Genesis 3
McGeeCHAPTER 3THEME: The serpent denies the Word of God; the man and woman disobey the Word of God; the design of God for the future; the doctrine of redemption introducedWe come now to what some consider to be the most important chapter of the Bible. It is conceded, I believe, by all conservative expositors to be just that. Dr. Griffith Thomas called chapter 3 the pivot of the Bible. If you doubt that, read chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, omit chapter 3, and then read chapters 4-11. You will find that there is a tremendous vacuum that needs to be filled, that something has happened.
For instance, in Genesis 1 and 2, we find man in innocence; everything is perfection, and there is fellowship between God and man. But the minute you begin with chapter 4 of Genesis and read just as far as chapter 11, you find jealousy, anger, murder, lying, wickedness, corruption, rebellion, and judgment. The question is: Where did it all come from? Where did it begin? Where did the sin originate? Actually, I do not think it originated in chapter 3 of Genesis, but as far as man is concerned, here is where it began. Let me quote for you the statement of another concerning chapter 3: “Here we trace back to their source many of the rivers of divine truth. Here commences the great drama which is being enacted on the stage of human history and which well nigh 6,000 years has not yet completed. Here we find the divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of our race. Here we learn of the subtle devices of our enemy, the devil. Here we behold the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him. Here we discover the spiritual effects of sin, man seeking to flee from God.
Here we discern the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner. Here we mark the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man’s own handiwork. Here we are taught of the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need. Here begins that marvelous stream of prophecy which runs all through the Holy Scriptures. Here we learn that man cannot approach God except through a mediator.”
Genesis 3:1
THE SERPENT CASTS A SHADOW OF DOUBT ON THE WORD OF GODIn this first section we have the setting for the temptation of man. The question arises: Why the temptation? If we go back to chapters 1 and 2, we find that man was created innocent, but man was not created righteous. What is righteousness? Righteousness is innocence that has been maintained in the presence of temptation. You see, temptation will either develop you or destroy you; it will do one of the two. The Garden of Eden was not a hothouse, and man was not a hothouse plant. Character must be developed, and it can only be developed in the presence of temptation. Man was created a responsible being, and he was responsible to glorify, to obey, to serve, and to be subject to divine government. Man did not create himselfI do not think anyone claims thatbut God created him. And God was not arbitrary in the condition which He laid down. He said to man, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen_2:17). That tree was not the only tree in the garden to eat of. It would have been very arbitrary if man would have starved to death if he had not been able to eat of the tree and if he had also been told he would die if he did eat of it. There was an abundance of trees in the garden which bore fruit; so that man did not need to eat of this tree at all. Therefore, we find that man appears on the scene a responsible creature. In this first verse we are introduced to the serpent. Immediately the question can reasonably be asked, “Where in the world did he come from? How did he get into the Garden of Eden?” As far as I can tell from the Word of God, the serpent was not there as a slithering creature. Actually, we are not told how he came there; we are just told he was there. The Word of God leaves a great deal out. The serpent was a creature that could be used of Satan, and Satan used him.
Isn’t that exactly the method that Satan uses today? Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2Co_11:14). The Book of Revelation says more about Satan than anywhere else in Scripture. “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev_12:9). This creature was not a slithering snake as we think of it today. That is not the picture that the Word of God gives of him at all. “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years” (Rev_20:2). This is a creature with tremendous ability. There is no record of his origin here in Genesis at all. I believe that Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give us the origin of this creature and also how he became the creature that he was.
Genesis 3:2
Why in the world did the serpent approach the woman? Why didn’t he approach the man? When God created Adam, He had told him that he could eat of every tree of the garden, but of this one he was not to eat. Woman was created last, and she had gotten her information secondhand; she had gotten it from man. And so the serpent approached woman first. Frankly, I think that woman was created finer than man; that is, she had more compassion and sympathy in her makeup. She was probably more open to suggestion than the man. Actually, I think a woman has a nature that is more inquisitive than a man’s. She is the one today who goes into the cults and isms more than anyone else and leads men into them. In fact, many of the founders of cults and isms have been women. Satan knew what he was doing. Notice what he did. He had a very subtle method as he came. He asked her this question, which cast doubt on the Word of God, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” He raises a doubt in her mind and excites her curiosity. She answers, “We can eat of all the trees, but this tree God has told us, ‘Ye shall not eat of it [that’s all God had said, but she added something], neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.’” I do not find where He ever said, “You are not to touch it.”
Genesis 3:4
THE SERPENT DENIES THE WORD OF GODInstead of saying, “Ye shall not surely die,” what he said in effect was, “Ye certainly shall not die. Why, that is just absolutely impossible!” He questions the love of God and the goodness of God: “If God is good, why did He put this restriction down?” The serpent implies that God is not righteous when he says, “You will not die.” And he questions the holiness of God by saying, “You’re going to be gods yourselves, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” The thing that Eve did was to add to the Word of God. The liberal and the atheist take from the Word of God, and God has warned against that. The cults (and some fundamentalists, by the way) add to the Word of God, and God warns against that. There are those who say that today we are saved by law. They argue, “Yes, it is by faith, but it is faith plus something else"and they are apt to come up with anything. The Word of God says: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (Joh_6:29). How important this is! The serpent very subtly contradicts God, and he substitutes his word for God’s word. The Book of Romans teaches the fact of the obedience of faith. Faith leads to obedience, and unbelief leads to disobedience. Doubt leads to disobediencealways.
