Appendix to Romans
The fall of the first man - Adam
In the Book of Genesis chapters 1-3, God reveals much information regarding the earth and regarding the first man, Adam, plus information regarding many other things. The verses quoted below are taken from the King James Version (KJV) unless otherwise indicated.
In this study we will concentrate on the first man, Adam, and begin in verse 24 of Genesis chapter 1:
Genesis 1:24-31:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature [soul] after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [fill] the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
When God refers to Himself in the plural "our" and not "my" it is a figure of speech to show His supremacy, His great importance in relation to that-which He is referring to; and here it emphasizes that He is God, the Creator – Elohim, which is a plural noun in the Hebrew language adding emphasis.
After God had made the living souls on the earth He decided to make man/mankind in His image, and so He created the man, Adam, in His image (icon, resemblance, representation). Genesis 1:26 continues to detail God's intention for mankind. God carried-out His plan as explained in verses 27-30 (male and female) - “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Notice that God's Word records: "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." At this point (the sixth day) every thing that God had made was very good.
What is the image of God? The Gospel of John records Jesus Christ saying:
John 4:24:
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
God – Spirit.
In the Book of Leviticus chapter 19 God states that He is Holy.
Leviticus 19:1 and 2:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
God – Holy.
God is Spirit and God is Holy – He is the Holy Spirit. Refer also to Genesis 1:1 and 2; Matthew 1:18 and 20, 12:32; Luke 1:35; Acts 1:16, 2:17 and 18 (Joel 2:28 and 29), 7:51, 13:2, 15:28, 16:6, 20:28, 21:11, 28:25; Romans 8:15 and 16; I Corinthians 2:11 and 14; Ephesians 3:16; Hebrews 3:7, 9:8, 10:15; I Peter 1:15 and 16; I John 2:20; Revelation 4:8.
God Himself decided to create His image in mankind and that image is holy spirit. Therefore God created the man, Adam, in God's image by putting holy spirit-life in the man, and also in the woman when she was formed and made. God put holy spirit-life into their bodies which already had soul-life. In Genesis 1:27 God records the spiritual creating of mankind. This holy spirit was that-which distinguished both the male and the female from all the other living souls and enabled them to behave like God by having the dominion that God gave them relative to the animals, etc, on earth.
Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 is a summary of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth (refer also to Exodus 20:11; Isaiah 45:18).
Genesis 2:4 begins the details relative to mankind. The forming and making of the physical parts of the man are detailed in Genesis 2:7.
Genesis 2:7 and 8:
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
God formed the body of the man, Adam himself, from the dust of the ground; He molded it as a potter forms the clay making a vessel. Then He made the man, Adam, a living soul by blowing the breath of life into his nostrils (refer also to Acts 17:25; I Corinthians 15:45-49).
Adam became living in the physical category because of having received soul-life which was evidenced by his breathing. Genesis 1:27 has already told us that God created His image, holy spirit, in the man after he became a living soul.
Now we can see clearly that Adam was a three-part being:
- holy spirit-life (that which is the same in make-up or consistency as God Who is Holy Spirit; it is not flesh nor blood),
- soul-life (that which is the life of the flesh; it is in the blood and is evidenced by breathing; it is what allowed Adam to move and work, etc, living in the physical category; refer to Genesis 2:7b, Leviticus 17:11; Acts 17:25),
- and a body (that which came from the dust of the ground - the flesh; refer to Genesis 2:7a).
God put Adam in the garden (paradise) which He planted in Eden towards the east.
God is referred to as the "Lord God" – God the Creator, Elohim, plus the name of Jehovah (Yahweh) which is the name God gives to Himself when emphasizing His interaction and covenant relationship with that-which He has created (translated as "Lord" in the King James Version). Jehovah is the name by-which God made Himself known to Moses and to the children of Israel (Exodus 6:2-4).
Verses 9 and 15-17:
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
…
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
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.
The garden (paradise) of Eden was a special place that God planted on the earth and put the man into it. And, God gave the man, Adam, an assignment in the garden of Eden which was to dress it and to keep it. He was to work and take care of God’s place, where God would meet with him and he could freely eat from the trees in the garden that God told him he could eat.
God commanded the man regarding what he could and could-not do, in order that he would continue to receive the good things that God says - God's blessings. God did not just leave him there to try and figure it out all by himself! God gave him instructions and also told him what would happen if he did not follow the instructions. Eating the fruit from the tree of life would preserve Adam’s life, allowing him to continue living with/for God and behaving himself in a manner pleasing to God.
Eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would cause Adam’s death, no longer living with/for God. Adam would no longer be behaving himself in a manner pleasing to God – this was the evil that God warned Adam about. It would be evil for the man to eat the fruit from that tree. Adam had freedom of will to believe and obey God and therefore live - or not to believe and not to obey God and therefore die; he was not a robot.
We should bear in mind that one tree does not bear different kinds of fruit (Genesis 1:11, 12 and 29; Matthew 7:16-18). Therefore the tree of the knowledge of good and evil does not mean that it had some good fruit on it and also some evil fruit on it – all the fruit was evil from God’s viewpoint relative to the man, “thou shalt surely die.” The words translated “good and evil” emphasize that the knowledge gained from eating the fruit from that tree would be beautifully evil, against and contrary to God, completely opposite to God’s will for the man. God told Adam that he would surely die if he ate of the fruit of this tree.
Adam's life, from God's point of view, was conditional upon Adam not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but of every other tree of the garden he could freely eat. Adam could eat of the fruit from the tree of life whenever he wanted to. He had free access to it. God did not place any restriction on eating from this tree. We have already seen that God is Holy Spirit and He gave Adam holy spirit, and thereby God and Adam had a holy-spirit connection whereby they could communicate with each other spiritually. They had a very close relationship.
Verses 21-25:
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
This is the record of the first woman (the feminine-form of the masculine word translated as "man") being formed and made; and she, the female, was to be a helper to Adam, the male. She was taken from Adam's flesh, which includes the bone, so that together they were one flesh, the same flesh. She corresponded to him so that he was not alone (Genesis 2:18 and 20), and vice versa. Adam and his woman/wife were in the garden of Eden and they both had holy spirit-life (Genesis 1:27) and soul-life and a body. They were both naked, having nothing to hide physically or behavior-wise or spiritually, and they were not ashamed of themselves before God or one-another.
Genesis chapter 3 provides additional information about the man and the woman.
Genesis 3:1-6:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
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.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
The word "serpent" is used as a name to describe the devil/satan in this situation. He has many different names corresponding to the different characteristics, attributes, activities, etc, which that particular name describes relative to the specific situation or circumstance (refer also to Revelation chapters 12 and 20).
The literal serpent (snake, reptile) was made on the sixth day along with the man and the animals, etc, which God made on that day, and the snake was known to be thoughtful, sensible, intellectual, and perceptive in its activities.
The devil/satan is today an evil spirit-being and he continues to be in total opposition to the only true God and all the things of God. However, we should realize that he originally was made by God a beautiful, bright and glorious angel (spirit-being; refer to Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19; II Corinthians 11:14; Revelation chapter 12, and 20:2.)
Here at the beginning of chapter 3, the serpent (literally: snake; figuratively referring to the devil, satan) which was more subtle (prudent, wise, crafty) than any beast (living being) of the field, approached the woman and began to talk to her. There is no record of the woman being shocked or frightened that he would speak to her and she could understand him.
The first thing he said was a statement questioning what God had said. In Genesis chapter 2 we read what God had commanded the man, Adam, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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."
Following the devil's statement, the woman responded to him. But, the command God gave to the man was not the same as what the woman replied to the devil's statement. Plus the devil's stated outcome of both the man and woman doing what God said not to do, is not the same as God's stated outcome to Adam. God had said, "Thou shalt surely die" – but the devil said, "Ye shall not surely die." One is a direct contradiction to the other. The devil’s words are directed to both the woman and the man – plural “ye.” The devil's lie is the foundation of spiritism or spiritualism and the wrong traditional thinking as regards sin and death.
The devil also said (concerning the outcome of doing what God said not to do) that the man's and the woman's eyes would be opened, and they would become as gods, knowing good and evil, and he said that God knew it! Had God told Adam this? No! God had told Adam, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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." We should note that the Hebrew for the word "God" and "gods," which the devil used in Genesis 3:1 and 5, is Elohim – the word which God used to describe Himself as the Creator in Genesis 1:1 and following!
From God's point of view, if Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then Adam would surely die; there was no question or doubt about it. God had not given anymore information, so where did the devil come up with his analysis of the situation? It did not come from God - it came from the devil himself. The devil was doing what God told him not to do, and the devil knew his own evil plan and his anticipated outcome if the man would do what he told him to do, instead of doing what God told him. The devil was offering access to his evil, doing the same as what he was doing in total opposition to God.
