The Big Story of the Bible, Part 3 - Chapter 2: Fall

September 15, 2022 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments

Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement

Chapter 1 of the Big Story of the Bible is Creation. God created a world in which humans are made for relationship with their Creator. In this relationship with their Creator, humans have dominion over creation, bringing glory to God. In his wisdom, and as a part of his plan of redemption, God made the world with the potential for sin. God did not create the world imperfect, nor did he cause sin, but God allowed for sin to enter. This is chapter 2 of the Big Story of the Bible. 

Everyone has an answer to the question: What is wrong with the world? For some it is the lack of knowledge. For others it is the lack of equitable distribution of goods. Still, for others it is the lack of opportunity. We can go on listing the various perspectives on what is wrong with the world. Most of the list will be symptoms, not the root cause, of what is wrong in the world. The Bible has an answer for that: sin. 

All that we ever would desire was available to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They had a perfect relationship with their Creator, from whom all blessings flow. There was nothing wrong in the world for Adam and Eve in the Garden. And then, they were deceived and rebelled against their gracious Creator by eating the fruit of the tree God had told them not to. All evil in the world is a result of that sin. As we consider the rest of the Big Story of the Bible and even our own lives, we must take the Fall into account. Here are the key implications: 

  1. The Fall gives us clear definition of sin. Sin is the pursuit of blessing apart from God. As I have said, Adam and Eve had every blessing in their relationship with God. They ate the fruit because they doubted God’s goodness; the serpent led them to believe that God was withholding blessing from them. Every sin is the same pursuit. In Jeremiah 2:13, God says it this way: “my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” 
  1. The Fall introduced sin to all humans. Paul explains the universal impact of Adam’s sin in Romans 5:12 & 19, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” God set Adam up as a representative for all humanity; when Adam fell into sin, all people became sinners. Therefore, in the Fall we know what is the core problem with every single person, ourselves included. We all pursue blessing apart from God. 
  1. The Fall corrupted all of creation. Again, the apostle Paul teaches us about the universal impact of the Fall in Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.” Paul goes on to say that creation is groaning under this futility. This world is broken; it needs restoration. Therefore, we do not see the effects of sin only in individuals, but also in families, societies, institutions, and nations. Everything has been subjected to futility. And Paul says in Romans 8:20 that it was God’s will. The Fall was part of his grand plan of redemption. 
  1. The Fall introduced all the pains of sin into the world. Physical anguish. Mental illness. Disease and cancer. Broken relationships. Alienation between people. Inclination to rebel against authority. Abuse. Slander. Manipulation. The list can go on and on. We see it in the early chapters of Genesis right after the Fall. It’s heartbreaking. The point here is to orient our minds to the truth of God’s storyline. If the Fall has broken humanity’s relationship with God, thus leading to all the corruption of sin, then our only hope is for that relationship with God to be restored. 

This is the darkest chapter in the Big Story of the Bible. It could have, should have ended right here. Man sins, so God justly punishes him. But God has something up his sleeve. As we saw in the Prequel, the Fall does not take God by surprise. He has a plan for redemption and restoration.

 

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