| “THE FALL: OUR ULTIMATE BANKRUPTCY” Genesis 3:1-19; Romans 5:12-21 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 03/08/2009 SIXTH IN A SERIES ON REFORMED DOCTRINE |
We have been working through a series on the essentials of Reformed doctrine, and today’s topic is The Fall. By that I
mean the Fall from grace and its subsequent consequences, another doctrine I think we can all connect with quite easily since
they are consequences that affect us daily. To set the stage, let’s think back to Genesis 2, which we read a few weeks ago. It
describes the Garden that God planted in the east, a beautiful garden, well watered by four different rivers. This “Garden of
Eden” was full of all kinds of trees, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. And right in the middle of the Garden
stood the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
Genesis 2 also tells us that the man God had created was placed in the Garden to work it and care for it, and God
specifically commanded the man not to eat from either the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If the man
should eat from those trees, he would die. But the man was free to help himself to all the other trees in the Garden, which
would more than satisfy. Next, because God had decided that it was not good for the man to be alone in the garden, God
created the woman. She would be a suitable helper for the work and his intimate companion—his wife, in fact. As the chapter
ends, we learn that the man and the woman were both naked, but felt no shame. File that thought for a moment; we’ll come
back to it later.
In today’s Old Testament lesson we heard the next part of that story, in which the crafty serpent deceived Adam and Eve.
As we heard, they did the one thing that God had commanded them not to do: they ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. And
although Adam tried to blame Eve and Eve tried to blame the serpent, they could not “pass the buck.” They could not pass off
their action as a mistake or an error in judgment—it was willful disobedience. God had given them a choice—a test, perhaps—
and they made the wrong choice. They chose to disobey or rebel against the rules that God had established. The end result
was that they were cast out of the beautiful Garden and sentenced to a life of labor in childbirth, labor in tending the ground that
would produce their food and much worse than all the labor, they would suffer separation from God, which leads to death.
But before any of those consequences occurred, let’s go back and notice what happened at the very moment of their
disobedience or rebellion. Genesis 3:7-11 (NIV) tells us,
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and
made coverings for themselves.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
“[The man] answered, ‘I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’
“And [God] said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat
from?’”
What I want to point out here is one of the more subtle yet very serious consequences of the Fall—even before Adam and
Eve were banished from the Garden. I think we could categorize this consequence in terms of a “slippery slope” toward their
greater “fall” and the launching of the vicious cycle of sin. I’m talking about what scripture refers to as the opening of their
eyes, their loss of innocence, in more than one sense of the word. In their previous state of total innocence, they knew no evil,
no fear, and had no need to protect themselves or “hide” from God or from anything else. But the moment they disobeyed they
had a personal experience of sin and evil, and they sensed that everything had changed. They were faced with the dreadful
knowledge that they were capable of sin; they knew that they were in trouble, and suddenly, for the first time, they were
afraid. They felt they had to cover up their now sinful bodies, protect themselves, and hide.
The reality is that this subtle consequence of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience has plagued humanity ever since, tainting
every one of our motives and actions—even the good ones. We may not even be aware of it, but even our best intentions and
motives and actions have some element of selfishness attached, whether it is self-protection, self-advancement or self-serving
of any kind. It started back in the Garden when those first humans sinned, and it has been with us ever since. Because of their
original sin, we are burdened with the dis-ease of a sinful nature, a tendency toward sin. We are aware that something is wrong
with us, and we are always looking over our shoulders, fearful that God or someone else will find us out. We try to hide or
cover up what is wrong, but even if we were to string together all the fig leaves in the Garden of Eden we would not be able to
cover up the fact that we are not the righteous human beings God originally created—no, not even one of us. When Adam fell
from grace, so did we, and we have been in trouble with God and with each other ever since.
Perhaps your first response to all this is “Wait a minute. That’s not fair! I wasn’t in the Garden—I wasn’t disobedient—
why do I have to suffer the consequences?” Well, actually I’m glad you asked! That’s a question that the Reformed doctrine
of The Fall attempts to answer. And to explain it, I’m going to refer to our New Testament reading from Romans 5, along with
some ideas from R.C. Sproul’s book, Chosen by God. 1
First, in various verses recorded in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul tells us that
“Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (v. 12).
“By the one man’s offense many died” (v. 15).
“Through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in
condemnation” (v. 18).
“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (v. 19).
Once again, this may not sound fair to us. But what we believe is that this “one man,” Adam, is representative of every human
being. In fact, this view of The Fall is often referred to as “Federalism” or the “Representative” view, on the order of our
representative form of government. Here I think Sproul says it so well,
“It is the question of God’s fairness that federalism seeks to answer. Federalism assumes that we were in fact
represented by Adam and that such representation was both fair and accurate. It holds that Adam perfectly represented us.” 2
Sproul then explains:
“At no time in all of human history have we been more accurately represented than in the Garden of Eden. To be sure,
we did not choose our representative there. Our representative was chosen for us. The one who chose our representative,
however, was not King George. It was almighty God.
“When God chooses our representative, he does so perfectly. His choice is… infallible... When I choose my own
representatives, I do so fallibly. Sometimes I select the wrong person and am then inaccurately represented… [But] Given
God’s infallibility, I can never argue that Adam was a poor choice to represent me.
“The assumption many of us make when we struggle with The Fall is that, had we been there, we would have made a
different choice. We would not have made a decision that would plunge the world into ruin. Such an assumption is just
not possible given the character of God. God doesn’t make mistakes. His choice of my representative is greater than my
choice of my own.
“Even if we grant that indeed we were perfectly represented by Adam, we still must ask if it is fair to be represented at all
with such high stakes. I can only answer that it pleased the Lord to do this. We know that the world fell through Adam. We
know that in some sense Adam represented us. We know that we did not choose him to be our representative. We know that
God’s selection of Adam was an infallible selection. But was the whole process just?
“I can only answer this question ultimately by asking another question — one the Apostle Paul asked: ‘Is there
unrighteousness in God?’ The apostolic answer to this rhetorical question is as plain as it is emphatic. ‘God forbid!’
“If we know anything at all about the character of God, then we know that he is not a tyrant and that he is never
unjust… That should be enough to satisfy us.” 3
Sproul’s explanation may not be satisfying, but I hope it does satisfy. How can we question God’s choice of our
representative if God is perfect and knows what is best for us?” I think we have to trust that we would not have done a better
job of it than Adam, and for that matter, who of us wants that kind of responsibility? I am just glad to be living in a time when
I know I have a Savior to redeem me from The Fall.
I think another useful analogy for The Fall, one we can surely understand, is the concept of bankruptcy. For example,
previously, you could declare bankruptcy and as I understand it, that meant your debts were wiped out. You could start over
again with a clean slate. You didn’t have to pay your creditors back, although your credit rating and ability to borrow money
was out the window for the next seven years. But a few years ago our laws changed, making it harder to declare bankruptcy.
I believe that repayment is now required even once bankruptcy is declared. That sounds rather like the vicious cycle of sin to
me, since once you are already bankrupt it becomes exceedingly difficult to repay your debts. In the same way, The Fall from
grace has left us spiritually bankrupt, incapable of repaying the debt we owe to God for our disobedience.
Still, that debt has to be paid, since God is not only loving but also just, and payment of that debt is the only way to restore
balance to the created order. That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture. This week Anne Putnam sent me an
interesting article by Stanley Fish, published last Sunday in the New York Times online. Fish is a law professor and from what
I have read about him, I don’t think he’s a Christian. But he definitely has a good understanding of the human condition and the
Calvinist view of The Fall. He writes,
“Talk about the economy is everywhere, and the same things are being said. We’re in a deep hole. We may not
be able to dig ourselves out. We’re underwater. Our assets are overwhelmed by our debts, which keep growing. The
question is who or what can get us out of this mess? Some answer Obama. Some (a much smaller group) say Geithner.
