The Fall of Man
On the sixth day of creation, God breathed life into man, the pinnacle of His handiwork. He beheld the earth with all the life therein and proclaimed it to be very good. (Gen 1:31) The earth was a paradise, a work of perfection. God gave man dominion over his creation. He had three simple laws for Adam and Eve to obey. They were to be fruitful and multiply. They were also forbidden to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned:

for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. (Gen 2:17).

However, man proved unfaithful to God’s law. Satan, that ancient serpent, beguiled Eve into eating the fruit of that tree. She then shared it with Adam, who had done nothing to prevent her fateful decision.

God’s judgment came swiftly with great severity. He remained true to his word. In that day death came into the world through sin. Adam and Eve did not die physically that day. In fact, they both would live for many centuries following the incident.

So, in what way did they die in the day they ate of the tree?

 

Man is Dead in Sin
Adam and Eve experienced spiritual death. Spiritual death is separation from the life, love and goodness of God because of sin. The spirit of man no longer abides in his Creator but with his new master, the devil. Man in this state has lost his love and desire for God. Man becomes focused upon himself and his own lusts. He exalts them above God and His will.

Adam, as the appointed head of God’s creation and the representative of the entire human race, not only brought God’s curse of death upon himself, but also upon all mankind born thereafter. When Adam sinned, all of mankind was in his loins, so they too would be under the curse of sin and death. Every person birthed into this fallen world has inherited the Adamic nature.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1;

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Adam’s curse is our curse. It binds us in sin, forcing its wages upon us, which is death. We all are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. Physical death soon follows. Then ultimately eternal death results from a life severed from God’s goodness. We are powerless to break this curse, as shall be proven from the scriptures.

The grace of God is the only power that can set us free from the curse of sin.

 

Man is enslaved to the Devil
The fall of man has brought death, suffering and violence into a once perfect world. Separated from the life of his Creator, man has become a servant to the one who deceived him. Satan dethroned man from his position as ruler over the world. He has assumed the position himself. Scripture has given him the titles of:

God of this world – 2 Cor 4:4

Prince of this world – John 12:31

Prince of the power of the air. – Eph 2:2

He presides over all principalities, powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

The devil holds man in bondage to do his will. We are his helpless captives, unable to break free from the iron hand of his rule. He is our spiritual father, of the same mind with man to continually do evil in the sight of a most Holy God. Jesus rebuked the Jews of his day with these stern words:

You are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father will ye do (John 8:44)

Man is the devil’s offspring in a spiritual sense. He succumbed to the sin of pride just as Satan did in the dateless past. Paul in Ephesians 2:2 says to the saints,

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

The spirit of Satan is at work in our hearts, driving us to perdition and utter ruin by use of his deceptive tongue, whispering seductively of the deceitful pleasures of sin.

 

Man has a Sin Nature
Scriptures teach that man is not only enslaved to Satan in an outward sense but as the above citations suggest, the very nature and character of the devil lives within him, radically corrupting the image of God he was created in.

Man’s constitution is sinful by nature and cannot be otherwise. He inherited this from Adam at the fall. The sinful nature drives man towards transgression of the law. This nature drives man to his ultimate damnation at the judgment after death. Ephesians 2:3 states that all men before conversion:

were by nature chidren of wrath.

God’s wrath is reserved for the sinful and rebellious. Thus, mankind, by nature, is sinful.

Jesus speaks a very powerful truth concerning sin’s mastery over man when he states in John 8:34:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Paul writes in Romans 3:23:

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Put these two verses together and you begin to understand that all man has sinned and as a consequence he is a servant to sin for as long as he lives.

Romans 7:14 reads:

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Carnal in this sense means to be sinful or fleshly toward worldly passions. The natural carnality that all men possess leads them into a sordid love affair with all the lusts the world’s ‘Vanity Fair’ has to offer. He is sold out to indulging the pleasures of today, while giving little thought or care to the consequences to his soul in eternity. This is embedded in man’s nature and he is powerless to change it.

This all lead us to ask a very solemn question;

‘Does man have even the desire within himself to repent and turn to God in faith for deliverance from the chains of his sinful carnality?’

We will delve into this question in part two.