The Doctrine of the Fall

We’re featuring a new resource today, Life Walk With Marlene. She writes,

This blog is about my experiences, thoughts and feelings on my journey called living the Blessed life. It is about the ups and downs along the way. The Blessed life is about knowing the Author of life. God alone shows the Way to living the good life that He intended for His creatures since the beginning of time. Travel with me and let us discover together the way to a truly happy life.

Click the title below to read this one at source.

The Fall of Man

Fall: The Semblance of Man to God, Knowing Good and Evil

For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)[1]

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. (Genesis 3:22)[2]

Man was created in the likeness of God to have a relationship with Him, to be His representative in creation. Why then was he faulted for becoming like God – knowing good and evil? Is this “likeness” similar to what God first intended it to be? Is it not a part of the inherent character of God to discern good from evil?

I believe it is not for “knowing” per se that man was faulted. Rather, it was his act of disobedience to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Previously, God instructed Adam

Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17)[3]

Adam and Eve disobeyed God and fell into “shame.” They became aware of their nakedness and covered their bodies with fig leaves. Their eyes were opened. They knew guilt and hid themselves when God came looking for them.

Knowing good and evil brings forth shame and guilt. A baby who knows neither right nor wrong feels not shame or guilt. In the previous section, conscience was mentioned as part of the character of God (His image and likeness). Conscience is linked to knowing good and evil. Man became aware of good and evil because he disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The shame in their newly awakened consciousness of their own nakedness speaks to a deeper shame of their own sinful state. Adam’s fear and hiding “because I was naked” (v.10) was a confused cover for a fear and conviction of sin.[4]

The second reason for man being found guilty for knowing good and evil like God is found in the context of the serpent tempting Eve. Genesis 3:4-5 recounts

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.[5]

The serpent deceived Eve by pointing out how God lied when He warned Adam that eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil would lead to death. The serpent also implied that God did not want man to be like Him knowing good and evil; God did not want to share this “power” of discernment, which belongs to Him alone. Essentially, the serpent was convincing the woman to be “like God” – on the same level as God in the context of pride and power, at the expense of disobeying God’s command. The image of God in man, originally to be man’s glory as he “reflects” God’s glory, is “marred” because man seeks to be like God, thereby, “replacing” God.

What about Genesis 3:22? God seems to be saying that knowing good and evil, like Him (in the plural sense), is “not good” for man. What does “knowing” in this context mean?

The Hebrew term for “knowing” in this verse (verse 5, also) is not unique to this passage or chapter; it’s the same word “yada” used elsewhere, some 960 times in the Hebrew scriptures.[6]

“Yada” can mean to learn, to perceive, to discern, to distinguish, to know by experience, to recognize, to consider, to be acquainted with, and other fairly ordinary definitions of the word listed in

How did Adam and Eve get to know evil when all God has created since day one is good? They knew good because it was all that they “experienced” before their disobedience. Adam knew of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He was told “not” to eat from it for he will surely die if he did. (Gen. 2:16-17)[7] Adam may have inferred the existence of “evil” as 1) something tantamount to deviation from God’s law or directive, and 2) something he was to avoid knowledge about. (Related: Good Ignorance: Handling the Knowledge of Evil) Therefore, Adam knew of evil as a theory until he knew or “experienced” evil in his disobedience.

How about God? If experiential knowledge is the kind of knowledge Adam and Eve gained from disobedience, can we then conclude that God also has/d experiential knowledge of Good and Evil?

The Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil.”[8]

As God is the paradigm of “Good,” how can it be possible for Him to have personal, experiential knowledge of Evil? Adam came to know by experience, specifically his experience of doing evil – evil being privatio boni, the privation (lack, absence) of good. Adam came to know evil when he did the opposite of good, which was obeying God. On the other hand

God’s omniscience allows Him to know all truths, including what is good, which is rooted in His own nature. And being a God of reason, He knew from eternity past that the absence of good would be evil. Therefore, it is not necessary for Him to know this truth by experience – either seeing it in others or doing it Himself – the latter being impossible. Adam, a non-omnnicient being, could only know evil by either seeing it in others or doing it himself – the latter being the unfortunate reality. In short, Adam became like God in that he knew evil, having come to know it by doing evil. God also knew evil, but by His perfect knowledge of all truth, including the necessary truth that evil is the absence of good.[9]

Implications and applications: Knowing good and evil is part of God’s image and character. Man’s knowledge of good and evil holds him accountable to follow His Creator, so that he will and can live his life in the goodness of God’s image. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and took it upon themselves, wanting to “be like God” – all knowing. This sin is pride. The antidote to pride is humility.

