Principle III: The Fall
Humanity, by the disobedience of Adam, has turned away to their own desires in loving what is evil by not knowing what is good, and they do not desire to seek God to understand what is purposed in Him for them since the beginning.
“God has created man, that out of the fullness that is God, man may have living water wherewithal to satisfy his thirst. When man forsakes the fountain of the living water he cannot get rid of the thirst, and he cannot divest himself of the nature endowed him.”
– Adolph Saphir, Hebrews
introduction
As sweet as the intent of the Logos is, there is the reality of our ruined position as fallen. All men in Adam have become afflicted with what would be to the man an incurable condition. Sin and death would become the whole of man’s possession, and a chasm appears there between them and the glory of God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
– Romans 3:23
The intent here is to observe and understand this Fall in it’s entirety as an effect laid against the previous principle where God makes clear the purpose humanity would serve. The fall attempts to obstruct, or obscure what God purposed in His work. Following after the work, it would do good then to define all that led to the fall and make clear the overall effect of the fall.
corruption
Humanity began as a creature fashioned for glory as sons in Christ revealed. All things were made by Him and for Him. This was purposed in humanity from the inception of creation. God has called Christ as the heir of creation from the beginning, that the people of God would live forever by Christ revealed.
“In hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began”
– Titus 1:2
However, the effect Adam laid upon the whole of humanity through disobedience is severe in that it has separated us from His glory and eternal life inherit in it. The act on our part has left us in a descent no man can save himself, nor any other out of.
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good And does not sin.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:20
The word for sin here is ḥāṭā meaning “to miss the goal of right”, “to incur guilt or penalty”, and “forfeit”. The goal of what is right is forfeit and all have missed the mark, or have fallen short of said goal and purpose.
“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.”
– Romans 3:10
There is a lot to unpack here. However, the first explicit point to be made is that not a single person is found justified or righteous, but we are all found sinful by the act of Adam and Eve. What Adam and Eve consumed by their disobedience became inherit in the nature of all flesh.
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.”
– Psalm 51:5
And,
“Do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no one living is righteous.”
– Psalm 143:2
The word “righteous” used in this context is ṣāḏaq stemming from Qal meaning “justified”, “in the right”, or “righteous in conduct and character”. We understand that the mark missed or the thing that qualifies us is this righteousness, or justification. To say that the man is sinful is to say that he falls short. To say that none are righteous helps us understand what we fall short of. We are poised as corrupt in character and conduct, and the inherit glory fashioned for us is forfeit due to the condition of sin and guilt. The consequence is as follows:
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.”
– I Corinthians 6:9
We can do better to define the nature of this unrighteousness. What is it exactly that makes us unrighteous, and determines us as sinful? Where does our conduct or character fail us? The man went from something determined good by God, into something bad by his disobedience.
abandoned purpose
The severity is made evident in the days of Noah where we see the effect of unbridled sin in humanity:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
– Genesis 6:5
The word ‘evil’ Is raʿ meaning “bad”, “malignant”, and “mischief”. Put simply, evil is badness, or the absence of good.
The context here means to include “the whole imagination”. The Hebrew word “intent” used here is yēṣer meaning “purpose, framework, and imagination.” It signifies not only the imagination in the thoughts of the people, but also the purposes and desires were only evil. Every intent was bad. Here we begin with a root idea when we see that the people’s collective purpose was far from its intent.
In our separation from God, when left to ourselves, (as humanity had been in the days of Noah) we are drawn to follow our own inclinations and not seek God. Whatever purposes served as the chief of our desires were far removed from God’s purpose over us. Our desires were not His desires. This badness became a thing of pride and preference and the desires in us, strong and good as they may present themselves, are brittle structures in comparison to the weight of glory in the framework of God.
“Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endures continually.
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
You love evil more than good,
Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah
You love all devouring words,
You deceitful tongue.”
