Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q15 & 16

Introduction

Good evening everyone! Tonight — we’re gonna be making our way through our mini series on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Up to this point, we have preached through the first 14 questions and answers of the catechism and now we are gonna be focusing on questions 15 and 16.

But before we do, I wanted to remind us of the helpfulness of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms that are derived from it.

Though it is true that the Bible is our highest authority on all things and sufficient for all we need for life and godliness — and by sufficient, I mean the Bible contains all the words of God that we need for salvation — for trusting Him perfectly — and for obeying Him fully. Though we believe and submit to this, we also believe that the Westminster Confession of Faith and the catechisms are helpful for us in understanding what and why we believe what we believe from Scripture. They’re helpful because they give us a clear, systematic summary of key biblical doctrines — or beliefs — which help the church to remain theologically consistent.

In a society where cultural norms and beliefs are constantly changing (even in the church), the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms provide each of us with an anchor of biblical truth that drawn from Scripture to help us resist conforming to this world and to prevent false worldviews of the day to leaven the church.

Our denomination and Gateway Church can then be unified in our beliefs as we have them organized by the confession and catechisms. So it helps to reduce any confusion over what we believe about any given theological topic as church.

Okay so that’s the helpfulness of the confession and catechisms.

Back in May — Ed preached on question 14 of the Shorter Catechism, which asks, “What is sin?” And we learned that sin is either disobeying God — a sin of commission — or not conforming to God’s law —a sin of omission — in any way. Tonight we’ll be focusing on the very first sin in history — a sin of commission — starting in the Garden of Eden. So let me read Questions 15 and 16 of the catechism:

Question 15 — By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition? Answer — Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit.

And question 16 — Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first disobedience? Answer — Since the covenant was made not only for Adam but also for his natural descendants, all mankind sinned in him and fell with him in his first disobedience.

Okay — let’s go ahead and read the story starting in Genesis 2:15-17. But before we do — I’d like to look at the framing of question 15 real quick. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition? What was their original condition? If you remember back to when our former elder — Jeremy Sickmiller — covered question 10 of the catechism, we learned that God originally created man in his image—in true knowledge, in righteousness, and in holiness. So if we wanted to expand question 15, we could ask it this way. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition of true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The answer: Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit. Let’s see how this plays out. We’re in Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.”

And if you skip over to Genesis 3 with me — starting in verse 1 — we read:

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

1. The Sin and the Fall

Okay — so Adam — and Eve — fell from their original condition in regards to their true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And they did so by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge and evil.

Now we don’t really know why God decided to create this tree and put it in the midst of the garden and command Adam and Eve not to eat from it — other than to simply test them— that is — to test their faithfulness to him.

But what we do know is that Adam and Eve failed the test. They sinned against God. And this may cause you to go, “ Wait a minute! If Adam and Eve were made in the image of God with true knowledge and righteousness, and holiness, how was it even possible that they were capable of sinning against God in the first place?” It’s a great question— but just because they were created in this state, does not mean that they were created with the inability to fall from it. Their original state was innocence, and they had complete freedom and the natural ability to will and to do what is good and pleasing to God — but God also made them such that they could lose that freedom. Listen to Ecclesiastes 7:29, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” Here’s an analogy, or parable, that I hope will be helpful. Image you have a pure white garment. It’s beautiful, it’s flawless — no snags, no wrinkle or stains —and it fits perfectly. And you’re told to wear this wherever you go — except don’t go into this one room because it’s full of ink, oil, and tar and it will ruin the garment. And let’s pretend you had no idea what ink, or oil, or tar were.

Now suppose you decided for whatever reason you wanted to explore the room. Let’s say someone convinced you that the garment wasn’t capable of getting dirty or damaged, and the ink and oil and tar didn’t really pose a threat to the garment. You walk in the room and explore it for awhile, and you get ink and oil and tar all over your garment. You try to wash it, but the stains won’t come out. You’ve ruined the purity and beauty of the garment.

Adam and Eve are the garment in the parable. Just like the garment’s original state of purity and flawlessness was true and real — and was able to be changed and become filthy, Adam and Eve’s original state of true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness were true, yet were capable of falling from it.

In fact, the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 6 article 1 even adds this, “It pleased God to allow them to sin, because in his wisdom and holiness he planned to order their sin to his own glory. Romans 11:32 says:

Romans 11:32 ESV

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

We’ll hold onto this thought for later. But all of this is to say that by Adam and Eve eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were able to fall from their original condition, for their original condition was not permanent —- it was mutable — or able to change.

And this original condition is what made man’s fellowship with God possible. It was only in their original state that they could walk with God, commune with God, and enjoy him forever. But by this sin — by this eating of the forbidden fruit, they fell from their original condition and lost these privileges. They could no longer be in the presence of God. Genesis 3:23-24 says:

Genesis 3:23–24 ESV

therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

They could not be in God’s presence anymore — He kicked them out and made sure they couldn’t get access to him, for they were no longer in right standing with him because they were impure.

