We continue with the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve as the devil, the serpent, subtly lies about God and lures Eve into three appeals for her heart: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. John the Apostle corroborated these three temptations in 1 John 2:16-17:

For everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:16-17

We can see the irony of John’s comment in verse 17 as he says we live forever by doing the will of God. Living forever pertains of course to our resurrection to eternal life, something Adam and Eve likely did not understand in the garden of Eden. Their disobedience meant certain death in a physical sense.

But how does the devil trick Eve? He says, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” He plays on her innocence. Eve of course knew that God specified the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fact that the tree was forbidden gave it special importance. The moment they ate from that tree, their knowledge would replace their innocence and they would know good and evil. So Eve answers the serpent fairly accurately but with some subtle differences from the facts. Perhaps because she was getting her information second hand through Adam, she made some slight variations, such as, “You must not touch it.” She says, “You will die” rather than “You will certainly die.” The serpent said, “You will not surely die,” directly contradicting God and casting doubt on God’s word and His motive.

The serpent crafted his words carefully and said, “For you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” This has an element of truth to it. God said later, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:22). Eve looked at the fruit, and it seemed good for food (the lust of the flesh) and pleasing to look at (the lust of the eyes). She thought it would make her wise (the pride of life), knowing good from evil. Probably she did not understand good and evil, because she could not yet discern the difference.

How many of us long to be the captain of our own destiny, in charge of our life, completely independent, with no boss but our own will? We want to be like God. The most arrogant want to be God. Emperors in history have demanded worship of themselves! Think of Nebuchadnezzar, or Caesars Nero and Domitian, or Emperor Hirohito. Eve’s temptation was therefore universal and arises from our own will taking priority over the Creator’s will, and over what is right and good.

I say that the temptation is universal, although it is tailored to the individual’s psyche and circumstances. Let us consider the temptation of Jesus in Luke chapter 4. Satan said to the very hungry Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3). He appealed to the lust of the flesh when Jesus was weak with hunger.

Next Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms from a high vantage point, saying, “I will give you all their authority and splendor…if you worship me, it will be all yours.” He appealed to the lust of the eyes.

Finally Satan appealed to pride, telling Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple. Jesus’ feat of survival would have been a show of His divine nature. What a spectacle this would have been, like Superman leaping tall buildings with a single bound! But the man Jesus would have tested God the Father, contrary to Scripture. Deuteronomy 6:16 forbids testing the Lord your God with false gods and further, testing Him by complaining and demanding things from God. Anyway, in Jesus’ case, this would have been a demand to rescue Jesus from His own folly of throwing Himself off a building. Pride would become apparent from seeking to make Himself a spectacle for His own benefit.

What about you and I? What’s your weakness? For some of us the weakness of the flesh pertains to physical pleasures, such as gluttony or sexual promiscuity. The lust of the eyes may fall into impurity with pornography, or the longing for treasures that are visually pleasing, such as a mansion or sports car. Bigger, better, faster! The dream house, the corner office, the Ferrari. But houses and offices and Ferraris in themselves are not evil! Yet they can lure your heart away from righteousness. How you acquire them can become all consuming and lead to crimes.

In 1 Timothy 6:10 we find St. Paul’s sanction against the love of a good thing, money!

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

This touches on the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and furthermore, when such pursuits become entangled in our pride, further sin is born. I know of a man serving twelve years in prison for fraud who was so thoroughly entangled in lust and pride that he defrauded people of many millions of dollars to feed his lusts and his desire for prestige as head of a busy company. He even gave interviews on national television as the CEO and posed as an expert in his field before his fall. He pierced himself with many griefs.

Our lesson has focused thus far on Satan’s modus operandus, that of appealing to our lust and pride, even as Satan casts doubt on God’s honesty, God’s care for us, and even God’s very nature. God’s word we know to be reliable. Reading the entirety of the Bible we see the consistency of God’s promises that begin in Genesis 3:15 (the prediction of Jesus versus Satan) and develop into a nation dedicated to God through the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The call of Abraham begins in Genesis 12. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau, and Jacob becomes patriarch of twelve tribes. The nation of Israel begins shakily in captivity in Egypt, but is brought out in spite of the Egyptian stronghold, settling in the land of Canaan, developing for hundreds of years into many millions of people, until a monarchy is established, ultimately leading to a king above all kings, the Savior and Messiah. We know this from reading the testimonies and the history found in the Bible.

But let us focus again on Genesis chapter 3 to see how God cares for Adam and Eve. Can man live forever in a fallen state? God’s answer was no, in Genesis 3:22-23. He could not allow the man to live forever as a sinner, separated from the holy God. Can you imagine Adolf Hitler living forever? Death is the curse given for sinning in the first place. However, living forever in this condition cannot be. Eternal life comes only after we are freed from the curse of sin, but it comes with our redemption and resurrection. There are very few exceptions (Enoch, Elijah, and the chosen at the Rapture predicted in Revelation).

Now the science lovers among us certainly know about the law of entropy. Entropy has never been refuted and means that things deteriorate. Putting this simply, things eventually fall apart unless someone shepherds them along. We call this “someone” God. Speaking of the Son of God, Paul wrote:

For in Him all things were created…all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. – Colossians 1:16-17

The universe holds together by God the Father through His Son, Jesus. Otherwise, things would go chaotic. So our bodies also deteriorate, and we die. Now in the garden of Eden there was also the tree of life, which God mentions in Genesis 3:22. Overcoming entropy, in the case of man’s body, could have been intended through his eating from the tree of life. We do not know, but this seems implied. Man could no longer have access to the tree of life, because he was not allowed any longer to live forever. This was a kindness from God. Instead God provided another way, the way of redemption through Messiah. The first strong hint for this is found in Genesis 3:15, when God told the serpent:

“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.”

Satan was the serpent and the heel bruiser, who put Jesus on the cross. The Messiah, Jesus, was the head crusher, destroying Satan’s plot to destroy mankind, and eventually throwing Satan into the place of fiery torment – hell – prepared for the devil and his angels. (See Matthew 25:41.) The devil’s offspring may be interpreted as his angels (the demons) or wicked humans who follow his commands. The woman Eve’s offspring is the child of the promise, Jesus, who would save the people from their sins, as predicted in Matthew 1:21, and who would reign on the throne of David forever and rule over the house of Jacob forever, as predicted in Luke 1:33. Luke 1:33 is quite similar to the prediction of Daniel 7:13-14, referring to the Son of Man who would be given all honor and glory and power, and who would rule forever over a kingdom that would never be destroyed. Jesus triumphed by overcoming the temptation to avoid the cross and through His atoning death for our sins, as well as through His resurrection.

Therefore, we may view God as kind to Adam and Eve and us by assigning the curse of death for sin, but providing eternal life through faith in the Resurrected One, Jesus. Jesus, the way, the truth and the life (John 6:14), is the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Him will live, even if he dies (John 11:25).

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you. – 1 Peter 1:3-4.

Now we know that we live in a fallen world. We know this from Scripture and from the evidence around us – the decay in nature, wars, animosity, depravity, hatred of the good, love for evil, and blasphemy against the holy God. Even “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Creation suffers decay because of the sins of humanity, the crown of God’s creation. Beginning with Adam and Eve in their fallen state, they were separated from paradise and from God. Furthermore, animals were now sacrificed on their behalf. The blood of the innocent animal allowed a temporary relief as a sin offering. God even sacrificed an animal by providing animal skin or hide for their clothing, in Genesis 3. God proved to be kind to them, even though they had disobeyed Him. We shall see through further study that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22); the sacrifices provided a temporary atonement as a type for the permanent solution to our redemption given us through the blood of Jesus.