01. The One Act Of Disobedience

SECTION ONE Adam--The First Man

CHAPTER I THE ONE ACT OF DISOBEDIENCE Adam’s Original State And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 1:31). And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The Mosaic record of the creation of man calls to mind the words of the Psalmist, "The heavens, even the heavens are the Lord’s; but the earth hath he given to the children of men" (Psalms 115:16). The creation of man took place on the sixth day, and was undoubtedly delayed until that time in order that the earth might be prepared for his reception.

Man was created unfallen, sinless, and innocent, but not positively holy as was Christ (Luke 1:35), for Adam had the capacity to sin. As recorded in the Scriptures, man was created in the image of God. This was in the image of Elohim, the creative name of God, and not in the image of Jehovah, His redemptive name. To be like his Redeemer is the hope of the true believer for the future. Was the image moral, intellectual, or physical?

Since a moral image of God involves a full moral likeness in the divine glories, perfections and attributes of Deity, it cannot be said that man was created in the full moral image of God. Was the image, then, of full intellectual likeness? No, for although the first man was an intellectual giant, he did not possess the perfect knowledge that he would have had, had he been intellectually like unto God. This makes it obvious that the image was physical. To this it will be objected that no man can see God and live, and that God is a Spirit. It is true that no man can see God in His essential being and live--but we believe that Christ originally took creature form in order to create, and that it was in the image of Christ, the Creator, that man was created. Note carefully the contents of the following quotations from the Scriptures: "And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:6-8); "And unto the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14); "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Psalms 17:15). The Revised Version renders the last word of this verse "form." In the fall, man lost this form to some extent. The fall affected man spiritually, mentally, morally and physically.

Adam’s Responsibility And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (Genesis 1:28-29). And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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 (Genesis 2:15-17).

Man was not to spend his time in idleness. Work was prescribed for him. Under the terms of the Edenic covenant, which conditioned the life of man in his unfallen state, he was responsible to do certain things. To multiply and replenish the restored earth with a new order of beings. To subdue the earth to human uses. To have dominion over the rest of creation. To dress and to keep the garden. To refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From Genesis 1:29 it is evident that man was to be a vegetarian. The work prescribed for man was of the easiest kind, and served merely as an agreeable recreation. He was put in the garden of Eden, where nature appeared in all her loveliness--a garden which God Himself had planted, and in which grew "every tree which was pleasant to the sight, and good for food." In the midst of abundance man experienced no present want, and felt no anxiety with reference to the future; for unconscious of guilt, he looked up with confident expectation to the goodness of his Creator.

Negatively, there was but one restriction imposed upon man in this perfect environment. God strictly forbade him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for violation of God’s commandment was death, "For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Thus the Edenic covenant was conditional.

Adam’s Temptation and Fall

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 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 3:1-7). The Temptation

Since Adam was created upright, and possessed no sin nature, when Satan brought his proposition to him, it was a test rather than a temptation, as we speak of temptations. No testing is complete apart from three distinct features; neither would Adam’s testing have been complete had it not measured up to those requirements. In order that a testing be fair and just, the real issue must be understood. Since Adam’s testing involved the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this tree became the issue between God and man. God had instructed Adam concerning this, so that in his testing he was well aware of the issue before him.

Also in a fair testing, he who is tested must possess perfect freedom to act. This point was also included in Adam’s testing. Being a free moral agent, he had liberty to do as he pleased, either to obey or to disobey the express commandment of God.

Finally in a just testing there must be the full knowledge of the consequence of failure. God had from the first made it perfectly clear to man that he had full permission to eat of every tree of the garden with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that in the day he should eat thereof he would surely die (Genesis 2:17).

Satan was permitted to tempt man. "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timothy 2:14).

He tempted him not to anything morally wrong, but it was that man might become an independent being, "Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil." This calls to mind the words of James, "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15). That Satan told the truth when he said, "Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil," is evident from what God said after Adam had sinned, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:22). The Fall--The Act of Disobedience Being upright and free from a sin nature man would not have sinned, and he did not sin apart from the tempter. The words of the tempter were a mixture of truth and lies, such as is always his way of deceiving his victims. When he said, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," he spoke the truth, but when he said, "Ye shall not surely die," he lied.

Adam fell from desires which in themselves were not sinful. However, his one act of disobedience involved the repudiation of God and His word, and the exercise of self-will--the very thing that Satan had done, and which had been the cause of his fall. We read, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High (Isaiah 14:12-14).