The woman believed the opposing information that the devil gave to her. She wanted this knowledge and she did what he said. She demonstrated her willingness to partake of it by picking the fruit with her hand and then she ate the fruit (the produce, that-which is produced) of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, instead of continuing to believe the information God had given Adam and doing what God said.
She went against God's information and listened to the devil's information. She saw that the tree was good for food (there was plenty of fruit), and that it was pleasant to her eyes (it looked really pleasing), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (to act wisely). She used her flesh (her body and soul) to make her decision to believe (have faith in, trust) and obey (listen-attentively and then carry-out what she heard, which was) what the devil had told her, to the exclusion of what her man Adam had told her. Also, she did not listen to the holy spirit-life within her, which God had given her so that God and she could communicate with each other regarding things; she could have gone over and eaten from the tree of life instead.
In responding to the devil's statement questioning that-which God had given to be believed, the woman first took away from God's Word by omitting the word "freely" (which showed God's grace and bountifulness; she did not say what God said; Hebrew: "eating you may eat"). Then she added to God's Word by saying that He had said "neither shall ye touch it," and she continued to change (alter) this important part of God's commandment – she said that God said "lest ye die"! God had said, "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" (Hebrew: "dying you will die"). The woman did not have God's true Word left by the time she was finished replying to the serpent.
The woman's decision was to believe what the serpent had given her to believe, and she obeyed the lie that he had spoken. Then the Bible says that she gave also to her husband who was with her. The woman offered the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to Adam. Adam was given an alternative to what God said – would he believe what God had given him to believe, or would he believe what the devil had given the woman to believe?
Adam had a choice: either believe what God said or believe what the serpent said - and do accordingly.
The result of continuing to believe and obey what God said would have been to live and continue in all that God made available to him and continue within God's goodness accomplishing all that God would ask him to accomplish as regards the spirit realm and the natural/physical realm.
The result of believing and obeying what the devil said would be, according to God: to surely die – but according to the devil it would be: to not surely die. The devil also said (concerning the outcome of doing what God said not to do) that the man's and the woman's eyes would be opened, and they would become as gods, just like he was making himself as a god - rejecting the only true God and making their own judgments, putting themselves in God's place as far as they were concerned - idolatry.
Was the state of being as God or a god something that Adam should seek to attain? Is knowing “good and evil” the qualifier for becoming as God? God had not said this to Adam. The only true God was Adam’s God. Adam knew God Who is truly good; in fact he had the image of God within him; he had a holy spirit connection with God; he could eat from the tree of life.
God had already told Adam about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam knew it was there and he knew that it was wrong to eat from that tree and what the consequence was if he would eat that fruit – death. However, it was only when he heard what the serpent gave the woman to believe about this tree and about the consequences of eating from it, that Adam rejected what God had given him to believe and decided to change his mind and believe what the devil had given to believe.
Adam did not go over to the tree of life and eat its fruit instead at this time, which would have shown that he was continuing to do God’s will and gain the nourishment, etc, preserving his life. Adam did not make use of the holy spirit-life God had given him to talk to God about what was happening and to get and accept help from God Who created and made and formed him.
God's words are truth - so what were the devil's words? They were a lie - false! Any information which is contrary to what God has given to be believed is not truth; it is a lie, a fallacy, false.
Even though the woman had already eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and would therefore receive the consequence of doing that, Adam could have said “no” to doing the same thing. But he decided to do what the woman had already done and that was to eat the fruit (the produce, that-which is produced) of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He willingly accepted and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Verse 7 explains what happened once they ate and experienced the effects of the produce from that tree.
Verse 7:
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Something changed! Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked, and then they worked to cover-up and hide their nakedness. They had known that they had no clothes on their physical bodies before this event (Genesis 2:25), but now they were perceiving from a different viewpoint, the serpent’s evil. They had excluded God in their lives. Then they tried to cover-up the natural, physical, flesh category by sewing fig leaves together and making aprons for themselves.
[Reference: Romans 5:12, 6:23, 8:3; I Corinthians 15:21 and 22.]
Verses 8-10:
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Adam and his wife/woman heard the voice (sound) of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day - and what did they do? They hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. They hid themselves from God! God had to call out to Adam and ask, "Where are you?" – because Adam was not in the position (place) where God had asked him to be. Adam was not doing what he was asked by God to do! There is no record of God having to do this previously, nor of Adam or the woman hiding themselves from God's presence.
Adam then tried to explain and rationalize his actions and said that he did hear God's voice in the garden but he was afraid! This is the first record of man having fear - he knew there were consequences as a result of the performance of wrong behavior.
