Genesis 3:8-24: The Fallout of the Fall

Genesis 3:8-24: The Fallout of the Fall

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis 3:8-24. It says,

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, your law is perfect, reviving the soul. Your testimony is sure, making wise the simple. Your precepts are right, giving joy to the heart. And your commandments are pure, enlightening the eyes. So, please, as we dig into your Word this morning, revive our souls, give wisdom to our minds, impart joy to our hearts, and enlighten our eyes. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

The famed Christian apologist C. S. Lewis once wrote that “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.” Lewis wrote this line in an essay he delivered to the Oxford Socratic Club in 1962. And I’d actually like to read a portion of the essay leading up to this line so that we can better grasp what Lewis is saying. It’s an extended quote and requires some deliberate mental energy to understand, but I believe it’s incredibly worthwhile. 

Lewis writes, “I was taught at school, when I had done a sum, to ‘prove my answer’. The proof or verification of my Christian answer to the cosmic sum is this. When I accept Theology I may find difficulties, at this point or that, in harmonizing it with some particular truths which are imbedded in the [worldview] derived from science. But I can get in, or allow for, science as a whole….If, on the other hand, I swallow the scientific [worldview] as a whole, then not only can I not fit in Christianity, but I cannot even fit in science. If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on bio-chemistry, and bio-chemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees. And this is to me the final test. This is how I distinguish dreaming and waking. When I am awake I can, in some degree, account for and study my dream. The dragon that pursued me last night can be fitted into my waking world. I know that there are such things as dreams: I know that I had eaten an indigestible dinner: I know that a man of my reading might be expected to dream of dragons. But while in the night mare I could not have fitted in my waking experience. The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world: the dreaming world is judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason I am certain that in passing from the scientific point of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality, and the sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”

Now, if you got kind of lost in that extended quote, don’t worry. The point Lewis is trying to get across is that one indicator that Christianity is true is that it makes sense of so many things in this world. In fact, unlike other philosophies, Christianity makes sense of everything that we see and experience. It explains why our world is the way it is and why we are the way we are. It answers life’s biggest questions in a profoundly satisfying way. 

And, as we’re going to see this morning, a key passage for several of these answers is Genesis 3:8-24. You know, people might wonder, why is there so much suffering and hardship and even evil in this world? Why do people get cancer or have brain injuries or suffer abuse? Or, to tie it to current events, why do tragedies like Hurricane Ian happen and bring massive destruction? Why are people like Vladimir Putin willing to inflict such devastation in the pursuit of their own glory? The ultimate answer to all of these questions is found here in Genesis 3. 

Last week, in looking at the first part of this chapter, we saw the serpent, under Satan’s influence, successfully persuading Eve to disobey God by eating from the tree of which God had commanded her not to eat. And Adam also followed her into sin by eating of that same fruit. This is an event that theologians call “the Fall”—because humanity fell into sin. So, that was the title of the previous message—“The Fall.” And now, the title of this message is “The Fallout of the Fall,” because it describes the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God—not only for them but for the entire created order. In many ways, it really is like nuclear fallout. You know, if a nuclear weapon is detonated in a populated area, the initial blast kills a massive number of people. Yet the radioactive fallout of that initial explosion is even more deadly and can make an entire geographic area uninhabitable for a long time. Likewise, Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God has had consequences on a cosmic scale—consequences that have echoed throughout the corridors of all subsequent history and that affect your life and my life extensively every single day. 

So let’s pick up the story in verse 8, which describes the immediate aftermath of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. It says, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” So, immediately, Adam and Eve experience something they’ve never experienced before—a sense of shame. And the sound of God walking in the garden that would have previously brought them so much joy now brings them dread. 

Then, verses 9-11: 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Obviously, God already knows the answers to these questions but is seeking to draw Adam out and get him to confess what he’s done. By the way, that’s a great approach to take when we’re trying to minister to others, especially those of us who are parents with younger children. Whenever possible, use thoughtful questions to lead your children to recognize their sin for what it is and to confess that sin. Draw them out with the kinds of questions that we see here in these verses. 

Unfortunately, though, Adam and Eve don’t respond very well. We read in verses 12-13, 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So, both of them try to shift the blame, don’t they? Instead of taking responsibility for their disobedience, both of them try to point the finger at someone else and say, “It was their fault.” Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent. And, in fact, if you read closely, you can even detect in Adam’s answer a hint of accusation against God. Adam says that his sin is the fault of…who? “The woman who you gave to be with me”—as if it’s God’s fault for putting such a woman in the garden. 