Humility is foundation to all other virtues man should learn to live his life. It sounds paradoxical that man, created in God’s image, with “royal splendor” and dignity, should take pride in his status, yet attempt to remain humble in the same image. Humility is not about self-abasement. It is acknowledging that whatever we have comes from God. It is about dependence on God and not on ourselves. Being in God’s image is to be humbly dignified, totally aware that we are God’s creature – a mere reflection of His glory, and not take His glory upon ourselves in our egocentricity.

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[1] New American Standard Bible.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Godandneighbor. “How could Adam and Eve Sin Before Knowing Good and Evil?” God & Neighbor (2012) [home page on-line]; available from http://godneighbor.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/how-could-adam-and-eve-sin-before-knowing-good-and-evil/#comments; Internet; accessed 21 September 2013.
[5] New American Standard Bible.
[6] Godandneighbor.
[7] New American Standard Bible.
[8] New American Standard Bible.
[9] Godandneighbor.

The Fall: The Christmas Story Continues . . .

by Clarke Dixon

Last week we saw how the story of Christmas really has its beginnings way back at Creation. God’s desire from the outset was to be with us, and Christmas is a big part of that happening. As we look to cover the Christmas story from beginning to end, we do not even get out of Genesis chapter 3, or out of the Garden of Eden for that matter, before we see something else critical to the Christmas story. The Fall is part of what Christmas is about. Let us focus in on God’s promise to the serpent:

The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15 emphasis mine

Here we have a promise of struggle. This not really about humans and snakes, this is about humanity’s struggle with evil. Snakes provide a good metaphor for this struggle. A strike to a snake’s head could be fatal. But so too, could a snake’s strike to a human’s heel. We are not sure at the time the promise is given who will be victorious, and who will end up dead.

The odds don’t look to be in our favour, especially given the fact that evil won the first battle when we had our best advantage. We had home field advantage in the Garden of Eden. We had everything, including the amazing presence of God Himself. But we had to have that one fruit. Things do not go our way throughout the pages of the Old Testament either. The history of God’s people, Israel, is a history of trying and failing, getting up and falling, again and again. And consider world history. Though there are bright moments, evil seems all too often to have the upper hand. Given the capacity of humanity to end all life through nuclear warfare, the odds have never been more in the favour of evil winning the war. Who will win in the end, the offspring of Eden, or the offspring of the serpent? It seems like a war humanity has not been winning and cannot win. However, Christmas points us to a clear winner!

Christmas points us to a clear winner when the angel speaks to Joseph.

She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

Mary will bear a son. Jesus is therefore is a candidate for being the “offspring,” or “seed” of Eve. But how can this one man conquer evil when no other man before has? How can this man do what has been impossible for every person before him right back to Adam and Eve, namely, lead a sinless life? And never mind leading his own sinless life, how will he also deal with the sins of others? Though being born of Mary and therefore the offspring of Eve, Jesus is so much more. The next verses make this clear:

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.” Matthew 1:22-23

While this seems to be a war humanity cannot win, this particular seed of Eve has an advantage! He is God with us.

Christmas points to a clear winner when the angel speaks to Mary.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. Luke 1:30-31

Born of Mary, and so the offspring of Eve. But again, so much more:

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. . . . The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Luke 1:32-35

The war will be won with this man, a man of holy divinity, on our side!

While we are thinking of Mary, we should note here how the promise of Genesis 3:15 pertains to the offspring of Eve, and not Adam. Note also, how Jesus is born of Mary, but not to Joseph. Here is a hint, though just a hint, way back in Genesis, of the virgin birth of Jesus.

In addition to Christmas there are two other events that point to a clear winner. 

Christmas leads to Easter. The death and resurrection of Jesus points to victory. Paul confirms this for us in Romans 8 when he speaks of evil not being able to knock God’s person down. Satan is the accuser, the one most likely to condemn, pointing the fingers  and declaring “unworthy sinners! You will never be victorious over evil for you are evil.” Hear what Paul has to say:

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Romans 8:31-39

While Satan may be the accuser, God is the judge. God has already demonstrated His love for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, by giving His life for us, has already declared that He is on our side. Paul goes on about the potential of evil to knock us over and down:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:35-37

In the face of much evil, we are more than conquerors, not because we are able of ourselves to get the upper hand over evil, but “though him who loved us.” No expression of evil in the world can gain the victory and separate us from the love of God:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38

Advent is a time of expectant waiting. The second advent of our Lord points us to the clear winner:

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, . . . .  And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Revelation 20:1-3, 10

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, recalls the struggle promised in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The serpent’s head is crushed. Evil is utterly defeated.

Looking out at our world we may wonder if humanity can ever win the struggle against evil. Christmas points us to a clear winner. Easter points his to a war already won. The coming Day of the Lord, the second advent of Christ points to every battle finished.