Adam said he was afraid because he was naked and so he hid himself from God. Adam was not oblivious to the truth and fact that he had disobeyed God's words directly given to him (refer to Job 31:33) – Adam knew it. He had heard what God said to him and he decided to go-against what he heard. Now Adam was not seeing or looking-at himself and everything else from God's holy spirit realm's viewpoint as he had been previously doing.
Verse 11:
And he [God] said, Who told thee [Adam] that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Following the response from Adam, God asked him had he eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which He had commanded him not to eat, since this was the only reason why Adam would have said such a thing to God. God gave Adam the opportunity to tell Him.
Verse 12:
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
In reply to God's question, the man, Adam, didn’t say that he was sorry, but he told God that it was the woman whom God had given to him who gave him to eat of the tree – and then Adam said that he did eat of it. Adam's reply was to let God know that it was He Who gave Adam the woman and it was the woman who gave him of the tree, and as a result of all that – yes, he did eat of the tree which God had directly commanded him that he should not eat. Adam did not mention anything about the serpent!
Verse 13:
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
God did not respond to Adam's reply to him, but instead God spoke to the woman and asked her a question, "What is this that thou hast done?" God gave her the opportunity to tell Him, and the woman replied that it was the serpent which beguiled her and she did eat.
[Reference: II Corinthians 11:3 and 14; I Timothy 2:14.]
Adam had not said that he was beguiled by the woman nor by the serpent. Adam was not seduced as the woman had been seduced (thoroughly deluded) by the serpent's words. Adam made a free-will decision in his mind to believe and obey what the serpent had told the woman. He had made a deliberate choice being fully-aware of what he was doing and the consequence of such an action against God from God’s viewpoint, for God had previously let him know what would happen if he went against God’s will.
God did not reply to the woman's answer either. What happened next?
Verse 14(a):
And the Lord God said unto the serpent...
God said unto what? The serpent! He was still there in the garden of Eden in the presence of the only true God while He was speaking to Adam and the woman. At that time the devil had the right to be in God’s presence.
Verses 14 and 15:
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
As soon as the woman told God that it was the serpent who beguiled her, God did not ask him any question – but He spoke to the serpent as recorded in verses 14 and 15.
God pronounced sentence on the being described as the "serpent": he was cursed even more-than all cattle and more-than every living-being of the field - this is in contrast to his description in Genesis 3:1. He would go upon his belly and eat dust all the days of his life – literally as a snake described in verse 14, but figuratively referring to the fact that the devil would be utterly humiliated and constantly disappointed and experience failure, always reminded of what he did against God and against mankind, and never being able to stand and rise above or away-from it (refer to the figure of speech also in Psalm 44:25 and 72:9).
A ‘curse’ refers to what is spoken against another that would be harmful to the recipient if/when it would come to pass. It can be a judgment pronounced by God down against a person, thing, or situation who/which would violate what He says – or for men, an imprecation made against someone, prayer or supplication for something to come to pass against some person, thing, or situation, invoking something against another that would be harmful to the recipient if/when it would happen.
[Reference: Genesis 3:14-19, 12:3; Numbers 22:12, 23:8, 24:9; Deuteronomy 11:26-28, 30:19; Matthew 25:41; Luke 6:28; Romans 12:14.]
In Genesis 3:15, while God was still speaking to the devil, God made it known that He (God Himself) will put enmity (opposition, hostility)...
- between the devil
- and between the devil's seed
- and the seed of the woman (not the woman herself but the seed) will bruise the devil's head (which consequently includes his seed also),
- and the devil will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman.
What or who is God referring to when He talked about "her seed" - the seed of the woman? Usually a woman does not have a seed as sperm, she has eggs. Naturally it is when a sperm from a man impregnates an egg of a woman that a child, an offspring, is produced. God did not talk about the seed of the man but about the seed of the woman. God is referring to a woman who would bear a child, but a human man would not be this offspring's father. God is speaking about the coming Christ, the Messiah, the savior, who was to be born of a woman (Mary) but Joseph was not his father. Mary conceived when the Holy Spirit (Who is God Himself) overshadowed her (Luke 1:26-38), and about nine months afterwards she gave birth to Jesus, the son of God, and this Jesus is now both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
Genesis 3:15 is the first mention God made of the coming savior (the Christ), and this seed of the woman (the son of God) would bruise/crush the head of the serpent (the devil, satan), which figuratively emphasizes that Christ will destroy him permanently, complete destruction. Christ will put an end to the devil’s plans for himself and his purposes of hindering the only true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God's children and all the things of God.