And, dear friends, isn’t that our tendency as well—to shift the blame for our sin, to make excuses for our sin, to try to justify our sin or at least make it seem not as bad as it really is? How often, for example, do you hear people blaming their circumstances for the sinful things they do? One particular tendency that seems to be especially common right now is when people focus on victimhood as the reason why they sin or why others sin. So you might hear things like, “Oh, the reason why I cheated on my spouse is because of the difficult upbringing I had and the childhood abuse I suffered,” or maybe, “The reason why this person stole something is because they’re a victim of systemic injustice.” We really are living in a culture of victimhood. So, those are just a few of the ways in which it seems like we’re always looking for shift the blame for our sin—just like Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. 

Yet, as we continue on in Genesis 3, we see that God isn’t buying any of it and is instead committed to holding people responsible for the sins they commit. And, because of that, he announces some of the consequences for first the serpent, then the woman, and then the man. 

Look at verses 14-15: 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” So the curse God pronounces on the serpent includes not only crawling on its belly and eating dust but also a fatal injury to its head by the offspring of the woman. And notice the singular pronoun used to refer to the woman’s offspring: “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” So this is a reference not just to the totality of the woman’s offspring but to one of her descendants in particular. And, looking back on this passage through the lens of the New Testament, we now know that descendant to be none other than Jesus. Satan would succeed in giving Jesus a painful bruise on his heel, as it were, in his death on the cross. But Jesus would give Satan a fatal bruise on his head, so to speak, by victoriously resurrecting from the dead. 

God then speaks to the woman in verse 16: To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” So, God announces consequences in two of the areas that are traditionally most important to a woman: childbearing and marriage. Regarding marriage, as we discussed a few weeks ago, this is one of the key reasons for marital conflict. The woman will “desire” to usurp the husband’s place as the leader in the relationship, and the husband will seek to “rule” over her in a sinful and domineering way. 

Then, finally, God turns to Adam in verses 17-19: 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” So, just as God announced consequences in two of the areas that are often most important to the woman—childbearing and marriage—he now pronounces consequences related to what’s usually one of the most foundational elements of a man’s life—his work. Work existed before the Fall, but now, work will be hard. Not only that, God also says that people are now going to die. They came from the dust, God says, and it’s to dust that they’ll return. 

Then, in the subsequent verses, God expels the man and woman from the garden, picturing the broken relationship that they now have with God. Instead of being close to God, they’re alienated from God. So the message that should just jump off the page from all of these verses is that sin has consequences. Many times, Satan will try to convince us that there won’t ever be a price to pay for our sin—sort of a “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” kind of mentality. Remember, the serpent had told Eve straight up in Genesis 3:4, “You will not surely die.” Yet, we see here that that couldn’t be more wrong. Likewise, for us today, even if we end up receiving God’s forgiveness for our sins, we still experience earthly consequences for our sins. The promiscuous person might be forgiven for their promiscuity but still have an STD, the drunk driver might be forgiven for his drunkenness and irresponsibility but still have a very large fine to pay, the habitual gossip might be forgiven for her gossip but still not have the trust of those around her. Sin has consequences. 

And that brings us to the main idea that we’ve really been stating in different ways repeatedly as we’ve walked through this text—that Adam and Eve’s rebellion had devastating consequences for them and all creation. That’s the main idea of this passage. Adam and Eve’s rebellion had devastating consequences for them and all creation. Instead of pleasure, they’ll now have pain. Instead of harmonious relationships, they’ll now have dysfunctional relationships. Instead of easy work, they’ll now have toilsome work. Instead of closeness to God, they’ll now be alienated from God. And instead of life, they’ll now have death. 

In fact, every painful and difficult thing that we experience in this world can ultimately be traced back to the events of Genesis 3. This is why there’s so much suffering and hardship in the world. This is why people get sick. This is why natural disasters happen. This is why our world today is such a broken place. Adam and Eve’s rebellion had devastating consequences not just for them but for all creation. The nuclear weapon that was detonated in Genesis 3 has resulted in radioactive fallout being spread all over the world and throughout all subsequent generations. 

