Man:
Fallen in Nature
“Therefore, just as through
one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to
all men, because all sinned … as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so
through one Man’s righteous act the free
gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one
man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many
were made righteous.” Romans 5:12 & 18-19.
Introduction
As the above verses
attest the Bible teaches that the first man, Adam, federally represented
mankind before God. After God had created Adam (and the rest of His creation)
Scripture says, “Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very
good.” Genesis 1:31a. Therefore, Man and the creation in which he lived, was
morally “very good” in the eyes of God its the Creator. However, Adam, as
humanity’s covenant head, rebelled against God. As God was to say later on to
His people, “Like Adam, they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt
treacherously with Me.” Hosea 6:7 (margin, cf.
Hosea 8:1b).
Good News
Scripture teaches that “Adam … is a type of Him who was to come.”
Romans 5:14b. Thus Jesus Christ is the replacement “Adam” God sent into the
world (see e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus is the new federal representative or covenant
head. Through Adam’s disobedience all humanity were made sinners (i.e.,
covenant breakers which is another way of saying that we are transgressors of
God’s Moral Law), but through Christ’s obedience (i.e., His perfect keeping of
the covenant’s conditions and also paying the penalty owed for the breaking of
it) those whom Christ represents are now righteous in God’s eyes. The Gospel is
the Good News that God has reconciled fallen man to Himself through the perfect
works of Jesus Christ. This reconciliation is attained by the individual by
grace through faith in the completed works of Christ (see e.g., Ephesians
2:8-9). Thus the Gospel.
Fallen World
The context for the aforementioned
Good News (i.e., the Gospel) is that Man no longer lives in a morally “good”
universe but a fallen world. This is not to say that creation itself became
evil when Satan and subsequently Adam rebelled against God. For only moral
agents (i.e., angels and human beings) can become evil.[1] God’s
Moral Law is spiritual (Romans 7:14). Thus morals are spiritual.
What happened when Adam sinned
against God by consciously disobeying Him? Scripture says,
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. For
we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together
until now. Romans 8:20-22.
We see then that on account of
Adam’s sin everyone thereafter and we today live in a fallen world. Therefore,
we ought to expect that at times things will go wrong for us. However, as human
beings (i.e., as “moral agents”), we shall know both good and evil in the
fallen world around us (Genesis 3:22a). (The “good” serves to remind us that
God has not abandoned us. The “evil” or “bad” reminds us of our need for God’s
refuge and daily protection, as the Scripture reminds us, “Draw near to God, and
He will draw near to you.” James 4:8a.)
Life’s a Struggle
God had created Man as the
pinnacle of His creation (see, e.g., Genesis 1:28), but when Adam sinned as
Mankind’s representative before God we became distanced from our Maker. This
(moral and therefore spiritual) separation caused it to become hard for Man to
eke a living on and from the earth. It is worth quoting in full what the LORD
God said to humanity’s federal head,
Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of
your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You
shall not eat of it”: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and
to dust you shall return.”’ Genesis 3:17-19.
Fallen
Man
Human
nature has undergone a great transformation. We (collectively) have gone from
being morally pure (pre-Fall) to morally corrupt (post-Fall). Another way of
saying the same thing is that when Adam sinned we became spiritually dead. As
the Scripture says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” Romans 8:7.
The
character of God is expressed in His Ten Commandments. Like a coin with the
sovereign’s head embossed on it so God minted us as His own image and likeness.
However, we are like old worn-out and tarnished pennies. It is hard to see the
Moral Law stamped on us. It is difficult for us to see it in ourselves. Thus we
make morally wrong choices.
Adam and
Eve made a morally wrong choice and all mankind thereafter suffered and still
suffers Moral Injury unless and until God remedies it by grace through faith.
Moral
Injury & Post Traumatic Stress
The
Bible records the actions of Adam and Eve after they had, as moral agents,
sinned against God. Their guilty consciences started accusing and excusing them
as they tried to deal with their guilt and shift blame for what had happened
away from themselves. Adam said to God, “The woman whom You gave to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Genesis 3:12. Eve said, “The serpent
deceived me, and I ate.” Genesis 3:13b.
With
Adam and Eve and their demise in mind let us remind ourselves of our definition
of Moral Injury,
Moral Injury is an inner conflict based on moral self
assessment of having inflicted or failed to prevent significant harm. Its
symptoms are excessive guilt, loss of meaning, anger and shame.
Some may
wonder why God was so upset with Adam and Eve and why they were so upset with
themselves simply for eating a piece of fruit. However, it was not that simple.
God had given to Adam and Eve (including us in them), as His moral agents, the Great
Commission or Cultural Mandate - a portion of which is recorded in the following
Scripture,
So God created man in His own image; in the image of
God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful
and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the
earth. Genesis 1:27-28.
The command not to eat of the
forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were merely an
outward test to see if Adam as our representative would keep the Covenant,
i.e., to see if Adam would remain obedient to God. Adam broke his probation and
thereby forfeited the life that was promised him (and his descendants in him)
for his obedience. Thus Adam by his action caused the deaths of every human
being!
How did Adam and Eve set about
dealing with their present demise? Did they immediately seek to draw near to
God so that He would draw near to them? We need to remember that God had threatened
Adam with death for disobeying Him (which conversely was the promise of life
for obedience). As Scripture says,
And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, “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.
What
happened? Scripture says,
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and
he ate. Genesis 3:6.
Upon
eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve went from loving God and their
neighbour as themselves to becoming totally self-conscious and self-absorbed
with their own problems. Thus they began to suffer Moral Injury – i.e., “excessive guilt, loss of meaning, anger and shame.” Quite
possibly they also began to suffer some form of
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD), which
we have defined as, “A fear – victim reaction to a perceived life threat. It
has clinical symptoms of flashbacks, nightmares, hyper-vigilance, dissociation.”
Anyway
Adam was afraid of God and what God was going to do to him! But what did God do
to Adam and Eve? First, God came “looking” for them.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I
was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:9-10.
Second, God spoke to the serpent, to Eve, and to Adam, in that order. When speaking to the serpent God said,
And I
will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and
you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15.
Theologians refer to
this as the protevangelium, i.e., the
promise of the Gospel. Therefore, Adam and Eve heard the Good News (albeit in
embryonic form). Third, God also showed Adam and Eve the Good News,
Also
for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of
skin, and clothed them. Genesis 3:21.
Conclusion
On account of the Fall all of Mankind suffers
Moral Injury. Moral Injury is spiritual. Those who have been diagnosed with
Moral Injury, if they were not before, are now aware of their spiritual
problem. God is able to heal Moral Injury – for good! Thus the Gospel.
[1] Stars,
planets, rocks, trees, dinosaurs, snakes, sharks, crocodiles, lions, tigers
etc., are not inherently evil because they, (unlike fallen humans and fallen
angels), are never disobedient to God’s Covenant or Moral Law, i.e., the Ten
Commandments. Only fallen humans and fallen angels are “moral agents.” However,
animals dangerous to humans are to be controlled which may include putting the
creature down should it maim or kill someone (Genesis 9:5; Exodus
21:28-32).
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