Some (in desperation) say China. But others say Jesus Christ.” 4
Fish goes on to explain,
“But [to use] Christian discourse, there is no way out of debt, and bankruptcy is the condition we are in from the moment
of birth. This is a Calvinist discourse in which the language of money is allegorized. The debt we owe is owed to the God
who made us in his image, an image defiled and corrupted by Adam and Eve, whose heirs in sin we all are. We may think
that this unhappy inheritance could be overlain and covered by a succession of good deeds, but every deed we perform is
infected by the base motives from which we cannot move one inch away. Every piece of currency we offer in payment of
debt only increases it. The situation seems hopeless.
“But it’s not, we are told, if we embrace bankruptcy rather than try (vainly) to extricate ourselves from it. The
acknowledgment of bankruptcy and of the impossibility of working our way free of it is the beginning of wisdom.
“In a radio spot posted on a Christian site (Need Him Resources), a woman’s voice observes that ‘…bankruptcy is so
common these days.’ ‘Isn’t it strange,’ she asks rhetorically, that ‘the hope of rescue depends on declaring that you are
bankrupt?’” 5
The Fall from God’s grace, the loss of innocence and all the related consequences are humanity’s ultimate bankruptcy.
And the only solution to ultimate bankruptcy is ultimate redemption and restoration by someone who has ultimate power and
control over every economy, from fiscal to spiritual. That “Someone” is God, and in two weeks we’ll be looking at another
Reformed doctrine that seeks to explain how God rescues us from the ultimate bankruptcy that began with The Fall. In the
meantime, I pray that we all have the courage to declare our spiritual bankruptcy, for there is no hope of rescue until we admit
that we are no better than Adam and need the One True and Ultimate God to pay our ultimate debts.
Let us pray.
1. “Adam’s Fall and Mine” from Chosen by God and found online at: http://www.the-highway.com/fall_Sproul.html
2. Idem.
3. Idem.
4. http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/faith-and-deficits/?hp
5. Idem.
mean the Fall from grace and its subsequent consequences, another doctrine I think we can all connect with quite easily since
they are consequences that affect us daily. To set the stage, let’s think back to Genesis 2, which we read a few weeks ago. It
describes the Garden that God planted in the east, a beautiful garden, well watered by four different rivers. This “Garden of
Eden” was full of all kinds of trees, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. And right in the middle of the Garden
stood the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
Genesis 2 also tells us that the man God had created was placed in the Garden to work it and care for it, and God
specifically commanded the man not to eat from either the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If the man
should eat from those trees, he would die. But the man was free to help himself to all the other trees in the Garden, which
would more than satisfy. Next, because God had decided that it was not good for the man to be alone in the garden, God
created the woman. She would be a suitable helper for the work and his intimate companion—his wife, in fact. As the chapter
ends, we learn that the man and the woman were both naked, but felt no shame. File that thought for a moment; we’ll come
back to it later.
In today’s Old Testament lesson we heard the next part of that story, in which the crafty serpent deceived Adam and Eve.
As we heard, they did the one thing that God had commanded them not to do: they ate fruit from the tree of knowledge. And
although Adam tried to blame Eve and Eve tried to blame the serpent, they could not “pass the buck.” They could not pass off
their action as a mistake or an error in judgment—it was willful disobedience. God had given them a choice—a test, perhaps—
and they made the wrong choice. They chose to disobey or rebel against the rules that God had established. The end result
was that they were cast out of the beautiful Garden and sentenced to a life of labor in childbirth, labor in tending the ground that
would produce their food and much worse than all the labor, they would suffer separation from God, which leads to death.
But before any of those consequences occurred, let’s go back and notice what happened at the very moment of their
disobedience or rebellion. Genesis 3:7-11 (NIV) tells us,
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and
made coverings for themselves.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
“[The man] answered, ‘I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’
“And [God] said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat
from?’”