Yet, one of the biggest consequences of the Fall is something we haven’t talked about yet. It’s that every one of us now has a fallen and sinful nature that we’ve inherited from Adam. Like a poison, sin entered the human race through Adam and has subsequently been passed down through each generation to all of his descendants. As a result, we carry that poison within us—and it reaches to the very core of our being. We have a sinful nature. And that’s why we sin. So understand that you and I aren’t sinners because we commit sins. Rather, we commit sins because we’re sinners by nature. Those of you who are parents know that you don’t have to teach your kids how to lie, manipulate, or act selfishly. They already know how to do those things. Kind of like a phone that comes with certain apps pre-loaded onto it. Kids already come pre-loaded with sinful tendencies—because of the sinful nature we all possess. 

As David states in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And as Paul writes in Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” He also says in Ephesians 2:1-2: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked….” And, finally, God declares in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” 

So, we’re not just good people who make mistakes once in a while. We’re people who have sinful hearts and, truth be told, have done nothing but sin for our entire lives—because everything we do is tainted in some way by our sinful hearts. So, by the way, the common advice that people often like to give of “follow your heart” is quite possibly some of the worst advice that’s ever been given. 

And this understanding of human nature as sinful is one of the most relevant teachings in the Bible to the lives we live today. First of all, it just fits with the kinds of things that we see in this world. You’ll remember C. S. Lewis’s quote from the beginning about Christianity being the lens through which everything else in this world makes sense. And that’s certainly true with human sinfulness. Why are wickedness and selfishness and conflict and hatred and greed and self-centered ambition so pervasive in this world? Well, it’s because we have a sinful nature. That biblical teaching helps us make sense of what we see all around us. 

Not only that, this biblical teaching of human sinfulness also gives us insight into how best to approach various things that can otherwise be rather challenging to know how to approach. And there are four examples of this I’d like to share with you: four ways in which the biblical teaching of human sinfulness guides us toward wisdom, both as individuals and as societies. And I give these just as a few representative examples among many that we could give. First, our approach to parenting. Many secularly-minded parenting “experts” seem to think that children are inherently good and simply in need of positive guidance in their lives. This usually means guiding them to discover themselves and express themselves as if those were two of the most important things they could ever do. And if a child's behavior is ever harmful to others, we’re then just supposed to reason with them, because certainly every child is reasonable at heart and can therefore choose the right path for themselves if we’ll simply give them good reason to do so. So, the next time your two-year-old throws a temper tantrum, just try to do a better job reasoning with them and see how that works. Thankfully, though, the biblical teaching that we have a sinful nature keeps us from all of those nonsensical ideas about parenting and helps us see that the most loving thing we can do for our children is to correct their foolishness and discipline their disobedience and lead them to joyfully embrace God's wisdom for their lives rather than their own natural inclinations. 

Then a second way the biblical teaching of human sinfulness guides us toward wisdom is related to the emphasis on self-esteem in much modern psychology. This emphasis is so pronounced, it’s even sometimes called “the cult of self-esteem.” We’re told that the key to having a happy and healthy life is to have a sufficient level of self-esteem and that the reason for so many of our difficulties is that we have low self-esteem. Yet, if you read the Bible enough, you might actually come to the conclusion that our issue isn't that our self-esteem is too low but that it’s actually too high—that we already esteem ourselves too highly. Even many of the individuals who might at first seem to have low self-esteem are often actually consumed with themselves. Instead of thinking about how to love and serve others, they're often preoccupied with themselves and their own desires. So maybe the best thing we can do for them isn't to encourage them to have higher self-esteem but rather to direct them to esteem God more highly in their lives. 

Now, moving on from a focus on individuals to a focus on societies, a third way the biblical teaching of human sinfulness guides us toward wisdom is in the economic system we embrace. There are many who believe that communism is the best way to structure a nation’s economy. And I can see the draw of that—especially for those who believe that people are inherently good. If you believe that people are intrinsically good and capable of selflessly working together on a mass scale to achieve some sort of human utopia, then communism seems like a great option. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in. And the biblical teaching of human sinfulness leads us to recognize that and adopt an economic structure that accounts for that. And it’s my personal belief that capitalism does that best. The reason capitalism has historically been so successful because it harnesses our natural self-interest and uses that produce economic benefit. There are also other, more positive, theological reasons why I believe capitalism is the best system, but one reason why it works so well is because it wisely accounts for the self-interest that’s often associated with our sinful nature.  

