The Antidote to the Fall

In order to understand how "faith" becomes the antidote to the Fall, we must first understand the eternal nature of God, the divine nature of man and the nature of temptation.


Eternal unchanging natue of God


Faith is part of God's own eternal nature. His creative ability proceeds out of His faith. All that He does, He does by faith. Furthermore, His faith finds its expression in the Words that He speaks. His Words are the channels of His faith and therefore the instruments of His creative ability.


The effective power of God's faith in His own Word is forcefully expressed in the Book of Ezekiel:


"For I the Lord shall speak, and whatever word I speak will be performed" (Ezekiel 12:25, NAS, emphasis added).


The introductory phrase "I the Lord" indicates that what follows is part of the eternal, unchanging nature of God. When God says something, it happens. Such is His faith in His own Word.


Concerning the gift of faith, the psalmist said: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps. 33:6, 9, NKJV).


In Gennsis 1 we are given a specific example of how this worked: "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). When God spoke the word "light," the thing "light" was manifested. God's spoken Word came forth as "thing."


Facts about faith


From our study (messages of faith) concering faith so far, we come to three conclusions about faith that help us to understand its unique power and importance:


1. Faith is part of the eternal nature of God.


2. Faith is the creative power by which God brought the universe into being.


3. God's faith is expressed and made effective by the Words that He speaks.


Divine nature of man


Scripture reveals that man was created in perfection, but fell from that condition by transgression for which he was accountable to God. However, God was not content to leave man in his fallen condition. Rather, from that point onward, Scripture unfolds a magnificent theme of redemption. It is the story of how God buys man back for Himself by the death of Christ on the cross and how He works out man's restoration, changing his nature and his ways to bring him back into God's original purpose.


Faith, speech, and creativity of man


The key to the process of restoration of man (reversal of the results of the Fall) is faith. In order to understand fully, the redemptive effect of exercising faith in the restoration of man, we must consider the nature of man.


Man has a divine nature because God created him in His image and in His likeness:


God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ...." (Genesis 1:26).


Having a divine nature means man has the ability to exercise faith. Because God created man with the ability to exercise faith, we find also in man the other two abilities which are related to faith - the ability to create, and the ability to speak. It is significant that both these abilities, which man shares with God, also distinguish man from animals.


By his very nature man has creative ability. He can envision something that has never actually existed; then he can plan it and bring it into being. This distinguishes him from all known animals. A bird, for example, can build a marvelously complex nest, but it does so by instinct. A bird cannot envision something that has never existed, plan it, and bring it into being. Man can. In this sense, man is continually creating.


Linked with man's creative ability is man's ability to speak. without this, man would never be able to formulate and express his creative purposes. Man's capacity for intelligent, articulate speech is not shared by any known animals. It is a distinctive aspect of man's likeness to God.


We see, then, that man, as originally created, share three related aspects of God's own nature: the ability to exercise faith; the ability to speak and the ability to create.


Satan's assault on faith


Because God has shared with man His ability to exercise faith, He requires him to do so. Consequently, when He created man, He placed him in a situation where faith was needed. The record of Scripture makes it clear that God, as a Person, did not remain permanently present with Adam in the garden. Instead, He left him with a substitute for His personal presence - His Word. In my recent messages we have already seen that faith relates us to two invisible realities - God and His Word. This was the type of relationship in which Adam found himself. He had been in direct personal contact with God, but when God was no longer present as a Person in the garden, Adam was obligated to relate to God through the Word which He had left with him:


"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'" (Genesis 2:16, 17, NKJV).


Notice that God's Words to Adam fall into three sections - permission, prohibition and a warning.


Satan sought to undermine God's Word to Adam


As long as Adam (or anyone else) remained rightly related to God through His Word, he was blessed and secure. Satan could not touch him. But Satan was determined to alienate man from God and deprive him of His blessings. With characteristic craftiness, he approached him indirectly through the "weaker vessel" - Eve. He began by undermining Eve's confidence in God's Word, through first questioning it and then directly denying it. Then he went on to undermine her confidence in God Himself by suggesting that she and her husband did not need to remain in a position of inferiority, but could achieve equality with God by acquiring the knowledge of good and evil. This desire for independence from God is the inner motivation that leads to sin.


