The Sin of Adam and Eve and its Effects Upon Themselves
Some response had to be made to such an appeal. The will must function in acceptance or rejection of such as accusation against God. There was no neutral ground. Eve must take sides either with or against God. "God said" and "the serpent said," and they said totally contradictory things. Eve listened to satan's voice rather than to God's. She believed the devil's lie rather than God's truth. "The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtly" (2 Corinthians 11:3), and she ate of the forbidden fruit. Adam listened to Eve's voice rather than to God's Eve enticed her husband through his affections and he ate of the forbidden fruit. He was the one to whom God had given the command. To eat of the fruit was a deliberate transgression of the divine law.
Genesis 3:6, "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did at, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
Genesis 3:17, "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."
Adam and Eve had the God-given right to will and the power to will Godward. They exercised the right to will and they chose to will satanward. The moment they so chose they stepped outside the circle of God's will and into the realm of self-will. They dethroned God and enthroned "self". That one act, that one choice, that one decision, was sin. satan triumphed, sin entered, ruin ensued.
Sin penetrated to the innermost part of Adam's being, the spirit, the meeting place of God and man. And with what result? They very result which God had predicted - DEATH. To apprehend the magnitude of sin, one must know the meaning of death.
And what is death? Mrs. McDonough in "God's Plan of Redemption" gives a clear and helpful answer. "The scientific definition of death helps us to perceive His meaning. It is as follows, 'Death is the falling out of correspondence with environment.' The following illustration will help to better understand the subject. Here is an eye of a human being, apparently able to see any object placed before it; the objects of nature, bathed in the bright sunshine surrounding it, but there is no response from the eye. It does not see; for the optic nerve is severed. It is dead to the beauty before it.
"Here is a person whose ears are completely deafened. Birds are singing, bells are ringing, voices speaking, but those ears do not respond to the sound waves that are carrying melody to other ears which are open to receive the same. They are dead to sounds.
"Upon the very day of Adam and Eve's disobedience sin severed the delicate intuitive knowledge of God in the spirit of Adam and Eve. They failed to respond to Him who was their environing Presence. They were dead to God ... the death process established in the spirit of our first parents was quickly manifested throughout the whole of the inner man and after a time the possibility of dissolution of the body, which had been held in abeyance while man remained obedient and dependent before the Fall, became an actuality."
Death in its twofold aspect,spiritual, the separation of the human spirit of man from the divine Spirit of God, and physical, the separation of the spirit and the body of man, came by sin. A grain of truth was mixed with the lie of the serpent.
Genesis 3:7, "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."
Genesis 3:8, "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."
Their eyes had indeed been opened but to behold what? Their own nakedness. They both acquired knowledge but of what? Their own sin and shame. They had come into a new self-consciousness but in that one act of sin they had lost God-consciousness. Their newly acquired knowledge served only to produce such a sense of shame that they counted themselves unfit for God's presence and were afraid to meet Him. The twilight hour of communion with God was robbed of all its sweetness and satisfaction by the sense of shame and sin. Eager response to God was changed into seeking refuge from God. Sin separated man from God and separation from God, who is Life, is death.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 14)
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