Adamic Administration - Hamartology - Fall of Man — John Murray

O Lord, our God, how great and marvellous are Thy works, in wisdom hast Thou made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches, so is this great and spacious sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable.

May we know, O Lord, that this is Thy handiwork, and may we behold the glory of Thy great name, for how excellent, O Lord, is Thy name in all the earth. And as is Thy name, so is Thy praise, and we always be responsive to the manifestations of Thy merciless glory.

The Adamic Administration and the Universality of Sin

And above all, O Lord, that we may be humble, contrite, confident believers in the name of Jesus Christ Thy Son, so that we shall have confidence in all our journeys in this world, that it may be a pilgrimage of faith and the life of hope.

For Jesus' sake, Amen. Now I have been reading this good news, praise of our discussion, respecting the Adamic administration, and I suppose to be on that idea, with the devastating consequences for the New Testament teaching and the New Testament orientation, to deny the reality and the meaning of this Adamic administration.

Now there is a further observation that I want to make, that the fact of sin in the world, the fact of sin, universal sinfulness, cannot stand as an empirical fact without asking the question, why is sin universal?

The explanation of the universality of sin, condemnation and death, I say the explanation of the universality of sin, condemnation and death, which the Bible provides, is the Adamic administration, that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

Solidarity with Adam in his flesh is the basis of sin and death in the world. And it would be impossible to explain the universality without this historical basis, summed up in the Adamic administration.

In a word, this solidarity defines the situation in which we find ourselves, and it defines the situation with which salvation must deal. And the solidarity which defines our situation is the kind of solidarity which meets that situation.

It is by the same, the same kind of institution that redemption is accomplished. In Adam, even so in Christ, all are made alive. And a way of thinking which makes us aloof to the solidarity which the Adamic administration involves, makes us aloof to the solidarity in terms of which our redemption has been also purchased.

So that it is not only our situation in sin that is explained by the Adamic administration. It is a similar type of redemption. Therefore that the next topic of all mankind is obvious, because it is not simply that our first parents held a good administration.

You see, the fall of mankind can, the fall of our first parents can never be properly construed. ...side of the orbit delineated by, or circumscribed by I should have said, circumscribed by the Adamic administration.

The Creation of Man and the Reality of the Fall

Now in connection with this subject, this first topic from archaeology, the doctrine of sin, we have the fact, simply the fact of the fall of man. He noted repeatedly, man was created upright. He was very good in terms of the categories which belong to him and his distinctive identity.

He was created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and therefore constituted a whole settlement of all the demands revolving upon him. ...identity as man, and in the specific relationship which was constituted by the administration, the special administration.

...suggestion of the tenter that our first parents fell. He noted already, was the alternative, Satan. ...suggestion or solicitation of the great arch enemy that our first parents fell. Reminds us of two considerations we may never overlook.

Two considerations first, that sin did not originate with the fall of our first parents. The kingdom of sin and of evil. The kingdom of sin and of evil. The great problem connected with the origin of sin and evil.

The great problem is pushed back beyond the sphere of human life and experience. It doesn't give us any relief. The problem of the origin of sin is in the way. It doesn't give us any relief from that problem.

Neither does it provide any extenuation of the sin of our first parents. ...we must take into account the fact that sin originates with the fall of our first parents. ...the occasionality of reality. In the sin of this world.

Satan, the Demonic Realm, and the Origin of Human Sin

...introduced. We are introduced at the very beginning of man's fallen history. Satan is the prince of darkness. The god of this world. ...the spirit that now watches the children disappear. ...in the world today, and in the church of course, and especially in churches.

...supernatural. That very same kind of bias appears also in opposition to the idea of the preternatural. The preternatural. ...using that term to distinguish between supernatural and the realm of the satanic and the demonic.

You may think that that is an exaggerated statement because in the theology of the present time, there's a great deal of emphasis upon the demonic. You know that. There's an awful lot of emphasis upon the demonic.

To a very large extent, it's just a mythical conception. And even in those scholars where you have a great deal of emphasis upon the demonic, it is not at all with the biblical order that there is yet real, constantly active activity.

Satan and the demonic order. ...and in the kingdom of sin and evil. ...as it is often repeated in this world. I think it is out of all the fatal facts, all the fatal facts, that the thought of Satan's reality and activity is not one that really conditions the thinking.

Here we are reminded of appendices. Very striking. The very beginning of human history. This conspicuous inclusion of that well-considered came to exist by the call of Satan and his agents. Now, we are, these are two considerations.

But here we must come to the point. He suggested absolutely the occasion of Satan. Therefore, the occasion was the occasion. It was the occasion of all our sins. But it was not the cause, or the simple reason, that no external power or influence or rational being to sin.

Adam's Defection and Human Responsibility

The sin of Adam, on the cross of Eve, the sin of Adam was a movement of defection and apostasy. The heart and mind and will of our first parents. The mind and heart and will of our first parents. And for that movement of defection, they were entirely responsible.

For it was not the solicitation that brought sin into the human race. It was not Satan's solicitation that brought sin into the human race. But the acquiescence on the part of our first parents in that which had been solicited.

