Man, and the Fall of the World

Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. Isaiah 53:6

We have seen that God is perfect in all His attributes, and that among other things He is loving and merciful. So, it would follow that His creation would be perfect. The Bible confirms this in the creation account of Genesis 1:1-31, in which the creation is repeatedly described as “good” or “very good.” The Hebrew words translated “very good” convey the ideas of “exceedingly good,” and “wholly good.” These Hebrew terms are meant to emphasize the perfection and harmony of God’s creation. There was nothing bad in God’s creation. The Genesis 1 creation account is a summary, and more details of the creation events are described in Genesis 2. The two accounts are complementary, not contradictory, as some critics have asserted. The Hebrew style of narrative frequently begins with a summary, followed by a more detailed description of events.

We see in Genesis 1 that after God blessed the man and woman, telling them to be fruitful and multiply, that He told them they should “fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you” (Genesis 1:28-29).

Genesis 2 reveals more details about the creation of man and woman, the conditions in which they lived, and the commands God gave them. “The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:7-9). After describing the location of Eden, the Biblical account continues, “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die’” (Genesis 2:15-17). Then, in Genesis 2:18-24, God states that the absence of a helper for the man was “not good,” and the narrative describes the creation of the first woman.

At this point we can conclude several things about the creation that the first man and woman inhabited. We see that they lacked for nothing. They inhabited a world of beauty, they had a place to live where they belonged, they had nourishment for their bodies, they had companionship with each other, they had a physically loving relationship with each other, they had communication and fellowship with God, and they had meaningful work to do which was not burdensome. They had dominion over the creation, second only to God Himself, and since they were allowed to eat from the tree of life they were destined to live forever.

There was only one thing that God withheld from them: They were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This command was given to the first man before the creation of the first woman. It was given to remind man that God was the creator; that He had the sole right to determine what was good and what was evil, and that He had authority over man. This command was also given to test man; would he glorify God with obedience and love, or would he disobey and rebel? God was also exhibiting mercy in this command, because He knew that the knowledge of good and evil would be devastating to the man and woman. They were created to live in innocence; in harmony with and dependence on God, and this knowledge would ultimately destroy them. As created beings, they were not strong enough to endure the intimate emotional, spiritual and experiential knowledge of evil.

The next major event in the creation account is the temptation of the first man and woman to disobey God, their rebellion against God, and the consequences. This is described in Genesis 3. To understand what happened, one needs to know some background information which is contained in other parts of the Bible. We will provide only a brief summary of that information here.

Among God’s created beings are angels. It is clear that they were created before the first man and woman, that they were designed to live forever, that they serve God in many ways, and that they watch over us. In the Bible, Hebrews 1:5-14 refers to angels as ministering spirits who were created to be servants to those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. Psalm 91:11 describes how angels guard the way of the one who trusts in God. There are references to angels throughout the Bible. An incomplete listing would include Genesis 24:7; 28:12; 31:11; Exodus 3:2; 14:19; Judges 13:3, 6 & 9; 1 Chronicles 21:15; Psalm 78:25; 148:2; Isaiah 63:9; Daniel 4:13 & 17; Zechariah 4:4; Matthew 1:20; 2:13; 28:2; Luke1:26; 20:36; John 20:12; Acts 5:19; 8:26; and 10:3. According to Matthew 22:30, angels do not procreate; the angelic population was fixed at its creation. Among the differences between mankind and angels is the fact that while mankind has the ability to decide moral decisions on a case-by-case basis, angels do not. At some point in creation, some of the angels rebelled, and they remain in rebellion and in opposition to God. Others did not rebel, and they continue as God’s obedient servants. We have an indication in Revelation 12:3-4 that one-third of the angels rebelled against God. Among the angels who rebelled against God there is one who is most prominent. Before his rebellion, he is identified in Ezekiel 28:12-17 as “the anointed cherub who guards,” who was “on the holy mountain of God,” meaning that he had an exalted position among the angels before he rebelled against God. He is further identified in Isaiah 14:12-14 as having “fallen from heaven,” and in his rebellion he wanted to make himself “like the Most High” (i.e. like God). This most prominent of the fallen angels is called many things in the Bible, including: “Accuser,” “Adversary,” “Devil,” “Enemy,” “Evil One,” “Father of Lies,” “Satan,” and “Serpent.” There are 29 different names for this fallen angel in the Bible. In Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, the serpent of old is equated with the devil and Satan. This is the most important point in understanding who it was who tempted the first man and woman. The force behind the serpent identified in Genesis 3 was Satan.

It is significant that when the woman was tempted by the serpent (i.e. Satan), she was told “you surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). We are then told, “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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). They were both guilty of rejecting God’s authority over them, and declaring their independence from God. They both committed rebellion against God.