Genesis 3:6
THE MAN AND WOMAN DISOBEY THE WORD OF GODNotice that the appeal the serpent made is quite an interesting one. It was an appeal to the flesh"the tree was good for food"but that is not all; that is not the thing that is really important. “It was pleasant to the eyes"it was an appeal to the psychological part of man, to his mind. “And a tree to be desired to make one wise"this is an appeal to the religious side of man. You will find that this is the exact temptation that Satan brought to the Lord Jesus in the wilderness (see Matt. 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4). First of all, he said to our Lord, “Make these stones into bread"this was the appeal to the flesh, as the tree was good for food. Then Satan showed the Lord the kingdoms of the world and offered them to Himthat was an appeal to the mind, as the tree was pleasant to the eyes. Then finally he said, “Cast Yourself down from the temple"this was an appeal to the religious side of man, as the tree was to be desired to make one wise. I do not think that the Devil has changed his tactics today. He uses the same tactics with you and me, and the reason that he still uses them is that they work. He hasn’t needed to change his tactics, for we all seem to fall for the same line. John wrote: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1Jn_2:16). “The lust of the flesh"that is, the tree was good to eat. “The lust of the eyes"the tree was good to look at. “The pride of life"the tree was to be desired to make one wise. These things are not of the Father, but of the world. Jesus said that these sins of the flesh come out of the heart of man, way down deep. This is where Satan is making his appeal. This is the method that he is using in order that he might reach in and lead mankind astray. And he succeeded. They were told that they would know good and eviland what happened? We now have the results of the fall of man.
Genesis 3:7
“And the eyes of them both were opened"this refers to their conscience. Before the fall, man did not have a conscience; he was innocent. Innocence is ignorance of evil. Man did not make conscience. It is an accuser that each one of us has living on the inside of us. A leading psychologist in a university in Southern California, who is a Christian, said to me that the guilt complex is as much a part of man as his right arm is. Man cannot get rid of that guilt complex in a psychological way. “And they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Have you ever noticed that the fig tree is the only tree that is specifically mentioned? (The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not an apple tree. I do not know what it was, but I am almost sure it was not an apple tree.) These fig leaves concealed but did not really cover. Adam and Eve did not confess; they just attempted to cover up their sin. They were not ready to admit their lost condition. This is the same condition of man today in religion. He goes through exercises and rituals, he joins churches, and he becomes very religious. Have you ever noticed that Christ cursed the fig tree? That is quite interesting. And He denounced religion right after that, by the way; He denounced it with all His being because religion merely covers over sin. In this temptation Satan wanted to come between man’s soul and God. In other words, he wanted to wean man from God, to win man over to himself, and to become the god of man. The temptations of the flesh would not have appealed to man in that day, anyway. He was not tempted to steal or lie or covet. He was just tempted to doubt God. What was the trouble with the rich young ruler? He did not believe God. In the parable of the tares, the tares are those who would not believe God. Notice Satan’s method. First, Eve saw that the tree was good for food; second, it was pleasant to the eye; and third, it was to be desired to make one wise. Satan works from the outside to the inside, from without to within. On the other hand, God begins with man’s heart. Religion is something that you rub on the outside, but God does not begin with religion. May I make a distinction here: Christianity is not a religion; Christianity is Christ. There are a lot of religions, but the Lord Jesus went right to the fountainhead when He said, “Ye must be born again.” He said to the Pharisees who were very religious on the outside, “Make the inside of the platter clean. You are just like a mausoleum, beautiful on the outside with marble and flowers, but inside full of dead men’s bones.” What a picture! And Adam and Eve, instead of confessing their sin, sewed fig leaves together as a covering. May I say to you, there is really no new style in fig leaves. Men are still going to church and going through religious exercises and good works instead of confessing the sin of their hearts.
Genesis 3:8
Religion will separate you from Godand Adam is lost. Adam is lost, and it is God seeking him and not man seeking God.
Genesis 3:10
Notice that there is no confession on Adam’s part. The important thing is not so much that he blamed the woman or, as we would say in the common colloquialism of the day, “he passed the buck,” but that there is no confession of sin on his part.
Genesis 3:13
Here is some more of that so-called “buck passing.”
