The Fall (4)

God did not spread a snare

Thus, it is evident that:

(1) sin was committed voluntarily;

(2) the punishment was not too severe but in proportion to the evil;

(3) the ground for imputing Adam’s sin to his posterity lay in the fact that Adam was the head of the Covenant of Works.

Now we must answer the question: Why did God plant the tree in the garden and allow the devil to use the subtle serpent to tempt Adam and Eve? Without God’s permission Satan could not have used the serpent. Has God thus laid a snare for man, and then is not God the cause of man’s Fall?

The answer to this question must be an unflinching, no. On the contrary, it was necessary that this tree be there, that the probationary command be given so that there would be a way whereby man could demonstrate his superiority above the lifeless and irrational creatures and bring it to full development. The entire Creation followed the way ordained by God, but it did so unconsciously. How could it be proved that man served his Creator consciously and with a free will and in that respect was superior to the irrational and inanimate creation, and how would man ever be able to develop the glory of his creation after the image of God, unless he were placed before a choice of serving God or not serving Him? Adam faced this choice in the probationary command and in Satan’s temptation. Obedience to God would have made him triumph eternally, as disobedience became his fall to death.

Indeed, as Julian said, the sin of Adam did not penetrate to his descendants by a narrow crack, since the child does not sin that is born, nor the parents that begot it, nor God who is that Maker. Julian was a follower of Pelagius and thus concluded that there was no crack left by which sin could enter. Augustine answered correctly, “Why does he seek a hidden crack when he has an open door? Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. What does he want wider? What does he seek more open?”

The disastrous Fall

The one sin of breaking the covenant was such a terrible act that it is the mother of all transgression. Although God glorified Himself in His justice and mercy through the depth of the Fall, yet the Fall is far from blessed; it is, rather, disastrous. It is not right for us to speak of the “blessed fall.” The Fall is destructive because in this fall God’s honor was grievously violated; man had torn himself loose from God his Creator; the threefold death was brought upon Adam and his posterity, and the curse was brought upon the earth.

Who could ever speak of a blessed fall if he had ever seen what sin really is and what the consequences of sin are? What? Shall we call sin blessed? It is the opposite! The fall of Adam was a disaster for Adam and all his posterity.

In the Fall the Covenant of Works is broken in its power to give life. The law has become weak through the flesh (Romans 8:3). However, the covenant is not broken in its power to demand perfect obedience, nor in the punishment expressed. In these respects, the covenant cannot be broken.

Thus, sin in the first place makes man guilty before God’s righteousness, and in the second place the Fall has entirely corrupted man.

Guilt and pollution

Sin is both guilt and pollution. Guilt is liability to punishment for Adam’s sin; pollution is the corruption which is extended over the whole man, (See Hellenbroek’s Catechism, page 42). Pollution flows from guilt. It is the result of the imputation of sin. It is the spiritual death also threatened by God. As in the Fall the imputation precedes pollution, so also in the restoration in grace, justification precedes sanctification. Another order is impossible. God the Holy Spirit cannot renew a sinner’s heart unless reconciliation is first made by satisfying the justice of God. This order refers to what took place in the Fall. There the guilt preceded the pollution. Therefore, it is not as Prof. Doedes teaches, that the pollution comes first and results in man being guilty. On the contrary, the guilt comes first, and the pollution of sin follows from the judicial imputation of Adam’s fall. There would be no pollution if the sin of Adam were not imputed to his posterity. On the ground of imputed guilt, Adam fell under the judgment of death; he lost the image of God, and God’s image is withheld from every child that is born.

It is necessary to emphasize that pollution results from the imputation by the justice of God so that the Pelagian cannot catch us in their diligent search for the manner in which pollution is propagated, in order to contend against original sin itself. From the imputation of Adam’s sin, it follows that children are polluted already in their mother’s womb. (See Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 15; Canons of Dort, Chapter 3 and 4, Article 1,3&4.) These texts speak of the pollution of sin: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4); “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

By the imputation of original sin, man came into such a state that he can do nothing but sin. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23).

He is as one cast out in the open field. His father was an Amorite, and his mother a Hittite (Ezekiel 16:45). Sin is not committed by imitation, as Pelagius says, but by imputation and therefore by inheritance.

When did man fall?

We are not told when this Fall took place. In any case Adam was more than one day in the state of rectitude. On the seventh day the Lord rejoiced in His works, so on that day the Fall did not take place. Eve also was created in the state of rectitude, but how long the first couple lived in Paradise Scripture does not tell us. In that matter there are only human speculations. Rather than make all kinds of guesses about the time, we should be concerned about the misery in which we in and with Adam are fallen, and we should seek our redemption in Christ.

(This installment marks the end of this series.)

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