Say that man, and of course I am using that in generic terms, and including both Adam and Eve. Man of his own will, by no external compulsion or determination. The agency and the power with which he had been endowed to express the revealed will of God.

We might say that the extreme limit of the analysis available to us. But that is not the case. This express disobedience to the revealed will of God. This act of disobedience to the expressly revealed will of God.

But, over that doctrine, can never be regarded as an isolated unit. Can never be regarded as an isolated unit. Action feeding the forbidden fruit. Like every overt act of transgression. Disposition of certain propensions from a certain dispositional complex.

Transition of analysis. That analysis can be shown on objectical grounds as well as on psychological. Remark before he that he definitely directs our attention. That movement of detection of the heart and mind of Eve.

Which he was one to be decided to make one wise of. And then she took. Suffice to say, Eve also took. Very fact. No etiquette of it. And it was that feeling that was registered in the overt act of transgression.

There is some movement. Doubt. Of unbelief. Of lust. Overt act. Action with that tree that sin originated. The sin was directed to the eating of the forbidden fruit. Prohibition. Prohibition. There was epitomized, summed up.

The Forbidden Command and the Rejection of God's Character

The sovereignty. The authority. The wisdom. The justice. The goodness. And the truth of God. And it was just because God was sovereign. That he could have given that commandment or that prohibition. Because he was supreme authority that he had the right to give it.

And of course in the context of all that we have already. All that we have already discussed. Respecting the advantage of inspiration. We are bound to discover in that very prohibition. The justice. The wisdom.

And the goodness. And the truth of God. Because in other words. To add it. An epitome of the revelation. It was in epitome. The revelation. On the part of God to him. That supreme relationship to the very being of God.

In relation to his creation. It was in epitome. The revelation. To add it. All that God was in that supreme relation. To him. Consequently. Disobedience to that commandment. Or the moment of defection directed to disobedience.

Was on a thought upon the divine majesty. Repudiation of his sovereignty. Doubt of his goodness. It was dispute with his wisdom. And it was contradiction of his veracity. It's nothing that is. Nothing that belongs to God's glory more generally.

Truth. And the temptation to which. To be in epitome. Direct. One aimed at the veracity of God. He shall not surely die. Looking at it from another angle. Then of course was transgression. God's commandment.

In this specific instance. Transgression. God's commandment. Prohibition. Transgression. God's commandment. And the commandment of God. To man. May the brain question. The very character of God. Comes to express.

Regulation of. Thought. And behavior. Continence. With. God. Glory. I repeat. The commandment of God. The character of God. Coming to express. For the regulation. Of thought and behavior. On the part of man.

Continence with. His glory. Now therefore we find. In the very first. Thing. Very first thing. We find. That it consists. In contradiction of God. All along the line of his perfection. Contradiction of God.

All along the line of his perfection. Sovereignty. Authority. Will. Perfect. All right. No much for that first thing. Now we come to the next. Next. We look for. The consequences. Of effect. We need to.

The Internal Revolution: Shame, Fear, and Hiding from God

Effect. Various. Contradictions of. That. That we have to notice. Don't take notes. For a minute. Just. Take notes. All right. I'll give you all this. I like the word revolution. In connection with. Justice.

And therefore I'm formulating this in terms of revolution. First of all, there is an internal force. What I mean by this is internal in the sense of subjective, applying to the heart and mind of man. The character appears from the narrative.

Genesis 3. This man's changed attitude to God. Changed attitude to God. Then both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I did not know. This changed attitude betrays the fact that there was a radical change in that which constituted man's basic relationship.

Namely his relationship to God. A radical change in that which constituted his basic relationship. Man was made for the presence and fellowship of God. The presence of God would have been supreme delight.

The contemplation of God's glory, his glory. We now please unto the peace of God. We have such striking witness, striking witness to this new conflict of disposition, feeling and emotion. Possession of Adam's heart and mind.

Shame and fear. Shame and fear. He is new testament. Those truths enunciated in the new testament. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. But then, he that doeth evil hateth the light.

Neither cometh to the light. Lest this deed should be approved. To the untouchable thy voice in the garden. I was afraid that I was made for a radical revolution. The whole attitude of man of course pointed out already this thing consisted in a radical change of disposition of conflict.

God's Changed Relation to Fallen Humanity

Consisting in that radical change was not only thinking of the effects of Adam's sin as they are portrayed to us. In the subsequent manner, it is most striking how the third chapter of Genesis talks to us.

What is that? The radical character of this revolution. No second. It is the revolution in God's relation to man. Revolution in God's relation to man. It is most certainly that man's attitude to God has changed.

Attitude to man. Because God is radical. To confirm and to make a remarkable point. There is even, don't take notes. It's a mess now. There is even reform. And on the part of reform theologians and experts, the tendency to understand, for example, the wrath of God as consisting mainly in what takes place in God's execution must not be imported into the attitude of God.

It is the punitive execution that is in view, you see, when you are thinking of the wrath of God. And not to some emotional attitude in the heart and mind of God. Well, I think that is basically wrong.

Just as we study this particular subject, we will see how the scripture draws our attention to an attitude on the part of God. It's not simply our objective relationship, exemplified in executions, but there is the whole complex of attitude on the part of God.

How is that compatible with God's immutability? Well, with that we shall deal.