A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 3:1-7, 21-24, “The First Sin,” for Sunday, December 17, 2023. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: One way to begin this lesson would be to ask your group, ??? “Can anyone remember the first sin you ever committed, that you were aware of?”???

(I shared with our church one time about how I stole a grape in the grocery store. I knew I shouldn’t do it, but I wanted one of those grapes, and I did it anyway, and although to some it does not seem like a big thing, it was a sin to me, and I have remembered it ever since.  

AND/OR: at my grandmother’s house for Christmas when I was a preschooler, our grandparents gave my sister & I each a big balloon. Mine was good, but hers was even better — I remember it was a big red teddy bear balloon and I wanted it. I was envious. So I popped it with a fork, and ruined Christmas Eve! She cried, and I was sent to bed, and I remember falling asleep watching for Santa out the window while the airplane lights were flying by …)

You/your group can share the memories you have, then say something like: Today we are going to look at the very first sin of mankind as a whole: the sin of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden.

CONTEXT:

We saw in Genesis 1 how God created everything out of nothing, and rested, how he made man (Adam) and put him in the Garden of Eden, and gave him the helper, Eve, with principles He gave for the relationship of marriage that He designed.  But it doesn’t take long until problems come, as we see here in Chapter 3.

OUTLINE:

I.  The Temptation (:1-6)

II. The Sin (:6)

III. The Consequences (:7, 21-24) 

I.  The TEMPTATION (:1-6)

A. The Tempter :1

Chapter 3:1 begins, “Now the serpent …”.  Everything was good in the Garden of Eden, but there was an ominous shadow lurking: “now the serpent.” 

???Does the Bible tell us here who this “serpent” was???

(NO it does not specifically say. Had we no further information, we might assume it was just “a serpent.” But we DO have further information, in places like:

– Revelation 12:9, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan.”

– Revelation 20:2 “the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan.” This tells us that the “serpent” was not just a snake, but the devil tempting in the form of a snake.

So both of these scriptures specifically tell us this was not “just” a serpent, but the devil, Satan, using a serpent to tempt Eve. 

B. The Nature of the Temptation: QUESTION God’s word

The second part of :1 says that “He said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’”

What was he doing here? He was trying to get them to QUESTION God.  “Has God said?” Now, God was very clear in what He had said: (Go back to 2:16-17 and you can see, He said “From any tree of the Garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat …”. So this was pretty clear. They could eat from any tree but ONE. 

But this is a common temptation of Satan. He always tries to get us to question what God has said. God will say something clearly in His word, and Satan will come along and say, “Has God really said …” and get us to question it.

Of how many things does he do this same thing today: God will say something clearly in His word, but Satan comes along to question it:

— Did God really say that HE created the heavens and the earth?Couldn’t it have been something else?

— Did God really say there was a real Adam & Eve?

— Did God really say His word is perfect?

— Did God really say Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life?

— Did God really say that homosexual practice is a sin?

These things are SO clear in His word, and yet Satan’s strategy is always to insinuate that what God so clearly said, somehow may not be quite true. In II Corinthians 2:11 he Apostle Paul said we “should not be ignorant of (Satan’s) schemes.” We need to be aware that this is one of his primary schemes: to get us to question what God has clearly said, undermining His whole word to us.  

:2-3 Now to her credit, Eve answered absolutely rightly, quoting back to the devil here just what God had commanded them in 2:16-17, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we MAY eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die!”  So she did well. She knew what God had said, and quoted it back to the devil when he tempted her.

This is actually a good model for us: when the enemy tries to get us to question God’s word, we need to know it well enough, and even have it memorized well enough, to quote back to him what God has said. The problem is, many of us are not familiar enough with God’s word to do that! We need to read His word more, so we are familiar with it, and know when we hear something wrong; and we also need to memorize specific scriptures to use in times when we are tempted. 

THEN Satan shows his true colors in :4, “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die!” 

??? What’s different about this??? 

Now he doesn’t just “question” God’s word; now he flat out CONTRADICTS it! He says, what God says will happen, will NOT happen. He mocks it, he contradicts it.

NOW he takes another tack in :5, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Here now he attacks not only the WORD of God, but he assaults the CHARACTER of God Himself: “God knows when you eat this, you will be like Him.” He says, Oh, God just doesn’t want you to have this; it’s not that it’s bad for you; God just wants to be God Himself alone, and doesn’t want to share with you what He has!

In other words, “God’s holding out on you!” 

Again, isn’t this what we see in so many temptations today?

God commands us not to do certain things, and the devil comes along and says, “Oh God just doesn’t want you to have any fun!” He’s just a “spoil sport”! And that IS indeed the image that a lot of people have of God. He’s just up there telling us all the things we can’t do. The people who disobey Him are those who are having all the fun. 

We see another aspect of the temptation in the last part of :5, where he tells her that if she eats the fruit, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

“You will be like God.” That is a HUGE element of temptation, which has always appealed to mankind. We want to be the god. We want to be the one who is worshiped. We want what only belongs to Him. 

This is one of the temptations of Mormonism. An actual Mormon saying: “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man shall become.” You will be like God, the lord of your own universe!

But it also comes in a lot of more subtle ways: you will be like God, in that everything will revolve around YOU. YOU will have the attention; YOU will have the spotlight; YOU will be the one who is praised, etc.  We are tempted to do a lot of things that will put US in the center, where only GOD belongs. This is just like the original temptation: “You will be like God”!

Then we see even more aspects of temptation in :6,
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

??? What all do you see here that was a temptation to Eve in this tree???

(There are basically 3 things here:

— “the tree was good for FOOD”

— “it was a delight to the EYES”

— “the tree was desirable to make one WISE”

We see three aspects of the temptation here: it appealed to her BODY (“good for food”); it appealed to her sight (“delight to the eyes”); and it appealed to her pride (“to make one wise”)

A great cross reference here is I John 2:15-17 (you might read this, or have a class member read this passage at this point):

“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (:16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (:17) The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

We see here in I John 2’s description of the lusts of the world, the VERY temptations of Eve in the Garden:

— “the lust of the flesh” (“the tree was good for food”)

— “the lust of the eyes” (“it was a delight to the eyes”)

— “the boastful pride of life” (“the tree was desirable to make one wise”

Thus the lusts that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, are the very same lusts that we are tempted with today. 

??? You could also take some time to brainstorm/discuss/apply this with your group and ask: what are some SPECIFIC applications of these today:  What are some “lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and boastful pride of life”???

(— “lusts of the flesh” could include: sexual immorality of all types; that may be the first thing that comes to mind, but there are many others: Eve was tempted by the lust of the flesh as FOOD; “it was good for food.” Are we tempted with food today? Absolutely!  We have SO many temptations with food — AND DRINK — not only to abuse alcohol, but also to over consume other drinks: colas or sodas or coffee or tea, and so on. And there are other “lusts of the flesh”: giving in to your body to be lazy, inactive, get too much rest/sleep because “it feels good;” doing what “feels good” instead of what we know we need to do, can be a lust of the flesh.  You/your group can think of more …

— “Lusts of the eyes” can include anything that looks good to us: that causes us to say “I want that; I want to add that to what I have” — maybe getting more of something than we need; a collection; or “hoarding.” Why do we get it? We see it and we want it! That’s “lust of the eyes.” Envying/coveting like the 10 Commandments talks about, would apply here too.

— “Boastful pride of life” could include:  desire for attention; to be in the spotlight; for it to be “all about us” instead of others; wanting to “win;” “leave a name for ourselves;” be leader, be in position to tell others what to do; caring about our reputation more than doing what is right; 

There are countless applications of each of these three. You/your group can undoubtedly think of many. But take some time to brainstorm some, and really apply this concept.

The point is: the temptations that Eve faced in the Garden of Eden are the SAME temptations that we face today. So let us be aware of them (“not ignorant of his schemes”) and ask God to help us resist them.  

