Genesis 3:7, commentary and pictures

After eating the forbidden fruit in Eden, Adam and Eve had their eyes opened not to a higher godlike state but to the knowledge of sin and evil with its shame and fear, and knowing they were naked through loss of God's covering of light, they sewed fig leaves into aprons to cover themselves. Their eating was deliberate transgression of God's single express prohibition, rooted in distrust of His goodness, disbelief of His word, and rejection of His authority. The fig-leaf aprons were the first human attempt to hide guilt and supply the lost robe of innocence, standing for all human efforts and self-righteousness which leave the soul still naked before God and can only be replaced by being clothed with Christ's perfect character and obedience. Through that one sin death and woe entered the world, corrupting human nature, marring God's image, and separating earth from heaven. The fall made necessary the gift of God's Son as substitute and surety to pay the penalty by His death, not by changing or abolishing the law but by exalting it while opening a way for fallen people to be restored and regain Eden.

Eden Setting and Disobedience

The verse comes after the eating of the forbidden fruit in Eden, where Eve had separated from her husband in their daily labor despite warning that she would be safer from temptation at his side, and wandering alone absorbed in her task she felt danger yet dismissed fear in trust of her own wisdom and strength. She gazed with curiosity and admiration upon the beautiful fruit of the forbidden tree, questioning why it was withheld, and lingered instead of fleeing when Satan seized the opportunity through the wise and beautiful winged serpent resting in its branches as his deceptive medium and spoke to her echoing her thoughts. She listened to his flattery that knowledge was being withheld, though the design was that they should know good only and not evil, and after the fruit appealed to sight and appetite she ate and felt a pleasurable sensation which she mistook for a higher life. She then persuaded Adam by her experience to disobey, and by that disobedience they fell into sin and became sinners, seduced so cautiously from loyalty that the sin was not detected until it was done.

That eating was deliberate transgression of the single express prohibition laid upon them and of the law, breaking loyalty and willing obedience when every want was generously supplied and full warning of death had been given. It was sin through distrust of divine goodness, disbelief of the word spoken, and rejection of authority, and it stands in the full explicit account as proof that disobedience brings loss of divine favor and happiness, guilt and sorrow, and death, that justice does not fail, and that strict regard for the commandments is required. Even what may be esteemed a lesser requirement cannot be set aside without fearful consequence, and the violation that plunged the race into misery is a warning still, since the same ground where Adam fell was afterward retraced and overcome.

The fall began in temptation to indulge appetite, passion, self-gratification, and desire for withheld knowledge, with Eve's transgression rooted in intemperate desire and Adam violating the law by indulging appetite and passion. That indulgence brought sin into the world with unutterable woe, drove Adam from Eden, lowered the race physically, mentally, and morally, increased degeneration, disease, and suffering, and began a decline and inherited woe repeated from generation to generation. His disgraceful failure over appetite stands as a warning example against disobeying express injunctions, yet men continue the succession of falls while mourning his transgression, and only the victory over appetite afterward gained in the wilderness redeems that failure.

What looked like a simple, small, unworthy-of-notice act of plucking and eating drew tremendous results, proving that departure from even one commandment brings fearful evil, unhappiness, and ruin. That first transgression, apparently small and seemingly recoverable, opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, closed the gates of Paradise and lost Eden through expulsion, and will result in eternal ruin to thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions. Its retribution proves that transgression is not overlooked by indulgent mercy but visited with justice, that mercy does not excuse continued sin or lessen guilt, and that God cannot approve any work with one thread of selfishness in it. The same principle holds for every unjust transaction however small, for each act is sin and a transcript of the doer revealing the heart, showing that sinning against light easily debases and corrupts the soul unless the doer is cleansed, sanctified, elevated, and spiritually ennobled to recover spiritual eyesight. The one sin in Eden that brought death with all woe therefore stands as a beacon warning at the byways from the path of life against any departure from right, exposing human littleness and sin-loving propensities and marking the point from which sin has increased in volume and is still increasing. Adam failed to bear the slight test because the mind is bewitched to call for liberality and to treat the requirements as not particular, so those careless in little matters who excuse defects instead of reforming lose sight of Christ's life as criterion, standard, and only true pattern and deviate widely from His perfect example, and constant vigilance is needed to give no place to the devil. The fall thus made necessary the gift of the Son from heaven to save the race and pay the debt by His death and blood, making it possible for fallen man to be elevated to keep the law, while the costly sacrifice exalts the law and evidences its sacred unalterable character, and divine benevolence still spares rebellious subjects from deserved punishment.