"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" (Genesis 3:6, NKJV, emphasis added).


The key word here is "saw." Eve "saw that the tree ...." This little word indicates a transition from one realm to another. At this point, Eve abandoned her faith in the invisible realm of God and His Word. Instead, she was moved by what she saw. She began to rely on her physical senses. She came down from the realm of faith to the realm of the senses. In this lower realm, the tree had three features that attracted her - it was good for food; it was delight to the eyes; it was desirable to make one wise. In other words, the forbidden tree confronted her three basic forms of temptation - the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.


The nature of temptation


John said: "Do not love the world or the things in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world' (1 John 2:15, 16, emphasis added).


Here are some statements of truth:

1. The sensual world, in God's terminology, is made of three elements - the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.


2. In Scripture the word "lust" usually denotes a strong desire which has become perverted and harmful and which does not submit to God's standards of righteousness.


3. The first two forms of temptation, listed here by John, are desires of the kind that affect man through his physical senses.


4. The third form of temptation appeals to man's ego, or soul. It is the inner urge in man which refuses to acknowledge his dependence upon God, but seeks to exalt himself.


The temptations of Jesus


When Jesus was in the wilderness, He was confronted by Satan with each of these three temptations (read Luke 4:1 - 13).


Satan tempted Him to make stones into bread - the lust of the flesh. Then he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world with their power and glory - the lust of the eyes. Finally, Satan tempted Jesus to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, thus performing a miracle on His own initiative that would glorify Himself, without submitting to the Father's will or seeking the Father's glory - the pride of life.


Comparison between the temptations of Adam and that of Jesus


Here are some interesting points:


1. Adam encountered his temptations in a beautiful garde, surrounded by every evidence of God's loving provision. Jesus (called "the last Adam') encountered His temptations in a barren wilderness, with no companions but the wild beasts.


2. Adam succumbed to his temptations by eating; Jesus overcame His temptations by fasting.


The implications of this comparison


It is interesting to realize that the implications of this comparison are profound!


Returning to Satan's encounter with Eve, we observe that the tree presented her likewise with the three basic forms of tempation. It appealed to her appetite - the lust of the flesh. It appealed to her eyes - the lust of the eyes. It appealed to her ego with the promise that it would make her wise and thus set her free from dependence on God - the pride of life.


The essence of sin


In its essence, sin is not doing something wrong. Sin is the desire to be independent of God. Whenever this desire appears in us, it spells spiritual danger. In Eve's case, the means by which she hoped to achieve her independence was knowledge - the knowledge of good and evil. This is one means by which people commonly seek independence from God. Others are wealth or fame or power. I believe on the subtlest of all is religion. We can become so religious that we no longer need God!


Motivated by her desire for independence, Eve transferred her confidence from God's Word to her own senses. As a result she quicly succumbed to the tree's threefold temptation and partook of the fruit. The she enticed her husband into doing the same, and both of them together were alienated from God by their disobedience.


The outworking of faith


Faith in the invisible realm of God and His Word is both original and natural for man; unbelief is perverted and unnatural. Temptation alienates man from his natural faith in God and His Word. Instead, it appeals to man through his physical senses. Traced to its roots, every temptaion is a temptation to unbelief. The motive which it exploits is the desire to be independent of God. The result which it produces is disobedience against God.


Faith works in exactly the opposite direction to temptation. Faith requires man to renounce both his confidence in his senses and ambition for his ego to exalt himself in independence of God. Faith reasserts the supremacy of the invisible realm of God and His Word and requires man's ego to humble himself and acknowledge his dependnce upon God. Thus faith undoes the effects of man's fall and opens the way for him to return into his original relationship with God. Faith reverses the process of temptation that led to man's fall.


Conclusion


There are two ways of living for man. One, in which man rejects dependence upon God, but trust in himself and his senses. The other, in which man renounces confidence in himself and his senses, but trusts in that which his senses cannot comprehend - God and His Word. By weaning us away from self and the sense realm, faith brings us back to the principle of righteousness which is based on trust in God and His Word and which alone enables us to live a life that is pleasing to God. Therefore, faith is the antidote to the Fall.