The Fall- Revisited

Taking a brief detour from the planned entry, I want to address something discussed in sunday school. Disclaimer: long entry.
During sunday school this week we talked about Gen 3. The main point that the teacher was making was that God wants the best for us and satan wants us to think that God is withholding something good from us. Which I completely agree. My post about the Fall can be found here.

There was a question raised in the class which I tried to answer but was very unclear in my attempt as vinci would point out =P. so to make ammends I am posting hopefully a more clear response to the question (just for you vinci).

The question was: In Gen 2:17 it says, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", however Adam and Eve did not die "on that day" in fact Adam died in Gen 5:5 having lived 930 years. Did God make a mistake or lied? Isn't the serpent more truthful then in saying "you surely would not die" in Gen 3:4?

I am gonna give three answers here. One is what people usually give "spiritual death", one is what I found on the internet, and lastly one that I tried to give in class. Here the problem is in Gen 2:17. "on that day... you will surely die."

First attempt is to say that the "die" in this warning given by God is refering to spiritual death. which I believe is true but not complete. Looking at the Hebrew, it seems to suggest an emphatic physical death. Here is what Garry Brantley, a Bible scholar says:
The usage of the phrase “you shall surely die” (mot tamut) indicates that a violent, physical death is under consideration. This grammatical construction juxtaposes an infinitive absolute (mot), and the imperfect verb (tamut), which provides the emphatic nuance you will “surely, or indeed” die (Lambdin, 1971, p. 158). While it is true that the word “die” can refer to natural causes or to violent death (Smick, 1980, 1:496), the manner in which the verb is used in this phrase indicates the latter. In fact, this grammatical construction appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, and commonly denotes a physical, violent death (1995, 15:23).

This lead us to the second response, "on that day" is not really on that day. That is to say that the phrase "on that day" is speaking more about certainty of death rather than the immediacy of death. There seems to be examples of this in OT where the phrase "on that day" is speaking more of a certainty of outcome than speaking about the chronology of outcome (cf. 1 Kings 2:37) More from here. Also, there is some leniency in the Hebrew about the phrase "on that day", other occurance of this Hebrew word in the OT sometimes is interpreted as "when" or not a literal day. This is addressed on this website.

Now to my answer. Disclaimer: I am not sure I am right, but I want to show my line of reason. One of the teacher threw out the challenge for us to make sense of it without other books of the Bible and without knowledge of Hebrew. This is basically saying if you only had the book of Genesis can you reconcile the problem you see in Gen 2 and Gen 3. Furthermore, from what I believe about the clarity of Scripture, which I think means that Scripture was written so that everyone can understand, not just scholars or clergy, I believe that we can make sense of Gen 2 and Gen 3.

Here is my line of thought. This is a "difficult" text. We don't use difficult text to establish theology but use clear text to establish what we know about God and to use that to make clear the difficult texts. The difficulty in Genesis 2:17 was already pointed out. Did Adam DIE on THAT DAY which he took the fruit? The underlying accusation is that God made an empty threat, or was wrong in His warning. We know that God does not lie nor can He lie. We also know that what He proclaim will come to pass. So I will approach this text knowing that No. God did not make a mistake in Gen 2:17.

How then can I back up my assertions? Context. First, let's deal with death. Is this narrative about death or is the focus on taking the fruit and rebellion? Just by doing a quick word search you can see that tree and fruit was mentioned much more than death and references of death. The issue here is rebellion. Moreover, death, that is physical death, is not the issue. If we are hung up on physical death then we miss the point. If death was really THE problem, then the answer would have been found in the tree of life Gen 3:22 and the warning of God in Gen 2:17 would be void.

The problem, then, is not what is said in Gen 2:17 but our understanding of death. One of the people in the class asked if Adam and Eve knew what death was? How can the warning have any weight if Adam didn't even know what death was? They have not seen death or anything close to death how then can they know? I will venture an answer here. We should not view death here as a thing on its own but as an absence of a thing, namely life or being. Death is the absence of life. Surely, Adam knew what that means, Eve was not there, and then Eve was there. Eve was not being, and then Eve was a being. As Gen 3:19 puts it "For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" Adam knew what it means to die, it is the absence of life, the end of being, returning to dust. Now, if we take that idea of opposites, we can see death in a different light. If life to Adam was life in the Garden: dominion over every creature, perfect communion with God and access to every good thing, then death in a lesser extent is the absence of these things, the end of life in the Garden. These things you can see play out at the end of Gen 3.

