We have been looking at the biblical worldview of humanity. Everything so far has been pretty positive. We are made in the image of God, we are specially created beings by the hand of God, we were created uniquely with a material nature of our physical body as well as an immaterial nature of wonderful components internally. It’s pretty good stuff. Now we are going to get very negative today. What is wrong with us? We are made in the image of God. We are special creations by the hand of God, but we are not doing well, are we? Humanity is a mess! It’s a mess inside our own hearts and lives as well. What is wrong with us?
Scriptures take us right back to Genesis 3 to what we usually simply call the “fall of humanity.” We get a picture of what happened that took two people, Adam and Eve, who were walking with God, in righteousness, perfect fellowship, and walking in a sense in that they were sinless. Now they are going to fall, and with them falls all of humanity. That must be understood to understand the biblical understanding of humanity and the situations that we are in today. We are looking at the rebellion that took place in the book of Genesis.
We start with Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “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.’” The serpent said to the women, “You surely will not die! 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.” 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. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” We see the fall here. This is a very straightforward thing. There is nothing special about what happened except that they disobeyed God. In defiance of God, they did exactly what God told them not to do and that brought the element of sin into their lives and the corruption. We see in Genesis 3:7 that right away they understand guilt. Their eyes were opened, and they understand the difference now between good and evil, but they also now recognize guilt. They are now under the judgment of God because of what they have done.
In Genesis 3:8 it continues, “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. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Adam had never been afraid before and Eve had never been afraid before. They had sweet and glorious fellowship with the God of the universe until now. Now they are afraid, and they are afraid because now they are tainted with evil, and they have disobeyed God, and sin is in their life, and judgment is going to be meaded out upon them. There is good reason for them to be afraid.
