What are the effects of the fall? The most obvious and immediate effect is that humanity has been banished from the presence of God. This is the meaning that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden and exiled to a world they had turned hostile.
The Bible is clear in its testimony that God is a holy God. He cannot tolerate sin in his presence or even allow sin to go unpunished. In this way, Adam and Eve were expelled from their presence in the Garden of Eden and a fiery sword prevented them from entering again. This scene of sinners being driven out of God’s presence so they are not destroyed is repeated over and over again as the Bible tells the story of the Fall. In Exodus 32, God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt and Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving God’s word for the benefit of God’s people. And what are they doing? They immediately stop worshiping God as they should and begin to idolize! In response, Moses summons the Levites to his side at the entrance to the camp. The camp of the Israelites was to be a holy place, a truly moving Garden of Eden. But just as sin entered the garden of Eden, it also entered the camp. Reflecting what happened in Genesis 3, Moses told his Levitical brothers to take possession of their swords and walk around the camp to execute God’s judgment.
- So.
- What’s coming is expulsion.
- We see this through the very architecture of the Tabernacle and the Temple; both were signs of God’s presence with his people.
- But also signs of his separation from the people.
- So that they would not be destroyed when they entered His presence.
- Only one man could really get in.
- God’s presence in the Holy Place of Saints.
- And only once a year.
- Later.
- Jewish literature describes how they tied a rope to the high priest so that they could pull his corpse if God in his righteousness turned against this man’s sin.
Sin has the effect of separating us from God, banishing us from heaven. It is not that sin requires God to perform moral calculations, checking whether the good we do outweighs evil. The fact is that at this time our sin requires That God be patiently contained, because if He did not, he would properly destroy his rebellious creatures. And it won’t be limited forever.
People do not receive help if our churches and preaching allow us to think of God as they want; what they need is to think as He really is: a holy God who properly judges sin. the character of our communion in the local church. Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 6. 14: What society can be between justice and wickedness, or what communion, light, and darkness?It is not that Paul did not want believers to communicate with the disbelievers, rather quite the opposite. In every conversation, in every interaction, in every encounter, I wanted the unbelievers to see the difference between the Church and the world, so that God’s character would be shown and known accurately.
The expulsion of God’s presence is not the only effect of the Fall, we have also been corrupted in our nature. The Bible clearly states that sin is not fundamentally a problem of behavior or education; no, it’s much more radical than that. The problem is our heart. The Psalmist said in Psalm 51 that we were conceived in wickedness and that we were born into sin (Psalm 51:1). We come out of the womb like sinners. Jeremiah warns that the heart is deceptive, above all, and hopelessly corrupt (Jer 17:9). We are not sinners because we sin; We sin because we are sinners by nature!
This does not mean that the Bible teaches that we are as bad as we could be. But it does mean that there is no aspect of our lives, there is no aspect of our thinking, desire or procedure that is not contaminated with sin. Even our best works, according to Isaiah, are like dirty laundry, since they come from hearts committed to their own glory rather than to the glory of God (Is 64,6). This means that, unlike Adam and Eve, when you and I sin, we are simply doing what is natural for us. This is our nature. As Jesus said: “Does the mouth speak that the heart is full?” (Mt 12,34). This in no way gives us an excuse to sin; You cannot say, “I must sin, I have no choice. ” However, it does mean that we have to put aside the idea that we are basically good people who have strayed from the path. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that we died in sin; It tells us in Romans that we are by nature the target of anger. When we sin, we are simply proving that we are children of Adam: as father, as son.
It also helps us understand what the Bible means when it says that we are slaves to sin, an image Paul uses in Romans 6 and 7. Some people are eager to debate our agency or not. The biblical answer depends on what you define as “free. “If for you Free means that we can do whatever we want, that nothing forces us to believe or act against our will, so the biblical answer is “yes”. Our will is always free to act according to its nature. However, should I claim this?and, as Paul says, we are sold into slaves to sin. We cannot choose not to be sinners, nor can a fish choose not to swim. It’s our nature.
Therefore, we need more than a self-help program. We need something much more radical than a transformation that is straightening out our lives. All these things make us more beautiful and presentable slaves. What we need is freedom. We need a corruption-free nature and the trap of sin. We cannot repair ourselves, just as a slave cannot free himself. A slave must be freed, and so must we.
This has profound implications in all areas: from our evangelization and preaching to our understanding of the Christian life. This means that conversion is a work of the Holy Spirit, changing our nature, and not as a result of the decision of someone who is seeking. This means that true Christians have a new nature, resulting in lives that seem different from living in the world, because what does this new nature say? Not? for fish. It also means that the Christian life is a life of conflict, because the new nature is fighting against the old. The Bible calls these two natures an old man and a new man, and they are in mortal conflict. I believe that we are often discouraged by this ongoing conflict, but it must be understood that this war does not occur in the heart of someone who has not been born again. Conflict with sin is one of the greatest proofs that someone has received spiritual life. This is the point of Romans 7. Instead of pretending there is no conflict, our churches should be places that encourage this struggle. Instead of shooting the wounded, our churches should be places to heal the wounded. Above all, our Churches must be communities that strengthen our hope in Christ, the only one who can free us from these bodies of death.
This article is part of the 9Marks Journal
Translation: Paulo R. de A. Santos. Review: Vinicius Musselman. © 2016 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: The Fall of Humanity?Effects (3/5).
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