03.06 - Chapter 17 - The Fall of Man

Chapter 17 THE FALL OF MAN Was there a Fall? When God first created man, he was not confirmed in holiness. Confirmation was to come in the form of a test after a period of probation. If Adam was tempted to sin and resisted, not only would the elect angels rejoice, but also Satan was to have been removed from Eden as righteousness reigned on Earth. The day of testing came. The conditions were clear. Man was not to eat of a particular tree in the garden. It was as simple and as serious as that. “Besides the law written in their hearts, they [Adam and Eve] received a command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which whilst they kept, they were happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures.” (The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, Chapter 4, Section 3; study Genesis 2:17; Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28). The Bible records what happened. Ignoring the specific commandment of the Sovereign, Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and immediately fell from an exalted state to an inferior position. Though a fall is denied by evolutionist, pantheists, and others, it remains a historical fact taught in Scripture and supported by the Saviour.

Two Difficulties

♦ A psychological difficulty. How could a holy creation such as Adam entertain a desire to sin? How could a sinful volition originate in a holy will? If desire and character determine volition, how can a holy character have a sinful volition?

♦ A moral difficulty. Why did a holy God permit sin?

Observation

God could have prevented sin but He chose to allow sin for reasons not known. The only thing that is certain is that God made man a free agent to choose for himself-- and man chose to do wrong. That is the bad news. The good news is that God can still over-rule acts of sin for eventual good. The best news is that He does. The love of God is more evident in redemption than if man had never sinned. Still, after all is said, the origin of sin must ever remain a mystery and the reason for it inscrutable. The Effects of the Fall—Degeneracy and Death The beginning of sin and apostasy is usually in some slight defection that does not shock the moral sense. But the first step having been taken, the descent to greater iniquity follows with increasing rapidity. Adam, having disobeyed, and corrupted his nature, gave a bias to his posterity. Quickly did the fruits appear. The first man born killed the second, and the degeneracy of the race went on by leaps and bounds till it culminated in destruction by the deluge (Genesis 6:1-22, Genesis 7:1-24). The Fall was more than a mere misfortune, it corrupted the spiritual nature of the human race. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” (John 3:6) All mankind inherited a sinful nature, which in itself is sin. Sinfulness is sin; and all sin and sinfulness is condemned by the law of God. “We are by nature the children of wrath even as others.” (Ephesians 2:3) The human race was lost in the fall. A Federal Representative According to Scripture, the relation of Adam to posterity is set forth as being a federal representative.

♦ Romans 5:12 “By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all [have] sinned.”

♦ Romans 5:14 “Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”

♦ Romans 5:17 “By the offence of one death reigned by one.”

♦ Romans 5:19 “As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”

♦ 1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die.”

Imputation of Sin

There has been much debate over whether there was a mediate or an immediate imputation of Adam’s sin to the human race. A mediate imputation means that sin is passed on through the medium of natural generation or heredity. An immediate imputation means that there is a direct imputation of sin without any medium whatsoever. Did the penalty of sin fall on the human race directly, or indirectly through the medium of an inherited corrupt nature? The evidence indicates that there is an element of immediate imputation of Adam’s sin to the human race for death is the direct and immediate consequence of sin in every generation. The conclusion seems obvious. The human race was prospectively dead the moment that Adam sinned. But there is an element of mediateness in the fact that the corruption of nature and the penalty on the individual took actual effect through a natural generation or transmission of nature.