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LESSON 2

THE WAR ON EARTH: THE FALL OF MAN

SCRIPTURES

1 Corinthians 6:1–3 | Genesis 1:26 | Genesis 2:17 | Ezekiel 28:17 | Revelation 1:5-6 | Romans 16:20 | Genesis 3:1–8 | Genesis 3:15–21 |
Romans 8:6-7 | Hebrews 12:29 | Daniel 3:24-25 | 1 John 4:18 | Isaiah 60:13 | Isaiah 42:21 | John 3:16 | John 14:15 | Revelation 13:8

Why didn’t God immediately destroy Satan and his angels when they
sinned? Because He is bound by justice in all that He does. Had God
instantly executed Lucifer, the one who was accusing Him of being unjust,
Lucifer’s argument could have been strengthened in the eyes of the other
angels. Suspicion would have run rampant had this beloved and highest of
angels been suddenly destroyed. Was there something he knew that God
was trying to cover up? No, God would allow fairness to dictate His
actions.

Justice must be fair. The Bible illustrates this in a vivid way. If a witness
came to testify against someone, both the defendant and the accuser had
to stand before the Lord, before the and the
(Deuteronomy 19:16, 17). The judges were to make careful (Deuteronomy
19:18). In other words, the accused could not sit as judge over the accuser; neither could the accuser sit as judge over the accused.
There must be a third party, a jury, to decide the dispute between both parties.

Using this principle, we can see that had God, being the accused, judged and destroyed Lucifer, it would have appeared suspect to
the other angels. God was being accused by a greatly beloved and dazzling angel. There must be a third party, a jury, bound by the
laws of righteousness, to serve in this case. And who would God select to make up that jury? We are told that the “
will the world” and “will judge ” (1 Corinthians
6:1–3). Powerful thought! God would use humanity to judge the fallen angels!

When casting out Lucifer, God had spoken these words to him: “I will cast
you to the ground, I will you before
, that they might gaze at you” (Ezekiel 28:17).
The Bible confirms that humanity will one day be the “kings” at whose feet
God will bring Satan and his angels for judgment—“To Him who
and washed us from our
in His own and
has made us and
to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Revelation 1:5, 6). Yes, the God of peace will
Satan under our (Romans 16:20). When and how this will happen will be the
subject of a later study.

To be sure, God created us to have fellowship with Him, but we were also created to serve a very important purpose: jury duty in
the supreme court of heaven! In our society, there are a few special requirements for someone to be chosen as a juror for a trial:

First, he cannot have been an eyewitness to the original crime.

Second, he must be a law-abiding citizen.
Third, he must be able to discern between good and evil.
Fourth, he must not be swayed by public opinion.

These were the attributes of the first pair created on earth. Mankind was not yet created when Lucifer rebelled in heaven. Adam
and Eve were created in God’s likeness, meaning they were holy like Him and were submitted to His will and government. The fiery
law of love was written upon their hearts. They also knew the difference between right and wrong, for God Himself had warned
them that they should not from the of the of
and or else they would surely (Genesis 2:17).
They were not to be swayed from God’s commandment, no matter what.

Recognizing Adam and Eve as the “kings” of the newly created

earth, Satan set out to overcome them—in hopes of bribing
the jury! Approaching Eve in the garden, he convinced her to
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by selling
her the same lie he “merchandised” in heaven. He told her that
she would be like , knowing good
and evil (Genesis 3:1–5). In other words, she did not need to
obey God in order to be like God. Eve took of its
and
and then gave some to her who
also (Genesis 3:6).

Satan had now led mankind to the same six degrees of separation from God he himself had experienced. They, too, had cut
themselves off from God’s Word. When Satan said, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis
3:1), it led Eve to entertain doubt in God’s words. They also had cut themselves off from God’s law by sinning against God. They,
too, had cut themselves off from the purity of God and were now filled with shame and self-loathing. Both hid themselves from the
light of God’s presence in the garden. When they were put out of the garden, both were cut off from open, face-to-face
communion with God and were separated from the life-giving source of God, the tree of life.

