In Gen. 3:1-6 we read the story of the fall of Adam and Eve. When the serpent caused Eve to fall, it also brought Adam down with her, for Eve gave him the cursed fruit. We draw a lesson from this fact. When the woman falls, the man falls together with her, that is, the woman determines the behavior of the man. Was it not so with David, the man who had a heart according to the heart of Jehovah? Bathsheba exhibited herself to David and he flew into a mad passion, for only a mad person would kill a husband to steal his woman. And Bathsheba destroyed the kingdom of Israel, for she forced David to set her son on the throne of Israel, because David had promised it to her, and the kingdom was destroyed as a result of Solomon’s stupidity. A woman caused David to fall, and Solomon, seeing that, married a thousand women! This is the epitome of the lack of wisdom.
Morals depend on the woman; virtue should have the form of a woman; chastity should be the crown of women; modesty should dress women; the beauty of women should come from her interior and not from the exterior. When women fall, all moral values also fall and the family falls, as Paul taught in 1 Tim. 5:1-11. This is not our opinion, but Paul’s. Sin entered this world by the hands of Eve (1 Tim. 2:14). Why does Paul affirm that it was through Adam, in Rom. 5:12? It is because the woman determines the behavior of men, and it should be otherwise. Why did the serpent use the woman? Because men would not fall into the lie if it were not for the woman, and the devil knew that. Paul feared that the thing would occur once more. “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). This text proves that the main cause of the fall of men was not only disobedience, but also corruption. Eve fell because she was corrupted, and Adam, Satan’s target, fell in disastrous disobedience.
There is something else that should be considered. As there was no law, sin was not imputed, and obviously there was no condemnation, as Paul said: “…for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:13). Jehovah in the Mount Sinai gave the Law. “Then God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven…’” and Jehovah gave the Ten Commandments by his mouth (Ex. 20:1-4, on to the end).
The law of Jehovah gave form to sin. It classified sins and gave weight to sin. The Law transformed men in culprit. The Law brought men’s spiritual condemnation, as it is written: “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). John, speaking of salvation in Christ, says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already” (John 3:18). If the Law was given by Jehovah, he is the one who condemns. Jehovah was the one who condemned humanity in the flood (Gen. 6:7; Heb. 11:7). Jehovah condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Pet. 2:6). Jehovah is the god that condemns, the Father is the God that saves and does not condemn anyone. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Paul declares that God is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful Christians (1 Tim. 4:10). Well, Jehovah is the one who condemns all men, especially the men who lived before the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and Israel, therefore God and Jehovah are not the same person. If Christ were Jehovah, he would have to have two faces, two behaviors, and two measures.
Since Jehovah does not love sinners, on the contrary, he is disgusted with them (Ps. 5:5; Mal. 1:3), not content with their condemnation, added terrible curses to it as a way of tormenting his poor creatures (Deut. 27:11-26); 28:15-68). Thanks be to God the Father, which sent Christ to deliver us from the curses of Jehovah, having become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).
Wrapping up our train of thought. If the serpent (Satan) caused men to fall in the Garden of Eden (but without condemnation, as we read in Rom. 5:12), and Jehovah gave the law who condemns men, the serpent and Jehovah worked together in the same direction, that is, worked in the same project. The serpent set the foundation and Jehovah built on it and gave the finishing touches. If Jehovah were the Father of Jesus, the Father would have worked with the serpent. Jehovah wounded and killed his disobedient people through serpents. Afterwards he told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on a pole, and whoever looked up was healed. That is, Jehovah worked together with the serpent (Num. 21:4-9). Jesus, referring to this fact, said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Jesus was saying: Jehovah saved by the serpent, that is, the devil, but my Father will save by me: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). The Israelites went to Jehovah through the serpent, but I am the only one who can take anyone to the Father.
Through faith in Jesus Christ men leaves sin, death and condemnation: sin and death, which the serpent instituted, and the condemnation of the law, which Jehovah instituted. Through one only blow, Jesus, in the cross, knocked down the building that the devil and Jehovah had built. Christ, in the cross, delivered men from the curses of the law of Jehovah (Gal. 3:13).
The work was complete. And Jesus said: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). If Jesus destroys what the devil has done, it is because he is against the devil, and if he destroys the things established by Jehovah it is because he is against Jehovah. Jehovah gave the Law, and Jesus nailed this Law to the cross together with the angels of Jehovah (Col. 2:14,15). And so that the believers would not walk in the Law, he gave a new law: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Jehovah established a Testament with his covenant and his laws. Christ abolished this Old Testament establishing a New one, with better promises (2 Cor. 3:14; Heb. 8:6). Jehovah established a kingdom in this world (Ex. 19:6; Is. 43:15). Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world, for it is a heavenly kingdom (2 Tim. 4:18). Jehovah established a Levitical priesthood, and Jesus changed it. The priesthood now is of the Gentiles (Heb. 7:12; 1 Pet. 2:9).
Jehovah used Solomon to edify a temple for a place where his name could dwell (Deut. 12:11). And Christ said that the temple where God the Father dwells are the bodies of the saints (2 Cor. 6:16). Jehovah condemned men to eternal death, but Jesus was condemned in men’s place, and bought them for God the Father (1 Cor. 6:20). Well, Christ could not buy them from the Father to return them to the Father, but he bought them from Jehovah, not from the devil.
By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira