1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 6.1 The Fall of Mankind

Table of Contents

The Text

Matthew 4:8-10 (CSB) Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

The Chapter

Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof, yet he did not long abide in this honor; Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given to them, in eating the forbidden fruit, which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory.

The Confession

Although God created man upright and perfect, and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof

Genesis 2:16–17 (CSB) And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

The law of God is the measurement, the standard of the holiness of God. For:

Leviticus 7:1 (CSB) “Now this is the law of the guilt offering; it is especially holy.

Romans 7:12 (CSB) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

What God is and does and says is holy. And this commandment was given to and the law was written on the hearts of Adam and Eve.

Romans 2:14-16 (CSB) So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

From the start, the breaking of the law of God was sin and death was the consequence.

Romans 3:23 (CSB) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

One might read the Bible and think that God is giving the law and then adding stipulations and addendum to the law. But the law of God was set in the beginning and proceeds from the Eternal God.

Let me contend to you that God is giving the consequences of breaking his holy law because those are the consequences. In other words, God didn't make up a law and then randomly assigned a consequence to breaking said law. The breaking of his law is disobedience of the Holy and Eternal God. This is not a random, arbitrary consequence. God was telling us about sin and death from the beginning.

And I must think that in their righteousness, did Adam and Eve have a grasp on the concept of death?

yet he did not long abide in this honor; Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given to them, in eating the forbidden fruit

Genesis 3:12–13 (CSB) The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” So the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The beginning and ending of the complete free will of mankind was right here. Because Adam and Eve were perfectly righteous unto God, they have freely choose to worship and obey God--which they sure did. But they could have freely choose to disobey God and sin against him. And they did.

For some reason, most Christians think that the will of man that Adam and Eve enjoyed in Genesis 1 & 2 was unaffected when sin entered into the world from Genesis 3 until now. Make that make sense to me.

It is clear as day that sin has broken our bodies, our minds, our judgment, our spirits, our emotions, our desires, our work, our relationships and everything else in all of creation but oh, our wills are perfectly sin-free and clean. That is illogical.

The moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, there was no going back. We are created creatures. We do not exist in eternal past and future. We only live in the present. We could not go back and undo the decision we just made. If we could traverse time and space like that, I don't think we would be created creatures. That is the one of things that makes us different from God and not God.

Romans 5:12 (CSB) Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

which God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory

2 Corinthians 11:3 (CSB) But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

We have firmly established that God is the first cause, the source of all good, and not the author of sin despite what his creation does. And yet, because he is all powerful, endless wisdom, and all good, he alone ordains and allows all things to come to past--this includes sin and death starting with Adam's trespass.

Isaiah 45:7 (CSB) I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Isaiah 46:10 (CSB) I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

Whatever and why-ever God did what he did in the beginning is the mystery that God alone knows. But since day and time we are living is not in fact Genesis 3 but rather, according to Christ, we are in the last days:

Matthew 24:22 (CSB) Unless those days were cut short, no one would be saved. But those days will be cut short because of the elect.

In other words, because we hold the entirety of Scriptures in the palm of our hands, one mystery has been solved for us on why God allowed Adam and Eve to be tempted by Satan and fall into sin:

Romans 5:17 (CSB) If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

God allowed Adam and Eve to sin so that he could show his grace and mercy to all of mankind. And he did. We know he did because he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Son of God, who is God, to take on the sins of Adam and Eve and every single person who believed on him for eternal life.