2. MAN AFTER THE FALL: THE EMERGENCE OF SIN

A. The unhappy event that led to man’s sin is recorded in Genesis 3:1–7.
1. The devil came to Eve in the form of a serpent (verse 1).
2. The devil twisted God’s word to man (verses 1–5).
3. Eve gave in to temptation (verse 6).
4. Adam followed her (verse 6).

B. The consequence of their sin.
1. Death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23).
(a) The moment they ate, death set in.
(1) They continued to live on for a good while.
(2) But it was only a matter of time before they would die.
(b) Spiritual death entered in (Ephesians 2:1–3).
2. Shame (Genesis 3:8).
(a) Before they sinned they were not self-conscious about their nakedness.
(b) Immediately after they sinned they felt a need to cover their bodies (Genesis 3:7).
3. Refusal to accept responsibility because of self-righteousness (Genesis 3:12–13).
(a) Adam blamed Eve; (b) Eve blamed the serpent.
4. Fear (Genesis 3:10).
5. Note: there are other consequences of the Fall, for example:
(a) Punishment for the woman (Genesis 3:16).
(b) Punishment for the man (Genesis 3:19)
(c) Punishment for the rest of creation (Genesis 3:17ff.).
(1) The ground is cursed.
(2) There is every reason to believe that the whole of earthly creation was adversely affected (Romans 8:20ff.).

p 140 C. Further consequences of the Fall.
1. The whole human race fell as a result of our first parents: ‘Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world’ (Romans 5:12–13a.).
(a) This means that all born after Adam and Eve inherited the condition of Adam and Eve as they were after the Fall (not before).
(1) Man has never been born as Adam was—in his unfallen state.
(2) He inherits Adam’s death, shame, self-righteousness and fear.
(b) In a word: we are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are born sinners.
(1) ‘Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me’ (Psalm 51:5).
(2) ‘Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies’ (Psalm 58:3).
2. The image of God is defaced, or marred.
(a) It has not been totally obliterated, just seriously damaged.
(b) This means there is a vestige (a trace) of what the image of God in man was, but not as it was before the Fall.
(1) Man still has a conscience; there is a ‘God-shaped blank’ in every man (Pascal).
(2) Man is still illuminated to some extent by Christ (John 1:9).
(3) But man’s conscience is unable to save.
3. Free will, as Adam once had, is forfeited. Is man a free moral agent?
(a) Man is in subjection to sin; he is hardly free (Ephesians 2:1).
(b) Man is not moral; he is ‘full of cursing and bitterness’ (Romans 3:14).
(c) Man is not the agent in his salvation; the Holy Spirit—God’s drawing power—is the agent (John 6:44).
(d) Note: as if to drive this point home, God ‘drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24).
(e) In short, man was ‘not able not to sin’.
Kendall, R. T. (1996). Understanding Theology, Volume One (pp. 139–140). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.