The Fall of Adam and its Results

(Continued from page 155.)

Having defined, in part at least, the nature and character of Adam's act of disobedience, we must now consider its results in relation to our general subject.

First, it is a fact that through disobedience man, as a moral being, is different from what he was before. In saying this I do not mean that he has ceased to be spirit, soul and body-a complex being with an outward material part and an inward immaterial one. After sin came in, as well as before, man is a rational, moral being; but what a change has been effected in his moral nature! Man is no longer morally what God made him. God did not create a sinful being. No element of sin was in his moral constitution as God made him.

As a sinner, man is of the devil; he corrupted man's nature. Our Lord, in John 8:38,41,44, considering those before Him as servants of sin (see ver. 34) refers their origin in that character to the devil. We find the same teaching in i John 3:8:"He that committeth (practices) sin is of the devil." The sinner's character is derived from the devil. His practice is the outward manifestation of a moral nature of which the devil is the author.

Through this moral fall, with a corrupted nature, Adam became a slave to sin. Before his fall his subjection to God was not irksome. To an un-corrupted will, obedience was liberty. His mind and heart were in harmony with the will of God, so that it was not bondage to obey. But when the principle of sin was deposited in man's moral nature, it was there as a controlling power, turning his members into servants of sin (Rom. 6:13 16, 20). He was under the dominion of sin-a dominion from which he had no power to deliver himself -no power to cast out the new element that had found entrance in his moral nature and produced in him a new moral character.

Having consented to sin, Adam came under bondage to Satan. Through sin in man's nature Satan holds sway over him. When he persuaded Adam to disobey God he set up on "earth a kingdom of evil, of darkness. It was thus he established his power and became "the prince of this world;" " the god of this age " was thus initiated. Fallen, sinful men are his subjects. He uses them for his own ends. He makes them the instrument of his own purposes. By his control over them he carries out his evil plans. He avails himself of the aspirations, passions and lusts innate in men as constituted sinners, to guide them in accordance with the age of evil of which he is the author. Through the attractions of sin he leads man captive for his will-a captivity from which man has no power to deliver himself.

We should also remark that Adam having been constituted a "son of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2, Greek), became alienated from the life of God, is at enmity with God, with a will that cannot be subject to God's rule (Rom. 8:7). His moral condition is in constant conflict with God; and he is not only out of harmony with God, but also out of harmony with himself. By the introduction of sin he became a subject of internal conflicts – conflicts which he is powerless to repress. Every way we look at it we cannot fail to realize that through the fall man came into a new moral condition ; a new character is stamped upon him; the image of God in which he was created is now a defaced image. The impress of a character not of God is there.

And how abhorrent this new moral condition must be to God ! As a son of disobedience, man could not be otherwise than a "child of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). Impossible it is for God to take pleasure in a creature made in His image in whom that image has been so defaced. The impress of an opposite character must be intolerable to Him who is holy. How could He have satisfaction or pleasure in one characterized by irreconcilable inward lusts ? His love would be sorely wounded, surely, but He could not condone the offence, could not compromise His holiness; His righteousness would require the condemnation and judgment of the disobedience. It may be said, God in His sovereignty is free to forgive. Truly so; but only in consistency with Hi£ holy nature and righteous character. He cannot ignore sin, He must judge it befittingly in appointing sinful man to death, and to judgment after death (Heb. 9:27).

It is not the place here to speak of the grace of God and the basis on which that grace is exercised. That will come before us in the next chapter. We recall that in Gen. 2:17, God warned Adam that disobedience would bring death. Here, in chapter 3:1,9 the appointment is definitely made. We need now to consider this.

We have seen that man was not made to die, that he was designed, not simply for this present earthly life, but to be exalted and spiritualized. But even so, let us remember he did not have life in himself; he had it dependently. If we say his body was not subject to death we must not forget that it was not of itself immortal. It was only dependently and conditionally so. If the natural earthly body given to Adam was not the final and permanent body that God had in mind for him, has Adam's fall rendered it impossible for God to carry out His purpose ? If so, God has been defeated by sin; but this we cannot admit while confessing God as supreme over all. In appointing man to death, and to judgment after it, God in no wise changed or abandoned His purpose:it is unchangeable as Himself. But this means that death is but temporary, though his life on earth and the spiritualization of his body on the ground of his own responsibility has been forfeited. The privilege of eating of the tree of life while obedient, is forever forfeited. Having separated himself from God, the Source of life, he cannot protect his body from death. The cherubim and flaming sword (Gen. 3:24) proclaim the absolute inability of fallen man to recover himself and acquire the right to live. And if he has forfeited the privilege of living, he has also lost the opportunity, as an obedient man, to be exalted to a higher life-to a life of eternal fellowship with God, with a body suited to the activities of life in its final and permanent form.

