“The Fall into Sin and God’s Solution”
(Genesis 3:1-15 – Lent 1 – February 22, 2026)
Genesis 3:1-15 – 1Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. 15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
Dear fellow Redeemed in Christ Jesus,
Why are there so many evils in the world? Why is there so much division with divorce, violence, and wars? Why is there so much sickness and disease, suffering and death? Why is there so much falsehood to threaten our faith? It all began with mankind’s fall into sin; and behind it all is Satan, the Tempter and father of lies (John 8:44).
Every day, we deal with troubling effects of sin and evil in many ways. Yet we live with faith and hope in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to destroy the devil’s works (1 John 3:8), to take away our sins on the cross, and restore us to eternal life with God. Today we see “The Fall into Sin and God’s Solution.” We see the history and consequence of the first sin; but we also see God’s loving solution in our redemption in Jesus Christ.
1) The History of the first sin
Genesis 1-2 reveals that God created Adam and Eve in His image. They were sinless and holy, enjoying blessed fellowship with God. He gave them the gift of a perfect marriage. In the Garden of Eden, they lacked nothing. The fruit of the trees gave them food for refreshment. Taking care of the garden gave them enjoyable work and exercise. They freely ate of the tree of life in the midst of the garden (Genesis 2:9). They were going to live forever in Paradise.
But then there appeared the Tempter, embodied in the form of a serpent – Satan, who had been cast out of heaven for rebelling against God. Satan hated God with a vengeance; and along with God, he hated those who bore the image of God – humans.
Where did Satan find a point of attack against God’s beloved humans? It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God also put in the midst of the garden. God had forbidden it to Adam and Eve, saying: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). By freely and consciously obeying His Word, they showed love and worship to God above all as the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Satan realized that if he could persuade our first parents that God’s restriction was not an act of love and goodwill, but of harsh and unfair tyranny, he might succeed in destroying this perfect relationship between God and man.
As the spiritual head, Adam first received God’s command. But Satan craftily approached his weaker helper, Eve. Satan asked her a seemingly innocent question: “Has God indeed said…?” Eve, is it possible that God made such a restriction? Would a loving God keep from you some part of His good creation, some pleasure, some hidden blessing?” So Satan began by casting doubt on God’s Word. He tempted Eve to trust her own reason and feelings, to find her own truth.
Eve should have said: “Go away! It is wrong to question God’s Word and His love!” But she entertained the Tempter. Seeing progress, Satan now boldly denied God’s Word: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” In other words: “Eve, God’s words are empty threats. His motives are impure. He is just afraid of you becoming enlightened, thinking for yourself, becoming like Him. Eve, what could be wrong with being wise like God?”
Satan tempts us the same way, to doubt God’s Word. After all, aren’t there many wise scholars who claim to have disproven the Bible’s reliability, who mock its teachings of creation, the miracles, and Jesus’ death and resurrection? Aren’t more and more churches giving up the authority of Scripture for what sounds more relevant? Shouldn’t we perhaps get with the times? Surrounded by a world that insists there is no absolute truth, we are tempted to push aside God’s Word, to follow our own heart and feelings and do what we think is right for ourselves. In other words, we are tempted to be like our own gods, to exercise our own will as supreme.
The longer Eve entertained the Tempter, the more she leaned on her own reason and feelings instead of God’s Word. The longer she gazed at what God had forbidden, the more convinced she became that she was missing out. In her heart, she coveted the forbidden fruit and what it appeared to offer. What was left but to carry out the act? “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
As the spiritual head of his wife, in love Adam should have led her back to God’s Word. Instead, when Eve sought partnership with him on her terms, Adam submitted against his better knowledge. He ate and chose unity with his wife, rather than his loving Creator who is Head over all.
As their fallen children, how often we fall into temptation too. We know God’s Word, what He commands for our good. But we are attracted to what is forbidden. We gaze at what promises new wisdom, new pleasure, new acceptance apart from God. We seek to scratch that itch, to find what we are missing, until we rationalize our actions and declare: “This is freedom, throwing off those old restraints and doing what I want, doing what feels good, living my own way!”