What I want to point out here is one of the more subtle yet very serious consequences of the Fall—even before Adam and
Eve were banished from the Garden. I think we could categorize this consequence in terms of a “slippery slope” toward their
greater “fall” and the launching of the vicious cycle of sin. I’m talking about what scripture refers to as the opening of their
eyes, their loss of innocence, in more than one sense of the word. In their previous state of total innocence, they knew no evil,
no fear, and had no need to protect themselves or “hide” from God or from anything else. But the moment they disobeyed they
had a personal experience of sin and evil, and they sensed that everything had changed. They were faced with the dreadful
knowledge that they were capable of sin; they knew that they were in trouble, and suddenly, for the first time, they were
afraid. They felt they had to cover up their now sinful bodies, protect themselves, and hide.
The reality is that this subtle consequence of Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience has plagued humanity ever since, tainting
every one of our motives and actions—even the good ones. We may not even be aware of it, but even our best intentions and
motives and actions have some element of selfishness attached, whether it is self-protection, self-advancement or self-serving
of any kind. It started back in the Garden when those first humans sinned, and it has been with us ever since. Because of their
original sin, we are burdened with the dis-ease of a sinful nature, a tendency toward sin. We are aware that something is wrong
with us, and we are always looking over our shoulders, fearful that God or someone else will find us out. We try to hide or
cover up what is wrong, but even if we were to string together all the fig leaves in the Garden of Eden we would not be able to
cover up the fact that we are not the righteous human beings God originally created—no, not even one of us. When Adam fell
from grace, so did we, and we have been in trouble with God and with each other ever since.
Perhaps your first response to all this is “Wait a minute. That’s not fair! I wasn’t in the Garden—I wasn’t disobedient—
why do I have to suffer the consequences?” Well, actually I’m glad you asked! That’s a question that the Reformed doctrine
of The Fall attempts to answer. And to explain it, I’m going to refer to our New Testament reading from Romans 5, along with
some ideas from R.C. Sproul’s book, Chosen by God. 1
First, in various verses recorded in Romans 5, the Apostle Paul tells us that
“Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (v. 12).
“By the one man’s offense many died” (v. 15).
“Through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in
condemnation” (v. 18).
“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (v. 19).
Once again, this may not sound fair to us. But what we believe is that this “one man,” Adam, is representative of every human
being. In fact, this view of The Fall is often referred to as “Federalism” or the “Representative” view, on the order of our
representative form of government. Here I think Sproul says it so well,
“It is the question of God’s fairness that federalism seeks to answer. Federalism assumes that we were in fact
represented by Adam and that such representation was both fair and accurate. It holds that Adam perfectly represented us.” 2
Sproul then explains:
“At no time in all of human history have we been more accurately represented than in the Garden of Eden. To be sure,
we did not choose our representative there. Our representative was chosen for us. The one who chose our representative,
however, was not King George. It was almighty God.
“When God chooses our representative, he does so perfectly. His choice is… infallible... When I choose my own
representatives, I do so fallibly. Sometimes I select the wrong person and am then inaccurately represented… [But] Given
God’s infallibility, I can never argue that Adam was a poor choice to represent me.
“The assumption many of us make when we struggle with The Fall is that, had we been there, we would have made a
different choice. We would not have made a decision that would plunge the world into ruin. Such an assumption is just
not possible given the character of God. God doesn’t make mistakes. His choice of my representative is greater than my
choice of my own.
“Even if we grant that indeed we were perfectly represented by Adam, we still must ask if it is fair to be represented at all
with such high stakes. I can only answer that it pleased the Lord to do this. We know that the world fell through Adam. We
know that in some sense Adam represented us. We know that we did not choose him to be our representative. We know that
God’s selection of Adam was an infallible selection. But was the whole process just?
“I can only answer this question ultimately by asking another question — one the Apostle Paul asked: ‘Is there
unrighteousness in God?’ The apostolic answer to this rhetorical question is as plain as it is emphatic. ‘God forbid!’