At Christmas we celebrate the incarnation of God as the answer to the prophetic question asked in Genesis 3:15; “will humans ever win this struggle against evil?” Evil struck the heel of Eve’s offspring when the forces of evil conspired together to put Jesus to death. But in dying and in being raised to life, Jesus has crushed the serpent. We have a clear winner. Christmas points the way to victory. We have the opportunity to become “more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

All Bible references are from the NRSV

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Read this post at its source and then look around the rest of Sunday’s Shrunk Sermon

Our Sin and the State of Creation

Today we pay a return visit to the devotional blog Get Along With God. Choosing a selection from this blog is never easy, but I found the idea in this one something I hadn’t truly considered before. This time around the writer is John. Click the title below, then click on ‘home’ to visit other articles at the site. You’ll also see some nice graphics that go with this article. (This article also contains links to others at the same blog.)

All Creation is Calling

All Creation

God created the heavens and the earth and everything that lives. At the end of His creating He said, “It is VERY good!” He made a masterpiece of the world and universe we live in. It was blessed!

Then came man, made in God’s image. We roamed the earth and were given preeminence over all Creation. We were able to walk in the cool of the day with God, our Father, in unbroken fellowship. It was beautiful! But then came the day that we fell.

As a result of our choice and fall, all of creation was cursed along with us. Its fruitfulness and flourishing gave way to thorns and thistles. On that day, death and decay permeated everything created. That which was blessed and VERY good, bore the scars of our choice against God. Yet did Creation turn against us in revolt and bitterness? No, the Word says that all Creation longs for the sons of God to come into glory. Creation literally groans as it waits to see us reunited with God in perfection.

For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.
Romans 8:19 HCSB

Everything on earth is subject to our fall. Nature itself was subjected to our evil choice and yet lives in hope and anticipation. Imagine, hope reigns supreme throughout all creation even in the face of our evil. The earth didn’t swallow us whole in a vengeful act for mangling its form; no, it teems with expectation for the day that we and it will be liberated in newness.

For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.
Romans 8:20-22 HCSB

The Story of All Creation and Our Today

So, how does this relate to us today? Because “The Story” is the same in the microcosm as it is in the macrocosm. The Creation Story is reflected in our personal lives as well. In the same way that Creation was hurt by our choices, other people’s choices have and do hurt us deeply.

Whether through ignorance, or in willfulness, or with malice, we are wounded, scarred, and crippled by the choices of those around us. Be it parents or siblings, spouses or children, authorities or friends, we are wounded and sometimes irrevocably. And this happens in both directions. We wound as much as others wound us. But here is Creation standing as an ever-present sentinel, a beacon for hope. Creation bowed to the Sovereign Hand who subjected it to man, and now it groans and waits for the redemption we all seek. Which one of us hasn’t also had to personally twist in the wind of adversity, waiting for our Redeemer in Glory to come?

This fact could sink us emotionally if we didn’t have the sustaining power of the Spirit of God. It’s too much to bear on our own. But the good news is we were never intended to. Our Savior came to heal the breach, and He left the Spirit to be our Life. It’s true, without Him it is impossible, unsustainable, and devastating. But the story of His Redeeming Love is sung throughout Creation—all Creation calls, waiting patiently without bitterness, malice, or scorn.

This is our lesson and our life. We are each called to receive our bruising, accept our crippling and groan with all Creation for the end of the age.

Am I a pessimist? A gloomy Gus toting a “Life’s a bummer and then you die!” bumper sticker? No, on the contrary, I know that God has subjected me and I have been maligned by the choices of others, but I am called to embrace His sovereign choices and not take up bitterness against those who have sinned. Others are also the recipients of my sinful choosing – may they have the grace to embrace our Sovereign God.

All Creation has a lesson to teach us. It has a vital call for us all. Surrender to the Hand of our Sovereign God and eagerly wait and groan for His Sovereign Hand to liberate us all. Oh, how often I have taken up an offense and become bitter, writhing with resistance rather than groaning with anticipation. It’s a life or death choice—one we each have the grace to face.

In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!
Romans 8:18-21 Phillips

The Fall Retold

I spent a few hours on the weekend reading a book which looks at Christian belief from the background of someone whose background includes time spent as a Zen Buddhist Monk and is now a Christian pastor in Europe. The book is 3 Theories of Everything by Ellis Potter; as a print-on-demand title through bookstores worldwide. A full review is available at Thinking Out Loud, but I wanted to include here his fresh retelling and commentary on the fall of man.

In the book of Genesis, we’re told that God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden with Adam and Eve.  And God said:  Do not eat the fruit of this tree.  You must not know good and evil for yourselves.  You must trust Me to tell you.

You might wonder why God gave them the option of eating the fruit.  Why not prevent them from doing it?  Why not put a barbed wire fence around the tree?  The reason, as I mentioned earlier, is that God is not automatic, and so His creation cannot be automatic either.  Just as God is free to choose, and he chooses always to be faithful to Himself, we as the image of God are given the same choice — the choice to be trusting and dependent upon Him.  So the possibility exists that we can choose wrongly.