How about the phrase "on that day"? I believe it is both speaking of the immediacy and the certainty of death. Immediacy in the lesser sense of death and certainty in the full sense of death, the end of physical life. Why do I say that? We should examine the happenings on the day of the Fall. God curses those who are held accountable and the expell them from the Garden. We must understand Gen 2:17 in light of Gen 3. It can be deduced that, "You will surely die" encompasses the corruption of man and of nature and the separation between man and God and it indeed happen on that day. The effect of the rebellion is immediate. Adam was removed from life as he knew it. The death mentioned also encompasses physical death (cf. Gen 3:19, 5:5). In dealing with physical death the phrase "on that day" emphasizes the certainty of death in full.

With that said, physical death is not the focus of the passage. The themes of rebellion, corruption and separation are the focal point. This separation some might call spiritual death. Here are some closing thoughts: God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Someone in the class said that Gen 2:17 really talks about death physically. Granted that is true, I agree. But that is not the main issue! God's warning is not just that you will cease to exist, but that Adam will exist separated from Him, the source of Life. Adam in the Garden was in the presence of Life; then surely separation from God is separation from Life, that is absence of Life and that is death.

We humans are concerned about physical death and rightly so, who wants to die really? We are given a will to live, you can see it in a dying patient, gasping for air in the last moments of his life. But God is not so much concern about it. Like I said God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Adam MUST die or else God's word would have be void. The solution is not in the tree of life. Then solution is in Gen 3:15, the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Note that Jesus defeated death, yet we still die physically, even though we are Christians. Once again God is not concern about our physical death but more so about our standing before Him. Are we in the presence of Life or are we in the absence? When we read Gen 2 and 3, I hope we don't just come out saying because of sin therefore we die, which is true, but rather be convinced of our separation from God, and our need for Jesus. Lastly, with this understanding of life and death, we should not fear death, because in death, we truly know life, that is we are brought into the presence of God, the true essence of Life.

Sin - The Wrath of God

I have been slowly going to the issue of sin and we we wrap it up with a topic that is probably the least talked about in church, the wrath of God and hell.
Just to sum up what we have talked about so far. Sin is the breaking of God's law in any capacity, and it is faithlessness. Because of Adam and his sin everything is corrupted by sin. As a result, everyone after Adam was sinful even from conception. More than that, everyone is totally sinful, in that all that we do and think and desire are corrupted by sin and sinful without God's help. What's worse is that without God's grace we can't even turn to God nor do we want to in our flesh.

What is hell? It's probably a place with fire, as the Bible describes it but it's much more than that. Hell is the complete, total, just sentencing for our sins.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-9
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power

Here we see that God is just in sending people to hell which is a place of everlasting destruction and removal from the presence of God. To some, removal from the presence of God seems good, so we got to be careful in the way we understand it. For sinners, there is nothing more pleasing than to know that God is absent, the removal of God is their "heaven". Hell is not simply the absence of God, but it is the fullness of God in respect to His wrath and the absence of God in respect to His grace. What we do know is that hell is a place of eternal torture. Jesus said that it is better for us to lose part of our body than be in hell (Mt 5:29-30). It is probably the most painful and torturous thing you can imagine times a gazillion times. The worst part is we fully deserve every moment of it in eternity. The Bible says that we are all objects of wrath (Eph 2:3).

This is hard to swallow in light of everything that had been discussed about sin. In light of God's holiness and justice, everyone who sins is deserving of hell. All who breaks God's law sins and all who are faithless sins, therefore all non-Christians are deserving of hell, no matter how "good" they seem. Furthermore, EVERYONE deserves hell because of the Fall. What is worst is that because of Original Sin, babies or even those who are in the womb deserves hell. Because of total depravity, we deserves the totality of hell because we are totally sinful. Lastly, because of total inability, we can't save ourselves from hell, furthermore, we don't even want to save ourselves because in our flesh we love sin. How great is our need for Jesus, our savior, who imparts His own righteousness to us and enables us to be right with God.