The record of God's ways with Adam as fallen shows conclusively that God has not abandoned His purpose. He reveals His resources for the recovery of man and for the accomplishment of the end He has in view. This revelation also shows that death is a temporary thing:it implies that God's judgment of sin is irreversible, therefore eternal. A new Man is to be raised up whose triumph over Satan, the instigator of man's fall, will be so complete that Satan's power will be absolutely nullified. This is what the crushed head means. And here we find the germ of the scripture doctrine of eternal judgment. The foot of the Second Man once placed on the Serpent's head will remain there forever. Men, sinful men, are not to be his captives forever. The eternal judgment to which men are appointed will rob him of his dominion over them. They will not be finally and eternally his spoil, his prey; and this complete crushing of Satan's power implies the resurrection of his dead. If his dead are to be raised and to be judged as men-not as disembodied souls, but as complete men – then death is a temporal thing. The existence of the soul in separation from the body is of limited duration. The dissolution of the body is only for a time-not forever.

It is not in place here to enlarge on the distinction between the resurrection to life and the resurrection to judgment. That will come before us later on, but it is important to see that in proclaiming the penalty threatened in chapter 2, God is appointing sinful man to a temporary condition awaiting a judgment for which his resurrection is a necessity; and in declaring His ultimate triumph over man's tempter, it indicates that Satan will not be able to retain his prey forever, that death is the limit of his power over men, that the final and eternal destiny of men is to be determined by God Himself. In declaring that by woman, whom Satan had used to accomplish man's downfall, a Second Man would be raised up who would completely and forever crush Satan's power, God was at least giving a hint that a Man would come into the world who would possess the divine power to raise the dead and judge them. Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment are fairly inferred from the word, " It (the woman's Seed) shall bruise thy head."

Before closing this chapter another question is to be considered. What is the effect of Adam's fall on his progeny ? If Adam's moral nature had not been contaminated, it is evident he would have communicated an untarnished moral nature to his descendants, and so a sinless race. It is unnecessary, however, to discuss whether such a race would have been subjected to the same test to which Adam was subjected. I am concerned only with the fact that it was in the pristine condition in which he was created that Adam was to "be fruitful and multiply." Propagation was not withdrawn from him after his sin, however, but having been morally corrupted this was inevitably communicated to his descendants. The children born of him were in the image, not of the unfallen, but of sinful Adam. His own defaced, sinful image was stamped upon his descendants.

All descended from Adam are therefore born in sin; they are morally what they ought not to be; and to be what they ought to be, they must be morally reconstituted. This is the work of God. He only is able to undo the work of the devil. He only can deliver fallen man from the dominion of sin and Satan's power.

The great importance of what I have sought to emphasize makes it desirable to give here a brief summary of the main points on which I have enlarged.

First:A reconstitution has taken place in man's moral nature, different from what it was when created.

Second:In his reconstitution a dominion of sin has been set up, in which man is a slave to sin's reign-a captive in the power of Satan.

Third:In this kingdom of sin, man, though an object of divine pity, is necessarily and righteously a subject of divine abhorrence and wrath. As such he is appointed to death and judgment after death.

Fourth:The death and judgment to which sinful man is appointed, is a divine limitation to the continuance of sin's dominion. Death is the end of Satan's power.

Fifth:If death limits the reign of. sin and is the end of Satan's power, then there must be a resurrection of the dead.

Sixth :The judgment after death – Satan being robbed of his prey – will be the establishment of fallen sinful man's eternal destiny.

Seventh:This eternal destiny is a condition of subjection to the power of a Second Man, who in putting His foot upon the head of the Serpent completely subjects all things to Himself- eternally to hold all things in subjection.

Now then, if Gen. 3 more or less distinctly indicates that sin issues in death, and in a judgment after death which will turn the triumph and reign of sin into an eternal defeat, are there indications that any of sin's victims may be spared the doom of sin ? To this we will turn in our next chapter. C. Crain

(To be continued.)