Humanity’s Fall and God’s Remedy

 

The other week in our time together we looked at “The Gospel,” in our Great Themes of the Bible” series.

 

The Gospel, as we saw, is God’s good news that the power of sin and death in our lives has been broken, through our belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and that through this act, we are now children of God and therefore heirs of eternity with heaven as our future home.

 

But the question that hangs over this great and glorious news is why? Why was all this necessary? Why did Jesus have to die?

 

And answer goes all the way back to the sin of Adam and Eve, or what we call

 

Humanity’s Fall

 

When Adam and Eve sinned and disobeyed God, this is what’s referred to as “The fall of man.”

 

Prior to this event Adam and Eve were without sin and therefore they were good, that is, they were part of God’s good creation.

 

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31 NKJV)

 

At this time they enjoyed the blessing of fellowship with God, and were innocent, that is, without sin.

 

Yet, being made in the image of God they possessed the capacity to make moral decisions. And so Satan appeared to them in the form of a serpent, and it would seem, from the description and Eve’s ease of conversation, that Satan was beautiful and attractive.

 

Now Satan had rebelled earlier, which is actually recorded as the first sin. The Bible records that Satan was blameless until wickedness was found within him as he tried to usurp God throne and authority, Ezekiel 28:15; Isaiah 14:14-16.

 

Satan led a revolt of God’s heavenly angels and both he and his angels, or what we today refer to as demons, were all cast out of heaven, Revelation 12:9; Jude 6.

 

Satan is referred to as the father of lies, John 8:44, and he began his career on earth with a real whopper. The story is found in Genesis 3:1-6.

 

But we have to begin our story back in chapter 2, because that’s where God gave Adam and Eve one prohibition, and that is they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17 NKJV)

Read Genesis 3:1-6

What Satan did was to imply that God was actually withholding something great and wonderful from Adam and Eve.

 

“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1b NKJV)

 

Eve’s reply to Satan is telling, for not only did she add to God’s command, “nor shall you touch it,” but she also deleted the word, “surely,” Genesis 3:3. And Satan, not missing a beat, pounced saying,

 

“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4b-5 NKJV)

 

And following the pattern of temptation laid out by the Apostle John, that is, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16, she saw that it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and that could make them wise, Eve took a bite and gave some to Adam, Genesis 3:6.

 

They did the very thing the Lord commanded His people not to do, and that is, add to or take away from His word.

 

“Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32 NKJV)

 

The end result of their disobedience was catastrophic, in that just as God had stated, death came to them both, as they were now subject to both spiritual and physical death.

 

They immediately entered into the state of spiritual death in that they were now forever separated from God.

 

The prophet Isaiah describes this state saying,

 

“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2 NLT)

 

And their sin also meant that the bodies were now subject to age and decay.

 

And as bad as that is, their sin became hereditary, that is, it is passed down to each succeeding generation all the way to you and me. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve, the human race would become enslaved to both sin and death.

 

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12 NKJV)

 

Now, many contend that Adam’s sin has nothing to do with them, but Adam was you might call the head of the human race. Therefore this sin nature is in our DNA. This is something the Apostle Paul goes on to bring out.

 

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam…” (Romans 5:14 NKJV)

 

King David understood this saying,

 

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5 NKJV)

 

David wasn’t saying that his mother was an adulterer, or that he was conceived out of wedlock, but rather that the very sin nature of Adam now resided within him from the time he was conceived.

 

Think about it, today children don’t have to be taught what’s wrong; rather as parents we have to teach them what’s right, and that’s because they have the tendency toward wrong or sin, because of the sin nature is within them.

 

And so the dominant fact of humanity is the existence of sin.

 

But what is sin?

 

While there are all sorts of specific sins listed out in the Bible, what we can say is that sin is whatever is against God and His character.

 

Again, King David said,

 

“Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight– That You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:4 NKJV)

 

The simple definition is that sin is missing the mark of God’s holiness and righteousness. Sin is where a person comes up short of God’s holy and righteous standards for life, which is found in God’s Law listed out in the Torah.

 

This sin nature, therefore, is present in everyone, and that’s why God laid upon the coming Messiah the iniquity of us all.

 

He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed … and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6 NKJV)

 

Jesus died, took our place, died our death, the death we deserve due to our sins, so He could bring us back into that right relationship with Him, that relationship humanity had back in the Garden.

 

This is at the very heart of Paul’s message to the Roman church.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NKJV)

 

Jesus said that Satan came to kill, steal, and destroy, but He came to give life.

 

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10 NKJV)

 

Because of humanity’s fall back in the Garden of Eden all of humanity is now under the curse of sin, that is, under the bondage of sin and death.

 

But God in His ultimate love gave us a remedy to the sin nature, and it was nothing less than the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, who willing gave up His life so that we can have eternal life.

 

God’s Remedy

 

Seeing then that everyone has the sin nature within and are then subject to both sin and death, and that God desires nothing better than for His creation, humanity, to come back into that loving relationship with Him, He made a way of salvation.

 

It’s through the shed blood of sacrifice. This is found within God’s law.

 

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11 NKJV)

 

The writer of Hebrews confirms this, that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin, and hence, no salvation.

 

“And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22 NKJV)

 

The sacrificial system goes all the way back to the very beginning with Adam and Eve’s kids, Cain and Able. They both offered a sacrifice to God. Cain offered a portion of his crops, while Abel’s sacrificed an innocent lamb. And God accepted Abel’s while rejecting Cain’s.

 

Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering.” (Genesis 4:3b-5a NKJV)

 

The writer of Hebrews talks about the excellence of Abel’s sacrifice over that of Cain’s.

 

“By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous…” (Hebrews 11:4 NKJV)

 

It was the blood of the innocent lamb that made the difference. And this became the method God would use to deliver His people from bondage.

 

First was from the bondage of their slavery to the Egyptians. To escape the last plague, each Jewish family sacrificed a lamb placing the blood upon the doorposts of their house, and when the Lord saw the blood of the Lamb upon the doorposts, He passed over that house, not allowing death to enter, Exodus 12.

 

“Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:13 NKJV)

 

It was from this event that God established the Passover so that His people would always remember not only what God did for them, delivering them from their Egyptian bondage, but that their deliverance came as the result of the death of an innocent lamb and the blood that was shed.

 

This then set the stage for the coming Messiah, the Lamb of God, whom John the Baptist said would take away the sins of the world.

 

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 NKJV)

 

Jesus is our the Passover Lamb, seeing that it was on the Passover He died, and through His sacrifice, all who believe are delivered from the bondage to sin and death.

 

“Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2 NIV)

 

And so when Jesus said, “It is finished,” upon the cross and died, He was referring to the now completed work His Father had given to Him to accomplish.

 

Thus the sin problem has been solved, and salvation is available to everyone who believes.