Unpacking the Fall: Understanding Sin, Rebellion, and the Biblical Metanarrative of What Went Wrong
Welcome back to the second week of our Foundations Course, where we continue exploring The Story of Scripture, focusing this week on the crucial component known as the Fall. Last week, in studying Creation, we introduced the concept of a metanarrative—a system of beliefs about the world that forms our worldview. Every robust worldview must answer four primary questions: Where did I come from? What went wrong? How do we fix it? Where is history headed?. Having focused on the creation story to answer the first question—that God created everything good, including man, who was designed for union with God and to reflect His character—we now turn to the second, most essential question: What went wrong?.
This exploration of the Fall will involve several key steps: defining what sin is, diving into Genesis 3 to examine the multitude of ways sin entered God’s creation, exploring the resulting consequences, marveling at the immediate grace and mercy shown by God, and finally, looking at the significant role the Fall plays within the overall metanarrative of scripture.
Defining the Darkness: What Exactly is Sin?
When we turn to Genesis 3, we read the narrative of Adam and Eve disobeying a specific command from God. While this act of disobedience is certainly sin, the sources emphasize that sin is far broader and more complex than merely breaking a rule.
Fundamentally, sin is rebellion against God and a reversal of God’s order. It is a comprehensive failure to properly regard and honor the Divine.
John Piper provide an extensive list defining sin by describing what happens when we fail to honor God in His various attributes:
• The glory of God not honored.
• The holiness of God not reverenced.
• The greatness of God not admired.
• The power of God not praised.
• The truth of God not sought.
• The wisdom of God not esteemed.
• The beauty of God not treasured.
• The goodness of God not savored.
• The faithfulness of God not trusted.
• The promises of God not believed.
• The commandments of God not obeyed.
• The justice of God not respected.
• The wrath of God not feared.
• The grace of God not cherished.
• The presence of God not prized.
• The person of God not loved.
Many of these elements—the rejection of God’s truth, the denial of His promises, and the failure to obey His commandments—occur within the narrative of Genesis 3.
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The Reversal of God’s Order: A Deep Dive into Genesis 3
The Genesis 3 account is rife with instances where God’s established order is reversed and His creatures rebel against Him. Delving deeply into the first six verses reveals nine specific acts of rebellion or reversal that lead up to the catastrophic action of eating the forbidden fruit.
Questioning the Word (Genesis 3:1)
The story begins with the serpent, described as more crafty than any other beast the Lord God had made. In this single verse, we see three distinct instances of reversal:
1. Animal Seeking Dominion Over Mankind: God had commanded man to rule over the animals, but the serpent, an animal, approaches a human (Eve) to gain dominion over her. This constitutes a reversal of the established order.
2. Serpent Approaches Eve Instead of Adam: Adam was created first and bore the primary responsibility to keep, protect, and guard the garden. By approaching Eve instead of Adam, the serpent again reverses God’s order.
3. The Word of God is Called into Question: The serpent initiates the dialogue by asking, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’”. The serpent is trying to get Eve to doubt God’s provision, suggesting that God might be holding something back or had not provided all that they needed.
Failure to Defend (Genesis 3:2-3)
When Eve responds, listing the restriction, we see further complications and failures, particularly on Adam's part, who was suggested to have been with Eve during this entire exchange.
1. Adam Fails to Protect and Defend Eve: Adam should have defended Eve against the serpent’s malicious counsel.
2. Adam Fails to Protect and Defend God’s Word: Adam had the responsibility to defend God’s speech as the supreme authority.
3. God’s Truth Was Not Esteemed: Eve states that they were not to eat the fruit, nor were they to touch it, lest they die. By adding the restriction about touching the fruit, Eve effectively placed her words on the same level as God’s. Rather than focusing on the abundance they possessed, Eve focused on the single prohibition.
Doubting the Divine (Genesis 3:4-5)
The serpent continues his attack by directly contradicting God’s warning and impugning His character:
1. The Promises of God Are Doubted: The serpent directly challenges the divine promise when he declares, “You will not surely die”.
2. The Preeminence of God Is Questioned: The serpent argues that by eating the fruit, they will be like God, knowing good and evil and thus co-equal with Him in knowledge. This attacks God's unique position.
The Great Rebellion (Genesis 3:6)
Verse 6 is presented as the critical moment where the rebellion against the Creator comes fully to the foreground.
1. Man Elevates Himself Above God: Adam and Eve dethroned God and elevated themselves as the judge of right and wrong. They effectively placed humans over God, deciding for themselves what was good.
2. Man Rejects God’s Word as Ultimately Authoritative: This sin is ultimately a rejection of God’s Word as the supreme authority. (The solution to this problem, to be explored in future discussions, will be the embrace of God’s Word as preeminent).
3. Eve Leads Adam: Following the serpent’s approach to Eve (a prior reversal), Eve now tempts her husband to sin, despite Adam being created first.
This act of rebellion was not simply a small act of disobedience; it was a profound assertion of human autonomy over the Creator.
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Immediate Consequences: Blame, Shame, and Judicial Pronouncements (Genesis 3:8-19)
The rebellion brought drastic consequences.
When God approaches in the garden, Adam and Eve immediately hide themselves from His presence. God calls out to Adam first, asking, “Where are you?”. God addresses Adam because he was created first, was the keeper of the garden, and bore primary responsibility as the representative, or federal head, of humanity. Adam's obedience or disobedience would be credited to the rest of humanity.
When God calls him to account, Adam responds by shifting the blame. He not only blames Eve (“The woman whom you gave to be with me”) but also blames God ("the woman you gave me"). When God turns to Eve, she blames the serpent, an animal, even though she was given dominion over animals. Everything is turned upside down, marked by one sinful act after another.
