The Historical paradigm shift of the Genesis 3 event, and man’s self-will!
Brief essay- impact of Genesis 3 on Adam’s posterity.
Genesis 3 marked a paradigm shift for humanity. We long to be in the perfection and peace (shalom) stage where Adam and Eve were originally in Genesis chapters 1 and 3. We know we have lost perfection and peace, and we long for it. But we cannot go back into that perfect garden, as humanity was placed out of it, and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed forbidding re-entrance.
Do humans have the free will to choose the true and living God by themselves? If not, when did they forfeit their free will? With careful observation, didn’t humanity forfeit the free will capacity to choose God and his garden that grants perfection and shalom in Genesis 3? It does not mean man lost the capacity to choose between good and evil, although this ability to choose good continually is tarnished after the Genesis 3 event. This does not mean man is a robot; the ability and all the image of God are still there in humanity, but not in the way it was prior to the fall. As we progress from Genesis 3 to succeeding chapters, the matter of the sinful bent gets worse and worse. No wonder God saw this when He stated, ‘The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5. After the Genesis 3 event, we may remember, God had to take the initiative searching for Adam and calling his name (Genesis 3:8), (not the other way around), because Adam, with his wife, hid among the trees of the garden. God had to provide him a solution, which He did.
Genesis chapter 1 and 2 portrays the perfect knowledge of goodness, perfect perfection, and perfect shalom. Things that happened in chapter 3 changed everything. It may be safe to say they had free will in its full sense prior to Genesis 3. When the page of chapter 2 is turned over, the moral fabric of man is devastated and is in a tarnished/damaged condition after the knowledge of good and evil. It appears they had the knowledge of only good before; now, the experience of evil in chapter 3 brought horrible consequences for them and their posterity. Evil bent and sin bent was so strong that it hindered even his self-will capacity to choose/seek God, submit, or obey him. God had to put them out of the garden by placing cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life, because God didn’t want them to live in this depraved capacity eternally by eating from the tree of life.
All creations God created in Genesis chapter 1 were stated as ‘good’. Repeated statements of ‘it was good and good’ in chapter 1 must be noted. And God’s creation climax was the creation of man and woman in the ‘image of God’. Then it says it was ‘very good’. The awareness of the creation of man and woman in the image of God was ‘very good’ in the sight of God, when all other prior creations were ‘good’ in the eyes of God. Seeing the image of God in another person, regardless of their color or ethnicity, is the foundation of our respect for one another. You and I must see the image of God in another person, although currently the image of God is in a tarnished form after the big incident in Genesis 3. The image of God is still there, but in a lesser form than in chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis due to the entrance of sin in Genesis 3. The same is with the self-will capacity to choose God.
With chapter 3 and the serpent’s crafty deception and a free will challenge was placed upon Eve and Adam who, unfortunately, stood passively beside her (without standing on his ground of the truth God communicated directly to him and of course, Eve had only secondhand knowledge from Adam about the command), during the conversation between the serpent and Eve, they both used their free will capacity to choose between good and evil, by choosing to disobey God.
From that point onward, the humanly unsolvable problem became sin, because man is tainted by sin by the knowledge of evil. The free will to choose God is also tarnished and tainted, and the knowledge of evil is something humans could not handle by themselves, but God had to intervene (still needs to) supernaturally to help them find a solution. God gave an immediate solution (3:21) and provided a permanent solution in 3:15. No wonder the Bible says
- Romans 3:10-11: In the natural state, “there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God”.
- Psalms 14:1-3 and 53:1-3: These Old Testament passages are quoted in Romans to support the argument, saying, “There is no one who does good, not even one,” and that “They have all turned aside”. The principle is that a person is unable to seek God on their own initiative, but rather, a person must be drawn to God by God’s own action and the power of grace.
First of all, we must understand the predicament of human nature since Genesis 3. Not only physical death of man and other things happened to his posterity (Genesis 3:14-21), but spiritual death (separation from God) was the immediate result, which Paul picks up and portrays its seriousness in Ephesians 2:1,4,8 – dead in trespasses and sins and unable to save themselves without the quickening intervention of God in mercy and his great love. Salvation is read as the gift of God and not to be earned. Per Jesus, the Holy Spirit has to convict man of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8). God uses His already saved children also in the process of His salvation, because he gave the great commission. We read how his salvation operates in the book of Acts by the examples of the Apostles in reaching out to the people tainted by sins.
Because of Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:11), sin entered the world and became part of human existence. Everything drastically changed -not only human nature but also the nature of the earth has changed due to the curse by God because of the original sin in Genesis 3:17-19. The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22). Earthquakes, tsunami, and wildfires, sickness, death, human relationship issues with one another, you name it, all are connected to the Genesis 3 event.
Adam is the common ancestor of every human being; we all inherit the sin nature, and the consequences of original sin impact all faculties of our nature. We are born with a natural desire for rebellion, self-interest, and disobedience. In Romans 7, Paul says, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Left to ourselves, we cannot seek after God, for the simple reason that seeking God is a good and holy thing. Sinful and evil-bending flesh is incapable of good and holy things (Isaiah 64:6).
The Good News is the only News for Adams posterity.
The good news is this – Paul wrote this- “For if, by the trespass of the one man (Adam), death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” Romans 5:17.
“Just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man (Adam) the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Christ Jesus) the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19.
The problem of sin of humanity is resolved by God himself as he promised in Genesis 3:15 and in subsequent Old Testament literature. The solution is Christ Jesus, the promised Messiah, as our representative. You and I can identify with Jesus (no longer need to identify with Adam), whom God sent for the solution of our sins. God calls you today to resolve the humanly insolvable problem by trusting and putting faith in what Jesus did. He died and victoriously rose again to get you back into his garden. The last book of the Bible ends with the reentrance to the garden which we lost in Genesis.
The Bible is a beautiful story of the lost garden, its perfection, and shalom by the disobedience of Adam and Eve but regaining it all by the merit of the obedient, sacrificial death of Christ for salvation and our faith in Him. The Bible focuses on God’s and mankind’s story. It is the true story of fallen mankind, and it is also a story of what God did for Him to regain the paradise, which was lost, and we long for with an intense desire every day as we live on this earth with the consequence of sin. However, the story of God and mankind beautifully ends in revelation in the last book of the Bible- Revelation – in another regained garden with all its beautiful perfection and shalom. The redeemed people and God live together in that future regained garden. (Revelation 22).
Over the centuries past the Gensis 3 event, mankind cried a lot due mainly to one reason- the consequences of sin resulted from Adam and Eve, and also personal sins due to evil/sin stemming from it. However, I am thrilled when I read the verse in Revelation that says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:4-5.
We also know there is a ‘free will’ concept to choose God or not to choose God by humanity’s ability is elevated and floating around these days. However, people do not have much self-will capacity to choose God apart from the power of His grace and intervention in their lives in their fallen nature after Genesis 3. The totality of this power of grace to come to God and continue in Him is testified by Apostle Paul himself when he wrote the sum and substance of his life. “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Indeed, by the grace of God, and by his favor, I am what I am. Nothing else.
