“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; So I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10
Everyone involved in this situation knew there would be grave consequences to face, including the Serpent himself. But he reckoned whatever judgement lay before him would be worth the pleasure of watching God suffer the loss of the vile objects of whom He has placed so much of His love and affection.
The devil has wagered heavily. But he knows his old Master well; he knows what His holiness and His righteousness demands. And he too heard the mandate set before the man in which was stated “in the day you eat of it you will surely die”.
Yes, the devil eagerly anticipated the judgement of death upon these soulful image-bearers, to finally be rid of them and their kind once and for all. He banked that the fallen kingdom of the earth would thereby default back to him and he could get busy doing what his corrupted heart so desperately desired; to return the realm of his confinement back to chaos.
The offending parties are summoned from the shadows of the trees to stand before the Holy Judge.
“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Meager attempts at blame shifting eventually produce humble confessions. But the man and his wife know the command. They know the sentence for what they have done is the death penalty.
The Deceiver is first addressed. “Because you have done this…”
His sentence initially appears light; to be cursed more and above all cattle and beasts, and the relegating to the lowest of the low (this was especially humiliating given his initial aspiration was to be most high). But the thing that was peculiarly disturbing to him was this business about his seed being at enmity with the seed of the woman, and that it would one day wield a crushing blow to his head. It was indeed a mystery most perplexing given, he assumed, that the woman would in a moment be met with her demise!
Next, attention is turned to the woman, who had been listening intently to the previous exchange.
“Pain and travail will be greatly multiplied in the bringing forth of your seed. The husband of your desire will be your master, even now in this fallen state that you have led him in to.”
Lastly, God calls upon Adam. So far, this has not gone at all the way he has expected.
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it;’
…the ground is cursed because of you. Where before all goodness was provided from My hand, now you must work and sweat to provide for yourself. The ground will also produce thorns and thistles, and you will eat of the plants of the field, not of the garden that was once your home…”.
There is a dramatic pause.
“Death is upon you Adam, and will one day come for you, and when it does, you will return to the dust from which you were taken.”
We have to realize that what happened to Adam all those years ago, happened to us as well, because of our position in him. All of mankind was yet within Adam in the form of his seed. When Adam sinned, in him, we all sinned.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12
Remember, that up until the time of Adam’s “fall”, the kingdoms of heaven and earth are intrinsically connected in the Garden of Eden. Because of Adam’s transgression, this can no longer be so. Heaven must now be separated from the death and decay that will now come upon the earth because of his curse.
Adam has lost his position as the crown Prince of the earthly realm. His title and position was contingent upon his acting in accord with the will and commands of God.
Adam also experienced spiritual death when the Spirit of God departed from him. With it, Adam lost his eternal access to the Kingdom of Heaven. He lost his status as the son of God. God would forever be his Creator, He could be his Lord, but without the His Spirit dwelling within him, the father-son relationship was broken.
In his sin and darkness, Adam now bore the image of another. In his seed, Adam would pass death on to all mankind. Yes, death would indeed come for Adam, and for all his children after him.
But not today.
All at once, the devil’s scheme has collapsed on itself. He shakes his head in utter disbelief. He looks frantically about him wondering “what did I just miss?!” His diabolical plan has just been undone by one characteristic of God that he had not factored in, something he had not previously encountered.
Grace.