Reformed Theology: 9. The Fall of Adam

The Myth of Human Goodness and the Standard of God’s Law

Welcome back to the Basics of the Reformed Faith series. Today's topic is the Fall of Adam. Most Americans operate on the sincere but completely misguided assumption that deep down inside, people are basically good.

We like to compare ourselves to others, which makes us look good and measure up pretty well. Sure, there are some who we might begrudgingly admit are better people than we are, but we still do pretty well in most of our self-comparison tests against others.

The problem with assuming that people are basically good is that it completely ignores the fact that ours is a fallen race. We are fallen creatures, under the just condemnation from God and awaiting the sentence of death and eternal punishment.

The reality is that God is not going to compare me to someone else who is a fallen sinner like I am. Instead, God will measure me against the standard of His law, which is holy, righteous and good. Romans chapter 7 verse 12.

And when God measures me using the standard of His law, it will soon become clear that like everyone else descended from Adam, I cannot meet God's standard of perfection. I am a sinner and I am under the sentence of death.

So, how did this happen? This immediately raises the question of fairness. Is it fair for God to judge me against the standard I cannot possibly meet? The answer would be no if we were to look at this question in a vacuum without any biblical context.

Adam, the Covenant of Works, and the Fall into Death

The Bible teaches that Adam was not only the first human, from whom all humans are biologically descended, but that Adam was created holy and without sin. Adam was placed in Eden under the covenant of works with its condition, do this, not eat from the forbidden tree and live, or eat from the tree and die.

Adam chose the latter, bringing down the covenant curse of death upon himself and the entire human race. People often agree with Ben Franklin's famous adage that the only two things in life which are inevitable are death and taxes, both of which I might add stem from human sin.

Yet the fact remains, death is not natural to the human race, death is the consequence of the fall of Adam. When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God immediately pronounced the covenant curse upon him.

And to Adam, God said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat it all the days of your life.

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Work became toil, fruitful fields were filled with weeds and thistles, childbearing became labor, and even worse, Adam now faced the sentence of death, and so do we. Because Adam acted for us and in our place, by serving as our representative in Eden, we are as guilty before God for Adam's act of rebellion as if we had been in Eden, personally rebelling against God as did our first father.

Adam’s Federal Headship and the Imputation of Sin

The guilt of Adam's sin was imputed or reckoned to us. Romans chapter 5 verse 12 verses 18 through 19. Romans chapter 5 verse 12 reads,. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Romans chapter 5 verse 18 through 19 says,. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Not only did the fall of Adam render us guilty before God, we have all inherited a sinful nature from Adam, and it is from that sinful nature that our own particular acts of sin arise. Romans chapter 7 verse 5 says,.

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. We sin because we want to sin. In fact, we like to sin. This is a far cry from the notion that we are all basically good people who occasionally sin.

Rather, we are sinful people with sinful natures, whose sinful propensities are restrained by the grace of a merciful God. The Bible teaches that we are sinful by nature and by choice, and that we are not now and never have been innocent before God.

Total Depravity and the Effects of the Fall

Psalm 51 verse 5 and Psalm 58 verse 3. As Paul recounts in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, we are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath. In Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 and through 19, Paul speaks of the effects of the Adam's fall upon us in the following terms.

You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have been given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. The consequences of Adam's fall are grave. Our thinking is futile. We are darkened in our understanding, we are alienated from God, and we seek to gratify our sinful nature rather than to seek to please God.

And all of this stems from Adam's act of rebellion in Eden. As the Puritans so aptly put it, in Adam's fall sinned we all. Because Adam sinned, we are born with a sinful nature, already under the sentence of death, and unable to do anything to save ourselves.

This is the consequence of Adam's fall. So let's review. First, most people believe that mankind is basically good, but this is not biblical. God will measure us against the standard of his law, which is holy, righteous, and good, and we will be found guilty.

Adam chose to sin which brought the covenant curse of death to the entire human race. Adam acted as our federal head, and it was as if we were in the garden sinning ourselves. We have all inherited a sinful nature from Adam, and we sin because we want to.

Due to the fall, we are all born with a sinful nature, and already under the sentence of death, and unable to do anything to save ourselves. Well friends, thanks again for joining us. Look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.