. It was a world with no curse,
no sin, no death, because we know with out a shadow of a doubt that death
entered into God's creation only after Adam's sin. There was no billion of years
before Adam's sin that contradicts the Bible. God had pronounced all very
good after creation. His work was perfect.
See also Truth about creation in Genesis
Free will. God
didn't create us to be robots. We were create to glorify Him and to fellowship
with Him. I remember when there was a point in my life that if I didn't make the
choice that I did I wouldn't be saved today. We can not chose when we will be
saved that is in God's hand and if we draw back He may never deal with our soul again. The
scripture says today is the day of salvation, and when we hear His voice to
harden not our hearts (Heb 3:7,8). Judas is where he is today because he chose to
be. See true Salvation and
Eternal Security.
God
gave our first parents a test because we see there were two trees in the mist of the garden.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. God has given
man free will to chose.
In Act_5:30
we read, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a
tree"; and again in 1Pe_2:24,
"Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." I think it very
relevant that the Spirit speaks of the Cross of Christ as a tree. As also in Gal
3:13 where it speaks of Christ being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree. The curse was brought into the world through the choice of a tree in the
mist of the garden of Eden,
and even so through a choice we can be delivered from that curse through Christ
who hung upon a tree. For the scripture also says (John 19:41) Now in the
place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new
sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid.
A decision for Christ is a moral choice to live by His
pure words and His power. Even as Christ lived by the Father we are to live by
the Son (John 6:55-57). Sin is transgression of the law (1 John 4:4), but the
only law given them was one restriction not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. We see in this the true essence of sin which is independence
from God who created us. To be a law unto ourselves, to chose what is right and
wrong outside of the confines of our creator who knows best, and has all rights
over His creation, for He created us and not ourselves.
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Man was to (1) be
fruitful ,and multiply, and replenish the earth. (2) Subdue the earth for his
use. (3) Take dominion over the lower order of creation, the animals. (4)
Be
vegetarian. (5) Take care of the garden. (6 The test: man was not to eat of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil.(7) The punishment death.
The Divine record of the Fall is the only possible explanation of the present
condition of the human race. It alone accounts for the presence of evil in a
world made by a beneficent and perfect Creator. Why is it that sin is universal,
that there is no empire, no nation, no family free from this awful disease!
Reject the Divine explanation and no satisfactory answer is possible to these
questions. Accept it, and we see that sin is universal because all share a
common ancestry, all spring from a common stock, "In Adam all die." The Divine
record of the Fall alone explains the mystery of death. Man possesses an
imperishable soul, why then should he die? He had breathed into him the breath
of the Eternal One, why then should he not live on in this world for ever?
Reject the Divine explanation and we face an insoluble enigma. Accept it,
receive the fact that, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom_5:12),
and we have an explanation which meets all the facts of the case. Arthur Pink
The Fall. Evolution teaches that man began at
the bottom of the ladder and is very slowly climbing upward. But the Bible
teaches the opposite that man started at the top and fell to the very depths of
hell. The devil who had already fallen and taken a third of the angels with Him
is seen in the garden showing himself the enemy of God as he is, and as such
took man who is made in God's image and debased him to the lowest degree (Isa
14:12-17, Ezekiel 28:11,12, and Rev 12:4). The crown of God's creation fell
through a lie, but through the King of truth and Lord of Lords Christ who has
prevailed and overcome man can be restored to his rightful place, reconciled
and in right relationship with his maker. (John
3:16) For
God
so
loved
the
world,
that
he
gave
his
only begotten
Son,
that
whosoever
believeth
in
him
should
not
perish,
but
have
everlasting
life.
The devil used a serpent to blind mankind from the truth. The very thing
which God had said for man to have dominion over. Through a lie man lost much more than his dominion, but also his innocents, and
the love and knowledge of God. No longer was man holy and righteous but fell to
the dominion of the creation which he was to be the head of. The devil had usurped the
God given authority man was to have over creation. Man is now under the influence of a lie, and dominion
of a new master. Not a serpent or snake that crawls through gardens harmlessly
but the father of lies, wickedness and sin. For we read in the Bible that he is the god of this world the
prince of the power of the air. There is a war waging in the world to day
between the righteous and the wicked, light and darkness, and between grace and
corruption. The godly seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
(Gen 3:15) And I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel.
