Our Sin And Fall In Our Father Adam

Romans 5:12

All who read the Bible are confronted with the fact that all human beings, by the sin and fall of Adam, are born with thoroughly depraved hearts, under the curse of the law, dead in trespasses and in sins. God created Adam in innocence and made him the federal head, representative, and father of the entire human race, so that whatever Adam did, he did as our representative. When he sinned, God charged his sin to us. We were made sinners by imputation. When he fell, we fell. When he died, we died. The question naturally arises - Why? Why did Adam fall? Was God's creation out of his control? Did something happen that God had not planned? Certainly not! Finite creatures cannot fathom the purposes and works of the Almighty. But some things are plainly revealed.

1. GOD DID NOT CAUSE ADAM TO FALL (James 1:13). Adam did what he did freely, voluntarily and deliberately, in willful defiance of God's sovereignty, choosing to plunge himself and all his posterity into sin rather than be separated from his wife. He chose to forsake God rather than submit to God's judgment upon his wife.

2. GOD COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE FALL IF IT HAD BEEN HIS WILL. If God prevented Abimelech from sin (Gen. 20:6), he could have prevented it in Adam. It is foolish to argue that God would not interfere with Adam's free-will. He certainly interferred with Abimelech's!

3. GOD MOST CERTAINLY DID ORDAIN THE FALL (Rom. 11:36). He works all things after the counsel of his own will. He plainly told Adam that he would fall and what the consequence of his fall would be before Eve was made (Gen. 2:17).

4. GOD ORDAINED THE FALL FOR THE GOOD OF HIS ELECT AND THE GLORY OF HIS SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (Rom. 8:28-30). God had something better in store for his elect than innocence. He determined to give us the blessedness of redemption and grace for the glory of Christ. And he used the fall to accomplish his good purpose (Psa. 76:10).

Don Fortner