Help! I've Fallen and Can't Get Up!
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
One of the surest indications that mankind is fallen race is our denial of sinfulness. Our propensity for self-deceit is evidence that we are incapable of pleasing God. Even the best of us, those who are redeemed by the mercies of our Lord and given access into His grace, find ourselves entertaining flitting thoughts that we please God. The Bible is unified in presenting this singular thought that we cannot please God. Our best efforts are, however, utterly self-serving and contaminated with self.
This should not lead us to despair nor to conclude that since we cannot please God we should cease trying to honour Him in all things. Our strength is limited and we are weak, but in Him we enjoy great strength. Our desires are contaminated except when they find their origin in Him. Our efforts are self-serving except when we move at His command. Thus we dare not permit ourselves to slip into the dismal trap of a hedonistic life view. Instead, we must discover the will of the Lord through diligently seeking Him, and then we must draw on His strength to do His will while relying on His grace.
How did this fall into exaltation of self occur? What tragic occurrence lies behind our current condition? The account of mankind’s plunge into sin and the consequent ruin of all creation is recorded in the third chapter of Genesis. Join me in exploring the divine chronicle so that together we may grasp the enormity of our first parent’s sin and the awesome magnitude of the grace of our God.
Dying You Shall Die — In Genesis 2:15-17 we are provided an account of God’s provision for Adam together with the warning which the Lord God had issued to him. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The divine warning is exceptionally pointed. The final clause (you will surely die) could be literally translated into English as dying you die. In other words death as a process would reign over man replacing life which he had known to this point. God gave the strongest possible warning that something heretofore unknown would result from disobedience which would accompany rebellion. Man knew the consequences of rebellion against God, which makes the rebellion all the worse.
What does it mean to be fallen? Theologians speak of man as totally depraved. This does not mean that man cannot be nice. Neither does it mean that man cannot be civil. Given proper incentive societies can and do construct codes of conduct which set boundaries for acceptable behaviour. Even the most degraded of individuals can, at times, demonstrate what appears to be benevolent acts. What does it mean, then, to say that man is fallen and is incapable of pleasing God in his own strength?
When theologians speak of the fall of man, they are describing the situation which led to our condition of total depravity. When speaking of total depravity we enter the realm of the spiritual. Theologians speaking of total depravity are saying that no act performed by any of the descendants of Adam is utterly selfless. This is because that in the Fall our first parents challenged the supremacy of the Lord God, thinking they could replace Him on the throne of life. No individual can live a life which is fully pleasing to God. Even the most gracious of acts, the most careful observance of religious duty, is tainted with elements of self. Thus, no man can please God by human efforts. Were our actions alone affected by sin it would be tragic enough, but the teaching of the Word of God is that even our thoughts are sullied and contaminated by self. Were God to fail to extend grace toward His fallen creature, man could neither know God nor hope to please Him. The reason this is so extends back to the rebellion of Adam and Eve.
When God said man would die the process would of necessity touches every aspects of man’s being. You will remember that when we addressed the manner in which man is created in the image of God we discovered that man is a tripartite being. That is, man possesses a body, but he is a living soul. He is also a spiritual being created to know God and to commune with Him. However, in the Fall of the progenitors of the race death touched every facet of human being. Therefore, our bodies are dying from conception. Through the input of energy we can momentarily overcome the Second Law of Thermodynamics and actually appear to grow. This growth is at the expense of energy, however. Should we cease to drain energy from the universe we physically die, and that is eventually what happens to the whole race.
It is one thing to speak of physical death as the failure to convert energy into matter and the return of the body back to the earth, but what is death? We know that death is fundamentally a separation. The soul is separated from the body and we speak of that separation as death. Man is a living soul. To speak of man’s soul being alive is to know that it is united to the source of all life, which is God. Man, however, as a fallen being is not related to God and his soul is dead since it is separated from God. Should man physically die without ever having his soul united to the Living God, that man is eternally dead. This is the reason the Word of God speaks of those who are lost as being dead in transgressions and sins [cf. Ephesians 2:1-3]. Likewise, the spirit of fallen man is separate from God and thus the spirit is also dead.
