The Book of Genesis
Part 11
The Fall
The Consequences:
While the sad results of man’s sin are obvious in the world, it is only the Bible that explains to us the many ramifications of this problem. Let us consider the results of the Fall of man.
Spiritually: The prohibition was, “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” (Gen. 2:17). Full provision was made by God for man’s physical being, and what is even more important, his training as a moral being was simultaneously established. As a moral being man failed, and immediately died spiritually. The implication here explains the real meaning of death as being separation not annihilation. Spiritual death embraces three consequences to man’s sin; first, a sense of personal guilt, “The eyes of them both were opened; and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7): a realization of divine condemnation, the curse of God (Gen. 3:14-19); and, finally, the experience of moral separation, “The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken” (Gen. 3:23).
Physically: The condemnation of God was pronounced upon the serpent, (Satan’s medium) upon the woman, and then upon the man. In all three cases it was manifested physically. In the woman by the physical experience of pain, “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children” (Gen. 3:16); in the serpent, by the physical appearance of degradation, “Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat” (Gen. 3:14); and in the man, the physical effort of toil, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow (toil) shalt thou eat of it all the days of they life” (Gen. 3:17).
Ultimately, there was the physical condition of death; human life was limited now, “All the days of thy life” (17), and at the end death, “Till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (19).
Socially: The social effect of the Fall is emphasized by the position afforded the woman, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen. 3:16). The woman who was the prime actor in the Fall, while obeyed by her husband then, is, henceforth, to live in subjection to him. “I suffer not a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man” (1 Tim. 2:12). The woman’s place of subjection is consequent to the facts, man’s priority in creation (1 Tim. 2:13), and woman’s priority in transgression (1 Tim. 2:14). Socially this order remains and any attempt to change it only results in further wrong and confusion; nevertheless, it is blessed to know that it is abrogated in Christ in Whom “there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ” (Gal. 3:28).
Racially: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Dr. Moule has well expressed this fact, “Mankind inherits from primal man, tried and fallen, not only taint but guilt, not only moral hurt but legal fault.” It is not so much the fact that every one has sinned individually, but that in their federal head all sinned. The entire race is viewed as having sinned in its head, Adam; therefore, sin pervades the whole of mankind both as to its guilt and penalty.
Ethically: “Love not the world (kosmos, the arrangement and system of man) neither the things that are in the world. If any man love (keep on loving) the world; the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world (arises from the inhabitants of the world), the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Out of depravity, depravity arises. The Christian’s constant problem is how to live in the world, and not to be entangled in its systems of philosophy etc. It is ethically impossible for the child of God to enjoy the things of the world and to maintain a good conscience.
Geographically: Because of sin the whole of creation is in a state of suffering and degradation. It is held in the bondage of corruption, and bears upon it the sign of the curse, thorns and thistles. The Apostle Paul, personifying creation, writes, “The earnest expectation of the creature (creation) waiteth for the manifestation (revealing) of the sons of God.
Because the creature (creation) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. For the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom. 8:19, 21, 22).
Such then are some of the evil consequences of the Fall of man.