The seed of the woman is our victor our Lord and savior. Christ today has won
the victory and seated in the heavens high above all principalities and powers
(1 Pet 3:22). Though the victory has been won the verdict on many is still out.
Many today are in the valley of decision. Though we as Christians have been
delivered from his power, influence and persecution he still bruises Christ's
heal. Christ delivered the fatal blow to the devils kingdom at the Cross, but he
is still falling, and his final judgment will be after the millennium when he is
cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:7-10). Today Christ is rescuing souls out of
his hands translating them out of the kingdom of darkness into the light and
power of God. The ultimate battle will be seen between the devil's seed the
antichrist and the true Christ of God Jesus when He returns at the end of the
seven year tribulation, but its not a battle at all Christ just speaks a word
and all is over (Rev 19:11-21). For the victory has already been won for all who
believe, truth will come to the top, truth will prevail, because it has
prevailed at the Cross. Jesus is the only way, truth and the life, and is able
to save to the uttermost seeing He ever liveth to make intercession (Heb
7:24,25). Someone said He can save to the gutter most that's true but the
meaning is that He will not leave us half way but complete that which He started
in us. It means complete victory over the the enemy of our soul. That Satan
should be under our feet where Christ has put him (Rom 16:19,20).
(Gen 3:1)"Yea hath
God said?" He begins by throwing doubt on the Divine Word!He suggest that
God didn't really mean what He said. That's his tactic today, and every attack
upon the Bible as the inerrant Word of God is summed up in the words yea hath
God said. The ten commandments taken out of the schools, the liberal scholars
ext. Satan binds us first with cords of silk; ere long
they have become coils of rope; a little while and they are cables, scarcely to
be bent; another interval, and the rope has become a chain, and the chain a bar
of iron which no human power can resist. He creeps upon us throwing doubt upon
God's infallible Word and precious promises.
(Gen 3:4) Next, he substitutes his own word for God’s, "Ye shall not
surely die."In Matt 13 we see the parable of the sower which really is the
parable of the soil, and as soon as the Word is sown the devil is right there to
snatch it out of peoples hearts. Its know wander the Bible tells us to guard our
hearts for out of it flows the issues of life. It was only the good heart, the
guarded heart that bore fruit. The devil knows the Word of God, and its what he
tried to twist when tempting Jesus. If Jesus used the Word to defeat the devil
we must also. It's the Sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).
(Gen 3:5) Finally, he dares to cast reflection upon God’s goodness. "For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."As if God was with holding
something back from them with ulterior motives. That if only she would believe
his lie rather than Gods Word, and take the bait she would be the better for it.
That wisdom and knowledge would come to her as never before. Such is the
promises of new age doctrine and cults today. Including some mainline Christian
Churches (Rev 2:24).
(In Gen 3:6) it's to be noted that Eve saw the fruit to be good for food,
to be pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. Just
as we have a spirit, soul, and body her temptation was three fold. It dealt with
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John
2:16). Jesus overcame these in (Luke 4:1-13). The devil doesn't have access to
the spirit of man, but tempts externally through the bodily senses. As we see in
Job God placed a hedge around all Job had and put limits upon the devil in all
his attacks. The promise of God is that He will not put on us more than we can
handle but with every temptation make a way of escape that we may be able to
bear it (1Cor 10:13). The way of escape is not around trials, but through them
because
God is able to keep us, and transform us to the image of His Son (Rom 8:28,29).
God changes us from the inside out, the devil from the outside in. Its within
the spirit and heart of man where true worship springs!
(Gen 3:9) And the LORD God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?
W. Griffith Thomas has said correctly "God’s question to Adam still sounds in the ear
of every sinner: ‘Where art thou?’ It is the call of Divine justice, which
cannot overlook sin. It is the call of Divine sorrow, which grieves over the
sinner. It is the call of Divine love. which offers redemption from sin. To each
and to every one of us the call is reiterated, ‘Where art thou?’
