Genesis 3 (Original Sin-Part II)

The Bible describes Satan in a number of ways: prince of demons; the evil one; a murderer; a deceiver; an accuser; the father of lies; a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. These are apt illustrations, for Satan will use any trick and all his wiles to tempt us to fall and turn from God. As we read in Part I, Satan will distort God’s Word, lie to us, make us doubt God’s promises and love, and appeal to our egos and sinful natures to tempt us to sin. But while it certainly easy to lay the blame for our troubles on Satan, we must not forget Adam and Eve’s role--or ours--in the hardships and misery that befall us.

Where do you place your trust?

Perhaps Eve’s biggest mistake (aside from actually taking the fruit and eating it) was placing her trust in the serpent, and not God. Instead of reaching out to God and asking Him to verify or deny the serpent’s claims, she simply accepted Satan’s lies as truth and ate the fruit. Although God no longer walks among us as He did in the Garden of Eden, He still offers counsel and advice through the words of the Bible and through the Holy Spirit. I have often made poor choices because I relied on my own wisdom (and Satan‘s lies) rather than turning to God. Just as Adam and Eve suffered consequences for trusting the serpent, I too have suffered consequences for not relying on God.

Tempting others to sin

Eve’s second biggest mistake (again, aside from her disobedience in eating the fruit) was encouraging Adam to eat the fruit as well. A number of passages within the Bible warn us that tempting others to sin is a sin against Jesus (Matthew 18:6, 1 Corinthians 8:12-13). Before I accepted Jesus into my life, I was often guilty of tempting others to sin. In fact, a good friend of mine used to call me “Jezebel” because I would often encourage my friends to go out every night and stay out late, even if we had to work the following morning. I was terribly lonely at the time, and instead of looking to God to provide all the comfort and companionship I needed, I made it a point to surround myself with people for as many hours in the day as I could manage. And sadly, their welfare was the last thing on my mind. I didn’t consider the consequences they might face for staying out late every night--I was only concerned about my own needs. Likewise, Eve never thought about Adam's welfare when she gave him the fruit; she never considered the eternal repercussions of that sin.

The blame game

One of the most horrible aspects of sin is that it always escalates. When the Lord discovered what Adam and Eve had done and confronted them, Adam’s first response was to blame those around him instead of admitting his disobedience. “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it,” he told the Lord. So he not only blamed Eve, he also blamed God! Eve also put the blame elsewhere: “The serpent deceived me. That’s why I ate it.”

Here’s the truth about Satan: he can use every bit of his power to deceive us, tempt us and destroy everything around us, but he can’t force us to do anything. When we choose to sin, we have only ourselves to blame. We often think we are too weak to resist sin, but the Lord gives us endless amounts of strength. “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure" (1 Corinthians 10:13). And we should certainly never blame God for our own misfortunes! Jesus is our savior from temptation, not the tempter!

The consequences

The man and woman suffered consequences for their disobedience, for God--in His perfect wisdom--can never allow sin to go unpunished. The Lord ruled that the woman should have pain in childbirth and a “desire to control [her] husband, but he will rule over [her].” Although many women would love to have equal status with their husbands, Eve assured us--with her disobedience, lack of trust in the Lord and her decision to tempt her husband into sin--that we will never have that equality.

The man did not escape punishment either: The Lord cursed the ground, banished him from the Garden of Eden and took away his immortality (along with Eve's, as well). “The ground is cursed because of you,” the Lord told Adam. “All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. [Only] by the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

When Adam and Eve chose to trust the serpent and disobey the Lord, they also brought darkness to the perfect world the Lord had created. Satan's role became that of ruler and god of this world (John 12:31, 2 Corinthians 4:4). Furthermore, humans became children of the devil who love to do evil things (John 8:44), for we inherited their sinful natures.

So the next time you read a CNN headline and become discouraged, remember that we can’t blame God or accuse Him of being heartless or cruel. Terrible things happen--not because of God--but because we turned our backs on Him. We turned the world over to Satan and proved that our natures are inherently sinful.

And it is only through Jesus that we can be saved from this world and our own weaknesses and failures.