Instantly with Adam’s rebellion his spirit was dead to God and the spirit of every member of the race since that time has been born dead in transgressions and sins. The soul is dead to God and the body is born under sentence of death. Dying, we die. Our alienation from God is total. Our fallen condition has plunged us into a state from which we cannot find our way back into the presence of God except we should be aided by His Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of Romans 3:10-12. As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
Consider what this singular passage is telling us. Three terms stand out in these verses: righteousness; understanding; seeking. Though we perhaps challenge these verses by stating that we know people who are not as bad as they can be we must also confess that no one is as good as they ought to be. When we think about mankind we know that from the standpoint of God man is not righteous. The death of the spirit has ensured that we shall never be sufficiently good, never be adequately holy, to compare ourselves to God. Sin has taken from us this innocence as we saw in an earlier study.
Likewise our intellect is affected by our fallen condition. Though we have understanding in some areas and though collectively we have great understanding as demonstrated by the advance of technology, we nevertheless fail to understand the will of God. This is the meaning of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:14. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. Of our former condition when we were without Christ in the world, Paul reminds us: you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more [Ephesians 4:17b-19].
Lastly, the Romans text informs us that our will is affected adversely. We do not seek after God. The meaning is not only that we are incapable of coming to God because of our sin and His righteousness and not only are we incapable of understanding Him because His way can only be discerned by the aid of His Holy Spirit, but we don’t even want to approach God! Most people do seek a god! However they seek a god of their own making and not the Lord God their Creator. Most people recognise a spiritual vacuum in their lives and seek to fill that void with something. This is Jesus’ meaning in John 6:44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
David recognised his dreadful condition when he was threatened with loss of intimacy with God and he wrote this pathetic admission.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
[Psalm 51:5]
The tragedy of this admission is that this describes the condition of each of us born into the race since the fall of our first parents. We are born in sin … dying we die. What is worse, we continue to wither and die, for just as a muscle unstimulated shrivels and withers, so the dead soul and spirit of man shrivels and withers the longer he is estranged from God. Consequently we grow progressively distant from God and increasingly we become less likely to experience the new birth necessary for life.
Adam joined his wife in rebellion by eating of the fruit which God commanded man to avoid eating. Consequently, not only were Adam and Eve judged with a sentence of death, but also their progeny for all time was likewise condemned. We are born under what the theologians speak of as original sin. Death of the body is the result of original sin. All are born under sentence of death and it cannot be avoided. Added to the sin of our first parents, however, is the sin which each of us embraces as we grow ever further from God. We are by birth and by choice rebels without hope and without God in the world [Ephesians 2:12].
Body, soul and spirit are dead. Unrighteous, without understanding and burdened with a will which leads us away from God, we are utterly incapable of pleasing God. Whatever else may be true, if the Word of God is correct the Fall contaminated man so adversely that there is no possibility that in his own strength he can ever reverse the sentence of death under which he is born and with which he lives day-by-day.
Fact or Fiction? — This situation under which each of us lives and moves and has our being is virtually unbearable. Without question, if the Fall is a reality the impact is severe. However, what if those who reject the veracity of the Word of God are correct? What if there never was a Fall and we are in fact basically good people? What if, as some theologians claim, we have the spark of goodness within and need but discover how we may please God in our own strength? What if we can do something to please God? All such questions are ultimately challenging the divine account and questioning whether the Fall is a fact, or whether it is fiction? Is the account before us history or fable? When we speak of sin against the Creator have we entered the realm of myth and legend, or is there evidence of the first sin?
The evidence of the Fall of man is several-fold. If there were no Fall there would be no sin in the world. If sin does not exist, why do people feel guilty? What is there that man should feel guilty about? Psychologists and other analysts earn quite a handsome income from the guilt of people. Industries have arisen surrounding the sense of collective guilt various societies feel. Germans are made to fell guilty for the crimes of their parents and grandparents. Males are made to feel guilty for the failure of women to live up to their potential. Whites are made to feel guilty for the slavery of blacks in the southern United States over one hundred years ago. Whites are made to feel guilty for the failure of Canada to welcome Chinese, Japanese and Indians during the early decades of the Twentieth Century. Entire governmental departments exist to support these guilt industries. Meat eaters are made to feel guilty for the extinction of various animal species. Those who use modern discoveries are made to feel guilty for the destruction of the environment. Psychoanalysts are the beneficiaries of this guilt. Underlying all our guilt is a sense of failure to please God.
Of course sinners know there is a God and when they dare permit themselves to think, they know they are guilty before God. They haven’t been righteous. Most Canadians will attest that they do the best they can, but they know they aren’t righteous. Though most of our fellow citizens will say that they want to please God, they will quickly confess that they don’t know what God wants. Beyond a vague knowledge that they shouldn’t steal or kill or lie, they are uncertain what would please God. If all this weren’t sufficient to condemn us, the fact that we avoid seeking God seals our guilt. We neither read His Word nor pray nor seek to learn of Him from His preachers.
