The meaning of man's fall and the results of disobedience

3. The meaning of mans fall and the results of disobedience

Before we consider Gods wonderful rescue operation, it is essential that we should understand something of the extent of mans ruin, and Gods problem in accomplishing his salvation.

We should know what man might have become, and what he actually became. He might have received eternal life and moved onward into Gods higher purposes for His creation, but all this was forfeited - the way to the Tree of Life was now closed to him, and, instead, man became a disordered and disoriented being. Instead of knowing the governing and expanding life of God in his spirit, he died spiritually and became alienated from the life of God. He had lost God as his friend and made Him his enemy. He was on his own now. Having chosen self-government instead of Gods government, he was now ruled by his emotions, thoughts and ideas, and his self-will, his ego, had taken over. His spiritual faculties, such as his conscience, were now in a prison. He no longer functioned as God intended. Discord, not harmony and the law of sin and death was now at work within him. We might say that now he was ready for the psychologist, but alas, humanistic psychology would provide no real answers. At best, it could provide only palliatives and stop-gap measures, at worst, false solutions. The gospel of Christ alone provides real answers to mans condition.

We should know that we now belong to a rejected race. Rejected, yet loved as Gods creation, ruined though we be, and loved for what we may yet become. Rejected, but not abandoned. Driven out of the Garden, barred from the Tree of Life, yet with the promise of a Deliverer. Rejected, because ruined by sin and death, marred and useless for His purpose, yet the object of His great love, a love so very different from ours - a holy, unsentimental love, concerned for our highest good, a love which would provide a way of escape from condemnation and sin.

We should know something of our desperate situation. We are guilty and condemned as rebels and breakers of Gods laws. In a day when sin is explained away and the idea of hell and judgement ridiculed, even by religious leaders, we do well to remember that it was the Lord Jesus Himself who warned us, more than anyone else, that we are in terrible danger of everlasting punishment and the wrath to come. In love, God has provided a way of escape but, regardless of what men may say, humanity remains under the shadow of His holy anger.

We are both Satans allies and his captives, under his sway and doing his will, for in going our own way we are really going his way. We are suffering from the incurable cancer of sin and self-centeredness. The poison of sin is in our bloodstream. We are spiritually dead, that is, separated from the living God. We are without hope, with no future other than judgement, without purpose in life or justification for our existence. We have fallen out of Gods creation plan and the life of fallen man is ultimately meaningless.

As rebels, we need forgiveness and to be reconciled to God against whom we have sinned. As captives, we need rescuing from Satans clutches. As incapable and incurable, we need deliverance and healing. As poisoned, we need cleansing we might say, we need a spiritual blood-transfusion. As dead, we need to be raised up and given life. As hopeless, we need deliverance from judgement, and we need purpose and meaning in this life and in the next. As rejected, ruined, marred and useless, we need acceptance, now gloriously available in and through the Lord Jesus Christ - only the radiance of His glory can destroy the cancer of sin within us.

All this then, is provided in Gods great plan of salvation. But note well, our situation demands radical measures.

The idea that we need only reforming, merely a helping hand to do better, is quite mistaken. Some people present the Christian way just in terms of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and in soft words about the love of a God who forgives and wins everyone in the end. Others see the message as a kind of high endeavor to bring in the kingdom of God on earth. These people proclaim a false gospel. God is the Father of all men only as their Creator, and only as fellow creatures are all men brothers. In the New Testament, God is only the Father of those who have been born again, and these alone are brothers in Christ. From the New Testament we know that many people will not be saved, though all could be on Gods terms. From the New Testament we know that Christ Himself will bring in the Kingdom of God on earth at His second coming, and it is not the Churchs commission to try to do so now, nor to Christianize this world. The true task of the Church before His return is to be His witness and ambassador, so that, through the Gospel, God may gather out of the nations a people for His name, a new race, and bring many sons to glory. The true church is Gods alternative society which is intended to stand in stark contrast to this fallen world.

Many people are pinning their hopes on religion in some form or other; but religion is only the expression of fallen mans religious nature and it cannot save. The popular idea that all religions really worship the same God and that all lead to Him and to heaven, is quite untrue. Further, faith in religious experiences of any kind for salvation will be fatal - only Jesus saves.

To trust in the false ideas mentioned above is to be tragically mistaken. Christ is the only way. Christ, and Him crucified, is the heart of the true Gospel.

It is only through amazing grace that we can be forgiven. We need a mighty deliverer to rescue us, a wonderful surgeon and physician to operate on and heal us, a miracle-working God to raise us from sin and death to a new life with a boundless future.

Unless we appreciate the depth of our need and what salvation really involves, we shall not proceed very far in building on Gods foundation.