Defeat Through the First Man in Eden (continued)
satan's Victory Over God and Man (continued)
Let us not shrink from declaring the truth. God has suffered a terrible defeat. But let us quickly assert that God's defeat is not due to any lack in Himself, or in His power to utterly destroy His archenemy by one blow. "And God said." Nine times over in Genesis 1 we read these words. By this divine fiat God wrought in mighty power in creation. by one word God could have defeated and destroyed satan, as one day He will, in the lake of fire. Go's defeat was due to His love for that first man - a love so great that it even risked betrayal with its resultant defeat. Though God had been defeated, He had not been dethroned, for His throne is eternal. "The Lord reigneth." But His defeat calls for both a restoration and a redemption. His dominion over the earth would come by restoration; His dominion over man by redemption. God's defeat was for a brief moment of time. His victory would be eternal. satan's defeat was asserted on the very day of his victory. God's victory was assured on the very day of His defeat.
God's Judgment upon the serpent, satan and the Sinners.
"The "serpent said," and each time he hissed and booed God. "The woman said," and oh! if she had only kept silent! The man kept still. But oh! how even one word of warning and of rebuke spoken by him might have changed everything! Both Adam and Eve listened to the voice of another than God. So in eating of the forbidden fruit both had transgressed. Eve had transgressed, "being deceived"; Adam had transgressed being decoyed.
1 John 3:4: Everyone that doeth sin, doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
They had leaped over a divinely marked boundary; they had gone beyond a divinely prescribed limit; they had acted in deliberate rebellion against a known commandment of God; they had refused to live according to the cardinal law of God's kingdom. "Sin is the transgression of the law." Therefore both had sinned. Both were individually responsible before God and must give an account of their actions. Now God will speak. He will call them individually before Him as their righteous Judge, and conduct the trial Himself.
"The Lord God said:"
He first arraigns the man. He has to call him from his hiding place, which he has sought through shame and fear. He is ever and always a righteous Judge, so He gives the sinners a chance to speak for themselves. God puts Adam on the witness stand and asks a pointed question. He goes straight to the core. Let us carefully note that nobody can every get by Go, for He knows our every sin. He said to Adam, "Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat of it?" Adam's answer could have been a monosyllabic "yes." But the man who had been criminally silent a short time before was now unnecessarily long-winded. Adam stood before the God of all truth, who knew without asking exactly what Adam had done.
Genesis 3:12: "The man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
Adam told the naked truth. But do you note one word of confession of his awful and hideous sin against God, or even any sense of the guilt of betrayal? Do his words reveal any sense of failure in his responsibility as head of the race to have shielded his own wife in her moment of temptation? Instead, is there not a veiled insinuation that part of the blame for his act of eating must be shared by both God and Eve? Adam the sinner has stated facts, but he has made no confession of sin. The Judge will pronounce his sentence soon.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 23)
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