God also foretold that the devil would hurt the promised seed, the Christ, and referred to it in the figure of speech as bruising his heel – he would hurt him but not permanently – only temporarily. We know now that the devil did have Jesus Christ crucified, but we also know that God raised him up from the dead giving him his spiritual-body, never to die again. Now the devil is under his feet and at a future time Christ will bruise the devil’s head, he will destroy him and it will be permanent.
For detailed information, you may read my studies on I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians, I Corinthians chapter 15, and the Book of Revelation. Also reference: John 8:44, 10:10; II Corinthians 11:3 and 14; I John 3:8; Revelation 12:9.
In the garden of Eden, God made known His plan of redemption and salvation regarding mankind and overcoming the devil, in the presence of the man and the woman, while addressing the serpent/devil/satan.
Verses 16-19:
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
God spoke to the woman and told her regarding her life in the physical realm from that time onwards until the promised seed would fully redeem mankind. God then spoke to the man, Adam, and confronted him about doing that-which God Himself had commanded him not to do, and God told him the results of his unbelief and disobedience of what God had given him to believe and to obey. God also told Adam of his physical death which was going to happen to him – he would return to dust.
This is the first mention of natural death, the death of his flesh (soul-life and body). Adam's sin against God allowed the devil to gain the power of death over mankind.
[Reference: Genesis 2:7; Psalm 103:14, 146:4; Ecclesiastes 12:7; I Corinthians 15:45-58; Hebrews 2:14. Adam is not listed in Hebrews chapter 11.]
Also, it is the first mention of the earth being thorned and thistled, etc. God's creation of the earth (recorded in Genesis 1:1 - 2:3) was overthrown by the serpent/devil/satan and mankind, and it got to where only Noah and his family (8 people altogether) were saved in the flood about 1,650 years after Adam was created.
Today also it is progressively getting worse – but this will only continue until God’s promised seed, the Christ, will accomplish all of what God said he would do, and then the new heaven and new earth will come to pass.
[Reference: Romans 8:19-24(a); II Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1ff.]
Verses 20 and 21:
And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
In these verses we read of Adam naming his wife, the woman, and he named her "Eve" which means "life" or "life-spring" because she would be the mother of all of mankind who would live after her – one of whom was promised by God to be the Christ. It is interesting to note that the name "Eve" only occurs 4 times: Genesis 3:21, 4:1; II Corinthians 11:3; and I Timothy 2:13.
By Adam naming her "Eve" this shows us that Adam believed what God said in verse 15 regarding the seed of the woman, the coming savior/redeemer, the one who would rescue and deliver mankind from the catastrophe which they had caused for themselves by believing and obeying the serpent/devil/satan's lie.
Also, God continued to love mankind and continued to demonstrate it even in the natural/physical realm by making coats of skins and clothing Adam and Eve, which was much better than the aprons made of fig leaves which Adam and Eve had done for themselves. God was teaching them how to behave themselves in the physical category as they awaited the seed of the woman.
Verses 22-24:
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
In verse 22 God directs the reader's special attention to what He is saying. God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever….”
The man, Adam, had decidedly taken, eaten, and gained access to evil by willingly doing what God had told him NOT to do. Adam now knew evil experientially and would continue to be given evil via the flesh (body and soul parts of mankind) by the serpent/devil/satan. He had believed and accepted for himself what the serpent gave him to believe = the lie (as though the devil would keep mankind alive by making himself god).
God still loved the man He had made, and therefore God wanted to continue to take-care of him. However, because of what had already happened, God said that lest the man, Adam, put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever…. God did not allow the remainder of this sentence to be recorded in Scripture, but He stopped mid-sentence, and there is a sudden silence which is a figure of speech and thus emphasizes the result as being unspeakable!
While Adam and the woman were in the garden they had free access to the tree of life, but now their flesh had been damaged because they had eaten of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were not as God had originally made them, and they had done this by their own freedom of will.
[Reference: Romans 3:23, 5:12-21, 8:3; I Corinthians 15:21 and 22. Also refer to Genesis 2:9, 3:22 and 24, and Revelation 2:7, 22:2 and 14 specifically for the tree of life.]
Genesis 3:22-24 is the record of God taking his holy spirit away from mankind. Adam could not have access to God’s tree of life anymore; he could not eat its fruit to give him its nourishment, sustenance, health, etc.
