Part 3 - The Fall and the Restoration

The Rebellion of Man's Strength

A fourth aspect of the Fall relates to man's strength. This is ability, might, and power. Strength is the means by which a task is accomplished. It is that which elevates man and places him in his standing. The standing that Adam and Eve had before God was His doing. It was God's strength that created, formed, and established mankind in a relationship with God.

After establishing mankind with His creative power, God "took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it" (Gen. 2:15). Adam had a charge from Yahweh to be a steward in that place where God had put him. The meaning of "tend" in the original Hebrew is "to labour, work, do work," and also "to serve." The meaning of "keep" is "to keep, guard, observe, give heed." Adam's place in the garden was fully established by the work of God, and Adam's charge was to work to keep that place and not lose it. He was to serve God's will. He was to be diligent to guard his place and standing that God provided by giving heed to God's commands.

Adam's strength was to be subservient to God. It was to be used to serve the Creator's will. This is seen in the following command by God: "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." (Gen. 2:17). There was the possibility for Adam to take an action, one of using his strength, to do that which was in rebellion against God. Therefore God charged Adam to work at guarding, observing, and giving heed to that standing he had by God's work, otherwise he would die.

The rebellion of man's heart was to place himself above God. The rebellion of man's soul was to seek independence from God and to possess a sufficiency apart from God. The rebellion of man's mind was to reject God's understanding and to seek something of his own understanding contrary to God's decree. Now, here, the rebellion of man's strength was to take an action to actually implement all of the above. This action by Adam and Eve is stated in scripture: "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." (Gen. 3:6).

Self-made

When the heart of man rebelled against God, man used his strength in a rebellious way that rejected the work of God. Rather than accepting themselves as being the work of God, and accepting the place that God established them in, Adam and Eve used their strength to try to make themselves into something that God was not a part of. They sought to elevate themselves by their own doing. They tried, in their own effort, to make themselves better people.

Self-righteous

One of the marks of the Fall is self-righteousness in man. This is the use of man's strength to try and establish himself in his standing before God and man. But God does not recognize self-righteousness. Righteousness is of God, and God's place for man is the place of cleaving to Him where the righteousness of God can flow to and through him. Any other place that man would be in is a place of separation from the righteousness of God. An establishment and standing apart from God is a rebellion of strength and is a place of unrighteousness.

The pitiful attempt of the exercise of Adam and Eve's own strength in establishing themselves became immediately obvious, for "they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings" (Gen. 3:7). Their attempt to establish their own standing continued after their separation from God, and manifested itself in their self-righteous attempt to cover themselves. But God rejected this demonstration of the strength of man to be self-righteous. Further on, the account states, "Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21). In this God points to a future work of His, where His strength will bring righteousness and reestablish mankind in a right standing before Him through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.