Opened Eyes to Evil

Their eyes being opened did not make them as gods nor bring a higher state of existence and clearsightedness, but gave them the knowledge of sin and evil with its curse, folly, shame, ruin and fearful consequences. What they became wise to know was the evil God had meant them never to know, and with it the covering of light, the garment of innocence and heavenly protection around them, was taken away. They were opened to see their own shame and ruin and to realize those garments were gone, and their nakedness was the result of transgression and disobedience to God's commands. Where before they had been glad to see their Creator come to walk and talk with them, now in sinfulness they were afraid to meet Him, hid themselves when they heard His voice, and anticipated the condemnation of God they had not known before, because unclothed they could not meet the eye of God and holy angels. Their choice had been an exercise of freedom to obey God and live or to disobey and perish, and they would have been safe by refusing even to touch the fruit.

The serpent's promise that their eyes would be opened was fulfilled only in this grievous sense, that they discerned their folly and tasted the bitter fruit of transgression. The fruit itself was not poisonous, and the sin was more than yielding to appetite, for distrust of God's goodness, disbelief of His word, and rejection of His authority brought this knowledge of evil into the world and opened the way to falsehood and error. All they gained by listening to the tempter was acquaintance with sin and its results, and in seeking the withheld knowledge they lost purity, divine protection, and all that was worth possessing. By obeying the voice of Satan they lost their purity and gave over the human race to the dominion of the enemy, and the same false gain comes to every soul today who stoops to dishonesty and intrigue and bribery to get advantage. The knowledge gained by eating is knowledge that leaves eternity out of the reckoning, mere book knowledge of the world without heart education and wisdom toward God, a failure from which there is never recovery, for God wanted them to know good only and not evil, yet they fell by listening to flattery that He was withholding knowledge from them.

God had meant to give clearsightedness in all work through entire obedience and cooperation between man and God, imparting knowledge free from the curse of sin and bringing everlasting joy had they never touched the tree. Man's only means of safety is that entire obedience, not making the experiment of testing the evil course with all its results. Adam's opening of his eyes by disobedience did not bring that clearsightedness but weakness through disobedience and loss, estrangement of humanity from God and separation of earth from heaven. That plan was greatly interfered with by transgression when Satan led him to sin, and after he had sinned the Lord would no longer communicate with him as He did when he was without sin.

At first Adam imagined himself entering a higher state of existence, but soon terror, a sense of sin, dread of the future, and nakedness of soul replaced the love and peace they had known, so that even the mild air seemed to chill them. Their former love and peace were replaced by guilt, shame and fear, and their making of coverings was an endeavor to supply the place of the robe of light. This new awareness did not bring repentance, for they blamed one another, murmured against God, and deceived themselves that God might pardon the transgression, excuse the disobedience, or spare them its feared punishment and make it less severe.

Nakedness and Lost Light

Before transgression Adam and Eve were unclothed yet not exposed, for they were enveloped in a God-given covering of light — garments of heavenly innocence, holiness, glory and security that surrounded them in Eden. That robe of light enshrouded them as the garment of innocence, and the glory God had given departed only when they sinned against Him. After sin they recognized their nakedness because those garments of light that had enveloped them had disappeared, leaving them without their divine covering.

When that light departed they knew they were naked and exposed, and they shivered under the sense of guilt and loss. Their nakedness was more than physical, a nakedness of soul with guilt, fear of the future, and loss of love, peace and contentment that had replaced what they had known before. The knowledge they gained was the knowledge of sin, and their transgression now appeared to them in its true character as their attention turned to external covering. Even the mild air seemed to chill them as terror, a sense of sin and dread of the future took the place of love and peace.

Unclothed they felt they could not meet the eye of God and holy angels, and wondered how they could face them uncovered. Where before they had been glad to see their Creator when He came to walk and talk with them, now in their sinfulness they were afraid to meet Him and hid themselves when they heard His voice. When they heard the voice of their Creator in the garden they hid because they now anticipated what they had not known before, the condemnation of God. Wicked works thus separate sinners from God and make them unwilling to behold Him, though none can hide from Him.

Losing the garments of holiness was losing the clear and beautiful illuminating light that had left nothing to obscure their perception of God's character and works. Before sin that light illuminated everything they approached, but with its loss they and their descendants could no longer read nature aright or trace God's character perfectly through creation. They lost the heavenly light that had surrounded them and became ignorant of God, no longer able to discern His character in the works of His hand. In Eden nature had been full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction and vocal with wisdom, yet as soon as they transgressed the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature.

