Step 2: The Fall of Man

The Inevitable Fall of Man

In His creating the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and commanding Adam and Eve to not eat of its fruit, lest they die, God had provided Adam and Eve the ability to exercise their moral agency. The forbidden tree, therefore, was the means and the method by which God enabled them / gave them the Response Ability and the Account Ability to freely act in obedience / to do what is right or to freely act in disobedience / to do what is wrong, and sin. While one might say God is responsible for creating the potentiality for Adam and Eve to disobey His command and act in sin, never did He necessitate it, nor did He tempt, compulse and or cause Man to act in sin. As moral agents, made in God’s image, Adam and Eve were fully capable, fully responsible, and fully accountable for their autonomous actions / the choices they freely made. The sin of disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is referred to as the original sin. However, it was not the only commandment that Adam and Eve had broken in that sinful act in that same moment, but so too did they fail their responsibility to “subdue” the Earth and every living thing that moves and creeps on the Earth (Genesis 1:26).

Sin brings both God’s judgment, which is the spiritual separation from Him and the consequence of sin which is death. Just as by nature darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, that which is of a sinful nature cannot exist in the presence of the full glory of God who by His perfect nature is the pure and holy (Exodus 33:20). After all, although we are flesh and blood, we are made in His image, and even through our own bodies we can gain some understanding of God’s nature. For example, and as per God’s design, a healthy human body has an immune system, that distinguishes healthy tissue from unwanted substances. It naturally targets invaders, by expelling or destroying foreign substances, pathogens like bacteria, viruses, fungi or diseases that enter the body. Now allow me to be very clear for I am not suggesting nor should anyone believe that which is corrupted can corrupt God. On the contrary, what I am saying is that it is not so much that God currently separates himself from corrupted man as form of punishment, as it is for mans own protection. After all, if God desired to destroy mankind, then He need only need reveal Himself in His full glory to a corrupt and sinful world. It is not therefore that God’s separation from that which is corrupted should necessarily be thought of as punishment as much as for our own protection. While God has turned His back to the natural man, He has not forsaken Him (Exodus 33:22-23).

Satan | The Serpent

The English word “Satan”, as translated from the Hebrew word “watan”, H-7854, means “adversary” and this is but one of the names, titles that God gave him, when he became God’s adversary, an enemy to God. Many people describe Satan as the opposite of God but this can lead to some misperceptions, for Satan is of no comparison to God, and so it must be understood that Satan is not God’s opposite, as in God’s evil twin but instead, he is God’s opponent, God’s enemy, God’s adversary. Satan is as darkness as God is as light and light consumes darkness.  Another title given specifically to Satan is “evil” or “the evil one” (1 John 5:19)

Allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, then the reference to Man “Being evil”, in Matthew 7:11, is a reference to “being of Satan”, as contextualized in many verses including John 8:44 . The word “Good” is another name given only to God (Matthew 19:17). We as Christians may do our fathers will and do good things but that does not in itself make us good nor does it make us God, anymore than the unbeliever who does Satan’s will, doing Evil things, makes them evil or Satan.  Although many will think of the words “wicked” or “wickedness” as synonymous of evil, they are not. The word wicked, or wickedness instead speaks to the desperate, incurable weakness or “sickness”, of the “sinful” man whose heart has become so hard and of Satan, that both are beyond responding to God. Such was the world just prior to the flood and such as was corporate Israel, the generation, at the time of Christ’s incarnation.

This is important because if we understand this, then we should understand that “evil” is not some self-existent, pre-existent, cosmic force that co-existed with God. Evil came into existence when the most powerful, most beautiful angel whom we often refer to as “Lucifer” became un-righteously proud and jealous soon after God had given the blessed honor of dominion of the world to what Lucifer deemed as a lowly, inferior creature called “man”, a creature that he and all the angels were commissioned to serve. Overcome by his pride, lucifer led a rebellion against God with a mutinous force (the spiritual forces of Satan in the heavenly places) consisting of one-third of the angels (Ephesians 6:12). Take notice how Ephesians 6:12 does not say “evil spiritual forces” but instead says “spiritual forces of evil” or in other words, “spiritual forces of Satan”.

Authority to Tread On Serpents

Lucifer had become God’s adversary, “Satan” / “evil” / “the evil one” who in the futility of rebellion against God, was cast from heaven with his forces of evil to Earth where he as a serpent should have, in poetic justice and to the purposes, and command of God, been subdued by the first Adam.  Take careful note of Luke 10:17-19 which speaks of the seventy-two disciples who had returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name and to which Jesus responded by saying ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you’”. Jesus was referring to the beginning when Satan was cast from Heaven to Earth, where he as the serpent should have been subdued – tread on – by Adam. Adam was at that time with a spirit connected to the power of God. A power that Satan was of no match.

As the Apostle Paul explains, 1 Corinthians 15:45,47 ESV: “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. [47] The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven”. Paul was speaking of Jesus (God incarnate) (Philippians 2:6-7).

It would be nothing less than an injustice to Jesus – God incarnate in the flesh – if we were to believe that He as the second Adam had some advantage over the first Adam. On the contrary, unlike the first Adam placed in the Garden of Eden and given dominion over a blessed earth, Jesus in comparison was at a disadvantage being born in the form of a servant to a corrupted and cursed Earth. Emptying Himself of His divine attributes, in the likeness of Man, Jesus’s strength and power to perform wonders and miracles came not from Himself as the Son of God in the flesh but from God His Father (John 5:19). This same source of power made available to a sinless Jesus – the second Adam – had likewise been available to the first Adam.

Through the historical accounts of Scripture that showcase God’s actions, we can clearly see that God frequently selects those who are considered the weaker or the weakest among us, to carry out His work (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).  It is therefore, never by any strength of mans flesh but by the Spirit of God, His power, His authority, His blessing, His ordination, and by His command that Adam and Eve were given dominion, the position of “strong man” over the earth “and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). The serpent had no power or authority over Adam or Eve, but he said to the woman, Genesis 3:4-6 “… ‘You will not surely die. [5] For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ [6] 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”.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they had in essence become in the likeness of Satan, rebellious and unfaithful to God. Instead of subduing as God had enabled, “ordained” and entrusted them to do, they willingly allowed themselves to become the subdued and fall under the bondage of sin. As we read in Mark 3:27  no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house”.  While this verse is actually a metaphor that Jesus used in reference to Himself, foretelling that He would first bind the strong man (Satan), before plundering his domain (The cursed Earth), it can also serve as a reflection as to how Satan became the “strong man” over the earth. As previously mentioned, Satan had no power or authority over Adam and Eve that he should be able to bind or incapacitate them. As per the old adage, “give someone enough rope and they will ….”, and so the best that Satan could do was to provide the deceptive temptation that Eve and then Adam gave into and bound themselves to sin by willingly disobeying God’s command (Genesis 2:17)

To be continued ….