205 – The Fall of Man

SEMESTER 1

205 – The Fall of Man

BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE

 COURSE:  SOTERIOLOGY I LESSON # 5
THE FALL OF MAN

 INTRODUCTION:

1. One of the Bible’s most difficult, misunderstood and even denied subjects is the fall of man.
2. Some, in trying to analyze man’s nature, appeal to his original state, ignoring the fall.
3. Some in accentuating the fall, imply the loss of all the image of God in man.
4. It is obvious from Scripture that neither is correct.
5. In this lesson we shall seek to learn what God is pleased to give us from Scripture concerning the basic events.

I. THE FACT THAT MAN FELL

By fall, we mean that man was altered or altered himself, so as to lose some attributes and abilities, relationships and privileges given him in creation. This is evident from:

1. Scripture: compare Gen 1:31 and Gen 2:15 to Gen 3:16-19 and Gen 3:22-24. Compare Gen 1:31 to Rom 3:10-12, and to Col 1:20 and 21.
2. Simple biblical and historical accounts of human conduct denies that he is “very good” as God created him.

i. Abel’s murder by his brother. (Gen 4:1-8)
ii. God’s observation of man’s conduct and condition. (Gen 6:5)
iii. By man’s progressive and persistent moral degeneration.

3. Experience of what we have done and what we feel as men, indicates a very different state from Genesis 1:31.

II. THE EXPLANATION OF THE FALL

This is one of the most profound of mysteries that exist.

1. Simplistic explanations that explain nothing.

i. God created man with ability and freedom to choose.

(This does not explain why the wrong choice.)

ii. God would not have been glorified if man “had to love Him.”

(But revelation of His love “constraineth us.”)

2. Divine omniscience and omnipotence imply a decree of the fall.
3. Revelation of divine character forces us to see this decree as permissive, not efficient. Yet sovereign permission is a method of cause.

III: God could have righteously prevented Satan’s tempta­tion.

4. Thus, all revelation of the reason for the fall is indirect, thus we only “conclude.”

III. THE CAUSE OF THE FALL

1. The efficient cause was Satan (the serpent). (Gen 3:1-7, Gen. 3:14)
2. Man was not, however, passive. He chose and he acted. (Gen 3:6)
3. God was not (removed) from this, He withheld grace for resistance and protection from temptation, that He could have given.
4. The immediate cause was man’s desire for dominion, without divine restraint.
5. An underlying cause was man’s dependency and mutability. Thus, our attitude should be that of Jesus Christ in Mat 11:26 and Luk 10:21.

IV. THE RESULTS OF ADAM’S FALL

1. The entire human race fell and died in Adam. (Rom 5:12, 1Co 15:21-22)
2. Immediate effects upon Adam and Eve.

i. Spiritual death.
ii. Corruption of the nature.
iii. Judicial guilt before God.

3. The long range effects upon the human race.

i. Death (spiritual) which involved.

a) Judicial guilt before God.
b) The corruption of his affection.
c) The perversion of his conscience.
d) The enslavement of his nature, (including will).

ii. Physical death.
iii. Adam’s fall compared to Eve’s. (1Ti 2:14)

a) Eve sinned in ignorance, (not innocence).
b) Adam fell by cognizant transgression and Eve fell in him.