Part 1: God’s Plan of Salvation

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

Chapter 1: The Sin Problem

In the beginning, when God created man, He commanded that he could eat of every tree of the garden except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was the only condition that God imposed on the man, for him to live in the garden.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 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 2:15-17.

Was this a stringent command? I should think not! I imagine that there were probably several trees in the garden, not just say 2 or 3 trees. Let’s imagine that the garden had 20 trees. This means only one of the trees out of the twenty couldn’t be eaten. Now some people would argue that why did God create the tree in the garden in the first place? But I argue that that is beside the point. Maybe the fruit of the tree was for other things, healing, for instance; maybe for the animals to eat, maybe for angels to eat; but not for man. And this was the only condition. God also imposed a stringent consequence. In the day you eat it, you shall die. Not just did He say die, He said, “surely die”. Most certainly. Well, since God is all-knowing, He could have healed the man He created right? But He didn’t say, “You shall take ill”, He said, “You shall surely die”. This means that there will be no healing for this. Only one repercussion, Death. Why? Because the fruit wasn’t a dangerous fruit, but because the death would come through disobedience to God.

23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Man ultimately failed his test of obedience and sinned. The consequence of this sin is death.

1 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. 6 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. 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.
Genesis 3:1-7

Note that in the third verse of Genesis 3, the serpent calls God a liar. “You shall not surely die!” But if we look back to Genesis 2:16, God commanded the man to eat of every tree except this one and stated that the man shall surely die if he ate it. So why did the serpent visit the woman? Why did he talk to her? Well, most likely because she didn’t actually hear God say that. She was just reporting what she heard her husband telling her. Immediately, he was arousing her imagination. Had she heard wrong? Did she misunderstand Adam? The serpent in the same breath then states that God was trying to limit her. “Ye shall be as gods, your eyes shall be opened…” The consequence? The woman is “convinced” that she should try the fruit. I don’t think she understood the full implication of what trying the fruit means. In trying the fruit, she implicitly made God a liar. Though consciously, she was looking for a benefit to eating the fruit. As we say, she wanted to eat her cake and have it at the same time. The serpent had declared that God was lying and was only trying to limit her. Moreover, as she looked at the fruit, she saw that the tree was “good for food” and “pleasant to the eyes”, a “tree to be desired”, “it would make her wise” …

As she focused on all these benefits, in the heat of the moment, she “forgot” God’s commandment. Suddenly it seemed like a good risk to take. The tree was good for food, it looked succulent and juicy, it would make her wise, she would be like the gods, and didn’t the serpent say God was lying…She ate the fruit, and the scripture says that she gave her husband with her. This calls to mind a few questions. Was Adam right there beside the woman as she was being tempted by the serpent? Or was he a little way off and didn’t know the source of the fruit? Maybe the fruit looked like every other fruit? Did Adam’s possible ignorance of his wife’s disobedience make him any less guilty of the sin? Unfortunately, not! If by some “miracle” I don’t know that if I steal from someone, I will be guilty of the law, am I any less guilty before a judge? Will I tell the judge, “I’m sorry I didn’t know it was wrong”? Would the judge say, “Okay, let’s give him another chance? Let’s say you’re not guilty”. Will he say that? Absolutely not!

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.14 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: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis 3:9-24

Immediately they ate the fruit, they discovered their nakedness. They had lost the innocence of a child. Moreover, they became fearful. He heard God and he was afraid. Why? Because he had disobeyed, and his conscience smote him. Adam, why did you do this? The woman you gave me gave me of the fruit. So maybe it was God’s fault in the grand scheme of things? God, You gave me the woman and moreover God, You put the tree there. If You didn’t want me to disobey, You would not have given me that woman and You would not have put the tree there. You are to blame, God.

And the woman? God, the snake deceived me. It’s the snake’s fault. And so, God metes out the punishments. The snake shall crawl on its belly, the woman shall suffer in childbearing and Adam shall toil to feed himself and his family. Further, they were driven out of the garden to go fend for themselves, with their own wits and ability. But what about death? Weren’t they supposed to die?

Yes, they did die. In the same day they ate the fruit, they died. How? Spiritually and physically. How?

As a result of man’s sin, he died. Physically, sin brought death into the world and the whole of creation groans under the weight of the sin of man. Creation is full of death and decay because of the judgement of sin. Physical death starts first through aging. A child born into this world begins to die. Death is then further hastened physically, through sickness and disease. As we age, we begin to fall prey to what we deem to be a result of old age. But did you know that even the very earth resists man to bring about his demise, according to God’s judgement?

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Genesis 3:17-19

The earth which yielded to man now began to actively resist him. The very herbs became poisonous and inimical to the man to hasten his death. The very ground became cursed for our sake!

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:4

The oldest person recorded to have lived on earth was Methuselah. But in the day that he was born he died. How? Because a thousand years is as a day before God.

27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
Genesis 5:27

So, in the day that he sinned, he died. The very day. A man may live to be 120 years old today. In the day that he is born is the same day he dies; within the 1000-year time limit. Since the garden of Eden, the whole earth has become corrupt due to the influence of sin. Want more proof?

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Genesis 1:29-30

Look again at verse 30. To every beast of the earth and fowl of the air and every creeping thing, the green herb was given for meat. Every beast would include what we know as carnivores now right? This would include lions and tigers, right? But now because of sin, the entire world has gone into corruption and wickedness. Now man lives in fear of all things. As a result of sin. Death and decay abound.

Not only did man die physically, man died spiritually. How? After the fall of man in the garden, the spirit of man lost fellowship with the spirit of God. This is spiritual death. Man was lost.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7

I will touch on this briefly here but revisit it in more detail in chapter 3. Man was formed from the dust of the earth. But he became a living soul after the breath of God entered him. This breath of God is spirit, even as God himself is a Spirit. Once the spirit encountered the body, man’s soul was created. Man immediately had his individual personality encapsulated in his will (to make choices), his intellect (for thinking) and his emotions (for feeling) and these make up the personality of the man, the soul of the man. The man however also has a physical body which is the outer container for his soul (or personality) and for his spirit (the breath of life from God).

So, in the day that man sinned, he died spiritually by losing connection with God. Due to his willful disobedience, his spirit (the breath of Life in the man) lost communication with the Father of all Spirits. I will discuss more on this in chapter 3.

Since God is God, whatever He says must surely come to pass without fail. Otherwise, he is not God. Once He makes a pronouncement it cannot be changed; otherwise, the entire universe will be unstable.

19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Numbers 23:19

So, once He made the pronouncement to Adam, death became the wages of sin.

But the problem with sin is that man truly doesn’t know that the wage of sin is death. In the mind of people, they relate to “gods” as parents and their children. If your child disobeys you, you don’t kill the child, do you? If any parent kills their child for disobedience that was not an accidental killing (manslaughter), such a person would likely be very evil and likely even mentally unhinged. Any punishment that would cause death would be labelled the height of child abuse. Even manslaughter cannot be excused because it begs to question, what kind of punishment led to accidental death?

Due to this, we don’t take sin as seriously as we should. We are apt to consider the very notion that the wages of disobedience would be death as an extreme form of religion and generally frowned upon. Proponents of this idea would be labelled as intolerant and bigots. Is this not so? Due to this, man attempts to erase sin by doing good works. In the next few chapters I will delve into the absolute evil of sin in God’s view that attracts only one remedy: death.