The Fall I. The Fact of the Fall
(i) Gen. 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.”
PR OPOSITION: The first man fell
The steps in the Fall were:
(1) Listening to slanders against God.
(2) Doubting God’s word and His love.
(3) Looking at what God had forbidden.
(4) Lusting for what God had prohibited. (The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the vainglory of life, v. 6. Compare Uno. 2: 16.)
(5) Disobeying God’s commandments.
The woman was the first in this deception and transgression. (V. 1, etc.)
(Compare i Tim. 2: 14 — “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. “)
II. Result of the Fall.
(i) Rom. 5: 19, R.V. — “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall many be made righteous.”
The Fall 297
PROPOSITION: Through the one man’s disobedience the many were made (or constituted) sinners.
Adam stood as the representative of the race; indeed, he was the race, and all coming generations were in him. (Compare Heb. 7: 9, 10.) In his fall the race fell. “All sinned.” Rom. 5: 12, R.V. — “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned.”
Many thoughtless infidels say: “I would rather stand for myself.” If you had stood for yourself you would have fallen as Adam did. God’s plan, when we see the whole of it, is far more gracious than this. As the first Adam fell for us, so we all would have done for ourselves; so the second Adam obeyed for us, as none of us would have done if left to stand for ourselves.