In chapter 3 we
find—what, alas! has always happened, and happened
immediately when God has set up anything in the hands of
responsible man disobedience and failure. So it was in
Adam, so in Noah, so in Israel with the golden calf, so
in the priesthood with strange fire, so in Solomon son of
David, and Nebuchadnezzar. So indeed in the church, 1
John 2: 18, 19 and Jude. It was always the first thing
when what was set up was trusted to man. All is set up
again in Christ, the Man of God's purpose. The subtlety
of the hidden enemy of our souls is now at work. The
first effect is the distrust of God which he inspires;
then lusts and disobedience; utter dishonour done to God,
whether as regards His truth or His love; the power of
natural affections over man; the consciousness of being
naked and powerless; effort to hide it from oneself [1]; terror of God—seeking to
hide from Him; self-justification, which seeks to cast
upon another, and even upon God, that of which we have
been guilty. After that, we have, not the blessing or
restoration of man, or promises made to him, but the
judgment pronounced upon the serpent, and, in that, the
promise made to the second Adam, the victorious Man, but
who in grace has His birthplace where the weakness and
the fall were. It is the Seed of the woman who bruises
the serpent's head.
Man trusts Satan
rather than God
Remark too how complete
was the fall and separation from God. God had fully
blessed; Satan suggests that God keeps back the best gift
out of envy, lest man should be like Him. Man trusts
Satan for kindness rather than God, whom he judges
according to Satan's lie. He believes Satan instead of
God, when he tells him he should not die, as God said he
should, and casts off the God who had blessed him, to
gratify his lusts. Not trusting God, he uses his own will
to seek happiness by, as a surer way, as men do now.
Contrasts between
the first Adam and the Second
We see in Philippians 2
how completely the Lord Jesus glorified God in all these
points, acting in a way exactly opposite to Adam. We may
remark too that Adam did it to exalt himself, to be as
God, as a robbery; while Christ, when He was in the
divine glory, emptied Himself to be like man, and was
obedient, not disobedient, unto death. Remark, too, how
the hiding of sin from self is gone when God comes in.
Adam, who had covered his nakedness, speaks of it when
God is there as much as if he had done nothing to cover
it. And so it is with all our efforts to make out what
shall hide our sin, or make out righteousness. Moreover
man flies from God before ever God drives him in
righteousness from His presence and blessing. The
knowledge of good and evil in a state of disobedience
makes us afraid of God, and must have a divine work and
righteousness to cover it. Remark farther, what is of
great importance, Adam had no promise: there is none to
the first Adam; no restoration of the first man, no way
back to the tree of life; all is in the Second, the
woman's Seed. In judging Satan He and His victory are
promised.
Death, and life
through an accomplished work
What follows is the
present result as to the government of God; the temporal
sentence pronounced on Adam and his wife, until death,
under the power of which he was fallen, seized him. There
was a sign however of deeper mercies. Life is recognised
as still there though death had come in: Eve is the
mother of all living; a faith, it would seem, real,
though obscure, at any rate, ours. But there is yet more.
Before they are driven out, and shut out from all return
back to the tree of life according to nature, God clothes
them with a garment which covers their nakedness, a
garment which had its origin in death (the death of
another), which had come in, but which hid the effects of
the sin that had introduced it. Man was no longer naked.
So, though out from God's presence in nature, we have not
yet indeed the serpent's head bruised, though this is
sure to be accomplished; the prince of this world is
judged (though he be it still), and we know it by the
Holy Ghost come down from heaven, when Christ, whom the
world led by Satan slew, was seated at God's right hand;
but if that be not yet accomplished, we are before God
clothed with the clothing which He has put upon us, that
best robe. It is not now a promise or a figure, but an
accomplished work—a work of God. God has made our
coat; the world may mock at such a thought, we know what
it means. But he is justly driven out of the garden, an
outcast from paradise and God, and hindered from
partaking of the tree of life, that he may not perpetuate
here below a life of disaster and of misery. The way of
the tree of life was henceforth inaccessible to man [2], according to nature, as the
creature of God. There is no return to the paradise of
man in innocence. Adam, already in sin and far from God,
is the parent of a race in the same condition as himself [3].
[1]
He made fig leaves to cover his nakedness as to human
shame, but when God came in he was as naked as ever. 'I
heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, and went
and hid myself, for I was naked.' The fig leaves were
man's covering. God clothed them with skins which were
had through death.
[2]
The cherubim I believe always to represent judicial
government and power.
[3] Whatever Eve's own condition as
believing promise, what she says at the birth of Cain was
the expression of the thought that the fulfilment of
promise was in nature, which could not be. Sin was there
and death, and the judgment of the hope of promise
connected with nature come in. "I have gotten a man
from Jehovah" was faith in promise, but expectation
of the accomplishment of promise in nature. And Cain had
to go out from the presence of Jehovah.
