In all this it will be noted that the temptation was to fall upward.  All the motives-the satisfaction of natural appetite, the desire for knowledge and power and the love for beauty were in themselves worthy.  The temptation was to better herself.  Such it is always.  Adam was not directly approached, but he willfully disobeyed without being beguiled as was the woman.  The chief blame, therefore, fell upon him.

The Fall and Punishment.  The fearful consequences of their sin are felt at once.  They are changed so that they are conscious of guilt and endeavor to hide themselves from Jehovah.  Thus they acknowledge their unfitness for fellowship with Him.  Their soul having lost communion with God, they become corrupt.  This is spiritual death.  They were banished from the garden and forced to struggle for food.  Their bodies became subject to pain and death by separation from the animating spirit.  They could not longer eat of the life-giving tree of the garden.  The earth was cursed so that instead of ministering to man’s pleasure and support, it would produce much to his hurt.  The woman in her unredeemed state was to be in subordination to her husband.  The sad story of downtrodden women in heathen lands of all times since then, and even today wherever Christ is not known, tells something of the awful results of her sin.

The Hope Offered.  The gloom of this sad story of their punishment was relieved by an element of hope.  The man and his wife are not beyond the pale of God’s love.  There is given a promise (3:15) which assures the coming of one, who would contend with the tempter and would finally crush his head and repair the damage of the Fall.  All of the rest of the Bible unfolds the plan and work of God in fulfilling this promise.  There is beginning with Cain and Abel and running through the entire scripture a record of the conflict caused by the enmity between the seed of woman and that of her seducer.  This conflict is to end when Christ the “seed of the woman” shall return to reign and shall cast his adversary into the bottomless pit.  Along with this promise he also provided for them garments of the skins of animals such as were suited to their new and hostile environment and in which most writers find a suggestion of the covering of righteousness that comes to guilty sinners through the death of Jesus.  Then too there was erected at the east of the garden an alter of worship not unlike that provided in connection with the Tabernacle later and where God dwelt in mercy and could be approached.  Here was opened up a way by which they might after being forgiven again have a right to the tree of life and live forever.