– Psalm 52:1
We can see the decadence grow in us from the point of Adam’s folly. From Adam to Noah, ten generations resulted in a decline that grieved God and we understand the reason being because every inclination in the people He made was drawn to the complete consummation of evil continually. What God purposed was traded for lesser ideas. All were drawn away to fruitless endeavors.
“For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.”
– Psalm 5:4
We are drawn to prefer, even to love, evil, or badness that is anything other than what God purposed in us at the foundation. What good is, and what God had purposed at the foundation, was forgotten, abandoned, or consumed by the desire to satisfy our own desires instead. Our badness, and in the worst case, our own perceived “goodness”, became an idolized obsession.
“…Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” – Ecclesiastes 9:3
That is the corruption attributed to humanity. The badness in us is characterized in that every intention and imagined thought has been polluted, and uninspired due to this separation from God. Humanity, in all our strength and genius, are determined sinful, and the mark is missed because we do not desire to know, nor do we seek God for understanding. But we love evil instead. This is why all collective ideas and purposes within the hearts of the people, separated from God, are bad.
“Truly, this only I have found:
That God made man upright,
But they have sought out many schemes.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:29
our good is bad
But the will of God for creation was traded for whatever interest the man found within himself. Our inclination due to the fall is to turn away from the Spirit of the Lord and look to what we imagine to be right or good. Our own understanding was put first.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”
- Proverbs 3:5,6
We turn to our own way and in our iniquity we do not call on Him. The path becomes obscured. We struggle to understand that even the “good” we attempt to claim in ourselves falls short of God’s inspired intent from the beginning. We see the similarities in Isaiah who looked upon the “goodness” of Israel saying:
“But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousness’s are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have consumed us because of our iniquities.”
– Isaiah 64:6
And though it speaks of Israel’s fault in their self-righteous position, we understand that even good intentions are like filthy rags when we deny the Lord His way in us. We understand that the righteousness in this history was self-prescribed, and none had looked to God for understanding. We understand then that our thoughts and intentions are weighed against God’s thoughts and intentions and there is a clear separation. But none had looked for understanding, and none had known the mind of God and the purposes therein His heart. That is why the scriptures say that none seek Him. None understand. Therefore, there are none who do good.
none do good
Without the knowledge of God, we are destroyed. We become helpless to understand what is necessary for salvation. We see the effect happen immediately with Adam and Eve:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
– Genesis 3:7
Here we see an attempt to remedy guilt, but they did not understand the cost necessary for a proper covering. They did not seek God, but they looked to their own intuition.
The pattern is noted:
“God looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
Every one of them has turned aside;
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one.”
– Psalm 53:2
And,
“The fool has said in his heart,
‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.”
– Psalm 14:1
And,
“The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
God is in none of his thoughts.”
– Psalm 10
It is evident that the point being made about the unrighteous condition is that all men are lost in themselves, each to his own desire. And if each in his own way works toward their own desire not understanding the purpose God designed us after, how can our striving be anything good or fruitful?
But the pattern noted in the nature of humanity as we are left to our own instruments is this: Every intent is bad. None seek Him. There are none who understand. There are none who do good.
no other Saviour
But we know this: That God made the Earth of and to Christ in the beginning. Humanity was formed as the inheritance of Christ at the foundation that His people would live forever by His Spirit, and it was called good. The Fall obscures this and by it we struggle to understand what God has been up to. Then, we learn of Christ and that if we believe in His name, we will be saved. This is because Christ is the very thing God has been up to from the start. Christ is His purpose established at the beginning that we would be made sons and daughters of God in His time.
“For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
– I Corinthians 3:11
Adam and his wife then forsake God by disobedience, and by the knowledge attained, all intentions are all given over to other interests; to the way that seems right.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way;”
– Isaiah 53:6
Having gone astray, we would forfeit the revealing of the sons of God. Christ glorified, and men lifted up through Him is the explicit will of God in creation, but the world did not understand. Therefore, in our severed condition, what can a man do with his sins in turning away to his own hearts desire? The work requires a redemption, and reclamation.
