The fall of man

So far we have discovered that God’s unchanging purpose is for man to be conformed to the image of God and to rule over all of creation. We have also seen that God intended for man to multiply not just physically, but in the Spirit so that a multitude of sons would spread out over the earth and being crowned with God’s glory and ruling as kings.

 

Imagine what it would have been like for Adam.  All creation was subject to him.  He could command the ground to produce crops, command the worms, locusts, goats and birds to stay away from his food; he could even walk on water if he commanded the water to keep him up.

   

We don’t know how long Adam ruled and reigned before Eve was made, maybe a day, maybe a few days or maybe a thousand years, but this came to an end shortly after Eve’s arrival.  God had commanded Adam and Eve to multiply, but even before conception could take place they sinned.

 

The serpent knew that man was to rule over him, but also knew that if man sinned by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would loose the spirit of life, the crown of glory and would no longer be able to rule.

 

Now the serpent was more subtle 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?

Genesis 3:1 (KJV)

 

Man had been empowered to rule over all the creation. He was also told to subdue the earth, in other words, to bring everything under his command. This means that some things were not yet subject to the man to begin with. The serpent, a living creature of the field, was such a thing that needed to be subdued (placed under man’s feet).  However, the serpent, not being subdued by man, succeeded in luring mankind to the point of sinning against God.

 

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 3:23 (KJV)

 

The glory of God was the nature or character of God in man, and now the glory was gone, replaced by a sinful nature. The spirit or breath of life, the very life of God, departed and disease, death and decay began to there work on man.

 

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:17 (KJV)

 

Not having the spirit of God any more meant that the man was no longer the image of God, but had become merely the image of dust. No longer able to communicate spirit to Spirit, man had lost the once intimate fellowship he had enjoyed and was cut off from his Creator.

 

Without the crown of glory man was unable to rule and reign over the works of God’s hands. Now instead of creation being subject to man, man had become subject to creation.  Where he once commanded the wind and the rain, he now ran for cover from them.  Once the nature of God was replaced by the sinful nature, the authority to rule was also replaced with an evil tendency to manipulate and control.  No longer being loving and just, man was now capable of destroying his environment as well as his fellowman.

 

Without the spirit of God, man would not be able to multiply in the spirit. Even though it seems as though man has been successful in filling the earth, he has only multiplied in the flesh and not in the spirit.

 

 

 

No longer bearing the image of God, any attempt to multiply would now be in the flesh and mankind born in the image of Adam would have the image of dust.

 

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Genesis 3:14 (KJV)

 

From this moment on, man had an enemy.  Mankind, the image of dust would therefore always be attractive to the dust-hungry snake.  God, in His mercy and loving kindness had given the serpent dust to eat, encouraging man to seek God and to be transformed back into the image of God again.