In my last post on the Garden of Eden, I laid out my thoughts about Genesis Chapter 2, in which God placed Adam and Eve in the garden home that He had prepared for them. Before going through the events of Chapter 3 (their decision to disobey God), I’d like to walk through a brief theological outline and then a little thought experiment.

The theological outline that I list here is just from my own understanding over the course of my life. I present it here WITHOUT any formal documentation or recent research. It may have errors, but I just want to emphasize a big picture view and don’t intend to get into the weeds with details here.

The Bible’s overarching story is how God relates to the human race that He created. He made us, we chose to disobey Him, and He provided a plan for our redemption through the sacrificial blood of Jesus. But there’s an even bigger picture than that. God’s relation with us is framed within the broader context of eternity. God has always been. He created everything, including time, matter, us, heaven, and the angels. There was a chief angel, Lucifer, who chose to rebel against the authority of God and led a large number of angels in revolt against God. They were expelled from His presence (heaven) and have been in revolt ever since. It is this group that are collectively referred to as Satan and the demons.

When God created us (at a later time – after this revolution) he instilled in us what we call “free will.” He gave us the choice to obey Him or not. God, being omniscient – or all-knowing – knew when He created us that we would disobey. But He chose to create us anyway. It was part of His plan to provide a picture of grace to the heavenly audience. Knowing that we would disobey, He had it in his plan from the beginning to rescue us from our own disobedience and provide a way of redemption. This is all part of a grand scenario that is being played out for the angels to watch and learn from.

That being said, I would like to perform a little thought experiment now about what it might have looked like if Adam and Eve had NOT disobeyed God. This actually could be an interesting little short story or novel. Reviewing God’s original instructions to them (Genesis 1:28-30), they were to

• Be fruitful and multiply – they were intended to procreate and populate the Earth. Their children would also have free will and would face the choice to obey or not. Either all would have to obey, or one could wreck it for everyone!
• Fill the earth and subdue it – If the world of humans had been able to remain sinless, it could and would have developed technology, made agricultural advances, discovered all kinds of things, explored the arts, etc. In other words, it would have developed in many ways very similarly to how humans have progressed, but without the detrimental effects of sin. Looking ahead, this is how I believe our future in heaven will be (for those who have been saved by the blood of Jesus). Sinless pursuit of learning, working, playing, etc. to the glory of God.
• Eat from any tree except one – I discussed this last time. They had access to the Tree of Life, but were forbidden from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The only reason I brought up this thought experiment is because I believe it helps to keep that in mind as we explore the effects that sin has had on our existence. Now let’s look at Genesis 3.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.“

The story picks up from the narrative begun in Chapter 2. Adam had encountered the animals that God used to demonstrate his need for a human companion (Eve). Now a new creature is introduced to the story who is also different from the other creatures. This is Satan, Lucifer, the Serpent, the Beast. There is a nice summary of what the Bible has to tell us about Satan on the Logos.com website. Here are the 14 main points from this article.

1. “Satan” means “adversary.”
2. Pride fueled the devil’s origin story.
3. Satan’s domain is earth and Sheol.
4. Satan rules the nations of the earth.
5. Satan commands his own host of demons.
6. The Bible doesn’t say he rules ALL the demons.
7. The devil tried to make at least one deal.
8. Satan is on the defensive.
9. Satan is a liar by nature.
10. Satan has spiritual children, just like God does.
11. Satan influenced Judas Iscariot.
12. Satan’s power of death is broken.
13. Discord gives Satan an advantage.
14. Satan’s defeat is certain, and imminent.

Just as Job’s story was about a bigger picture (Satan’s conflict with God), so this story of Adam and Eve also has a bigger picture to it. Satan is God’s chief adversary and is bent on his attempts to thwart God’s plans. Keep that in mind as we continue.

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.“

Satan, the adversary, was able to twist truth to entice the humans to disobey God. He never states the obvious – that they should disobey God. Rather, he sowed seeds of discontentment and mistrust. We tend to blame Eve, but Adam was just a culpable in this decision to disobey – he was with her. They immediately felt the shame of what they had done.

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’“

One important point I want to make here is that God already knew that Adam and Eve would disobey and allow sin to enter the world. Scripture teaches us that it was His plan from the beginning (before we were created) that Jesus would provide redemption. When God asked Adam and Eve what they had done it was for their own acknowledgement of their disobedience, rather than to give Him information.

The next verses focus on the curses that God pronounced.

“The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’

To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’”

I dealt with these verses extensively as part of my 3:16 Bible study series so I refer you to that.

“The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.“

Some people try to make this action of God’s an indication of the first death to occur in the world. An animal was sacrificed by God to provide the skins for clothing. I do agree that this set the stage for God’s requirement of blood to cover (atone for) the sins of the humans. It’s a picture that will perpetuate throughout all of Scripture and all of human history, just as the 6-day creation was a picture. I do not believe that this was the first death, because I believe that death was part of God’s good creation from the beginning. It’s part of the cycle of life. Immortality, as I’ve discussed before, is not an inherent human quality but is bestowed on humans who have access to the Tree of Life (figuratively in Jesus, but literally in Eden and in Heaven). This aspect of death being part of God’s order in creation is illustrated in Psalm 104:24-30. This psalm is a poetic re-telling of the creation account.

“O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.“

The author of this Psalm, in celebrating God as Creator, also outlined the natural history of the earth’s living systems, which come and go according to the plan of God. Their dependence on Him throughout time is apparent, and His work in renewing the earth (for example, after extinction events) is also apparent.

Nevertheless, the killing of that animal to cover Adam and Eve must have been shocking to them and was an object lesson they would never forget about the costliness of their choice to sin. Language is inadequate to describe what I’m about to say so please give me some grace in hearing/reading this. God knew the humans would sin, but He created them anyway. He didn’t create them TO sin, but He knew they would use the gift of free will to do so. It was impossible for them NOT to sin. And that brings up another sticky point. Sin entered the human world through their action, but sin was already present in the universe. Satan and his followers sinned when they revolted against God. God is the only One who is incapable of sin. That is why Jesus HAD to take on human form in order to do what no other human is capable of – live a sinless life and thereby fulfill God’s requirements of obedience. We are saved through faith and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and that is the ONLY way we can also – through his grace and gift to us – fulfill God’s requirement of sinlessness and enter into His presence.

The Genesis 3 story concludes with the gift of death to release us from the stains of sin and enable us (who are covered by Jesus’ blood) to look forward again to access to the Tree of Life.

“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—’ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.“

I’ve raised a lot of issues and I hope you have questions and will think through these matters yourself. I’d love to hear from you and engage with your thoughts and questions! Use the comments, or comment on the Facebook posting that I use!