The Fall
Genesis 3:1–7
She took some and ate it. . . . And he ate it. Genesis 3:6

Eve sinned by being deceived; Adam sinned in utter rebellion. Both sinned out of pride. What lay at the root of the woman’s determination to eat the forbidden fruit and give some to her husband, Adam, if it was not pride? What lay at the root of Adam’s determination to go his own way rather than adhere to the path God placed before him, if this was not pride? In the woman’s case it was the conviction that she knew what was better for herself and her husband than God did. God had said that the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death. But she was convinced by her own empirical observation—after Satan had raised the doubt—that the tree would actually be good for her and that God was mistaken. In the man’s case, pride is also present, for he repeated the sin of Satan, saying in effect, “I will cast off God’s rule. I am too great to be bound by it. I shall declare myself autonomous. I will be like the Most High” (see Isa. 14:14).

How terrible pride is! And how pervasive; for, of course, it did not vanish in the death of the first man and woman. Pride lies at the heart of our sinful race. It is the “center” of immorality, “the utmost evil,” that which “leads to every other vice,” as C. S. Lewis warns us. It is that which makes us all want to be more than we are or can be and, consequently, causes us to fall short of that truly great destiny for which we were created.

This brings us back to the teaching that we are fallen beings. We are not on the way up, as today’s optimistic humanists would indicate. We are not sinful by the very nature of things, as the ancient Greeks would argue. We are not even machines, as if we could be excused on the grounds of such an analysis. We are fallen. We are faithless, rebellious, filled with pride. As a result, our only hope is in that grace of God by which he sends a Redeemer, who instead of being faithless was faithful, instead of being rebellious was obedient, and instead of being filled with pride was one who actually humbled himself to “even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).