Where is The Fall in Scripture?

 

Question: If I were new to Scripture and asked where it talks about the fall, where would you send me?

Response: This is a fascinating topic that has to do with how one understands Genesis chapters one through three. I’ve written two books on these chapters and hope to do a third that addresses this issue more directly. Those two books would be helpful: The History of Time and the Genesis of You and God and His Body: The Romance of Adam and His Bride. The third will be titled The Tree in the Middle of the Garden. For understanding this issue and interpreting the meaning of the fall in Genesis 3, nothing would be quite as pertinent as the Book of Romans, particularly Romans chapters 5 through 11. Pay extra close attention to Romans 7:9 and 11:32. However, at first glance this would all seem quite confusing. So let me just put an idea in your head.

  1. Several hundred years after Christ and then again during the reformation, the church argued that human beings inherit guilt from Adam (which means humanity).
  2. I don’t think this is Biblical for several reasons but one of them is Romans 7:9–If Paul was once alive apart from the law and before he came to Christ, then he didn’t inherit sin (the “sting of death is sin” 1 Cor. 15:56).
  3. I believe that Paul is saying that we were all born with a propensity to sin, and God always knew that we would sin and that he would redeem us (Romans 11:32).
  4. We were all born without knowledge of Good and evil and because of that we all sin; we all fall, and God knew that we would fall.
  5. Sin is not God’s will, but it is God’s will that we would have an opportunity to choose evil that he could reveal the good and we could then freely choose the good. This is what Paul reveals in Romans 11:32 “God consigned all to disobedience (the fall) that he might have Mercy (Jesus) on all.”
  6. God’s Mercy, his Grace, creates faith (trust) in God—God is Love.
  7. To be made in God’s image is to Love in freedom as he loves in freedom (that is he loves because he wants to).

    8. The Fall is part of how God is creating us in his image. We are still being created in his image.

    On 4-3-22 I preached a sermon from Romans 7 called “What to do with your sins.” You might find it helpful. Here’s the link: https://relentless-love.org/sermons/what-to-do-with-your-sins/

    PS Here’s a link to the Genesis books: https://relentless-love.org/books/

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