Genesis 3:1-24
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Romans 6:23
The Wages of Sin is Death
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 1:1-14
The Word of God Becomes Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe.8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 14:6-7
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Ephesians 2:1-10
Saved by Grace through Faith
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”...The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”...The serpent was sly and crafty...And this particular sin of Eve and then Adam seems to be a very large sin...I wonder if Eve had it to do over again would she eat the apple...To me it seems that some sins are larger than others, yet it is written that the wages of sin is our death...And that seems to be any size of sin...But the eating of the forbidden fruit makes me wonder about the different types of sin, and makes me think that Eve would not have eaten the fruit had she seen what would happen to the world and how it is broken and currently going (since the fruit was originally eaten)...
Adam and Eve fell from Grace...They were disobedient to God, and had to depart from their home...Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden...They had to leave Paradise...What a change that would be...Adam and Eve committed earth's first sin...And so they would depart and start a completely different life out of Eden...They would work and toil to find food and water for themselves and later for their children and family...Adam and Eve the first to inhabit our planet had sinned...And so they would die, because the wages of our sins are death...
And it is difficult to put a list of sins together and say this sin is more damning that the next one on the list...Small sins or large sins, sins are still sins...But this was the first sin, the original sin...
So knowing this, and God who knows all things, knew we are in need of Something or Someone to save us...Someone who would and could save us, would be called a Savior...And this Savior has a name...His name is Jesus...And Jesus would come to earth and dwell among us...He would be full of Grace and Truth, and He would not sin...The Son of God, like God, would be sin free...He would be our Mediator to God...He tells us that He is the Only Mediator to God and with God, when He told His Disciples that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...No one gets to God, except through Me...Jesus made it clear that He is the Way to God...God gave Jesus the authority to forgive us of our sins...And Jesus forgave many people while He was on earth, and then He took our sins, the sins that put Him on the Cross, and paid for yours, mine, and everyone's sins...Our sins put Him on the Cross...And His death on the Cross made Him our Savior...His death on the Cross gave us salvation...And there is no other name under God, that gives us salvation, except Jesus...And that is the Way, the Only Way to God -Through Jesus...He is the Someone who can get us back to the Garden...
So early on we fell from grace...Being One who is completely full of Grace and Truth means something...We must not forget this...So this is the good news, this is the gospel of Jesus...And the Good News is that no matter what sin is on the list, there is One who can help us...He died for our sins...And He pays our sin debt, so that we may see God...Small sin or great sin, Jesus is there for us...We did nothing to earn or deserve being saved by Jesus, by His Father we are saved by His Grace...
We have went from falling from grace, and God sending His Son to save us, so we may get back to the Garden of Eden, and more importantly His Father, our Living God...