2) The consequence of the first sin
Now we see the devastating consequence of that first sin. Where was the pleasure expected, the wisdom promised? True, their eyes were opened; but it was to knowing evil.
We see the first consequence of sin – shame. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” In their fallen condition, they no longer looked at each other with pure desires. They tried to hide their shame from one another. They discovered that when the perfect vertical relationship with God is lacking, horizontal relationships between humans suffer.
Now we see the second consequence of sin – fear. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’” In the beginning, the Lord would walk and talk with them in perfect fellowship. But now they were deathly afraid of Him and tried to hide from that voice that calls sinners to justice.
Now we see the third consequence of sin – passing the blame. Though Eve sinned first, God called Adam to account first; for with headship comes responsibility. But Adam cowardly tried to put the blame on his weaker partner, flesh of his own flesh. He even blamed God Himself: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” In turn, Eve blamed the serpent. They wanted to put the guilt on someone else – even God!
As we read on in Genesis 3, we see the final consequence of sin – punishment. God increased Eve’s pain in childbearing. God cursed the ground so Adam had to work its thorn-infested soil for food. Life in a fallen world would be marked by pain, frustration, and hardship. And it would all end in death, as God had warned. Then God shut our first parents out of Paradise, lest they eat of the tree of life and live in this condition forever (Genesis 3:16-24).
What a horrible fall that first sin caused! The effects were not limited to our first parents. As their descendants, we all inherit Original Sin and share the same guilt and consequences. For out of our own hearts come sins in thought, word, and deed (Matthew 15:19). Romans 5:12 tells the devastating consequences for all their children; and again, it is accounted through Adam: “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” With sin came spiritual death, physical death, and ultimately eternal death to sinners!
3) God’s solution: redemption from sin
Yet we can praise God; that is not the end of the story! For in the very account of our first parents’ fall into sin, we also hear God’s loving solution: His promise of redemption from sin.
God told Satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” The woman’s offspring, One whom God refers to as “He,” would bruise Satan’s head; though Satan would bruise “His” heel. Here is the first promise of our Savior. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, came to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He entered our fallen world to reverse the harm done by the Tempter. He came to crush Satan’s head so that the old evil foe is powerless over all who believe in Jesus for salvation.
But that victory did not come without injury to God’s Son. In crushing the serpent’s head, Jesus’ heel was wounded by the head it crushed. The bruising of Jesus’ heel was the suffering Satan caused – such as when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness; when Jesus suffered agony and temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane; when Jesus was unjustly arrested, tortured, condemned, and crucified. Yet on the cross, Jesus suffered far more than Satan could inflict. He suffered the wrath of God against all our sin. He suffered the punishment and death we deserved. In love, Jesus sacrificed His life to save us.
Yet death could not hold Him who is God in our flesh. Having crushed the head of Satan, having delivered us from sin and death, Jesus rose from the grave to declare His victory for us. Now instead of hiding from God or passing the blame, we come to Him confessing our sins, knowing He forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness by the blood of His Son (1 John 1:8-9). When we are tempted to despair in our sin, crying with Paul: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” yet we can exclaim: “I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25). For He has redeemed us for eternal life!
Now Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us. For every way we have fallen into temptation from the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, Jesus pleads in our behalf. He reminds His Father how He fulfilled that promise of redemption to Adam and Eve and all sinners. Jesus says: “See Father, I resisted Satan’s temptations perfectly for them. I never partook of anything forbidden, but I kept all Your commands for their sake. See Father, I suffered and died to take away all their sins; therefore, no punishment remains for them. See Father, I have cleansed them from all sin by My blood. I have covered them in My own righteousness.”
By God’s gift of faith, He has made us His new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). He has restored us in the image of His Son as His holy children (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). God is restoring all things for us in “a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (1 Peter 3:13). In Revelation 2:7 Jesus promises: “I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Jesus is bringing us to live with Him in everlasting peace and joy! He has given us His life. He has given us His Word. Let us trust Him.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.