II. The SIN  (:6)

So after all this temptation (which was many-faceted), the last part of :6 says “she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

So this is the sin itself. She thought of all this forbidden fruit could do for her, and she wanted it, and she took it. She DID what God had told her not to do — and that was sin.

And it says “she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” 

He too did what God told him not to do — and that was sin.

This is an important aspect of sin: it involves disobeying God. 

God said don’t eat it, but they did. That is sin.

James 4:17 says “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to  and does not do it, to him it is sin.” 

DOING what we know not to do — or NOT doing what we know to do, all of that is sin. It doesn’t matter what it is. If God said to do it, whatever it is, that is a sin. If God said not to do it and we did, that was a sin.

I say that because some people say, Well, what is the big deal about Adam & Eve taking the fruit? Why was that such a big sin, taking that fruit? It’s not really a matter of “what it was” per se. It is the fact of the disobedience itself. GOD SAID NOT TO DO IT. And they did. THAT IS SIN. It didn’t matter WHAT it was.

It’s like my story of eating the grape. I’ve had a lot of people tell me over the years, Well, that wasn’t a big sin, you taking that grape. And I mean, no that probably won’t be featured in the list of “The 20th Century’s Most Notorious Sins” or anything! But the thing is, I knew that I should not take that grape. But I saw it, and I wanted it, and even though I knew I shouldn’t, I did it anyway. That was a sin. Consciously doing what you know you shouldn’t, is a sin, no matter what it is. (And vice-versa, NOT doing what we know we should do, is also a sin, no matter what it is.) 

And the fact of sin itself, is enough to condemn us before God.

Sin is not some “minor thing.” Sin is disobeying God, and anything you disobey God in, is a serious thing. 

It’s like when our kids were little. Cheryl & I were very emphatic about our kids’ need to obey us. We had heard James Dobson teach on how if a child disobeys, they need to realize that there are consequences. So if our kids disobeyed, we came down hard. It didn’t matter what it was; obedience was important because we were the parents. They had to obey us, because to disobey would be to flaunt our authority. And the same thing is true in our relationship with God. It doesn’t matter what it is. The fact of disobeying God is a SERIOUS matter. 

R.C. Sproul (a theologian who passed away in 2017) wrote:

“I received a recent edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Though I was happy to receive this free issue, I was puzzled as to why anyone would send it to me. As I leafed through the pages of quotations that included statements from Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and others, to my complete astonishment I came upon a quotation from me. That I was quoted in such a learned collection definitely surprised me. I was puzzled by what I could have said that merited inclusion in such an anthology, and the answer was found in a simple statement attributed to me: “Sin is cosmic treason.” What I meant by that statement was that even the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King. (ligonier.com “Sin Is Cosmic Treason” 3/01/21)

You might read that paragraph by Sproul and explain it.

OR just post the quote on the board: “Sin is cosmic treason” ask your class what they think about it. And explain that ANY sin, no matter how “small” it seems to be, is treason against the God of the universe who commanded us to do/not do it. 

It is a serious matter. Because what we are basically saying is, “I want to do what I want to do, not what GOD told me to do.” THAT is the rebellion. WE want to be the “god.” WE want to decide what we want to do, not God. This is the “Big I” we talked about a few weeks ago, wanting to rule our life. THIS IS THE #1 PROBLEM OF MANKIND: we want to run our lives, instead of God. That is what sin is. 

And that is why when we get saved, we have to admit our sins, and be willing to give God back control of our lives, by making Jesus Lord. There is no real salvation without making Jesus the Lord of our life. It’s not just saying “Jesus save me and take me to heaven.” No, why are we in this problem in the first place? It’s because of our self-will, our sin. Our taking control of our own life. To be saved, we have to admit that we have been going the wrong way, and acknowledge that, and be willing to turn and give God back control of our life. That is what REPENTANCE is. And if we don’t repent of that self-will, we can’t really be saved. This is why Paul wrote in Acts 20: that the heart of the Gospel is “repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” We must repent of that self-will, that “cosmic treason” that started in the Garden of Eden, and which we have followed down to the present day as well — which is SIN.

