Hope Awakening: The Fall
Written by Jennifer Andes
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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 2:16-17, ESV
“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.” Genesis 3:15, ESV
Even if you are new to Christianity, you are likely familiar with the events in Genesis 3. God created Adam and Eve, and they lived with Him in the Garden of Eden. This isn’t how God dwelt among His people later in the Bible; this was God walking among them! God originally intended for all of humanity to live with Him in His perfect creation. They had one rule: do not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s it – everything else was theirs.
Adam and Eve complied and lived peacefully among God and His creation. There isn’t a hint at a temptation to eat from that tree until the serpent enters the scene. The serpent was the devil, a fallen angel, who wants nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). He slithered up to Eve and questioned God’s command: “Did God really say . . .” Using tactics that haven’t changed, he twisted words and planted seeds of doubt and desire. Eve then believed that God was withholding from them, and desired to try this fruit. She ate it, then shared it with Adam.
Boom. Sin.
One act of disobedience changed the trajectory for all mankind.
I wrestled with these circumstances: why even put the tree there, knowing what man would do? If God had just left that tree out of His creation, the rest of the story wouldn’t have happened!
But God, oh what a good God we serve. He creates all human beings with free will, and He allowed Adam and Eve to express that free will back in the Garden. He didn’t desire robots or puppets; He desires our obedience. He creates us to yearn for Him, and He wants us to choose Him. We cannot be forced into a relationship with our Father.
We see the first glance of God’s plan emerge after the Fall. The disobedience of man led to consequences, and God also issued a condemnation against the serpent. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, a physical representation of the spiritual separation from God. There’s mercy in this as well: Adam and Eve would never eat from the Tree of Life, which would have eternally separated them from God after sin stained them. God also promised to one day send a Savior to defeat the enemy once and for all. Genesis 3:15 is called the protoevangelium, the first gospel.
God’s shared His perfect plan for the redemption of His people immediately after the fall!
Nothing we do surprises God, and this act in the Garden didn’t either. He knew all along and He had a plan. Hope exists in this first prophecy because no matter how hard we try, we will continue to sin: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Nothing we do could ever make up for our disobedience: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:6) Our only hope lies in the One who will come down from heaven, take on human form, and redeem us by sacrificing himself on the Cross.
All praise and glory be to Him, forever and ever!
Reflection: While we don’t like to dwell on our own sin, I think it’s important not to brush it off. Our sin is the reason Jesus came down from heaven to rescue us! We can’t truly appreciate the wonder of the manger and the work of the Cross unless we recognize our sin necessitated it. Confess your sins to God and sit in awe that, because of Jesus, your sins are forgiven.