Everyone is aware that we live in a sinful world, though not all people recognize that sin is the culprit. Sin shows its effects in the moral evils we see in society, and sin results in “natural evil” in the afflictions and miseries of this life. In light of these unmistakable facts of life, unbelievers often deny that God exists, or that sin exists, or both. Yet even when they ask how a good God could allow evil in this world, they assume that good exists, an assumption that is the backdrop against which we understand sin in the first place.1 This question and related assumption will either drive us back to the good God, who is good and does good (Ps. 119:68) and who is the fountain of goodness, or it will drive us to deny both God and ultimately good and evil. Yet evil still troubles us, and neither the Christian nor the atheist is comfortable living in a world full of evil.
The Bible says that sin and the evil resulting from it came into the world through humanity—through Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:1–7). It describes their alienation from God, which was death to their souls, and the effects of sin in this life (Gen. 3:8–23). It clearly reveals that sin deserves God’s wrath and curse (Gen. 6:5–8), making Noah’s flood an object lesson of the wrath to come (2 Peter 3:1–7). Ecclesiastes 7:29 says simply, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Adam fell from innocence, broke the covenant, and ruined mankind. Westminster Larger Catechism 21–23 summarizes this truth by stating the fact of the fall, its scope, and its effects. In this article, I will focus on the fact of the fall, leaving its effects for later essays. Understanding the fact of the fall is important because it shows us that our real need is not freedom from affliction, but reconciliation to God in Christ.
The Fall into Sin Is a Fact
Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, through the temptation of Satan, transgressed the commandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit; and thereby fell from the estate of innocency wherein they were created. (WLC 21)
The Bible teaches that sin is our fault, not God’s. While God is in control of every detail of this evil world (Isa. 45:7), He can neither sin nor be tempted by sin (James 1:13). The Westminster Larger Catechism reminds us of three biblical truths about the fall: (1) Adam and Eve could and did fall; (2) this came through Satan tempting them; and (3) they destroyed themselves by it.
First, God left our first parents to the freedom of their own wills. Only God is unchangeable and unchanging (Mal. 3:6). All other things are changeable, including human beings. While we do not know how a good creature with a good heart could desire evil instead of good, we know that the good hearts of these good creatures did change to prefer evil. No one compelled them, not even God, to follow their own wills instead of His.
Second, Satan tempted them to trust themselves and his word over God and His Word. God told them that they would die (Gen. 2:16); Satan told them they would not die (Gen. 3:4). God had already made them like Himself in His own righteous image (Gen. 1:27); Satan told them that they would become like God through sin (Gen. 3:5). By rejecting God’s prohibition to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they put their faith in Satan’s word instead of God’s.2 They rejected God’s law and authority in the worst way possible by putting themselves in God’s place, trying to determine for themselves right from wrong. Mankind has done the same thing ever since, and the fountainhead of sin is not honoring God as God in our thinking (Rom. 1:28).
Third, Adam and Eve destroyed themselves by their sin. They lost their innocence (Eccl. 7:29), and they became sinful, corrupt, and liable to God’s curse (Eph. 2:1–3). In short, they died spiritually, they would die physically, and, apart from Christ, they would die eternally (1 Cor. 6:9–10). Do we not recognize the reality of the fall in all of the afflictions of this life and by the fact that so many people still think like Adam and Eve?
The Fall into Sin Is Extensive
The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not for himself only, but for all his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in that first transgression. (WLC 22)
Adam and Eve’s sin affected not only themselves. Romans 5 teaches that though “sin entered the world through one man, death spread to all men because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Adam is not only our ancestor, but our covenant head. This means that He represented us in the garden before God. In a similar way, when a head of state declares war, we say that the nation is at war. So, Adam waged war against God and brought us into the conflict. Adam sinned as a public person, and the effects of his sin were equally public. “Many died through the one man’s trespass” (Rom. 5:15). Lest we complain about this arrangement, we should remember that God chose a better representative for us than we could choose for ourselves. We may not like the outcome, but we cannot complain about God’s choice.
The Westminster Larger Catechism reminds us that Adam’s sin affected all people “descending from him by ordinary generation.” This is because one man, and only one, is related to us by extraordinary generation. Galatians 4:4–5 tells us that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Christ was conceived by the Spirit through extraordinary—miraculous—generation (Luke 1:35), to save those who are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve through ordinary generation. This is why Paul wrote:
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:15–18)
The Adam of the first covenant brought sin and evil to all those in him—the entire human race apart from Jesus; the “Adam” of the second covenant brought righteousness and life to all those in Him—all those who trust in Him alone for salvation. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).
The Effects of the Fall
The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery. (WLC 23)
As we began with the fact of mankind’s fall into sin, so we end with the fact of sin’s effects. The Westminster Larger Catechism explains these effects in detail in questions and answers 24–29. Here in question and answer 23, we learn only two simple realities: we are sinful by status, and we experience misery. When people ask why a good God would or could allow so much evil in the world, do we not acknowledge our misery? Yet, should we not also redirect our attention from blaming God to Adam’s sin and ours as the reason behind this misery? We may not know how a good creature could be tempted to sin and produce evil. Yet we know that God’s eyes are too pure to look on and approve of evil (Hab. 1:13). Do we recognize the evil effects of sin that so disturb us and acknowledge that, like it or not, someone needs to do something about it? What we could neither fix nor remedy by our obedience (or our complaints), “God has done . . . by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Rom. 8:3).
Conclusion
Man’s fall into sin brings bad news, but the gospel announces good news. While Adam and Eve failed under temptation, Jesus endured and overcame temptation (Matt. 4:1–11). Though we have misery through Adam, we have life through Christ. This lesson paves the way for examining sin and its effects and for seeing the majesty of Christ as the only Redeemer of God’s elect. We all face temptation and sin, but there is a choice before us in the gospel. Will we remain in sin in Adam, or will we escape and overcome it in and through placing our faith in Christ?
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 6, 2020.