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The Effects of the Fall on Humanity
The fall brought upon humanity an inability not to sin and a corruption of all human actions and capacities along with alienation from God, suffering in this life, death itself, and the pain of hell forever.
The fall had devastating effects upon humanity, enslaving our wills to sin, tainting every action, disordering our capacities, and subjecting us to ignorance as well as to suffering, death, and the threat and fear of eternal judgment.
Original sin is a primary effect of the fall on humanity. While the first sin was a free act of the will, this sin made all human beings slaves to sin. The human will became unable to will the good and to be subservient to God, even as it is entirely willing and voluntary in this slavery and inability. At the heart of the will’s inability is hatred of God and subsequently of other human beings, made in his image.
Through this perversion of the will, all human capacities are also disordered. According to the medieval scholastic theologians, man is wounded in four ways: ignorance, malice (hatred), concupiscence (evil desire), and weakness. Just as hatred of God was mentioned above as an effect of the fall, ignorance, especially of God, is also described in Scripture as an effect of the fall (Eph 4:18). Fallen human beings are subject to blindness and ignorance about themselves, God, and moral and religious truths.
Evil desire and weakness are also results of the fall. While it can seem like we succumb to temptation simply out of weakness, Scripture insists that we succumb to temptation because we desire bad things—and we desire good things in bad ways or at bad times. The sinful human heart is a perpetual factory of desires twisted by the fall. At the same time, weakness is also a result of the fall. In the face of challenges, we give up. In the face of temptations (which come from our own desires), we give in. Weakness of will is a familiar experience, one which we can lament but cannot raise as an excuse. Weakness and desire are all bound up with the disposition of the human heart and will towards sin.1
1 Carini, J. B. (2018). The Effects of the Fall on Humanity. In M. Ward, J. Parks, B. Ellis, & T. Hains (Eds.), Lexham Survey of Theology. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Evil desire and weakness are also results of the fall. While it can seem like we succumb to temptation simply out of weakness, Scripture insists that we succumb to temptation because we desire bad things—and we desire good things in bad ways or at bad times. The sinful human heart is a perpetual factory of desires twisted by the fall. At the same time, weakness is also a result of the fall. In the face of challenges, we give up. In the face of temptations (which come from our own desires), we give in. Weakness of will is a familiar experience, one which we can lament but cannot raise as an excuse. Weakness and desire are all bound up with the disposition of the human heart and will towards sin.
The human being is not only affected in these many ways by sin; humanity is also affected by suffering and misery, the punishments of sin. These sufferings can arise from natural disaster, from life circumstances, from political oppression, from the sin of others, from our own sin, from psychological disorder, from the frustrating “thorns and thistles” now attending all human work (Gen 3:18). The pain we feel in these sufferings is itself a foretaste of death and of eternal punishment. While we do not necessarily experience specific punishments for specific sins, the general human vulnerability to suffering is part of the curses God gave after the fall. As long as humanity is ruled by sin, the world in which humans live will be ruled by death.1
1 Carini, J. B. (2018). The Effects of the Fall on Humanity. In M. Ward, J. Parks, B. Ellis, & T. Hains (Eds.), Lexham Survey of Theology. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.