This is how sin entered our world. Satan had successfully bribed and, thus, disqualified the jury. Their minds had been defiled by
Satan. “For to be minded is , but to be spiritually minded is
and . Because the carnal mind is against God;
for it is not to the of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:6, 7). In doing this,
Satan hoped to have averted his doom. No jury, no judgment!

The Bible tells us that God is a (Hebrews 12:29). But this is not because
God wants to terrorize people; rather, God is love and His love is like an all-consuming fire. (Remember Song of Solomon 8:6, 7?)
When Adam and Eve were created, they were created in God’s , according to His
(Genesis 1:26). They had no sin in them and were thus able to dwell in His fiery presence without being
consumed, just as Lucifer himself had once walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

You might recall the story of the three Hebrew men, companions of the prophet Daniel, who were captives in Babylon. For refusing
to bow down before an idol that the king of Babylon had set up, they were thrown alive into a fiery furnace. But the king got a
shocking surprise. God intervened and delivered the three faithful Hebrews! The king spoke and said, "Did we not cast three men
bound into the midst of the ? They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I
see men , in the midst of the
; and they are not , and the form of the fourth is like the
of ” (Daniel 3:24, 25).

Just as the fire had no power over the three Hebrew men, so
Adam and Eve, in their holy state, could stand in God’s
presence and not be consumed. But because they had sinned,
they were now separated from God and feared the fire of
God’s presence. Upon hearing God coming toward them in the
garden, they “ themselves from the
of the ”
(Genesis 3:8). Having broken the fiery law of perfect love,
Adam and Eve were now living in fear of the fire!

This has been the state of mankind ever since—hiding because of shame and a misunderstanding of the character of God, the
consuming fire. “There is no in ; but love casts
out fear because involves torment. But he who has not been made perfect
in ” (1 John 4:18).

But God did not go to the garden to destroy or terrorize Adam and Eve. To be sure, that is what Satan wanted. Satan had dwelt for
untold ages in the presence of God’s love. He sinned in the light of God’s presence. There was no greater manifestation of God’s
love that could be shown to him. His rebellion was incurable. But it was not so with the newly created pair. They were not yet
familiar with the incredible depths of God’s love or character. There was still a chance for them.

God went looking for that which was lost, separated from Him by six degrees. It was there that God would institute the plan of
salvation, a GPS to bridge the gap of separation. Though the sentence of death was pronounced upon them by God when He said
“for you are, and to you shall ” (Genesis 3:19),
God also gave them the promise of a coming Redeemer who would save repentant mankind from the penalty of sin and restore
them as law-abiding jurors and citizens of heaven. Yes! God’s mission was to restore the law of love back into the hearts and minds
of humanity. The plan of salvation would make man fit again to dwell in God’s fiery presence without being afraid or consumed.

Turning to Satan, God said He would put between him

and the woman, between his and her
“He shall your
and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). This was the
promise of a coming “Seed”-a descendant of Eve—who would bruise the head of
Satan. By sending His Son to this world, God would demonstrate the very foundation
of His government-love. “For so
the that He
His
, that whoever
in Him should not but have
life” (John 3:16).

By demonstrating this love, God would seek to reignite the fiery law of love within the hearts of the human race, leading them back
to His footstool and throne of grace. It is God’s mission to make the place of His feet (Isaiah 60:13). He
would “exalt the and make it honorable” (Isaiah 42:21). By dying on the cross, Christ was to
demonstrate the law of love in action, and through this action, inspire love in the hearts of millions and span the six degrees of
separation caused by sin. For this reason, Jesus said, “If you Me, my
” (John 14:15) --this is the true sign of love for God.

There in the garden, the first animal was slain in order to provide
of to clothe Adam and Eve
(Genesis 3:21). That animal symbolized Christ, who died to cover our nakedness;
hence, the Bible describes Him as “the of God,
from the of the world”
(Revelation 13:8). Yes! Satan’s plot would fail, and God would redeem anyone willing
to be saved, providing for them a blueprint, a map, to find their way back to Him and
to place His fiery law of love back in them. He would provide a means whereby man
could once again stand in His fiery presence without the torment of fear or the fear of
torment.

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