Genesis 3:14
THE DESIGN OF GOD FOR THE FUTUREThis man, this creature that God has made, has now turned aside from God, and God must deal with him and must judge him. The serpent is certainly not the slithering creature that we think of today. He was different at the beginning, and there has now been pronounced upon him this judgment from God. God pronounces a judgment upon Satan which has a tremendous effect upon man. I would urge you to memorize the following verse, for this is one that you certainly ought to know. This verse is the first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior, into the world:
Genesis 3:15
“And I will put enmity between thee [that is, Satan] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it [that is, Christ] shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This is a tremendous statement that is given to us here. The most prominent thought is not the ultimate victory that would come, but the long-continued struggle. This verse reveals the fact that now there is to be a long struggle between good and evil. This is exactly what you will find in the rest of the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus made this statement in His day concerning this struggle: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (Joh_8:44). “The devil” is Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ made the distinction between children of God and children of Satan. John again mentions this conflict in 1Jn_3:10: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” Thus we have brought before us the fact that here is a conflict, here is a struggle, and here are two seeds in the world. There will be the final victorybut the long-continued struggle is important to note. Every man must face temptation and must win his battle. Before Christ came, the victory was through obedience in faith.
After Christ came, we are to identify ourselves with Christ through faith. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be in Christ. Man was one of three orders of creation: angels, man, and animals. Animals were given no choice, but man and angels were given a choice. Here you have, if you please, man’s choice. He has made a decision, and he is held responsible for the decision that he has made. Notice that it says “her seed.” It does not say the man’s seed. Here is at least the suggestion of the virgin birth of Christ. When God went into that garden looking for man, He said, “Where art thou?” Any anthology of religion tells the story of man’s search for God. My friend, that is not the way God tells it. Let’s tell it like it is: Salvation is God’s search for man. Man ran away from Him, and God called to him, “Where art thou?” Dr.
W. H. Griffith Thomas in his book, Genesis, A Devotional Commentary, makes the comment that “it is the call of Divine justice, which cannot overlook sin. It is the call of Divine sorrow, which grieves over the sinner. It is the call of Divine love, which offers redemption for sin.” We have all of that in the verse before usthe promise of the coming of the Savior. God’s search for man is pictured all the way through Scripture. Paul wrote, “…there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom_3:11). The Lord Jesus said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you …” (Joh_15:16). And we can say with John, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1Jn_4:19). God seeks out man, and He offers man salvation, but there is going to be a long struggle that will take place.
Genesis 3:16
This is the judgment upon woman. She cannot bring a child into the world without sorrow. Isn’t it interesting that that should be true? The very thing that brings joy into the life and continues the human family has to come through sorrow.
Genesis 3:17
This is the judgment upon man. Death now comes to man. What is death? Physical death is a separation of the person, the spirit, the soul, from the body. Ecclesiastes says: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc_12:7). Man ultimately must answer to God.
Whether he is saved or lost, he is going to have to answer to God. But Adam did not die physically the day that he ate. He did not die until more than nine hundred years later. The whole point is simply this: he died spiritually the moment he disobeyed; he was separated from God. Death is separation. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians that they were “dead in trespasses and sins,” he did not mean that they were dead physically but that they were dead spiritually, separated from God.
In that wonderful parable of the prodigal son, our Lord told about this boy who ran away from his father. When he returned, the father said to the elder son, “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found …” (Luk_15:24). Dead? Yes, he was dead, not physically, but he was separated from the father. To be separated from the Father means simply thatit means death. The Lord Jesus said to Martha, “…I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (Joh_11:25).
Again, “dead” means death spiritually, that is, separation from God. Man died spiritually the moment he ate. That is the reason he ran away from God. That is the reason he sewed fig leaves for a covering.
Genesis 3:20
THE DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION INTRODUCEDThis does not mean that Cain and Abel were born in the Garden of Eden, but it is definite that they were born after the fall of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 3:21
In order to have the skins of animals, the animals have to be slain. I believe that this is the origin of sacrifice and that God made it clear to man. God rejected their fig leaves but made them clothing of skins, and when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, they looked back upon a bloody sacrifice. When they looked back, they saw exactly what God had Moses put on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies: two cherubim looking down upon the blood that was thereand that was the way to God. There are four great lessons that we see from the fig leaves and the fact that God clothed them with skins. (1) Man must have adequate covering to approach God. You cannot come to God on the basis of your good works. You must come just as you area sinner. (2) Fig leaves are unacceptable; they are homemade. God does not take a homemade garment. (3) God must provide the covering. (4) The covering is obtained only through the death of the Lord Jesus. Man must have a substitute between himself and God’s wrath. That is important even in these days for man to consider. The hardest thing in the world is for man to take his rightful position before God. This anonymous poem on prayer reveals the necessity of this even in our own hearts: He prayed for strength that he might achieve; He was made weak that he might obey. He prayed for health that he might do greater things; He was given infirmity that he might do better things; He prayed for riches that he might be happy; He was given poverty that he might be wise. He prayed for power that he might have the praise of men; He was given infirmity that he might feel the need of God. He prayed for all things that he might enjoy life; He was given life that he might enjoy all things. He had received nothing that he asked forall that he hoped for; His prayer was answeredhe was most blessed. Salvation comes when you and I take our proper place as sinners before God.
Genesis 3:22
All I can say to this is, thank God that He did not let man live eternally in sin and that God is not going to let us do that. That is really a blessing!
Genesis 3:24
This does not mean that God put up a roadblock. It means that the way of life was kept open for man to come to God. But now that way is not through the tree of life. Salvation must come through a sacrifice, and when man looked back, the blood of the sacrifice is what he saw.