If the man, Adam, were to continue to have free access and put-forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, after he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then he would live for the age, the duration of his physical life, still having access to and partaking of all that God had originally given to him – and this would be in total contradiction to what God had said would be the outcome of his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! In Genesis 2:17 God had said, “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.”
Therefore, God sent the man, Adam, forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken (the rest of the earth). God drove the man, Adam, out (also including his wife, the woman) and He placed (as in a tabernacle, dwelling-place) at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim (some of God's created spirit-beings) and the flaming sword which turned every way effectively preserving the way of the tree of life – the tree consisting-of, issuing, supporting and continuing the life given from God, Who is the source, to the one partaking of it.
God took His image out from mankind blocking their access to the tree of life. The closest that Adam and the woman could now come to God was the entrance where the Cherubim and the flaming sword were put by God.
Of course God could come to them at any time in any place during their physical lives. Later, as recorded in Genesis chapters 7 and 8, paradise was destroyed by the flood and so God instructed mankind how to meet and worship Him at different times. Jerusalem became the chosen city, and in Acts chapter 2 holy spirit-life was made available to mankind on a permanent basis. In the future, as recorded in the Book of Revelation chapters 21 and 22, there will be a new Jerusalem on earth so that all who will receive new spiritual bodies will live within it with our God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
God carried-out His words in order to protect mankind and preserve the future availability of the redemption of mankind from the power of the devil back to God. God promised the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 - the plan of redemption was underway.
[Reference: I Corinthians 15:45 and 50-57.]
If God did not do what He said He would do upon Adam’s eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then mankind would have lived from that day forward never gaining all that God had planned in Christ Jesus regarding mankind as stated in Genesis 3:15, and the serpent/devil/satan would have conquered all the purposes of God pertaining to mankind both in the spirit realm and in the physical realm.
Before Adam's fall, he and the woman had access to the tree of life, but since the fall mankind does not have access to the tree of life until God will make it available by means of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Reference: Revelation 2:7, 22:2 and 14.]
We know today that the Lord Jesus Christ has been given a position above/over all the angels (including authority over the devil who used to be a beautiful bright angelic spirit-being and all his devils/demons), plus the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed Adam's position of being God's man on earth and all that this involves.
[Reference: Romans 8:29; I Corinthians 15:45 and 49; II Corinthians 3:18, 4:4; Colossians 1:15, 3:10 and 11.]
God had said that in the day that Adam would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die – the devil had said that they would not surely die - who was right? The only true God was right because the first man, Adam, and the woman DIED that day.
From God's point of view the man, Adam, and the woman died that day – they died in the most important life they had – they no longer had the holy spirit-life which God had given to them. Their holy spirit did not die but God had to take it back from them and so they no longer had it, they no longer had access to God via holy spirit, as God had warned Adam. They no longer had access to the tree of life.
Adam and the woman were no longer three-part beings. Now they only had two parts – their soul-life and their fleshy-bodies. They were living souls just the same as the other creatures that were made when mankind was made (Genesis 1:24 and 25) because they no longer had that third part which God had originally given to them (Genesis 1:26-29). They no longer were in the image of God. They no longer had holy spirit-life within them. They could behave like God only to a certain degree on the earth if they would do what God would ask them to do from that time onwards.
Adam is the one to whom God gave his command (Genesis 2:16 and 17), and therefore when Adam refused to believe and obey what God told him but instead decided to believe and obey the serpent/devil/satan, Adam forfeited his right to have the image of God within him (and the right of all mankind after him, including the woman in the garden with him), and his right to have “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
[Reference: Matthew 4:1-11.]
Yes, they did surely die – they died spiritually during that day; and Adam delivered the “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” to the devil - plus Adam began to die physically.
The body and soul mankind is old and dead from God’s viewpoint and will become completely extinct. The new man is the Lord Jesus Christ who has received his new body with its holy spirit-life (not soul-life) – he is alive. In order for any other member of the old and dead mankind to live eternally with God and the Lord Jesus Christ, he/she must be given a new spiritual body with its holy spirit-life.
[Reference: I Corinthians chapter 15; Philippians 3:21; Colossians chapter 1; Revelation chapters 20-22.]
In Genesis 3:5 the serpent had also said that they would be as gods. Having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they could see things for the first time from evil's point of view. Their eyes, figuratively referring to their fleshy minds, were opened – to what? Evil. They experienced going against God, excluding and rejecting Him. They became as false gods because they had willingly received and partook of the evil which the serpent offered to them.
