Lesson 3 - Sin Enters the World

    Suggested Bible Reading: Genesis, Chapter 3:1-8

    The Deceitfulness of Satan

    The events recorded in Genesis Chapter 3 are some of the saddest and most important truths in the Bible for us to understand. We know that God had placed Adam and Eve in a perfect, beautiful garden. There was no sickness, disease, trouble, or worries. Adam and Eve had a perfect friendship with each other, and they were in perfect fellowship with God. God had given them one command; they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    The Bible says in Genesis 3:1, “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?” Satan is the enemy of God, and he knew that God had commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan hates God, and he hates everything that God has made, so he made a plan to try to destroy Adam and Eve. Satan then took upon himself the form of a serpent and entered into the Garden of Eden and began to talk with Eve. His plan was to trick her and make her think that she didn’t really need to obey God’s command. Watch how Satan succeeded in tricking Eve to sin against God.
    When Satan found Eve, he asked her if God had really said that they could not eat of every tree in the garden. Satan already knew that God had told Eve not to eat from a certain tree in the garden. He was not looking for information from Eve; he was trying to confuse her and make her question God’s instructions. He was trying to cause her to doubt God’s Word. Eve should have ended the conversation immediately, but instead, she thought about Satan’s question.

    When Satan saw that he had succeeded in causing Eve to question what God had said, he then boldly suggested to Eve that God was really lying to her. In Genesis 3:4, Satan told Eve, “ye shall not surely die.” God had clearly warned Adam and Eve that they WOULD DIE if they ate from the tree, and now Satan insists to Eve that she would NOT die. Now Eve had to make a choice if she would believe what God had said, or if she would believe what Satan had said.

    Once Satan had her attention, he then suggested to Eve that God was being unfair and trying to keep her and Adam from becoming gods themselves. The Bible says in Genesis 3:5, “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.” Now the Devil had deceived her. She began to look at the fruit on the tree, and she thought about how good it would taste. She began to think about how unfair God was really being by not allowing them to eat this fruit. She thought about how wonderful it would be to be as wise as God. The longer she thought about these things, the easier it became to believe Satan and to doubt God. In a moment of weakness, she took the fruit and ate it and then shared it with Adam. Together, they sinned by breaking God’s commandment.

    Satan is still a liar and a deceiver today. The Bible says in John 8:44 that Satan is the Father of all liars. Satan’s desire is to trick you about what is right and wrong and to help you choose to doubt and disobey God’s commands. The Devil will encourage you to lie, steal, kill, cheat, smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, commit fornication, and many other things. The Devil wants you to believe that you should put yourself first and do whatever is necessary to bring pleasure to your life. The Devil wants you to believe that real pleasure and joy in life is found in doing the things that God has forbidden. He wants you to believe that the Bible is a book of lies that God has written to make your life miserable. The real question is who will you believe? God or Satan. Who will you serve? God or Satan.

    The Bible says in Hebrews 11 that there is pleasure in sin for a short time. It really is fun for a little while to do some of the things that God has commanded you not to do. However, there is a very high price to pay for choosing to sin against God. God has warned us in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is death.” Did you know that you will receive a paycheck for choosing to sin against God? God says that the paycheck for your sin is death!

    The Death of Man

    God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die if they ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What did God mean when He said this? After Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree, they did not drop dead immediately. They were still able to think, and they even tried to hide their sin from God. Did this mean that Satan was right, God had lied, and they would not die? Certainly not! The Bible says in Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” What does it mean to die? It is important to understand that, according to the Bible, death is separation. When God told them that they would die, He was saying that now for the first time ever, man would experience separation. This separation comes in two forms, both physical and spiritual. There is the physical separation that happens when a person dies. Adam and Eve did not immediately drop dead physically, but there was a day when they both died, and they were separated from their families physically by death. We see physical death take place all of the time. Every one of us has experienced the terrible pain of separation that comes when a person dies. Did you know that if Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would have never experienced physical death? The Bible says in Romans 5:12, “By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The reason that we will all die physically is because we are all sinners, just like Adam.

    There is another death that God was speaking about in these verses, and that is a spiritual death. This spiritual death is talking about a spiritual separation between man and God. In other words, when Adam and Eve sinned they were no longer able to have the same relationship with God as they did before. Because of their sin, there was now a wall of separation between man and God. After they ate the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they were afraid of God. When they heard God coming, they tried to hide themselves from Him, because they knew they had disobeyed. For the first time ever, there was separation between God and man. They could no longer enjoy spending time with God because they had violated His law. Before they sinned, they had relied on God to provide for all of their needs, but now, they had to try to take care of themselves because they were afraid of God. Ever since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, there has been terrible fear in the hearts of people everywhere. Ultimately, all of these fears come as a consequence for our own sin and spiritual separation from God. When we are born into this world, we are already spiritually separated from God. This is why Jesus taught that a man must be born again!

    The Bible teaches that the ultimate spiritual separation from God will come after you leave this earth. Revelation 20:15 says, “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” God has prepared a place called the lake of fire, where He will place every person who is spiritually separated from Him. This lake of fire will be a place of eternal separation from God. It will be impossible to ever get out of this lake of fire once God has sent you there. The good news is that God loves you very much! It is not the desire of God to have to put anyone into this lake of fire, and so He has made a way for us to be made right with God, before we leave this earth. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 that “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” We will explain more in another lesson about how we can make things right with God.

    Study Questions

    1. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
    2. Satan appeared to Eve in the form of…
    3. Satan’s goal was to help Adam and Eve to really succeed in their life.
    4. Satan was talking to Eve because…
    5. God had already clearly warned Adam that they would die if they ate the fruit from the tree.
    6. wants you to put yourself first and do whatever is necessary to bring pleasure to your life.
    7. God has warned us that the wages of sin is .
    8. Adam and Eve dropped dead immediately after eating the forbidden fruit.
    9. When Adam died spiritually he…
    10. People that are spiritually dead will go to a real place called the lake of fire.

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