The fact of the matter is that it is not out of God's character to have a hell or send us to hell, rather it is totally in His character. It does not take away from His love or His grace, instead it magnifies His righteousness and His holiness.

In conclusion, the reality of the wrath of God should lead us to repentance. Furthermore, it should give us a urgency for the advancement of the Gospel. The wrath of of God should lead us to a holy fear of God and finally, the reality of hell should lead us to a immense appreciation of Jesus and the cross. As Christians we must recognize in full and meditate upon the holiness of God, our own sinfulness, and consequently, our deserved wrath, which has been taken away through Jesus. Without it, we minimize the cross and we make little the work of Christ.

Total Depravity

Now that we have established that everyone is sinful at birth, the next question is how sinful are people? Are people totally sinful, partially sinful or just slightly sinful?

Paul gives us a little insight Rm 7:18 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." Nothing good lives within the flesh. Every person has flesh, or as NIV puts it, a sin nature. We are born in this flesh, and in this flesh there is nothing good. The answer the the previous question is: All people are born in flesh (cf. John 3:6) and the flesh is totally sinful, nothing good is in it, therefore all people are totally sinful, not partially, not slightly, completely and totally sinful. Some people call this Total Depravity. Type in total depravity in google and you'll get lots of articles that will explain this better than I can but I will write down what I understand of it.

The way I see it is that there are basically two main points. Point one: everyone is corrupted by sin and are totally sinful. Point two: no one has to ability within themselves to please God, to submit to God, to delight in God, or in any way do anything that merits righteousness in God's eye.

What does it mean to be totally depraved? Once again I think this term is kind of weird because you can get the wrong impression by just looking at the term mainly because of the word total. Here total doesn't mean that the person is as bad as he/she can be but means that everything that person does is sinful; every aspect of the person is totally corrupted by sin, the effects of sin is extensive. Everything that we do apart from the grace of God is affected by sin and is sin.

Point two from above says that no one is able to turn to God by their own will, some people call this Total Inability.
Rm 8:7
"because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,"
Here it says that the fleshly mind is hostile to God and it is unable to submit to the law of God. Because of the corruption of sin no one is able to submit to God apart from the help of God.

I will just draw a couple of conclusions to close off.
1. Total depravity should lead us to realize the dire state that we are in
2. It should lead us to appreciate the grace of God, that not only saved us from our sins and gave us a righteousness but also caused us to turn to Him and enabled us to submit to Him
3. It should lead us to forgive others. We are all in the same boat without God. We are all totally sinful.
4. Furthermore, it should free us from religiosity and pride, knowing that apart from God all that we do is sin even the "righteous" acts. We should know that it is God who actually does the good work.
5. It should lead us to full reliance on God, because there is nothing good in us, it is by, through, and to Him that we can do good.

Phil 2:12-13
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Jn 3:21
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

Original Sin

Let's continue to look at the issue of sin. Last time we looked at the Fall and we'll continue to look into the effects of Adam's sin.
Rm 5:19
"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous"

It is clear that because of Adam's sin all were made sinners. All of mankind are in the state of sin because of the Fall, this is what some people will call Original Sin. I think it's a weird term because it's not really talking about the first sin but talking about sinfulness that is credited to everyone because of the first sin, weird term but next time you hear it you'll know what people are talking about.

So the next question is how bad is this original sin. Who are affected by it and when are they affected by it? To answer the question who are affected by it, I will point to the popular verse Rm 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". EVERYONE is affected by sin. Everyone is sinful. Other verses that support this: Psalm 143:2, Galatians 3:22, Romans 11:32, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 3:9-12,
1 Jhn 1:8,10.

Next question, when are we sinful? Are we sinful from birth or are we only affected by sin in the sense that our sin nature incline us to sin? The Bible I think is pretty clear that we are sinful from birth.

This verse I think is the most drastic and clear. Ps. 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." The psalmist here says that he was sinful at conception, I think that's very clear that from birth or even before birth we are already sinful. There is no such thing as a blank state or "tabula rasa". I did a verse search and found these other ones: Prov 22:15, Gen 8:21, Ps. 58:3.