The knowledge of our estrangement from God, in essence, our guilt, is evidence that we are fallen. However, even more powerful evidence may be gathered from the death of all living creatures. As a scientists I am hard pressed to account for death. The cell is an amazing creation and even the simplest life forms are so much more complex than human minds could possibly conceive. There are multiplied repair mechanisms which are so designed as to avoid collapse of cell integrity, and yet cells die. Of course, if I speak of the death of cells I am ultimately speaking of the death of all creatures.
Scientists have discovered that human cells reproduce approximately fifty times and then they cease dividing. Dr. Leonard Hayflick was the first to describe this phenomenon, and hence the term hayflick number entered the scientific vocabulary. Your body contains no cell which is more than fifty generations removed from the point when it was segregated into whatever differentiated cell form your genetic code determined it should assume. We know that the hayflick number is somehow associated with shortened telomeres. What we do not know is why the cells divide to a particular point and then suddenly cease all division. In other words, why doesn’t life continue? Within the cell there are multiplied repair enzymes which should ensure continued division, and yet there is a limit to life. Why does growth cease? Why does life end?
Though I cannot scientifically account for the presence of death, I nevertheless know theologically why death exists. Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come [Romans 5:12-14]. Death came by sin. Death is the result of sin. Without sin there would be no death. The fact that the statistics on death are one out of one is powerful evidence that man is a fallen creature. Though we marvel before the complexity of the cell and wonder how we can account for death, death reigned from the time of Adam … even over those who did not sin.
Physical death is but one more compelling argument that we are fallen. If we die physically, then we must acknowledge that we are dead spiritually. From the safety of life in Christ the Christian is able to look back and see the peril of their previous condition. We read the words of Paul in the Ephesian encyclical and shudder at the peril. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath [Ephesians 2:1-3].
If we are estranged from God who is life, then we must have once occupied a position of intimacy. Otherwise, why would God pursue us? The presence of grace is a third powerful argument for the reality of the Fall. If there were no Fall why should God pursue us? Why wouldn’t He rather surrender us to destruction instead of sending His Son to die in our place? Why wouldn’t God turn His back on the race instead of calling men to the service of preaching the Good News? If there were no Fall, wouldn’t it seem more reasonable that we should be able to find God through our own efforts instead of relying on His grace? Though the majority of mankind does indeed seek God through their own efforts, their efforts are always insufficient and require constant multiplication. Yet God in patience calls fallen man to life in Him.
The presence of the Church in a hostile world is evidence of man’s Fall. Surely there can be no accounting for this divine presence if man has no need. The utter rejection of man’s every effort and the gracious offer of mercy testifies to every thinking individual that man has fallen and without the gracious intervention of Holy God there is no possibility of life. Those who reject God’s account of the manner in which we arrived at our current state must somehow account for the universal guilt which all mankind experiences. They must account for death in the face of growing volumes of information arguing that we should never die. They must account for the preaching of grace in a world which rejects grace even as it perishes for want of that same precious commodity.
Implications for Christians — There are serious implications which flow from the knowledge that man is a fallen creature. We who claim to know the Creator and who testify that we have grappled with the knowledge of our frailty bear awesome responsibility before all mankind and before heaven itself to act on the knowledge we hold. We are responsible to our fellowman to warn of the damning condition in which they are trapped and to provide a way of escape for those who will heed our warning. We are responsible before God to honestly speak the truth in love, representing Him before a hostile and dying world.
If man is fallen he hasn’t sufficient strength to correct his condition. This is the first great implication of this knowledge. If man is fallen, it is because he rebelled against the Creator. Those awesome words with which the Lord God warned Adam bear on this truth: dying you shall die. Man is born weak and weakens even as time passes. With every passing day each individual nears the time of accounting before Almighty God. What a tragic condition afflicts each one! Our condition is powerfully described in Romans 5:6, 8. At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
One of my great fears for the church in this day is that we have become so polite that we no longer care for the condition of our fellowman. Our failure to warn others of their fate is in essence a statement that we no longer care. Instead of Ichabod written across the doors of our churches we could just as well write I don’t give a damn! Frankly, it matters little what I say about my faith, if I haven’t shared it with another during the week past I am no better than an atheist. I have shut my eyes to reality and silently condemned friends, family and colleagues to eternal death.
