WOMEN OF CHRISTMAS - EVE- DECEPTION, SIN, AND SHAME

EVE – Deception, Sin, and Shame

Genesis 3:1-5 (KJV) Now the serpent was more subtil 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? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 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. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 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.

The seed of doubt planted by Satan resulted in the miscarriage of God’s plan. Both Adam and Eve were participants in the distortion of God’s plan. Because of their failure to exercise their dominion over all the creatures (specifically the serpent) and their adherence to other voices instead of God’s voice, the opportunity for the seed of doubt was planted by Satan. Being the father of lies, Satan told half-truths to the woman. He said she would not die, her eyes would be opened, and she would know good and evil. We will see later that this was a twisted partial truth.

Genesis 3:6-7 (KJV) 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.

Adam and Eve forfeited their trustworthy relationship with God, thinking that the attribute of pseudo-wisdom would be a greater source and provider than the Source for all wisdom and all good things, who is God. Eve did not make the decision to taste the fruit while by herself as much artwork depicts the event. Adam was right there beside Eve when she ate the forbidden fruit, offered it to him, and he, also, ate. Therefore, Adam is held primarily responsible according to New Testament teaching.

Romans 5:12 (KJV) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

1 Corinthians 15:22 (KJV) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Genesis 3:7 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.

The command God had given to not eat of this tree was truly to protect His children from the burden of becoming aware of evil. They did become “wise,” as Satan through the serpent had told them, wise to the fact that they were now naked. They became aware of guilt and shame. They had been “covered” by their relationship with God, but now that trust had been violated by both of them. So they made what sounds like loin cloths out of leaves. They did not immediately keel over and die, but from that moment their bodies began the process of dying, slowly decaying. Also, their union with the Lord died, man became dead in sin, separated from the life and light of God; and the need for atonement sacrifices arose. Jesus would ultimately be the final perfect sacrifice to reconcile believers to God, to restore that relationship that was torn by sin. As we will see in this study of the Women of Christmas, Jesus was truly born to die.

How does this apply to me?

Susan knows what decaying looks and feels like. She suffered for seven years with necrotic ulcers on both legs from just below the knees to the soles of her feet. When I first started working with her, her feet appeared to be melting, literally rotting. She had been hospitalized and treated more than once for this condition to no avail. Finally, she was told her legs were literally “two ticking time bombs” that could become septic and kill her at any moment. So, she made the difficult but wise decision to have them amputated. All that to say, that from the day we are born, we begin dying literally in the physical sense but are also dead spiritually housing the rottenness of our sin nature. As soon as Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they became dead spiritually as well as in the process of dying physically. There is only one cure for our spiritual decay, we must allow God to cut it out – to circumcise our hearts – by trusting Jesus by faith and surrendering our lives to God’s scalpel.

Romans 2:28-29 (NIV) “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly,

nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.

No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly;

and circumcision is circumcision of the heart,

by the Spirit, not by the written code.

Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”