So here is the deal because of the Fall everyone is sinful from conception. From Genesis 3:15 we see that because of sin we need a savior. Here we see that everyone is sinful from birth. Everyone need a savior from birth. This is hard to take for some people but the truth is that we are in a pretty bad state ever since birth. There is no such thing as childhood innocence.

For Christians the concept of Original Sin should lead us to praise God for the gift of Jesus Christ the one man that brought righteousness to many. Just as Paul says in Rm 5:12-20. Here is an excerpt Rm 5:15 "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!"
Furthermore, the doctrine Original Sin should give us an urgency to bring to Gospel to everyone, even those who are "young". Jesus welcomed to little children, let us also bring even the little ones to Him.

Sin - The Fall

Today we are going to look at Adam and Eve and their first sin, which will be refer to as The Fall, and it that affects us. The text is found in Genesis 3.

The Attractiveness of Sin
In Genesis 3 God had just finished creating everything and Adam and Eve were created and everything was good. Then came this serpent which I will suppose is the devil (2 Cor. 11:3,14, Rev. 12:9). It approached Eve and spoke with her to deceive her. Eve then respond to the serpent and answers his question. This would eventually lead to The Fall. What does this mean for us? Don't negotiate or even dialogue with the devil, He is more crafty than we are and we are weaker than we think. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).
Secondly, the serpent calls God a liar, "you will not surely die"(v.4). Furthermore, he tells Eve that God is withholding something good from them (v. 5). What we must know is that God's word is always true and it is final, do not even entertain the thought that God's word may be wrong. Moreover, God never withhold something good from us, never. He is the giver of every good gifts (James 1:17).
Thirdly, the woman saw the fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom (v.6), this caused her to take the fruit. This is similar to what John says in 1 Jn. 2:16 "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." When we are tempted we struggle with our flesh, we struggle with our eyes, and we struggle with our pride. When Adam and Eve took the fruit they succumbed to all three.

Where is Adam?
it is interesting to note that the serpent spoke with Eve not Adam although he was with her (v. 6). The serpent was so rebellious to God that he purposefully approach Eve rather than Adam, for God created the woman to be a helper to man. Note that man is not greater than woman because they are both made in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and one image of God cannot be greater than another image of God. However, God did appoint Adam to be in charge. God addresses Adam first after The Fall (v.9). The man is the first one to be held accountable. What is sad in this passage is that Adam did nothing to stop Eve from taking the fruit. This is very common in today's culture that the men are apathetic and does nothing. We men are just like our father Adam, we sin by omission. It is plain, in church men should take the lead (not that women shouldn't be leaders eg. Lydia), in marriage men should be the head. It is not a matter of equality, it is a matter of God's appointment, to do otherwise is rebellion, the devil approached Eve and flipped God's chain of power upside down.

Personal Effects of Sin
Sin separates. It separates one from another. Adam and Eve made coverings for their nakedness. They were made one flesh (Gen 2:24) yet because of sin they separated themselves. Before sin Eve address her and Adam as "we", after sin Adam addresses himself as "I". Sin separates one from God. They hid themselves from God and they no longer has unhindered communion with God and finally God removed them from the garden.
Sin brings shame. They were not ashamed (Gen 2:25) but once sin entered they were ashamed of their nakedness. Sin causes fear. Adam was afraid when God called him. Sin dulls the mind. Adam and Eve became stupider after sin. They thought they can hide from God, Adam thought he can blame God for his sin (v.12), how stupid. Sin not only separates but causes animosity. Adam blames God and the woman. Eve blames the serpent, but there is no one to blame all were punished.

Effects of The Fall
1. Because of The Fall, sin and death entered the world (Rm 5:12).
2. Because of The Fall, all men are totally corrupted by sin and are condemned (Rm 5:19, see Rm 5:12-21) We will look at the total corruption of man next blog.
3. Because of The Fall, man needs a saviour (v. 15). God pronounced the first gospel message in which He promised that the Seed of Eve will crush the head of the serpent, Satan. It is important to note that it is the Seed of Eve and not the seed of Adam. Jesus was born as the Son of God through the womb of Mary. Jesus was not the son of a man, thus not a seed of Adam, but of Eve. This just shows the sovereignty and omniscience of God!
4. Because of The Fall, the world became painful (v. 16-17). The woman now have to endure birth pains and the man has to toil.
5. Because of The Fall, the whole earth was cursed (v17-19).

