God-Ordained Vulnerability as “Good”
Understanding Adam’s Sin, Human Vulnerability, and Original Sin • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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When it comes to the various Christian doctrines the Doctrine of Man and the doctrine of sin are probably the lest explanatory of them all.
There are just so many mysteries and questions.
Questions like:
Why did Adam, a man who had no sinful nature or tendencies - who had no internal sinful desires at all - why did he sin?
How exactly did Adam’s actions thousands of years ago impact the whole of mankind including you and me today?
What exactly is this thing we call a “Sinful Nature” - knowing that this phrase does not appear anywhere in the bible?
How does this connect to children and infants? If a child passes away what happens to them?
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The most interesting part of my investigation is that none of these are new questions.
They are literally thousands of years old.
And the answers or explanations given in History, to me are simply insufficient.
Augustine for example, believed that Adam’s sin did not just bring sin into the human experience but that God would punish every single human being for Adam’s sin.
So to save children he invented “christining” or infant baptism - believing that the waters of baptism would somehow was away Adam;s sin and guilt from a child.
He offers a “solution” but again zero explanation.
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Today I am going to attempt to begin providing, what i hope to be, coherent, biblical and explanatory insight into these doctrines.
Again, i may be totally wrong in these explanations but i do not think i am.
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The Doctrine of Man and the Doctrine of sin both begin with the same person: Adam.
As the first man, the only creature made by God in His own image, the doctrine of man centers around Adam.
As the first sinner and the one through whom sin entered into the word the doctrine of sin also revolves around Adam.
The account of Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 is a foundational narrative for understanding the human condition, the origin of sin, and the nature of human vulnerability.
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This essay explores the relationship between Adam’s disobedience, the knowledge of good and evil, and the resulting corruption.
It also addresses how judicial innocence applies to children and the significance of God-ordained vulnerability in the human experience.
1. God-Ordained Vulnerability as “Good”
1. God-Ordained Vulnerability as “Good”
The doctrine of man is very interesting doctrine and one that is very good.
However none of the systematic s on Adam that i have read deal with, what is essentially, the 2 “versions” of man that have been on this planet.
There are 2 versions of man, 2 versions of Adam in the Genesis account.
We have a Pre-Sin Adam and we have a Post-Sin Adam.
Lets talk about the Pre-Sin Adam first.
When it comes to the Pre-Sin Adam I read so many wonderful and excellent bible teachers who made the same, silly mistake.
What mistake?
When they attempt to describe Adam, the majority of the commentaries that i read all call or describe the Pre-sin Adam as being “Perfect”.
I believe that this is often nothing more than an innocent mischaricteristic, but it muddies the theological waters of understanding terribly.
Nowhere in Genesis or the whole bible does it even suggest that Adam was perfect.
The only perfect being that has ever and will ever exist is God Himself.
30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is refined; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
Perfection means that you posses an attribute that we call Aseity.
What does this mean?
It means that God is completely self existent. That God literally has no needs outside of Himself.
Adam is NOT like this at all.
Adam is not self existent - He is but a creature created by the creator.
Adam is not self sustaining - He needs to eat to stay alive.
Adam is not self sufficient - He needs a companion to share life with.
Adam is not perfect. Only God is perfect.
So what does the text actually say about Adam?
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In the creation narrative, God calls all that He made “very good”
31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
What was God calling Good?
Adam was good.
Adam, with his need to be created was good.
Adam, with his need to sustain his life through food was good.
Adam, with his inability to be alone and thus needing a woman was good.
Here is the bottom line:
God created Adam NOT as a self existent, self sustaining being like Himself.
God created Adam to to be dependent on God for all his needs.
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Lets talk about these needs for a moment.
What is a need?
What do we mean when we say that Adam had God given needs?
There is nothing sinful, shameful or embarrassing about having needs.
God made mankind with needs.
But here is the thing about needs: In a loving relationship needs are simply opportunities to provide.
Thus all of Adam’s needs posed no problem or obstical for him because God would loving supply those needs - a promise that He reminds us of through Jesus Christ:
19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
However in a hateful relationship, like the one Satan has with mankind, these needs can be understood as Vulnerabilities.
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These vulnerabilities were not flaws but reflections of human dependence on God.
The foundation for understanding Adam’s sin lies in recognizing that human dependence on God was part of God’s good design—not a defect to be overcome.
A. Vulnerabilities in Adam’s Original State
A. Vulnerabilities in Adam’s Original State
From the beginning, Adam was created with natural human limitations that reflected his dependence on God:
1: Physical Needs – Adam needed to eat, work, and care for creation.
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.
16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;
2: Emotional Needs – Adam required companionship, leading to the creation of Eve.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
3: Relational Dependence – Adam was designed to live in relationship with both God and others.
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These limitations were not weaknesses but expressions of creaturely dependence.
Adam’s life was “good” precisely because it was grounded in trust and reliance on God’s provision.
Adam and Eve accepted their vulnerabilities and embraced their dependence on God and each other.
How do we know this?
25 And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
Adam and Eve nakedness is biblical imagery used to show vulnerability.
To be naked is to be vulnerable.
Adam and Eve felt no shame being naked because they felt no shame being vulnerable before God and each other.
B. Vulnerability as a Reflection of God’s Design
B. Vulnerability as a Reflection of God’s Design
Human vulnerability was part of the creative order and intended to direct Adam toward faithful dependence on God.
The temptation in Genesis 3 offered a distortion of this reality—suggesting that Adam could transcend his created limitations and become self-sufficient like God.
5 For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”
Adam did not sin out of a rebellious sinful heart because Adam did not posses a rebellious sinful heart.
Adam sinned because Satan lies convinced them that their needs, their dependency, their vulnerabilities where bad and had to be removed so that they could be truly free.
Basically Satan convinced Adam and Eve that being naked was weak.
The essence of sin, therefore, involves the rejection of God-ordained vulnerability in favor of a false autonomy—an attempt to be like God by controlling one’s existence independently of Him.
The result of this is that Adam sinned.
But he did not sin out of rebellion, he sinned out of weakness.
