Grace and Truth
Bible Ministries

The fall of mankind became an opportunity for God's grace to abound beyond anything that had previously been seen

In our study of Gen 3; where we see Satan's propaganda that leads to the deception of the woman last time we saw in Gen 3:7; that Adam and the woman react to their fall from innocence with the human good of legalism by making coverings for themselves.

This was human self-righteousness and was not sufficient to meet God's demand for perfect righteousness. They inherently know that their solution is insufficient so in the evening when God comes into the garden they are afraid and try to hide from him.

This is the same attitude that religious people have. They hope that their good works are sufficient to save them but they are afraid that it might not be sufficient. Accurate Bible Doctrine clearly tells us that we are completely and irrevocably saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone and at that point have God's righteousness that is the basis of our relationship with him. Eph 2:8-9; 2Cor 5:21; Heb 4:16; 1John 2:28;

Gen 3:8; And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

The word for "walking" is the Hithpael participle of the verb "halak" that means, "to habitually walk about" It is used in a figurative sense to describe a mode of life or action; of a particular path of one's life.

From the construction of the sentence in the original Hebrew we learn that the Lord God came into the Garden every evening to teach them. Adam and the woman were expected to be ready to be taught around sundown, that is referred to as the "cool of the day".

The Hebrew " ruach" plus the noun "yo" refers to the "breeze of the day," or the "cool air of the day," at "evening" or dusk that occurs as the sun begins to set beyond the western horizon and a gentle breeze occurs because of diurnal cooling.

When the Lord God came to the garden this time they were afraid because they realize that in spiritual death they cannot relate to God because in spiritual death they were condemned so they ran and hid from God in fear.

Previously, the trees had been a source of blessing in the garden. Now in spiritual death because of fear they are simply a place to try to hide. They are still in the perfect environment of the garden, but without relationship with God, they are in fear because they have no capacity for happiness.

Because of spiritual death and without doctrine in their thinking the perfect environment of paradise is no longer a place of blessing and happiness. We see from this that happiness is based on one's compatibility with the truth it is not based to the details or circumstances of life. Luke 11:28; YLT Heb 12:2;

God in His grace provided the trees for Adam and his wife in perfection and innocence. In spiritual death, Adam and his wife use the leaves of the fig tree that God had provided in grace to adjust to each other. But that did not help them.

Spiritual death distorts and misuses grace. The change that has occurred is not in the trees but in the souls of the spiritually dead couple. They are in the same perfect environment of the garden, but in spiritual death they are no longer compatible with the truth. They have different souls and because of this they have no capacity for happiness even though their environment is still perfect.

In spiritual death they have no ability to solve their own problems, so they hid themselves. In spiritual death they could not even approach God. This is exactly where Satan wanted them to be so he could them through their fear Heb 2:14-15;, but God has another plan.... more Grace.

Gen 3:9; Then the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" or more accurately "why are you where you are" Net note 25 When the Lord God calls for them. He knows where they are because no one can hide from omniscient God.

The question was designed to orient them to their status. As God, Jesus Christ knew exactly where they were. He also knew why they were where they were. But He asked the question because it is necessary for spiritually dead man's thinking to be revealed.

When they sinned and died spiritually, they lost their human spirit and the ability to have fellowship with God but they still had the human soul and now to further complicate matters, they had acquired the old sin nature with it's predisposition for evil.

The only possible way that the human spirit could be revived and they could be restored to fellowship with God would be by means of the Cross. By accepting Christ's work on the Cross their human spirit would once again be made alive to God but they would still have the old sin nature.

They hid from God because of spiritual death, but God calls out to them because of his policy of grace. What we have here a clear manifestation of God's grace because when Adam sinned he had been defeated by and at that point they all deserved to be consigned to the lake of fire but God had another plan that was a complete surprise to Satan and would ultimately defeat him. Heb 2:14; 1John 3:8;

What Satan meant for evil, God meant for Good. Gen 50:20;

Satan's deceptive propaganda that resulted in the fall of mankind became an opportunity for God's grace to abound in a way that had never been seen before. Rom 5:20-21;

Up until this time, God's grace had operated on a limited scale. In the garden God's grace was expressed in the perfect provision of perfect environment and perfect physical and spiritual life.

But now that man has sinned, he is in a fallen state that he can not fix. He is helpless and hopeless but God still offers to provide everything for man in his hopeless condition as the maximum demonstration of God's grace.

Remember grace is all that God is free to do for mankind because of what our Lord Jesus Christ did on the Cross. Jesus' work on the cross enables limitless grace from God. 1John 4:10;

Man did not deserve to have God call out to him What the man had done should have established a permanent barrier between himself and God and consigned him to the Lake of Fire forever.

But because of his integrity love, God provides everything for undeserving man beginning with a new tree, the Cross. This tree, the cross, is all that can save man. We simply accept by faith the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 1Pet 2:24;NET

Gen 3:10; And he said, I heard your sound in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked so I hid.

Adam had never experienced fear before, but now, in spiritual death, he recognizes his fallen condition and his inability to do anything about it. From his response it seems that Adam is more conscious of the consequences of his sin rather than with the significance of sin and the destruction of his relationship with God.

Adam was hiding because he was worried about the consequences of his sin. Fear is the function of spiritual death because spiritual death produces a lifestyle of fear. Both unbelievers in spiritual death and believers in carnal death or OSN control of the soul have this same lifestyle of fear.

Fear is representative of the sins that arise from the emotional revolt of the soul. Emotion cannot solve problems only thinking truth can solve problems. This means that the emotion of fear is regenerative.

The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. The extent to which you surrender to fear, you increase the power of fear in your life. The more things that acquire the power of fear in your life, the more things you fear.

Emotion does not have the power or ability to think or to reason. Emotion has no doctrine and no common sense. Fear is a complex of emotional sins that makes it impossible to think rationally in terms of truth (metabolized Bible doctrine).

2Tim 1:7, "God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power, and of virtue-love, and of sound judgment."

1John 4:18, "Fear does not exist in virtue-love; but virtue-love drives out fear. For fear causes (self induced) punishment. The person who is afraid has not been matured by virtue-love."

When confronted by God, Adam could only hide in fear because in spiritual death he was totally helpless and unable to do anything to restore his relationship with God.

Gen 3:11; "Then He said, `Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

God knows that Adam has eaten the forbidden fruit and is in spiritual death. This question is designed to focus Adam's attention on the act of disobedience rather than his condemnation that is revealed by his nakedness or his evil self-righteousness and self-justification that is revealed by the clothes he has made.

Man's sin was disobedience, not guilt, fear, shame, or nakedness; these were simply the consequences of the disobedience. Nakedness was never an issue in the perfect environment of the garden.

The hiphil perfect of the Hebrew verb "nagad" that is translated "who told you" means "who caused you to understand you were naked; or who denounced you because you were naked?" It was of course Satan who denounced them.

After they had eaten the fruit and suffered spiritual death, Satan in self-righteous, crusader arrogance had told them they were naked and demanded that they get dressed. Satan ruled that there would be no nakedness in his kingdom. So Satan put them to work to improve the environment just as he does today.

Satan used his propaganda to deceive mankind, then denounces their fall and status of sin by demanding they clothe themselves. Fallen mankind has adopted this same inconsistent irrationality that the fallen angels created.

Satan demands that if you violate his laws, you should feel guilty and you should be afraid. Satan started out with human good rather than freedom. As a result man came under guilt and fear, that are both sins.

Satan used his evil propaganda to seize power from the man and then demonstrated his arrogant self-righteousness by denouncing their nakedness that was the result of the original sin that was committed as the result of his propaganda.

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 8/15/2012