The effects of the sin incurred at The Fall is extensive and pervasive. The Fall is the only reasonable answer to questions like "Why is there evil in this world", "Why does natural disasters and pestilence happen?", "Why are there stillborn and deformed babies?" etc. etc. They are all the results of sin's corruption which entered the world through The Fall.

The Grace of God
As we close this brief study on The Fall it is important to notice the grace of God and the provision of God to Adam and Eve. In response to man's rebellion, God cursed the devil and promised a saviour (v.15), He provided clothing for them (V.21), and He kept them from living in sin forever (v.22). God is wonderful, even when we are rebellious against Him (Rm 5:8-10). He still gives us Jesus, our savior and only hope. Even when we are sinners, He provides for us the breath that we take, the food that we eat, the clothes that we have. Lastly, even when we are defiled in our sins, He still desire to be with us, to clothe us with the righteousness of Christ and spend eternity with us. From Genesis to Revelations, God had pursued mankind and still pursues us today through the finished work of the cross.

In light of The Fall and its effects (pain, sickness, injustice, disasters and the full array of the corruptive work of sin) let us be reminded of the abundance grace and providence of God.

Sin - Intro and Definition

In the next few posts we are going to look into the issue of sin and the sinfulness of man as a contrast to the holiness of God.

First of all what is sin?
1. Sin is breaking the moral law of God, lawlessness in our actions, thoughts, attitudes, and nature.
1 john 3:4
"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness."
Sin can be actions, stealing, lying, murder (Ex 20). Sin can be thoughts, the desire to sin, premeditated sin, lust (Mt 5:28). Sin can be attitudes, hatred, jealousy, selfishness (Gal5:20). Sin is in our nature (Eph 2:3), this last point will be our focus in the next few posts.
Anything that we do, think, will, pursue that breaks the moral law of God is sin.

2. Sin is faithlessness.
Rm 14:23b
"... everything that does not come from faith is sin"
Heb 11:6a
"And without faith it is impossible to please God"

With these two working definitions of sin let's look at what they imply and how that match up to our view of sin today
What do these two definitions imply?

1. Sin is pervasive, coming from our nature, affecting all areas of our lives.
We were objects of wrath by nature and by that very nature we are corrupted by sin and sin through our thoughts and actions. We cannot escape sin apart from the grace of God (Rm 6:17-18)

2. Sin is primarily an offense towards God not man.
Sin is the breaking of GOD's law and it is faithlessness towards GOD. Sin offend God first and foremost. The first four commandments in the 10 Commandments are towards God (Ex. 20). Since God is holy, every sin is appalling and offensive to Him. Sin is a serious matter.

3. Everything that a non-Christian does is sin no matter how "good" it is.
Non-Christians does not have faith in God. Therefore no matter what he or she does it is sin. No matter how nice/philanthropic/loving/kind/giving etc. etc. he or she is, whatever the non-christian does is sin. Likewise, whatever the christian does without faith is sin. Anything that does not come from a reliance on God so that God may be glorified is sin. Apart from faith our "good deeds" are just for the praise of men and our own glory no matter how humble we seem.

What do these implications mean to us as Christians?
1 We must recognize the pervasiveness of sin in our lives and be on guard. If the Spirit is at work in us we should be more aware of and more disgusted by our sins (Gal 5:16-17).
2. We must take serious the issue of sin because it is not only men that we sin against but God. This applies especially with private sins. Private sins are sins that people don't know about and we keep doing them because we don't "get caught". How foolish for us to think that God does not see. We should fear the judgment of God far more than the judgment of men.
3. Live by faith and for the glory of God in all we do. Pursue the lost, no matter how good and righteous they seem, they are in sin and are under the control of sin by nature. Only the blood of Christ can bring salvation.

I hope this intro to sin helps us to have a proper orientation on this topic as we go deeper in the next few posts.