I ought to point out that if God is non-automatic, then the possibility also exists that He can choose wrongly.  There is nobody behind God forcing Him to fulfill His promises.  God Himself must choose to do so.  As I suggested earlier, you see the possibility for choosing wrongly in the Garden of Gethsemane.  If there was no possibility that Jesus would fail to fulfill His promise, then He would not have sweat blood.  He would not have prayed, Please, if it can be any other way, let it be.  You see the same possibility a few years earlier in Jesus’ life, when He is tempted by the devil while in the desert.  The temptation would have been completely meaningless if there was no possibility for Jesus to have fallen for it.  Thankfully, that God has never broken His promises and even died in order to keep them is clear assurance that He will always be faithful.

So, the origin of the possibility of evil is in God, but there is no evil in God.  The creatures that God made in His image also have this possibility, and their choices have often resulted in tragedy.  The best known example is the devil.  He was, at one time, the most beautiful of all angels but chose to turn away from God.  Did you ever notice that the devil is just one person, whereas God is three?  The devil is one because he is exclusively self-centered.  It is his absolute self-centeredness that makes him absolutely evil.

According Genesis, the devil came to Eve in the Garden and said, Did God say you couldn’t eat anything?  Eve replied, Oh no, we can eat anything we want, we just can’t eat of that tree.  And the devil said, If you eat of that tree, you will become like God, because God knows good and evil and you will also know good and evil.  You won’t have to bother God about telling you about good and evil, you’ll know for yourself.  You can be independent.  You can be a liberated woman.  That was appealing to Eve.  She was intelligent, she had an adventurous spirit.  She took another look at the tree and saw that the fruit was very attractive, and she knew that she really would have the knowledge of good and evil if she ate it, and would be self-sufficient.  She wouldn’t need God to tell her.

After eating it, Eve gave some to Adam, and then he ate it.  At that moment they both died.  I don’t mean they had heart attacks and fell over.  I mean their relationship and their identity died.  They knew that they were naked.  They knew they were a threat to each other.  There was no longer trust.  They didn’t trust God and they couldn’t trust each other.  When their relationship died, they were dead.  Their true identity had not been in themselves but in their relationship.

Adam and Eve realized there was a problem, and sometimes I think they could have held hands and gone to God and said, ‘Father we have a problem, can you help us?’  But they didn’t do that because they had become insane.  Their thinking was now fundamentally distorted and unhealthy.  Instead of going to the Creator for a solution, they reached into creation.  They found fig leaves and sewed them together to hide their sexuality, probably because that was what they now found most disturbing and threatening.  In reaching into the creation for a solution, we also see the birth of naturalism, a belief that we should turn to the physical world in order to solve our problems.

God came into the Garden and called for Adam.  Why did He want to talk to Adam if Eve was the one who took the first bite?  Here you see the function of hierarchy.  Adam was with Eve when she did it, and he was responsible for her.  For this reason, God wants to know from Adam what has happened.  That’s not politically correct, but that’s the way God does it.

In confronting Adam, God asks a wonderful question:  Where are you?  Remember that God knows everything.  The question is not for God to get information.  The question is for Adam, so that he can ask himself where he is.  Adam gives a good answer when he replies, I’m in fear, and nakedness and hiding.  That was all true.  That was his situation.

Then God asks a second question:  Who told you that you were naked?  In other words ‘What are your sources and why have you believed them?’  He also asks: Have you eaten of the fruit that I told you not to eat?  Did you bring this fear and nakedness and hiding on yourself?  Adam’s answer, in this case, could not be worse.  He says, The woman, who you gave to me, offered me the fruit.  It’s your fault and her fault.  In other words, ‘I am a victim.’  It was here that victimization and denial began.  ‘I’m not responsible, I’m a victim.  I don’t need to be forgiven, I’m entitled.  I don’t need to confess and repent.’  This attitude has remained popular in the human race.

God made coats from the skins of animals and clothed them.  He killed the innocent and He covered Adam and Eve with the blood of the innocent.  It was a visual and applied prophecy of the Crucifixion.  Here, and in many other episodes described in the Bible, you can also see how the God of the third circle is not a passive and silent God.  He is not a New Age elephant.  He is active and communicative.  From the beginning, He is deeply engaged with His creation and working faithfully toward its salvation.

Salvation is necessary because ever since the unfaithfulness of Adam and Eve we have been living in a condition of self-centeredness.  The human condition has imploded like a supernova – like a huge star that has exploded outward and then reversed direction and collapsed into a black hole, whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it.  Everything gets sucked into it.  Self-centeredness is what it means to be dead.  It’s what it means to be a sinner.  It’s a disastrous situation, and, according to the third circle, it’s the cause of suffering in the world.

Ellis Potter