Then finally, a fourth way the biblical teaching of human sinfulness guides us toward wisdom is with regard to the criminal justice reform efforts that seem to be quite popular in some circles today. On his website, George Soros writes an essay in which he explains that the reason he’s done so much to support what he calls “Reform Prosecutors” is in an effort to get people, especially minorities, to trust the criminal justice system. And he believes that, if we can just persuade historically oppressed groups of people to trust the criminal justice system, then they won’t act in a criminal way any longer. That’s the main argument he makes in his essay.

Yet, this ignores the biblical teaching of human sinfulness. The fact that we have a sinful nature means that we should expect people to be much more likely to commit crimes if they believe they can get away with those crimes. Why not steal if thieves aren’t punished? Why not vandalize someone else’s property for fun if vandals aren’t held accountable? So, I can see how George Soros’s effort to elect “Reform Prosecutors” might be a good idea if people were inherently good and if the problem was simply one of trust between the public and the police. But the problem, of course, is that we’re not inherently good, but rather inherently sinful, and we therefore need to have a reliable and functioning criminal justice system to keep our sinful natures in check. 

Now, please understand that my purpose in sharing these things isn’t any kind of political agenda but rather simply to help us appreciate the immense wisdom we find in the Bible and the way in which embracing biblical teachings equips us for both fruitful living personally and for the wise ordering of society. And these have been just a few representative examples among many we could discuss of how embracing the biblical teaching of human sinfulness can, in some cases, enable us to have more wisdom even than “the experts” when it comes to choosing the wisest and best approaches to various situations. As David says in Psalm 119:99, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.”

However, the main emphasis of the Bible isn’t merely on how to account for the sinful nature in our approach to various things but rather on what God has done and is doing to deliver us from our sin. Through Jesus, we can actually be changed in a fundamental and supernatural way so that, instead of having hearts that are sinful, we can have hearts that love God and that are inclined to follow God’s ways. It’s like God performs a spiritual heart transplant on us, removing our old sinful heart and replacing it with a new heart, which effectively makes us into a new person with new desires, new priorities, and a completely new perspective on life. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Friend, if you’re far from God today, that’s what you need. You don’t just need to clean up your life or develop some healthier habits or try to be a better person. You need to be changed from within. You need to experience a change in your heart that’s so radical, Jesus likens it, in John 3, to being “born again”—or born a second time. Just like, in a physical birth, a new person enters the world, that’s what happens spiritually when Jesus changes a person’s heart. That’s what you need. That’s the only thing that can remedy the sinful nature we inherit as a result of our lineage tracing back to Adam and Eve. 

Yet, that’s not the only problem that needs to be fixed. You see, as a result of our sin, we stand condemned before God. Our sin deserves, and even demands, God’s judgment. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus took that judgment on himself in his death on the cross. When we couldn’t reach up to God, he reached down to us and, in his mercy, sent his own Son Jesus to bear our sins on the cross. Just as, in Genesis 3:21, God had to slaughter an animal in order to clothe Adam and Eve with acceptable garments, Jesus also was slaughtered on the cross as a full and sufficient covering for our sins. That pattern of substitution that began with God’s provision of animal skins for Adam and Eve finds its ultimate fulfillment in the substitution of Jesus on the cross in our place. 

Then, three days later, Jesus rose from the dead as a decisive display of his victory over Satan, sin, and death. As was predicted so many years ago in God’s statement to the serpent, the woman’s offspring would indeed inflict a mortal blow to the head of the serpent’s offspring. And the result of all of this is that those who turn away from their sins and put their trust in Jesus to rescue them can experience eternal life with him in heaven. The closeness t{o God in the Garden of Eden that was lost in Genesis 3 can be regained through Jesus for all eternity. 

As the Apostle Paul explains so well in Romans 5:12-21, just as sin came into the world through the one man Adam, eternal life comes into the world through the one man Jesus. He is what we might call the “second Adam.” Just as the original Adam’s sin resulted in condemnation for the entire human race, the ministry of Jesus results in forgiveness and rescue for all who put their trust in him. 

So, if you haven’t yet received the forgiveness and rescue Jesus offers, I can’t encourage you enough to put your trust in Jesus even today. Again, the message of Christianity isn’t “try harder to be a better person” or “engage in this or that religious ritual” but rather “look to Jesus for rescue.” Sin is like quicksand. The more you fight against it, the deeper into it you sink. Let Jesus pull you out. As Romans 6:23 so famously says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”