“I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior.”
– Isaiah 43:11
And,
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
– Acts 4:12
Who else would make a way out?
“For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
‘Seek Me and live;’”
– Amos 5:4
This is the fallen condition. It is the natural inclination to find in ourselves enough pride to come to a kind of conclusion saying “there is no God” or, “there is no need for Him”. It is the inevitable pull every person is drawn to. That is our corruption, and our foolishness inherit in the nature of the fall. Who seeks Him in contrition? Who chases His heart and understanding?
“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
- Psalm 51:6-11
To forsake the knowledge of God for whatever it is that we find in ourselves is to our shame, however right, or “good” we might think it. Our intent does not lead us to His eternal life. But who can say that they knew the mind of God without being told or taught by God Himself first? No one. But His desire is that the people would incline their ear to heaven and draw near to Him.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” - James 4:8
wisdom rejected
Where God established the foundation from and to the glory of His Son, humanity would only be lost and thereby deny the knowledge of Him in sin. But the Scriptures say:
“A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
‘Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters.’”
– Jeremiah 17:9
It is not that God is reclusive in His ways, but it is that none desire to know Him at the expense of all our own rooted intent and presumption. None seek Him in the aroma of abandonment. None knew Him in the voice of His prophets, and that is why many even rejected Christ. When the Son of Man appeared it says:
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”
– John 1:10,11
The will of God from the foundation, that is His Word, was manifest in the world, and the world did not recognize Him. His own people did not know Him, and even refused Him. Such is the imagination of humanity without the knowledge of God; without His Spirit. From the beginning we see that the heavens have declared His glory. He has labored and spoken of His intent or us through His law, by the prophets, and even His own Son.
“Wisdom calls aloud outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.
She cries out in the chief concourses,
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded.”
- Proverbs 1:20-23
The wisdom of God has been made into foolishness. Yet, He does not relent, that we would come to know wisdom, and fix our eyes on the radiance of His truth from everlasting.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’.”
- I Corinthians 3:19
Whatever sufficiency we may find in our striving and all our collective understanding pales to the “place of our sanctuary” and “the glorious high throne from the beginning”. All that we need to do is seek Him by His Spirit. In Him our thirst for living water is quenched in the promise of eternal life. Yet, the condition must be stated. We all have turned away, and we were born in iniquity. Though the world was made through Him, “The world did not know Him.” That is the effect of Adam’s disobedience. Every purpose and desire in the heart of humanity was not of God, because none had desired to know Him.
fruitless
The prophet says,
“Thus says the Lord:
‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.’”
– Jeremiah 17:5
It is God who searches the heart and knows the fruit of every labor and desire. We might be tempted to ask why the “goodness” in the world apart from God is so evil. God knows the fruit of every tree, and He knows the seed fostered in each person.
“’The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool.’”
– Jeremiah 17:9
Here we see that the evil desires laid in the hearts of men are deceitful in that they are unfruitful. They are compared to a bird that broods but does not hatch any young, or to a rich man who has nothing when his end comes. He is deceived by his riches, and “at his end he will be a fool”. Such are the desires of the heart in our separation.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
– Proverbs 14:12
But every man will reap a reward for his labor, and there is no end or reward for the one who departs from God. Ultimately, for humanity in this sinful state, there is no eternal life. As was said:
“Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the wicked;
For there will be no prospect for the evil man; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.”
– Proverbs 24:19
The word prospect used here comes from ‘aḥărîṯ meaning “reward”, “end”, or “posterity”. There is no posterity, future, or promise in the work of iniquity. Paul says:
“What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”
– Romans 6:21
And,
“Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.”