III.  The CONSEQUENCES  (:7, :21-24)

After they had sinned, we see the consequences of their sin.

SIN ALWAYS HAS CONSEQUENCES. This is one of the most important lessons we need to learn: sin always has consequences. 

We see many of the consequences of sin in the second part of Genesis 3. Our focus passage stops at :7, but I’d just have to add some of the other consequences in between :7 and :21, what I might do either just lecture on the consequences you see there or what I will do is have my class scan these verses and call out the consequences they see. You can be sure they include: 

— :7 says “the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked” — +x the last verse of 2:25, where they were “naked and were not ashamed.” Now shame has come between them. They had a perfect relationship, but now sin would damage that relationship. SIN HAS CONSEQUENCES FOR OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS.

John Milton wrote an epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” telling the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall of man. To me one of the most interesting (and sad) aspects of the poem is how it shows the deterioration of Adam’s conversation with Eve in the Garden. Before their sin he said things like:

“Awake, My fairest, my espoused, my latest found,

Heaven’s last best gift, my ever-new delight!”

(John Milton, Paradise Lost, p. 96)

But after the Fall he says: “Is this the love, is this the recompense

Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve! … am I now upbraided as the cause Of thy transgressing? 

And Milton writes: “Thus they in mutual accusation spent

The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;

And of their vain contest appeared no end.”

We don’t know exactly what their conversation was in the Garden, but I bet Milton is close to the truth: it went from “Heaven’s last best gift,” to “mutual accusation” that never ended.  THAT is what sin does! Not only to marriages, but to every relationship. Sin always harms our relationships with others.

SIN ALSO HAS CONSEQUENCES FOR OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD: 

— :9 God calls the man, “Where are you?” He was not asking for information. God knew where Adam was. He wanted HIM to know that he had separated himself from fellowship with God by his sin. Isaiah 59:2 says “Your iniquities have caused a separation between you and your God.” This is the worst consequence of sin: we’ve been separated from the ONE relationship that was designed to fulfill us. 

— :16 “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth” — many women are familiar with this! It evidently did not have to be as painful as it is — that came about because of sin.

— :17 “cursed is the ground because of you” — we talked in Genesis 1 of how work itself was not a curse but a blessing; God gave us work to do. But now that work will be more burdensome. Many people HATE their work; this is a result of sin.

— :19 “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” DEATH would indeed come to them because of their sin. Satan said in :4, “You surely will not die!” But they did. God told them here they’d return to dust. And Genesis 5:5 says “So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.” He went back to that dust. Satan said they would not die, but they did, just as God said.   “The wages of sin is death.” Death in every way: death to their relationship with God (spiritual death), death to their relationship with each other, death in other relationships (they saw their son Abel dead on the ground — they had to grieve; it came from their own sin). Sin brings all kinds of death. And it does to US TOO!

— :22-24 (read) they are cast out of the Garden of Eden:

:24 “So He drove the man out” and they were expelled from the Garden God had given them.  

SIN ruined every good thing. People ask: why is there death, and destruction, and sickness, and every evil thing in this world? The answer, ultimately, is our sin. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin has brought all this evil in the world. It is why it is “Paradise Lost” as Milton wrote.  

And again it’s not in our “focus passage” text for this lesson, but in Genesis 3:15 God gives us a hint of the way out. While He was admonishing the serpent, God said that there would be enmity between the man and him, and He said: “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” This is what theologians call the “Protevangelium,” or “The First Gospel.” It’s the first hint of the salvation that will come for Man’s sin in the Gospel: “You shall bruise him on the heel” — in other words, you’ll hurt Him — but He shall bruise (and the word is literally “crush”) you on the head. You’ll hurt Him — this One who is coming — but He will crush you, and gain the ultimate victory. That’s the first hint of the Messiah God was sending to save Adam’s race from our sins. And the whole rest of the story of the Bible, is the unfolding story of that promise — and of how in the end, in Revelation, we come BACK TO THE GARDEN, to the tree of life, in the end, forever, through Jesus!  It really IS “The Greatest Story Ever Told”!  

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