Questions Answered By The Fall
by Ivan Maddox
Atlanta, GA
Romans 15:4
5:14 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
When we read records in the Bible, such as the record of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, we are not just reading clever fables with meaningful morals to them. We are reading accounts of real people who failed or succeeded in their walk with God, preserved for us by God, so that we can learn about God and what does and does not please Him, about our adversary and his purposes and methods, and about ourselves. We need to read these records, not with condescension, but with meekness and a willingness to learn, so that we don't make the same mistakes some of them made.
Several critical questions are answered in the record of the Fall that are not formally asked in the text. We run the risk of missing the answers if we do not take the time to ask the questions.
Suppose you had been born with a perfect relationship with God, and walked perfectly before God your whole life -- except for one sin. What would the effect be on your relationship with God? The record of the fall answers that question: Your relationship with God would be destroyed by that one sin.
Suppose once again that you had committed only one sin in your entire life. What would the penalty be for that one sin? The answer is brutally clear in this record: The penalty would be death.
Suppose it wasn't a big sin. Suppose it was something really small, like taking a piece of fruit from someone else's garden without their permission, and eating it. What would the penalty be then? That question, too, is answered here: The penalty is still death.
Suppose we didn't sin on purpose. Suppose we were tricked into it. Suppose we thought we were doing right when we were really doing wrong. Would that still be counted as sin? Would death still be the penalty? A look at Eve gives us the answer.
Suppose you had committed only one sin in your entire life. What effect would that one sin have on your character? A look at Adam's behavior after the fall answers that question. He turned instantly from a fearless innocent into a cringing coward, hiding from God, and willing to blame God and his wife for a sin he committed deliberately.
What if God were to judge us based strictly on our own works? What if He started each person out with a perfectly pure mind and heart, and held each one accountable only for the sins they themselves committed? What would be the result? This question, too, is answered: We'd be dead.
Suppose God had simplified His laws. Suppose that, instead of a whole smorgasborg of sins to choose from, we only had one. What are the chances that we would obey His one commandment perfectly? The answer is clear: we wouldn't have obeyed it.
Suppose He had made things even easier? Suppose He had put us in a world with no sin and no sinners. Suppose He also removed sickness and disease, and guaranteed that we would have no unmet needs. Would we have obeyed Him then? His test sample of humanity answers the question for us: No.
Suppose God had started us off with no sin nature. Suppose there was nothing inside us that naturally rebelled against God. Would we have obeyed Him then? Again we have the answer: We would not have obeyed Him once we ran into the tempter.
Finally, suppose that the devil were removed from the picture. Suppose that we had no arch-enemy trying to lure us or pressure us away from God. Would we have disobeyed God then?
Here the answer is surprising: Without the intervention of the devil, there would probably have been no disobedience of God. So long as they were left to themselves, Adam and Eve were absolutely obedient to God. Sin originated outside of man, not inside.
Why did God set up His plan of redemption the way He did? Why did He choose to save us by grace instead of by works? Here again the answer is simple and clear. We could not have made it by works. Grace was God's only chance of saving us.
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