Transgression brought a blight upon the earth and came between nature and nature's God, so that nature itself was changed, marred and defiled by the curse of sin. It can therefore bear only imperfect testimony regarding the Creator and cannot reveal His character in its perfection. Yet its beauty remains and God's object lessons in nature were not obliterated, but even now when rightly studied and interpreted still speak of the Creator. Nature is again illuminated only for those who receive the light of the life of Christ, in whose light shining from the cross nature's teaching can be rightly interpreted.

Fig Leaves and Covering

Aware of nakedness after sin, they sewed fig leaves together into aprons to cover their bodies and their guilt so they could face God and the angels. Their sense of exposure was more than physical, a nakedness of soul with guilt, fear of the future, and loss of love, peace, and contentment. Before transgression they had been unclothed yet enveloped in light, but when that robe of light which had enshrouded them departed they felt exposed and even chilled, and turned to supply its place with a covering of their own making. Unclothed they felt they could not meet the eye of God and holy angels, for their transgression now appeared in its true character.

That sewing was the first human attempt to cover the nakedness caused by sin, a practice continued since Adam. The fig-leaf garment stands for everything human beings devise of themselves to appear in God's presence, all human arguments, efforts, and devices pieced together to hide guilt. That flimsy robe comes to nothing and leaves the nakedness and deformity of the soul still uncovered and sinful before Him. The lost robe of innocence represents the spiritual innocence possessed in harmony with God, whose light departed when sin severed the connection. Fig-leaf coverings therefore represent attempts to hide the guilt of transgression and become acceptable to God through one's own works, but human effort and human righteousness, defiled by sin, cannot restore that lost robe or meet God's requirement.

Nakedness means lack of Christ's righteousness, to be bought from Christ as gold tried in the fire and white raiment that clothes the soul and makes rich. Only the covering Christ Himself has provided can make a person fit to stand before God, the robe of His own righteousness woven in heaven with no thread of human devising. That robe is His perfect character and His perfect obedience to every requirement of the law of Jehovah, wrought out in His humanity. When a repenting, believing soul submits to Him, heart, will, mind, and thoughts are brought into harmony with His, and God no longer sees the fig-leaf garment and nakedness of sin but sees Christ's own perfect obedience imparted to clothe the soul. Looking into God's holy law, His great moral looking glass and standard of character, exposes that nakedness as disloyalty to God and transgression of His law deserving punishment even in a single instance in the smallest particular. The law has no saving properties to cleanse, pardon, or save, and the righteousness of God never covers a soul still polluted with sin. Sin must therefore be taken away by the Lamb of God through laying hold of the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, who substitutes the pure robes of His righteousness for the covering of fig leaves while satisfying justice and maintaining the holy law in all its sacred dignity rather than abolishing it.

Consequences for the World

The verse marks the immediate fall from a high, holy, happy estate of spotless purity, in which the pair lived in close attachment to God and to one another. By that disobedience they lost divine favor and happiness, fell and lost beautiful Eden and their right to their Eden home through expulsion, and were driven from the garden. They lost access to the tree of life whose fruit would have perpetuated immortality, and fell from open-faced beholding of God's glory and talking with God and Christ and angels in Paradise without a dimming veil between, to being under sentence of death and subject to death. What looked like a simple act unworthy of notice therefore brought a bitter experience with awful consequences, and there is no excuse for the transgression since every want was generously supplied and only one prohibition laid upon them.

Through Satan sin entered the world, and death by sin, and the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world. That one sin brought death with all its woe, with disappointment, sorrow, suffering and misery, and degraded beautiful Eden. The fall became the beginning of humanity's inherited suffering, with indulgence of appetite and passion leading to sin and bringing woe that is repeated from generation to generation.

Adam's transgression corrupted human nature at its source, divorced fallen man from God, and marred and nearly obliterated God's likeness and moral image in physical and moral dignity. The race was left lowered physically, mentally and morally, with weakened powers, lessened mental capacity, dimmed spiritual vision, darkened intellect, and conscience dulled by repeated sin. Since then moral darkness like the pall of death casts its shadows everywhere with the blight and mildew of sin, and man wandering from the gates of Paradise is subject to sickness, pain, sorrow, tears, poverty, disease, suffering and death and to the temptations and wiles of the devil, with Satan reigning with almost universal sway. Humans were created perfect and holy, but after transgressing God's law disease, suffering and death rapidly increased, and the glory God had given as a covering departed because His glory could not cover disobedience and sin.

Man's rebellion against the government of God ended the free communion between God and man that had existed until then and separated earth from heaven. Sin opened a gulf that left the world in solitary hopelessness apart from Jesus, the appointed medium of communication, who with His own merits bridged the gulf. Through Him ministering angels could hold communion with fallen man, man in weakness and helplessness could be connected with the source of infinite power, all heaven was opened again to fallen man, and prayers through faith in Jesus Christ the substitute are accepted by the Father. The sacrificial offerings first represented Christ until He came in person and pointed forward to a Redeemer, opening a door of hope by which fallen people through Christ alone could approach God and find refuge and safety.