Which lead’s us to our next truth — Not only did they fall from their original condition, they became dead in their sin — as the Westminster Confession of Faith says — “completely polluted in all in all their faculties and parts of body AND soul.” This is what theologians call “total depravity.” One of my favorite theologians — R.C Sproul — said this about Total Depravity,

The idea of total in total depravity doesn’t mean that all human beings are as wicked as they can possibly be. It means that the fall was so serious that it affects the whole person. The fallenness that captures and grips our human nature affects our bodies; that’s why we become ill and die. It affects our minds and our thinking; we still have the capacity to think, but the Bible says the mind has become darkened and weakened. The will of man is no longer in its pristine state of moral power. The will, according to the New Testament, is now in bondage. We are enslaved to the evil impulses and desires of our hearts. The body, the mind, the will, the spirit—indeed, the whole person—have been infected by the power of sin.

This is what is meant when we talk about being “dead in sin.” The minute Adam and Eve ate the fruit, their whole being became corrupted — body, mind, will, and spirit — and in bondage to sin. Which means that on their own — from this point forward, they can do nothing to please God — in fact — they don’t want to please him.

https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/tulip-and-reformed-theology-total-depravity

2. We Fell in Adam

And here’s where we get to the very uncomfortable, yet true reality for the rest of mankind. Question 16 of the catechism asks, “Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first disobedience?” It’s answer? “Since the covenant was made not only for Adam but also for his natural descendants, all mankind sinned in him and fell with him in his first disobedience.”

This is a tough pill to swallow. But unfortunately, it’s something every human — past, present, and future — has to deal with. We sinned in Adam AND we fell with him in his sin. And I know this sounds super unfair —why should we be penalized for the sin of those who came before us? And why did we fall in Adam and not Eve? I mean — Eve is the one who ate first and convinced Adam to eat after her. Shouldn’t we have fallen in her instead?

If I had more time, I’d love to get into the theological weeds of how this all works, but for the sake of time, I’ll have to keep it somewhat brief. The reason that we all inherited our sin nature, often what we call “original sin” from Adam, is because in the beginning when God created Adam, he didn’t just make a man — he made a representative. Adam had a unique role in that he represented not just himself, but all mankind. And this is because God entered into a covenant with Adam — for God — all throughout history — has dealt with his people in terms on covenants. So Adam wasn’t the only one bound by this covenant relationship, it was a covenant established with all God’s image bearers. O. Palmer Robertson has a great book on this called, “The Christ of the Covenants.” I highly recommend you read it.

But he defines a covenant as, “a bond in blood, sovereignly administered.” Meaning, a covenant is a binding relationship that ties God and his people together — and it’s a bond “in blood,” that is — it’s a life and death commitment, which is why we see some sort of sacrifice that needs to be made when the terms are broken. And it’s sovereignly administered — so it’s initiated by God and he alone sets the terms. So God made a covenant with Adam, and his natural descendants — all of mankind — in the garden when he commanded him not to eat the forbidden fruit. If he obeyed, he’d live. If he disobeyed, he’d die.

And since Adam disobeyed, death eventually came upon him — just as the terms of their covenant relationship stated. And since all mankind was included in this covenant with Adam being our representative, all mankind — including you and me — sinned with him and fell in his first disobedience.

And we know this is true when we read passages like Romans 5:12-21 which says,

Romans 5:12–21 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We’ll get to Jesus’ part in just a minute — but what Paul is telling us is that we all died in Adam by his first disobedience. The reason this is possible is from what we know about how God deals with his people through covenants. And this is why David could say in Psalm 51:5,

Psalm 51:5 ESV

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

From the wound — before we could do anything good or evil — we were declared sinners — for guilt of Adam became our own. We — by nature — were dead in sin. So you and I can echo the words of David here. Paul shows us what being dead in sin and enslaved to sin actually looks like practically:

Romans 1:28–32 ESV

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Paul uses other language as well, he says:

Romans 8:7 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

To be dead in sin and in bondage to sin is to have your mind set on the flesh. And when your mind is set on the flesh, it’s hostile to God. And it’s incapable of submitting to God’s law.

3. Imputed Righteousness w/ Conclusion

And guys — this is where all of us stood. BUT — God’s story doesn’t end there.

Paul says that Adam was “a type of the one who was to come.” In other words, there’s another representative — another covenant head — whose obedience would bring life instead of death. A second Adam. A better Adam. And His name is Jesus.

Just as Adam stood for us in the garden and failed, Jesus stood for us at the cross — and he prevailed.

Remember the verse I quoted earlier? Romans 11:32

Romans 11:32 ESV

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says, “It pleased God to allow them to sin, because in his wisdom and holiness he planned to order their sin to his own glory.

Let’s go back to Romans 5:19-21:

Romans 5:19–21 ESV

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is why it pleased God to allow them — Adam and Eve — to sin — and it’s why it pleased God to make Adam our covenant representative. Because where sin increases, his grace abounds all the more.

So yes — we were born into the first covenant under Adam. We were born into guilt — we were born into death — but all those who put their faith in Christ — and I hope all of you have — have been reborn by the Spirit into a new covenant under Christ. That’s the beauty of Romans 5 — where Adam’s sin brought condemnation to all, Christ’s righteousness brings justification to all. Where Adam’s disobedience made us sinners, Christ’s obedience makes us righteous.

And here’s what amazes me every time I think about it — Jesus didn’t just come to mop up Adam’s mess. He came to be what Adam never could. Where Adam brought death from a tree, Jesus brought life through one.

This is the heart of the gospel — that we who were born in sin have been born again, by the gift of God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ — our covenant head — who kept the terms perfectly on our behalf. In Adam, we died. But in Christ — we live. Let’s pray.