Genesis 3 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
In chapter 3 we find—what, alas! has always happened, and happened immediately when God has set up anything in the hands of responsible man disobedience and failure. So it was in Adam, so in Noah, so in Israel with the golden calf, so in the priesthood with strange fire, so in Solomon son of David, and Nebuchadnezzar. So indeed in the church, 1 John 2: 18, 19 and Jude. It was always the first thing when what was set up was trusted to man. All is set up again in Christ, the Man of God's purpose. The subtlety of the hidden enemy of our souls is now at work. The first effect is the distrust of God which he inspires; then lusts and disobedience; utter dishonour done to God, whether as regards His truth or His love; the power of natural affections over man; the consciousness of being naked and powerless; effort to hide it from oneself [1]; terror of God—seeking to hide from Him; self-justification, which seeks to cast upon another, and even upon God, that of which we have been guilty. After that, we have, not the blessing or restoration of man, or promises made to him, but the judgment pronounced upon the serpent, and, in that, the promise made to the second Adam, the victorious Man, but who in grace has His birthplace where the weakness and the fall were. It is the Seed of the woman who bruises the serpent's head.
Man trusts Satan rather than God
Remark too how complete was the fall and separation from God. God had fully blessed; Satan suggests that God keeps back the best gift out of envy, lest man should be like Him. Man trusts Satan for kindness rather than God, whom he judges according to Satan's lie. He believes Satan instead of God, when he tells him he should not die, as God said he should, and casts off the God who had blessed him, to gratify his lusts. Not trusting God, he uses his own will to seek happiness by, as a surer way, as men do now.
Contrasts between the first Adam and the Second
We see in Philippians 2 how completely the Lord Jesus glorified God in all these points, acting in a way exactly opposite to Adam. We may remark too that Adam did it to exalt himself, to be as God, as a robbery; while Christ, when He was in the divine glory, emptied Himself to be like man, and was obedient, not disobedient, unto death. Remark, too, how the hiding of sin from self is gone when God comes in. Adam, who had covered his nakedness, speaks of it when God is there as much as if he had done nothing to cover it. And so it is with all our efforts to make out what shall hide our sin, or make out righteousness. Moreover man flies from God before ever God drives him in righteousness from His presence and blessing. The knowledge of good and evil in a state of disobedience makes us afraid of God, and must have a divine work and righteousness to cover it. Remark farther, what is of great importance, Adam had no promise: there is none to the first Adam; no restoration of the first man, no way back to the tree of life; all is in the Second, the woman's Seed. In judging Satan He and His victory are promised.
Death, and life through an accomplished work
What follows is the present result as to the government of God; the temporal sentence pronounced on Adam and his wife, until death, under the power of which he was fallen, seized him. There was a sign however of deeper mercies. Life is recognised as still there though death had come in: Eve is the mother of all living; a faith, it would seem, real, though obscure, at any rate, ours. But there is yet more. Before they are driven out, and shut out from all return back to the tree of life according to nature, God clothes them with a garment which covers their nakedness, a garment which had its origin in death (the death of another), which had come in, but which hid the effects of the sin that had introduced it. Man was no longer naked. So, though out from God's presence in nature, we have not yet indeed the serpent's head bruised, though this is sure to be accomplished; the prince of this world is judged (though he be it still), and we know it by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, when Christ, whom the world led by Satan slew, was seated at God's right hand; but if that be not yet accomplished, we are before God clothed with the clothing which He has put upon us, that best robe. It is not now a promise or a figure, but an accomplished work—a work of God. God has made our coat; the world may mock at such a thought, we know what it means. But he is justly driven out of the garden, an outcast from paradise and God, and hindered from partaking of the tree of life, that he may not perpetuate here below a life of disaster and of misery. The way of the tree of life was henceforth inaccessible to man [2], according to nature, as the creature of God. There is no return to the paradise of man in innocence. Adam, already in sin and far from God, is the parent of a race in the same condition as himself [3].
[1] He made fig leaves to cover his nakedness as to human shame, but when God came in he was as naked as ever. 'I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, and went and hid myself, for I was naked.' The fig leaves were man's covering. God clothed them with skins which were had through death.
[2] The cherubim I believe always to represent judicial government and power.
[3] Whatever Eve's own condition as believing promise, what she says at the birth of Cain was the expression of the thought that the fulfilment of promise was in nature, which could not be. Sin was there and death, and the judgment of the hope of promise connected with nature come in. "I have gotten a man from Jehovah" was faith in promise, but expectation of the accomplishment of promise in nature. And Cain had to go out from the presence of Jehovah.