Man’s Soul Being Corrupted, 
Man’s Body Being Changed in Nature, 
and Man’s Spirit Being Deadened

There was another issue of man’s fall that very seriously affected man’s being. Due to the fall of man, man’s soul was corrupted, man’s body was changed in nature, and man’s spirit was deadened. In the fall of man Satan saturated man’s soul with his evil word and thought (Gen. 3:1-5) to corrupt man’s soul. Through the fall of man, Satan as the substantial element of sin entered into man’s body to cause man’s body to be changed in nature to become the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3) full of lusts (Gal. 5:16b). Also through the fall of man, man’s spirit was deadened by sin (Eph. 2:1). Hence, man’s whole being was devastated by man’s fall as a very subjective issue to man.

Man Attempting to Cover Himself 
and Hide Himself from God

Another issue of the fall of man was that it affected man’s self-consciousness and his relationship with God. After man became conscious of his nakedness due to his fall, he attempted to cover himself in his nakedness and to hide himself from God in his contact with God (Gen. 3:7-9). To cover his nakedness is man’s doing and pretense. Fallen man is used to endeavoring to do something to cover his sinfulness and pretend to be something in falsehood. For man to hide himself from God is to keep himself away from God in his fellowship with God. This is the issue of man’s fall that makes man false and void of God’s presence.

God Not Permitting Man to Eat the Tree of Life

Due to the corruption in man’s nature through his fall, God would not permit man to eat the tree of life (v. 22) until his fallen nature would be dealt with. This indicates that God would not let His eternal life be received by man without man repenting of his sin and without the dealing with man’s corrupted nature.

God Driving Man out of the Garden of Eden 
and Closing to Man the Way to the Tree of Life

The last issue of man’s fall was that God drove man out of the garden of Eden and closed to man the way to the tree of life (vv. 23-24). This was to execute God’s prohibition of man from eating the tree of life. This prohibition was taken away by Christ’s full redemption through His death, which cut a new and living way for the believers of Christ to enter into the Holy of Holies to receive God as their eternal life (Heb. 10:19-20).

DEALING WITH THE FALL OF MAN

In the past term of our full-time training, we studied the Christian life quite much. In this term we have begun to continue the study of the Christian life according to the Scriptures from another angle. We have seen that the Holy Scriptures are not only a record of stories of man but also a record of the history of God in His union with man. In the previous chapter we saw that God in His history in time restored the judged universe and created man. Right after God’s creation of man, man became fallen, so God had to come in to save man from his fall. In this chapter we want to see God’s history in time in His dealing with man’s fall.

In God’s carrying out of His eternal economy, God’s adversary Satan caused two great frustrations: one was Satan’s rebellion, which polluted and devastated the creation of God, and the other was his seducing of man to transgress against God. Thus, God had to deal with these two frustrations caused by His adversary.

We have seen in chapter 2 that God dealt with Satan by judging him and declaring God’s verdict on him. Now in this chapter we want to see how God dealt with the problem of man’s fall. According to the record of the Scriptures, before God dealt with the fall of man, He was fully aware of it.

Its Initiation

The fall of man was initiated by Satan through the deceiving of the serpent (Gen. 3:1-6). The subtle serpent was the embodiment of Satan the devil (Rev. 12:9a). As the enemy of God (Matt. 13:39a) and the tempter of man (Matt. 4:3), Satan deceived man not directly but through man’s wife (1 Tim. 2:14) by causing her to doubt the sure word of God. In this way he lured the woman into his snare, and through her he caused man to fall in man’s transgression against God’s clear word (Job 31:33).

Its Nature

Because the fall of man was consummated by man’s eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6), the nature of man’s fall was not a matter of a transgression that affected only man’s outward condition before God. It was both a matter of an offense that caused man to be condemned by God to remain under the condemnation of God (Rom. 5:18a) and a matter of disobedience that caused man to be constituted a sinner in the eyes of God (v. 19a). Man’s eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil indicates that man had forsaken God as the tree of life in His economy. This resulted in a case of offending God outwardly and of damaging man inwardly. By eating the evil fruit of the tree of knowledge, Adam built a case of transgression, of disobedience, which caused him to be condemned by God. By this eating, Adam also accomplished a wrong action that poisoned him in his nature, causing him to be constituted a sinner. Hence, through this one fall, Satan caused Adam to be condemned according to the commandment of God and constituted a sinner in the nature of man.

CHAPTER FOUR

GOD’S HISTORY IN TIME 
(FROM THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE 
TO THE FINAL JUDGMENT 
AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE— 
GENESIS 1:1—REVELATION 20:15)

(3)

SAVING MAN FROM HIS FALL

Scripture Reading: Gen. 3

OUTLINE

1. Realizing the fall of man—Gen. 3:1-8, 22-24:
   1. The fall was through the deceiving of the serpent, the embodiment of the devil, Satan the tempter, who is the enemy of God—vv. 1-6; 1 Tim. 2:14; Rev. 12:9; Matt. 4:3; 13:39a.
   2. In man’s eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to forsake God as the tree of life in His economy—Gen. 3:6.
   3. The issue of man’s fall:
      1. Satan entered into man to be man’s indwelling sin—Rom. 7:17, 20-21.
      2. Sin entered into mankind—5:12a.
      3. Sin brought death to mankind—v. 12b.
      4. Sin brought vanity and the slavery of corruption to all the creation—8:20-21.
      5. Man was constituted inwardly a sinner, with the soul corrupted, the body changed in nature, and the spirit deadened—5:19a; Gen. 3:7.
      6. Man was condemned outwardly—Rom. 5:18a; Gen. 3:8.
      7. Man attempted to cover himself and hide himself from God—vv. 7-9.
      8. God would not permit man to eat the tree of life until his fallen nature would be dealt with—v. 22.
      9. God drove man out of the garden of Eden and closed to man the way to the tree of life—vv. 23-24.
2. Saving man from his fall—vv. 8-21:
   1. God came to seek the lost sinner—vv. 8-13:
      1. God cursed the tempting serpent more than all the cattle and the animals of the field, saying that he shall go upon his stomach and eat the dust—v. 14.
      2. God will greatly multiply the woman’s pain in her childbearing; in pain she will bring forth children; and her desire will be to her husband, and he will rule over her (1 Tim. 2:15)—Gen. 3:16.
      3. God cursed the ground so that it will bring forth thorns and thistles, whereby man will in toil (in Heb. the same word as pain in v. 16) and by the sweat of his face (1 Pet. 4:1b-2) eat of the ground all the days of his life until he returns (his body dies) to the dust—vv. 17b-19.
   2. God promised that Christ as the Son of God will come as “the seed of woman”:
      1. To bruise the head of the deceiving “serpent” for man—v. 15; 1 John 3:8b.
      2. To release man from the fear and slavery of death—Heb. 2:14-15.
      3. In this promise of God Adam believed and called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living—Gen. 3:20.
   3. God redeemed man by the shedding of the blood of Christ (typified by the slain sacrifice—Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28) and justified man by Christ as righteousness to man (typified by the coats of the skin of the slain sacrifice—1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:17a)—Gen. 3:21.