They had decided to make themselves and the serpent their gods (idolatry) making their own judgments – rejecting God, His image which He had given to them, His Word and His will regarding their lives. They chose to make their decisions based on what they heard from the serpent via the flesh, instead of making their decisions based on what they heard from God.
They crossed the line from what God had given-to and made-for mankind to utilize and experience. In their own eyes they became as gods knowing good and evil – but this was a lie too because there is no other true God except the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the One Who has all of His true wisdom regarding what is good and what is evil.
It is clear that the devil had indeed issued his lie (refer also to Romans 1:25; II Thessalonians 2:11). The devil attempted to put himself as the one to be believed, and that he was the one to give them wisdom, knowledge, life, the power not to die, and that he would give them the ability to be gods, receiving their direction from him and thereby making himself "the God" in the place of the only true God!
The woman was wholly deceived by the serpent's words, but Adam willfully decided to believe and obey what the serpent said to the woman in the place of what God had said to him. Adam and the woman both died that day in the most important realm there is: the realm of God Who is Holy Spirit; plus their soul-life and bodies became corruptible and would eventually die returning to dust.
[Reference: I Corinthians 15:50.]
God did the best that was available to be done for them at that time in their "fallen" condition of not having holy spirit-life within their bodies, until the salvation that the promised seed of the woman would accomplish, at which time God by means of the Christ would give mankind the opportunity to be "clothed" with permanent holy spirit-life and to receive spiritual-bodies which would be far superior to anything available in the physical and fleshy realm without God.
Because Adam and his woman still existed with only soul and body, some people may claim that what the serpent said was the truth and so they believe the lie spoken by the serpent, instead of believing what God said and continues to say.
The devil does not want people to know...
- the truth about God Who is Holy Spirit,
- or the truth about His son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
- or the truth about God's gift of holy spirit which is now available to mankind on a permanent, unconditional basis as a result of all that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished,
- or the truth about sin and its consequences, spiritual death, physical death,
- or the truth about resurrection and hope,
- or the truth about all that will happen when the Lord Jesus Christ will come to be present.
[Reference: I Corinthians chapter 15; Revelation chapters 19-22.]
The results or consequences of Adam's willful transgression of a direct commandment of God were and are still numerous. The greatest consequence was that Adam and Eve died that day, they no longer had the holy spirit-life which God had given to them. They no longer had that close spiritual connection and relationship with God.
Also, the physical part of man, his fleshy body, would now return to the dust/earth from whence it came, the same dust/earth upon which the serpent was cursed to move upon and eat. The earth was cursed, and so all the other living souls, animals, birds, fish, etc, that live on the earth would have physical consequences. The man would have consequences and the woman would have consequences and the serpent would have consequences.
God issued His promise recorded in Genesis 3:15, before He drove mankind out from the garden (paradise) of Eden. God gave them the promise of the seed of the woman, the Christ, and all that he would accomplish relative to mankind and the serpent – the physical and the spirit realms.
Adam's sin was that he knowingly and willfully refused to believe and obey what God had told him directly, and instead he decided to believe and obey what the devil told him indirectly via the woman who had already transgressed God’s command. Adam wanted to be a god, like the serpent/devil/satan wants to take the place of the only true God. He willfully transgressed (stepped-aside) from what God had commanded him. Adam knew the consequences of believing and accepting and doing what the devil said from God's viewpoint before he did anything! Adam willfully stepped-aside from what God had directly given him to believe, and so he rejected the holy spirit-life which God had given to him (refer also to Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:22; I Timothy 2:14).
Eve, on the other hand, heard directly from the serpent and was seduced, wholly-deceived or thoroughly-beguiled by him. She was convinced that she was doing the "right thing," and so refused the words that God had given to Adam and rejected the holy spirit-life which God had given to her, and instead she believed and obeyed the words the devil told her (refer also to I Timothy 2:14).
God took His holy spirit away-from the man (and consequently from the woman also) and God removed mankind from His presence and from the tree of life in paradise. Mankind’s fleshy body with its soul-life was also cursed to death (just as the serpent was). This was the fall of the first man, Adam.
[Reference: Romans 3:23, 5:12-21, 6:6-9 and 23, 8:3; I Corinthians 15:22, 45-48 and 50; II Corinthians 11:3; I Timothy 2:12-14.]
Adam was the one to whom God spoke directly with His instructions, and the consequences of Adam's sin was passed along to every man and woman who has ever lived. Male and female are born with only soul-life and a body but they are missing the holy spirit-life which Adam and Eve had been given (Genesis 1:27). They are missing the spirit from God that would have given them the means of spirit communication with God.