- Proverbs 1:31
Death becomes the only inheritance left for those that forsake God, and to those who refuse His knowledge. Only because they refuse the glory prepared from before the foundation in Him. No other way leads to eternal life. Every other work leads to death. They work, and toil to no end, but God has promised for us an eternal hope in His Son revealed. That is why it is said:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
– Proverbs 9:10
inherited penalty
However, the only reward for man in his fallen position becomes the due penalty noted in death. Upon eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, Adam cast humanity into sin, incurring guilt, until that penalty of death is suffered.
“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 2:17
Adam and his wife ate and by disobedience the judgement of death came over them. It became a disqualification from everlasting life as the action separated us from the fruit of the tree of life in the garden.
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’”
– Genesis 3:22
Mankind now became afflicted with the judgement of death through the guilt of sin.
“For the wages of sin is death,”
– Romans 3:23
And,
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”
– Romans 5:12
Here the narrative develops from creation and its glorious intent, into perceived despondency. The Logos is established from beginning to end, yet an enemy appears here to contend with the pleasure and will of the Almighty. That enemy is characterized in the strength of death. Who among men can contend with death when we are all guilty? Who but God? As was said:
“The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”
– I Corinthians 15:26
To summarize, man is sinful because he is unrighteous. Man is unrighteous because his desires in His separation are evil. His desires are evil because he does not understand God, and neither desires to seek Him. Because he is guilty of this, mankind is condemned to accept the fruit of his way in the judgement of Adam. For God alone is our fulfillment and the glory is purposed in Him from before the beginning.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
– I John 1:8
book of life
Our position is futile so long as salvation depends on the strength there in mankind. There is no man who can lift the burden, and no creature who can find nor reclaim eternal life otherwise.
“There is no soundness in my flesh
Because of Your anger,
Nor any health in my bones
Because of my sin.
For my iniquities have gone over my head;
Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.”
– Psalm 38:3,4
And,
“For as in Adam all die.”
– I Corinthians 15:22
And when John looked upon the heavenly city at the apocalypse, he said:
“But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
– Revelation 21:27
But who’s names are written in His book?
“Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
’They shall be Mine,' says the Lord of hosts,
‘On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.’
Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.”
– Malachi 3:17
And,
“To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
– Hebrews 12:24
And,
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” – Revelation 3:5
Those names belong to those who listened to Him, and to those that fear the Lord. They are the church as an assembly to the firstborn Who will declare these names to the Father in heaven.
And who’s name will be removed?
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.’”
– Exodus 32:33
Therefore,
“And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”
– Revelation 20:15
death’s delay
The unrighteous are disqualified, and all are unrighteous that seek their own way. Everlasting life is forfeit. Death is the penalty due to the whole of humanity because of the guilt incurred through sin and because death is the fruit of those that forsake Him.
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.”
– Romans 5:18
The condemnation stands severe, and the condition weighs heavy on us, but our condemnation is not to His pleasure.
“Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’”
– Ezekiel 33:11
God does not relent in His work to accomplish His pleasure. The affect of the fall would not dampen God’s effort to the fulfillment of His establishment. Redemption is established by the work of God alone. His labor and desire over us remains until eternal life comes.
We see the evidence for this moments after Adam and his wife were found guilty. God’s decree was death for disobedience, and yet we see something interesting occur.
“Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”
– Genesis 3:21
It was God who ushered in His own sacrifice in the skin of an animal to cover the man and his wife to spare him from the finality of death, delaying the penalty until He appeared. God shed first blood showing the man and his wife the necessary cost, and the hope for life by it. Here we see the first sacrifice, and by it we can understand the last sacrifice much in the same way in Christ.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
- John 3:17
And,
“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
- Romans 8:20
However, another one works toward our condemnation. And here we can bring to light the enemy known as our accuser of all our faults before God. The man and his wife were not alone in the history of the fall.
“The accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.”
– Romans 12:10
“Now what was the sort of ’hole’ man had gotten himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realising that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor — that is the only way out of a ’hole.’”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