You can have Yoga classes in your church, pleasant teas and exercise classes and never warn one soul of death. Most of us here will say “Amen” to such sentiments. However, you need to listen carefully to what I am saying. By that same criterion you can have multiplied prayer meetings, study the Bible ever so diligently and sing the hymns of Zion as loudly as you wish without ever showing sufficient concern to warn the neighbours of the peril in which they even now stand. At the last our neighbours will not testify before the judgement seat of Christ that we prayed or that we studied the Word of sang lively choruses. They will, I fear, testify that we never once warned them of imminent death. They will, will considerable justification, testify that we failed to warn them to flee the wrath of God. They will, with every right, testify that we did not speak to them of their lostness. In that day it will not matter that we were polite whenever we met them or that we were willing to speak to them if only they had inquired. What will matter is that we did not care enough to confront them in their sin.
Can we really ignore the implications of the Word of the Lord through Ezekiel? The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself” [Ezekiel 33:1-9].
Dear people, if we know that we are fallen and if we know that man cannot raise himself from the dust of death, then we are responsible to warn our fellowman. Perhaps we need to hear and heed the words of the wise man found in Proverbs 24:11,12.
Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?
If man is fallen he needs a redeemer. To present a warning without providing a means of rescue is cruel. Christians are not cruel people, but instead we are compassionate. Our compassion flows from the knowledge that we have received mercy and we therefore are compelled to warn others of the peril in which they stand. Simultaneously we present a Redeemer. Our first parents sinned, plunging the race into death and ruin. When the Creator had addressed their sin by pronouncing sentence on them, He then addressed their fallen condition by providing atonement.
God saw the nakedness of our parents and He witnessed their pathetic attempt to cover their nakedness and He took pity on them. The words which we read after sentence is pronounced are far more meaningful than a casual reading can possibly reveal to us. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them [Genesis 3:21]. Animals were slain, blood was shed, and Adam’s nakedness and that of his wife was covered. To this point no living creature had ever died. There was no death for there was no sin, but now sin entered the world and death results. The first death of animals was instructive, for those animals provided atonement for the fallen couple.
From earliest days the blood of animals was necessary to make atonement for the sins of the people, just as is taught in Hebrews 2:17. The blood of bulls and goats pointed forward to God’s atonement, however, for the Lord God even in the face of rebellion in the Garden of Eden was preparing a sacrifice which would be offered once for all.
How powerful are the words of Paul in Romans 3:21-26! A righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Christ the Lord is that atonement which covers our sin forever. Hear again the startling argument of Hebrews 2:14-18. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
This is the Redeemer we offer a dying world. It is our responsibility, armed with this knowledge to present Christ that some may be saved. Fallen man does need a Redeemer … One who will rescue him. God the provided that Redeemer in the person of His Son, Jesus our Lord.
If man is fallen he can be restored. This is the most wonderful truth which flows from the knowledge that man is fallen. If man has fallen, he can be restored. Man may again enjoy intimacy with the Creator. Though man cannot be innocent, he can be forgiven. Though man cannot be free of the past, he can be free of condemnation. Listen carefully to this glorious news. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit [Romans 8:1-4].
If you share our service this evening and you know nothing of this freedom, you are unaware of this forgiveness, the message of life is that you need not be condemned. The effects of the Fall need no longer contaminate you eternally. You can now be alive in Christ and alive to God by being born again into the Family of God. That spiritual birth is accomplished by the Spirit of God as you believe in the truth that Christ the Lord died because of your sin, took your punishment upon Himself, raised from the dead to declare you justified before the Living God and to give you life. All this is given you in Him as you believe this message of life.
This is the message presented throughout the Word of God and especially in Romans 10:9-13. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
If you share the service this evening and you know the freedom which is found in Christ the Lord, determine that by God’s grace you will share that freedom with some special someone even this evening. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Write a letter to that special friend or family member who is under sentence of death. Tell them of your concern. Warn them of the consequence of ignoring their peril. Tell them of the love of God in Christ the Lord and urge them to believe this message which you present. Better yet, phone that special loved one and tell him or her tonight of your loving concern. If the opportunity is available, go to their home even this evening and ask if you may speak with them. Whatever you do, don’t permit yourself to ignore the responsibility your knowledge confers on you. Rescue someone tonight. Amen.