God had told them that “in the day that you eat of it you will surely die,” and yet they did not immediately experience physical death on that day. This is because the Bible teaches that there are three forms of death: Spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death. When they rebelled against God, the first man and woman (who were named Adam and Eve) experienced spiritual death immediately. Spiritual death means alienation from God and separation from God. Prior to their rebellion, Adam and Eve had open communication and trusting fellowship with God. After their rebellion, they were afraid of God; they were alienated from Him. The Genesis 3 account continues, “the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘where are you?’ He (Adam) said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.’” Their alienation was not an active work of God, it was the instantaneous result of their sin. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command, the knowledge of good and evil caused them to experience guilt and shame. The Hebrew word translated “knowing,” used in the phrase “knowing good and evil” involved more than just intellectual knowledge. The concept of “knowing” involved an emotional and experiential dimension. Before they disobeyed God, Adam and Eve only knew that which was good, because they knew God. When they started “knowing good and evil,” Adam and Eve came into intimate emotional and experiential knowledge of evil. The purity and innocence they had before they disobeyed God was gone. Their perfect union and harmony with God was gone.

We have seen that Adam and Eve’s alienation from God was a natural consequence of their sin. Their separation from God was an action taken by God Himself. “The LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ – therefore the LORD God sent them out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So, He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-24)¹. We know that God is holy and cannot look upon evil. As the prophet Habakkuk stated, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness” (Habakkuk 1:13). Because God is perfectly righteous and holy, and because the man and woman had fallen into unrighteousness, God had to separate the man, the woman, and their descendants from Himself. The prophet Isaiah stated that mankind’s “iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). And worse yet, no person has the ability to redeem himself from this condition. The apostle Paul described unbelievers as being “dead in (their) trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). He also said, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks for God…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10-11,23). So, when God separated the man and woman from Himself, this may have been an act of merciful grace by God. Since the man and woman knew evil in an experiential sense, but they did not have the ability to resist or overcome evil, their lives would be miserable if they lived forever in this pitifully cursed condition. They did not have the ability to redeem themselves from the effects of the full knowledge of evil. They would not be able to overcome evil through their own efforts. By driving them out, God spared Adam, Eve, and all of their descendants from living forever under the certainty of an eternally cursed condition. And as we will see, God would provide the means of redeeming mankind from the consequence and curse of his rebellion.

The first man and woman did not physically die immediately, but their physical death was inevitable, as it has been for all of their descendants. Death came into the world because of sin; because of sin all men die. We have seen that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the Bible also teaches us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God, in His mercy, allows us to live out our physical lives even if we are spiritually dead. As the writer of Hebrews states “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Most people also note that life is difficult; while there is great beauty and joy to be found in much of life, there is also injustice, pain, and grief. We are not the first generation to notice this. Moses stated, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for soon it is gone, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Solomon noticed “This is an evil that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). If we wonder why there is evil in the world, we must realize that the entire world is populated by human beings who are not able to overcome evil. While we are able to do some things that are good, all people fall so short of God’s perfection that it is inevitable that there will be great evil in the world. The reality of physical death, and the reality of evil in the world, are two observable evidences that the creation account presented in the Bible is true.

The third form of death that resulted from the fall of man into rebellion against God is eternal death. This is not “death” in the sense of the end of life; this is a condition that the natural man experiences when he is eternally separated from God after life on this earth ends. This is what awaits those who physically die while they are spiritually dead. It was pointed out in the previous paragraph that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). That judgment comes at the end of days, when this world as we know it will end. Regarding the fate of those who had died in their natural condition of rebellion against God, the prophet Daniel foretold that “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake…to disgrace and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Jesus describes this as “the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). The apostle John also described this in Revelation 20:11-15, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown in the lake of fire.” So, we see that there is an eternal destiny that we experience after we depart this world. Eternal death doesn’t cause people to cease to exist, but it is a kind of death in the sense that it involves everlasting punishment for sins and separation from God’s presence for blessing.

We see from all of this that because of the fall of the first man and woman, they and all of their descendants, including us, have been alienated and separated from God. Natural man is spiritually dead; in our own strength even the best of us can’t live in a way that anyone would call perfect, we experience suffering, we will physically die, and we will face judgment and eternal suffering after our physical death. The prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). In our natural state, we are sinners. Some believe that it’s the sins we commit that make us sinners, but they are wrong. We sin because we are sinners.

We must ask ourselves, why is it that all of Adam’s descendants have received the same consequence as Adam? There are two aspects to the answer to this question. First, as Adam’s descendants, sin is part of our essential nature; we have inherited the corruption passed on from Adam to the whole of humanity. On a personal level, we will all commit sin during our lifetimes. This is an observable fact to anyone. Second, in a judicial sense, Adam’s sin is imputed to all who are united to him as the representative of humanity. As our representative head, the act of rebellion committed by Adam is judicially imputed to us. This representative headship is illustrated by the apostle Paul, who stated “through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men” (Romans 5:18).

Since natural man is corrupt, cannot stand under God’s judgment, and is destined for a fate that involves eternal suffering and separation from God, what hope do we have? Is there any meaning to life, or is life futile? At this point we must revisit the fact that God has described Himself as “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgressions and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:6,7). We must learn that God’s lovingkindness means that He will do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We must learn that God has a way to maintain justice, and yet show mercy.

1. In the Genesis 3:22-24 passage quoted above, the plural pronoun “Us” is used for God. This is a translation of one of the Hebrew words for God, “Elohim.” This is a plural, indicating a plurality in the nature of God. The Bible as a whole teaches that there is one God, who is revealed to mankind in three separate persons: Father/Creator; Son/Redeemer, and Holy Spirit/Comforter. The implications and explanation of this is beyond the scope of this article, but is a subject worthy of further study. We encourage people to consider and study this concept. ↩︎