You are here

The Very First Sin

The Very First Sin
Written for our learning...

            Genesis 3; gives the account of the very first sin that was committed on this earth. The story is as follows: God had created the earth and everything in it in six literal, 24-hour days. On day 6, God created man (Gen. 1:27-31) and placed him in the garden to tend and keep it—with these added instructions: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).

            The instructions seem simple enough, but in a relatively short period of time Satan appears on the scene and begins tempting Eve. She gives in to the temptation and sin is introduced into the world. Then she took the fruit and gave it to her husband and he ate it too.  Immediately they knew their situation—and the shame that came along with eating the fruit. God comes to visit them in the garden and tells them the penalty for their disobedience—pain in childbearing for Eve, hard labor to make a living for Adam, and eviction from the garden for both.

            This isn’t meant to be a complete record of the account—only a summary of the main points. The complete record can (and should) be accessed in Genesis 3. Now let’s reflect upon 6 lessons that can be mined from this fascinating story.

1. Don’t believe everything you hear. Eve didn’t have to believe the serpent. She could have easily checked with Adam, who could have checked with God, to see if what the serpent said was true or not. Christians shouldn’t be people who believe anything and everything that people tell them. We are supposed to check up on people to see if what they are telling us is the truth or not (1 Jn. 4:1; Acts 17:11).   Too much of what we hear on a day to day basis, as it pertains to religion, is false.

2. Looks can be deceiving. After Satan’s seditious words, Eve looked at the tree and probably thought to herself, “You know—that fruit does look mighty tasty.” By this time, her desire probably had her to the point of salivating—hungering for the “pleasant looking” fruit; but it wasn’t pleasant at all. Sometimes we can be so blinded by our desire that our brain begins to tell our eyes that such and such really does look good. All too often our young people marry someone who is not a member of the Lord’s church, because he/she is so “good looking”, only to find out later that this person never truly loved them. Young people, remember Prov. 31:30.

3. Being deceived won’t stop you from being punished. I remember having a conversation over the phone one day with a friend of mine from years ago. We were talking about religion and how people in false churches and false religions are going to be damned according to Matthew 15:13f and Matthew 7:21-23. He told me that he didn’t believe God would punish those people because they were sincere in their religion and had simply been deceived. But this story (of the first sin) reveals that God does (and will) punish those people who have believed and obeyed that which is false. We must worship God in Spirit and Truth (Jn. 4:23f). That is, we must be sincere in what we do for God AND do exactly what God has told us to do—otherwise we are wasting our time.

4. “Passing the buck” won’t stop you from being punished. When God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree which I told you not to,” he said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:11-12). It sounds as if Adam is trying to pass a bit of the guilt over onto Eve, doesn’t it? As we see from God’s reaction to the situation, Adam wasn’t absolved from his guilt at all. On the Day of Judgment, there will be no passing the guilt of our sin off on someone else (2 Cor. 5:10). My father used to tell me, “If you’re going to do the crime, be prepared to do the time.”

5. As worthless as sin is, it sure does come at a high price. As Eve pondered the words of Satan, she probably really believed that she would become wise in a good way; but she actually became wise in different way. As a result of that one decision, she caused the pain of childbearing for every woman that has given birth since that time; she was evicted from the garden, and brought death into the world. “Oh, if I could turn back the hands of time!” must have been her thought.

6. Temptation doesn’t have to be followed (Maclaren, p. 6). When the serpent tempted her, she had the choice to resist. She did not have to eat the fruit—she chose to. God does not force people to do anything; He gives them a command and then allows them to choose to obey it or not. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” What a comforting thought—that our eternal destiny is in our own hands.

Works Consulted

Woods, Clyde M. People’s Old Testament Notes: Vol. 1. Henderson, Tennessee: Woods  Publications, 1972. 

Maclaren, Alexander. Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis. New York: George H. Doran Company, No date given.