Use one or both of these questions to introduce the lesson:

1. Fans of some sports teams are described as “diehards.” What are some characteristics of diehard fans? 

2. Do you have any diehard fans? Who sticks with you through your failures as well as your successes?

Read Genesis 3:6, 7.

1. Compare the description of Eve’s thought process (vv. 4-6) with the words of 1 John 2:16. Try to summarize, in a single sentence, why we stray from the path God has for us.

2. Read Romans 1:28, 32, noting the words “depraved mind.” What evidence of this degradation do you see in the events occurring after the fruit of forbidden knowledge was eaten?

Read Genesis 3:8-13.

3. Many a parent has put a disobedient child into “time out” with the words, “Now think about what you have done!” How did the four questions (that God already knew the answers to) serve a similar purpose for his rebellious children?

4. Have you ever confronted a child caught in the act of doing something wrong? How would you feel if the child responded, “I didn’t do it!” or “It’s not my fault!”? Considering how you would respond, what have you learned about God’s “great mercy and love . . . from old” (Psalm 25:6)?

Read Genesis 3:14-21.

5. Death was the promised consequence for rebellion (Genesis 2:17; 3:3). But this death was more than the removal of humankind from the face of the earth. Look at verses 16a, 16b, 18, and 21. Try to explain ways death infected all that was once good in creation.

6. In some ways, Eve gave birth to sin. But through God’s mercy, how would she also give birth to redemption (vv. 15, 20)?

7. Scripture shows us that God is our diehard fan, sticking with us through our darkest “losing season.” Consider Isaiah 53:2-5. Why is “die hard” especially appropriate when it comes to God’s love for us?