After his eyes were opened Adam lived for nearly a thousand years among men to the ninth generation as a witness to the results of sin, faithfully seeking to stem the tide of evil. The history of the fall from a holy and happy estate in Paradise was repeated by Adam himself to his children and children's children. He was commanded to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord, and he carefully treasured what God had revealed to him and told succeeding generations of the sufferings by which God had taught him the necessity of strict adherence to His law and of the merciful provisions for their salvation. Yet few gave heed to his words, and he was often met with bitter reproaches for the sin that had brought such woe upon his posterity.

Law Justice and Redemption

The full and explicit history of temptation and fall to which this verse belongs proves that God's law could not be changed to meet man in his fallen condition, for had change been possible Adam would have been pardoned and would have retained his home in Eden. That retribution shows God does not overlook transgression as merciful indulgence but visits disobedience with justice, that retributive justice never fails, that strict regard for His commandments is exacted with the same definiteness of penalty afterward shown at Sinai, and that sin in whatever form is punished and earns death. The transgression dishonored the divine government and demanded payment, revealing the justice of God and requiring a penalty because the law is changeless in character and the penalty of transgression is death. Mercy does not excuse continued sin nor lessen the guilt of breaking God's law.

That fall made necessary the gift of God's Son from heaven, for man had broken connection with God and could never rescue himself. The Son stepped in and pledged His own life, becoming man's substitute and surety, laying aside royal robes, clothing divinity with humanity, and paying the debt of transgression by His death and blood in an exercise of divine benevolence to the fullest. Through Him alone fallen people can approach God, find refuge, be elevated to keep God's law, and regain what was lost in Eden. Redemption is the work of restoring God's likeness, marred and nearly obliterated by disobedience, and opening a door of hope pointed forward to by sacrificial offerings after the sentence of death came upon the race. Probation was thus granted to Adam with all his posterity, putting all humanity on trial while Satan plays for every soul and Christ works for every soul.

That costly provision did not abolish God's law to give man an unconditional pardon, for the Father does not put benevolence above justice or set aside the principles of righteousness. To do so would exalt the sinner in impenitence and encourage transgression instead of abating it. Instead the sacrifice exalts the law and evidences its sacred, unalterable character, maintaining it in all its dignity as the foundation of God's government in heaven and earth whose penalty must still be exacted and was endured by the sinner's substitute. The law is the transcript of Christ's character, and Christ died obedient to every requirement of that transgressed law to impart and impute His righteousness to believers, while giving man another trial and probation in which the salvation of every soul is still determined by obedience or disobedience to the unalterable law. As Adam and Eve lost Eden by transgressing that law, those who transgress it now will lose heaven.

Christ retraced the ground where Adam fell and overcame Satan's temptations, redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall. That failure over appetite brought disgrace and loss of divine favor and happiness, plunging the race into misery, and Christ's victory over appetite in the wilderness redeemed it. By perfect obedience to all God's commandments He lived the law in humanity as a sample for all men on earth, willingly coming as the greatest missionary to pass over the same ground in wonderful love without parallel. In doing so He placed the human family on vantage ground with God, making it possible for them to overcome in their own behalf through the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, which gives the basis for temperance.

This verse belongs to the authentic, inspired history of the early world, of the creation of man and of his fall and the introduction of sin with its results upon the race, recording the disobedience and impenitence of man and the just retribution for sin. Knowledge of these things depends on the Bible and is among the most important knowledge to be received from the Book, together with the first advent of Christ as a helpless babe born in a stable and cradled in a manger. With creation, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, the fall of man is one of the great facts and very pillars of the Christian faith, to be accepted with implicit confidence as the guide of life. To deny, cavil at, spiritualize, and explain away its truth is infidelity rather than wisdom or learning, yet prevailing to an alarming extent not only in the world but in the church among ministers, professors, and teachers, while without this authentic history there are only fables and conjectures, bewilderment by false theories, tyranny of superstition and falsehood, and enfeebling of the intellect.