“If we know anything at all about the character of God, then we know that he is not a tyrant and that he is never
unjust… That should be enough to satisfy us.” 3
Sproul’s explanation may not be satisfying, but I hope it does satisfy. How can we question God’s choice of our
representative if God is perfect and knows what is best for us?” I think we have to trust that we would not have done a better
job of it than Adam, and for that matter, who of us wants that kind of responsibility? I am just glad to be living in a time when
I know I have a Savior to redeem me from The Fall.
I think another useful analogy for The Fall, one we can surely understand, is the concept of bankruptcy. For example,
previously, you could declare bankruptcy and as I understand it, that meant your debts were wiped out. You could start over
again with a clean slate. You didn’t have to pay your creditors back, although your credit rating and ability to borrow money
was out the window for the next seven years. But a few years ago our laws changed, making it harder to declare bankruptcy.
I believe that repayment is now required even once bankruptcy is declared. That sounds rather like the vicious cycle of sin to
me, since once you are already bankrupt it becomes exceedingly difficult to repay your debts. In the same way, The Fall from
grace has left us spiritually bankrupt, incapable of repaying the debt we owe to God for our disobedience.
Still, that debt has to be paid, since God is not only loving but also just, and payment of that debt is the only way to restore
balance to the created order. That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture. This week Anne Putnam sent me an
interesting article by Stanley Fish, published last Sunday in the New York Times online. Fish is a law professor and from what
I have read about him, I don’t think he’s a Christian. But he definitely has a good understanding of the human condition and the
Calvinist view of The Fall. He writes,
“Talk about the economy is everywhere, and the same things are being said. We’re in a deep hole. We may not
be able to dig ourselves out. We’re underwater. Our assets are overwhelmed by our debts, which keep growing. The
question is who or what can get us out of this mess? Some answer Obama. Some (a much smaller group) say Geithner.
Some (in desperation) say China. But others say Jesus Christ.” 4
Fish goes on to explain,
“But [to use] Christian discourse, there is no way out of debt, and bankruptcy is the condition we are in from the moment
of birth. This is a Calvinist discourse in which the language of money is allegorized. The debt we owe is owed to the God
who made us in his image, an image defiled and corrupted by Adam and Eve, whose heirs in sin we all are. We may think
that this unhappy inheritance could be overlain and covered by a succession of good deeds, but every deed we perform is
infected by the base motives from which we cannot move one inch away. Every piece of currency we offer in payment of
debt only increases it. The situation seems hopeless.
“But it’s not, we are told, if we embrace bankruptcy rather than try (vainly) to extricate ourselves from it. The
acknowledgment of bankruptcy and of the impossibility of working our way free of it is the beginning of wisdom.
“In a radio spot posted on a Christian site (Need Him Resources), a woman’s voice observes that ‘…bankruptcy is so
common these days.’ ‘Isn’t it strange,’ she asks rhetorically, that ‘the hope of rescue depends on declaring that you are
bankrupt?’” 5
The Fall from God’s grace, the loss of innocence and all the related consequences are humanity’s ultimate bankruptcy.
And the only solution to ultimate bankruptcy is ultimate redemption and restoration by someone who has ultimate power and
control over every economy, from fiscal to spiritual. That “Someone” is God, and in two weeks we’ll be looking at another
Reformed doctrine that seeks to explain how God rescues us from the ultimate bankruptcy that began with The Fall. In the
meantime, I pray that we all have the courage to declare our spiritual bankruptcy, for there is no hope of rescue until we admit
that we are no better than Adam and need the One True and Ultimate God to pay our ultimate debts.
Let us pray.
1. “Adam’s Fall and Mine” from Chosen by God and found online at: http://www.the-highway.com/fall_Sproul.html
2. Idem.
3. Idem.
4. http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/faith-and-deficits/?hp
5. Idem.