Those who partake with Satan's lies are also partakers in his judgment.
Even the serpent was judged who once stood erect or with legs, and was cursed above
all cattle and beasts of the field. Gods judgment pronounced that he should
crawl on his belly, eating dirt all the days of his life. This is not a double
reference as some had said, but a triple reference. Its not just pertaining to
the devil and the serpent, but also all who reject the truth. Hell was not
created for man, but for the devil and his fallen angels. Satan and the fallen
angels saw God's glory up close first hand in all His beauty, glory, holiness,
and power, and is not given a chance that is to repent. Though man does have a
revelation of God it is not as the devil had. Man who has sinned can turn away
from it through faith in Christ, and be forgiven, but those who persists the
Bible says they will have there part with the devil in the lake of fire (Rev 20:10-15).
The judgment of God upon the serpent reveals God's judgment upon all rebellion
and sin, and the devil is the father of it (John 8:41-47 and Eph 2:1-7).
(Isa 53:6)
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and
the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. God has laid our iniquity upon
Christ that we may have forgiveness and be reconciled to God.
In the closing of this time period we find judgment pronounced upon
the serpent, Adam and Eve and there expulsion from the garden less they eat of
the tree of life and live forever. This was in itself an act of
mercy on Gods part in that it would have been terrible for them to live forever
in there fallen state.
God
said there would be a perpetual struggle between satanic forces and mankind.
It would be between Satan and the woman, and their respective offspring
or “seeds.” The “offspring” of the woman was Cain, then all humanity at large,
and then Christ and those collectively in Him. The “offspring” of the serpent
includes demons and anyone serving his kingdom of darkness, those whose
“father” is the devil (John
8:44).
Satan would cripple mankind (you will strike at his heel), but the
Seed, Christ, would deliver the fatal blow (He will crush your head).
Then
God told the woman that she would have pain in bearing children,
and that thy
desire shall be to thy husband. This is evidently a piece of that retributive
justice which meets us constantly in the administration of God. The woman had
taken the lead in the transgression. In the fallen state, she is to be subject
to the will of her husband.
God then
told Adam that he would experience great pain in scratching out a livelihood (3:17-19).
(Painful toil translates the same word used in v.
16
for the woman’s pain. This word occurs only three times in the OT, in vv.
16-17
and 5:29.)
Death will be his end—he will return to the ground (’ădāmâh;
a gracious provision in view of the suffering).
These
punishments represent retaliatory justice. Adam and Eve sinned by eating; they
would suffer in order to eat. She manipulated her husband; she would be ruled
by her husband. The serpent destroyed the human race; he will be destroyed.
God also
made gracious provisions. Mankind will die and not live forever in this chaotic
state, and children will be born (v.
16)
so that the human race will endure and continue. Ultimate victory will come
through Christ, the Seed (Gal.
3:16)
of the woman (cf. Gal.
4:4,
“born of a woman”).
No matter
how hard people try to do away with male dominion, agonizing labor, painful
childbearing, and death, these evils will continue because sin is present. They
are fruits of sin.
Mans only hope was redemption and reconciliation through Christ whom would come
later. We are not told of Adam and Eve's salvation except that there was a hint
of faith in God's promise concerning a future deliverer.
Because of the fall mankind now is in a state of depravity that only Christ can
help us with till the restoration of all things fully come. We read in Rom
3:10-18 of your condition and mine as a result of the fall.
(Rom 3:10-18)
As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat
is an open
sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps
is under their lips:
Whose mouth is
full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet
are swift to shed
blood: Destruction and misery are
in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God
before their eyes.
If we were to be honest we must agree this is me and you without Christ. We
must put off the aprons of lies and deceit and put on Christ for he alone is our
only hope.
We see that man has lost his innocence and shame,
guilt and judgment has entered into the world. Christ
and the finished work of the Cross is our only hope.