Warning and Obedient Living

Genesis 3:7 shows the immediate result when Adam fell from his high estate by listening to Satan's misrepresentation of God, for through that disobedience sin entered the world and death by sin and the floodgates of woe were opened upon the world. There is no excuse for that transgression, for every want had been generously supplied and only one prohibition laid upon him, yet Eve mistook a pleasurable sensation for higher life and Adam was persuaded by her experience to disobey, and their feelings did not cancel the command or its penalty. The lesson for all mankind is that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed at whatever cost, for all are founded in infinite love and wisdom, and God means what He says so that to walk contrary to Him brings Him to walk contrary to us. Man's only safety is entire obedience to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and cooperation between man and God, which would have given the clearsightedness God intended in all work, rather than making the experiment of testing the evil course with its weakness and loss; keeping His commandments is the test of love, and the human family must obey the light that comes about the binding claims of His law.

Adam's violation warns that disobedience to God's command brings guilt and sorrow and grave consequences, for God's justice never fails and He requires His creatures to regard His commandments strictly, since sin earns death. That transgression was violation of the law of Jehovah by indulging appetite and passion, bringing unutterable woe, driving Adam from Eden, lowering the race physically, mentally, and morally, and opening the floodgates of woe to the world, and men still repeat the fall by doing as he did while mourning his transgression. It was the greatest loss and deepest injury, losing beautiful Eden and the right to the Eden home, and only through Christ's sacrifice has fallen man been granted another trial in God's wise plans. Choosing that same disobedience now forfeits the right to Eden restored, for those who transgress now will lose heaven as Adam lost Eden, injuring God and leading thousands and millions to eternal ruin by leading others in the same sin. The example should lead every soul to avoid sin and abhor it as hateful in view of the sufferings it inflicts, feeling it better to suffer loss of all things than to depart from the least of God's commandments, to cease pleasing self, leave the side of the great rebel, repent for time and talents given to the enemy, and with strong determination seek the Lord while He may be found, choosing good and refusing evil. Parents are to keep this warning before children to train obedience, for disobeying God brings eternal ruin to multitudes.

Even one wrong act is a beacon of warning set up at the byways leading from the path of life against the peril of even one departure from right, for the one sin in Eden brought death and all woe with loss of Eden. Departing from even one commandment brings unhappiness and ruin because God's love underlies every precept, and Adam and Eve's disobedience was not a small or harmless matter but a fearful evil whose consequences would be felt through all time. Though plucking and eating looked like a little matter, and though desire to gratify appetite seemed small, it was disobedience and sin drawing tremendous results for themselves and others. Every unjust transaction however small is likewise sin and a transcript of the character of the doer, revealing the true state of the heart and showing how sinning against light easily debases. Those careless in little matters and excusing defects lose sight of Christ as the only true pattern, so constant vigilance is needed to give no place to the devil and to be cleansed and sanctified, elevated and spiritually ennobled, thereby recovering spiritual eyesight.

The same false gain comes to every soul today who stoops to dishonesty and intrigue and bribery to get advantage, for Adam and Eve obeyed Satan's voice and gained only knowledge of evil while losing purity and giving the race to the enemy's dominion. A person who after hearing truth turns from it because accepting it would retard success in business does the same act, turning from God and the light, selling the soul in a cheap market, bargaining with Satan and violating conscience, leaving conscience ever unreliable when kept pure it would have been worth more than the whole world. Placing human judgment above God's direction when greater light comes repeats the eating from the tree of knowledge, choosing one's own ideas instead of following light received and rejecting divine authority. Intemperance in desire caused the first parents to lose Eden, and the same indulgence of inclination and habit weakens physical, mental, and moral efficiency, leaves no time for meditation, searching Scripture and prayer, hinders sincere piety and religious fervor, and makes overcoming temptation impossible, including through errors in preparing food and unhealthful habits of dress. Since man lost his right to Paradise by eating what God forbade, preparing for Paradise restored requires bringing perverted appetite under strict control, because indulgence of depraved appetite weakens power to resist evil and enables Satan to fasten evil habits upon man and ensnare him.

The church loses its garments of light in the same way when it lets itself be controlled by political enactments, manufactures laws to control the world and puts those laws where God's laws should be, tampers with the law of God, and unites with the world by accepting worldly enactments. Thereby it virtually acknowledges Satan as head and sets man-made commandments against the government of heaven, especially to dispense with God's righteous holy enactments concerning the Sabbath.

Genesis 3:7 gives the history of the fall after Satan's fall, breaking the prior condition of spotless purity with close attachment to God and tender attachment to one another, and exposing the workings of the wily foe and the principles at work since Adam's day and still at work. It puts all humanity on trial during probationary time, with Satan playing the game of life for every soul and Christ at work for every soul. Heaven depends on consenting to receive the moral image of God and becoming like Him in character, and the gracious opportunity is to lay hold of the Saviour and by faith receive His merits and perfect a character like His, for to refuse the character of Christ is to lose heaven.