Since the time of Adam until the day of Pentecost, whenever God wanted to communicate with a man or a woman, God had to either put something into manifestation, e.g. a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire, or else He would give holy spirit to that person for the period of time when that person would listen to, believe and obey what God would give them to believe and obey. It was God's prerogative to allow holy spirit to be in a person any time during their earthly lifetime, whether it may be from the time of their birth all the way through to the time when they were an old man or woman, or only for a few hours!
Also, man's environment began to get harder to live in, and then the flood greatly and rapidly affected the atmosphere and earth, and even today it continues in this way. But in the future when God's promise fully comes to pass the environment for mankind will be better than it was in the garden of Eden, the new heaven and new earth will be instituted, and mankind will have spiritual bodies like the Lord Jesus Christ has already received - we will be in the Paradise/Garden of God, the new Jerusalem(refer to the Book of Revelation chapter 21:1 onwards).
Because the savior, the Christ, was born of a woman, and because he lived his life as God requested of him before and after he received holy spirit, and he endured crucifixion and death both spiritually and physically, and because God raised him from the dead giving him his spiritual body – God has made available the gift of holy spirit to mankind by means of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now second-in-command to the only true God at God's right-hand side on God’s throne.
Since the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2), which was fifty days after Christ's resurrection, any man and any woman can receive this holy spirit-life from God when they believe what God says. The gift is given by the grace of God whenever a person believes what God has given mankind to believe regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ –
Romans 10:9 and 10: (TBS)
.9that if-ever you may express-agreement in your mouth (regarding the) Lord Jesus Christ and you may believe in your heart that God raised him up out-from dead-people you will be saved; .10for in (the) heart it is believed into righteousness and in (the) mouth agreement-is-expressed into salvation.
This person receives holy spirit-life. The gift of holy spirit makes the person who receives it a child of God by seed; it is the spirit of Christ - it cannot be taken away; it cannot be lost; it cannot die!
Adam, the first man, did not accomplish all of what God wanted him to accomplish. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the promised seed of Genesis 3:15 (the second and last man, refer to I Corinthians 15:45-48), is the one who has redeemed all of what Adam lost and he has made available the gift of holy spirit to mankind on a permanent basis, plus many more blessings which God can now give to mankind. The Lord Jesus Christ has been given the position of being at God's right-hand side, the bright and morning star. Christ is the image of God.
[Reference: Romans 8:29; I Corinthians 15:49; II Corinthians 3:18, 4:4; Ephesians 1:19-23; Philippians 2:9-11; Colossians 1:15, 3:10.]
Those who do not currently have holy spirit-life within them are dead spiritually because they lack life – God's life. The present fleshy man, the old man, the first Adam and his offspring, became liable to death, mortal, and corruptible when mankind rejected God and He drove mankind out from the garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3. It is only a matter of time before that fleshy man will be completely destroyed (refer to Revelation chapter 20).
The second and last Adam (man), who is the Lord Jesus Christ, became a reality when God raised him from among the rest of the dead-people giving him his new spiritual body, the life of which is holy spirit-life. All people who believed during a past time, or who believe during the present time, or who will believe in the future, what God says regarding Himself and His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, must be changed into having spiritual bodies in order to live in the new heaven and earth recorded in the Book of Revelation chapters 21 and 22.
[Reference: I Corinthians chapter 15; II Corinthians 5:14-17; Philippians 3:20 and 21; Colossians 1:13-20.]
Any person who receives holy spirit from God during this age of blessing will never lose it. It is given unconditionally because it is given by the grace of God. This person is now a three-part being, a holy-person (Christian), made up of: holy spirit-life, soul-life, and a body. He/she now has that holy spirit connection with God and stands in His grace being His child and He is his/her Father; plus in the future every holy-person will receive his/her spiritual body.
[Reference: Genesis 5:1-3, 9:6; Exodus 33:18ff; Psalm 51:11 and 12; Isaiah 63:8-14; Luke chapter 24; Acts 1:1-11, 2:1-4; Romans 1:23, 3:23, 5:14, 6:5 and 6, 8:3, 10, 23, and 29; I Corinthians 11:7-12 and chapter 15; II Corinthians 3:16-18, 4:4, 5:17-21, 11:3; Galatians 5:22 and 23; Philippians 2:5-11, and 3:21; Colossians chapter 1, specifically verses 15 and 27, and 3:10; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 2:8-15; Hebrews chapter 1 and 10:1-23; James 3:9.]
GLORY and THANKS be to GOD