The consequences of these rebellions and reversals are laid out judicially, beginning with the Serpent.
Consequences for the Serpent: The Protoevangelium (Genesis 3:14-15)
God starts the judicial pronouncements with the animal:
1. Lowest of the Animals: The serpent is cursed above all livestock and beasts of the field and must crawl on the ground, making him closest to the dust.
2. Enmity and Ultimate Defeat: God puts enmity between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring. The source highlights that the word "offspring" is singular, pointing toward a singular future offspring of the woman—Jesus the Messiah.
3. The First Good News: This passage is known as the protoevangelium, or the first gospel. It is a promise that the future singular offspring of the woman will defeat the serpent (Satan) by delivering a fatal blow to his head, while the offspring will endure a non-fatal blow to the heel.
Consequences for Eve (Genesis 3:16)
The consequences for Eve were twofold:
1. Pain in Childbirth: God promised to surely multiply her pain in childbearing.
2. Relational Friction: Relational friction is introduced between husband and wife, symbolized by the statement that her desire shall be contrary to her husband, but he shall rule over her.
Consequences for Adam (Genesis 3:17-19)
The consequences for Adam primarily related to his work and his life expectancy:
1. Difficult Work: Though there was always work before the Fall, now work becomes hard. Adam must eat bread by the sweat of his face.
2. Cursed Creation: The ground is cursed because of Adam, bringing forth thorns and thistles. Creation and man are now at odds.
3. Introduction of Death: Adam is sentenced to return to the ground, for he was taken out of it; “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. Death is introduced into the world because of sin, manifesting immediately spiritually, and eventually physically.
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Mercy in the Midst of Judgment: The Appearance of Grace (Genesis 3:20-24)
Despite the severity of the consequences, the narrative reveals signs of mercy and grace. All is not lost.
Restoration of Promises and Covering of Shame
The signs of hope begin immediately after the pronouncements:
1. Trust in God’s Promises: In verse 20, Adam calls his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living, even though she had not yet borne any children. This demonstrated Adam’s trust in God’s promise that humanity would continue through Eve's offspring.
2. An Act of Grace: In verse 21, God shows grace for the first time. Adam and Eve had attempted to cover their shame with fig leaves, a man-made solution that was never sufficient. God, out of love and mercy, provided garments of skin for them.
This provision of skins would have required an animal sacrifice. The first animal sacrifice mentioned in the Bible was not performed by man, but by God Himself. This action established that death and blood had to be spilled to cover over, or atone for, sin, and God provided the sacrifice and the covering for the nakedness of Adam and Eve.
Separation and Protection
The covering for sin does not, however, eliminate its consequences. Sin still results in separation from God’s presence of blessing.
1. Separation from God's Presence: Adam and Eve are sent out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which they were taken, signifying their removal from the Garden of God’s presence. God then places the cherubim and a flaming sword at the east of the garden to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Sinners cannot dwell with a Holy God.
2. Punishment and Protection: While this expulsion is a punishment, it is also an act of protection. The presence of a Holy God is now dangerous to them, capable of consuming them. Furthermore, the expulsion is a protection against eternal suffering. If unredeemed man were allowed to eat from the Tree of Life and become eternal, there would be no end to their internal and external suffering.
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Living in the Shadow of the Fall: Ongoing Consequences of Sin
The Fall was not merely a singular historical event; we live with the reality of the Fall in ourselves and its consequences every day. The consequences of sin are pervasive and severe.
Scriptural analysis reveals the continuous ramifications of sin in the human condition:
• We are described as being dead in trespasses and children of wrath.
• Those living according to the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God.
• We are, apart from Christ, without hope.
• Sin manifests as the wrath of God revealed, resulting in darkened hearts and making us foolish.
• Ultimately, the consequence is being deserving of death.
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The Big Picture: The Role of the Fall in God’s Story
Having explored the painful details and immediate fallout of the Fall, it is crucial not to lose the big picture: What is the role of the Fall in God’s overarching story, or metanarrative?.
The Fall serves as a necessary precondition for the satisfying resolution that the story will later bring. Every good story includes a great problem or disaster that brings tension into the narrative, which is later brought to resolution.
One important question is whether mankind messed up God’s plans or if the Fall was part of the plan the whole time. It turns out that the Fall was part of the plan the whole time because it is necessary to have the great resolution to the story and the satisfying end.
Magnifying God’s Greatness
The most significant role of the Fall is that it magnifies the greatness of God. The purpose of the Fall is to set up the conditions of tension from which God can bring light out of darkness. This distance between the darkness of sin and the light of God shows how great the light truly is; the Glory of God shines brightest against the darkness of sin.
Furthermore, the Fall enables humanity to reflect the character of God in a greater way than would have been possible otherwise:
1. Experience of Attributes: We need the Fall to experience God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, patience, forbearance, and the greater love that can only be shown toward enemies.
2. Fuller Imaging of God: Redemption allows us to experience these attributes, which enables us to image God more fully. Only a person who has experienced the consequences of sin can reflect the fullness of God back to Him. For example, a person who has never experienced grace cannot reflect that characteristic as an image of God. The Fall allows us to experience the fullness of God’s heart, delight in it, and reflect it to others.
The introduction of sin provides the context for redemption, setting the stage for the next crucial question in the metanarrative: How do we fix it? The hint provided in the sources suggests that the solution and reversal of the problem will involve the embrace of God’s Word as preeminent.
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Conclusion: The Path to Redemption
We began by recognizing the Fall as the answer to the worldview question, "What went wrong?". We have witnessed sin defined not merely as disobedience, but as a comprehensive rebellion against God and a rejection of His glory and authority. We tracked the insidious reversals of God’s order through Genesis 3, from the serpent’s crafty question to Adam’s failure to defend and Eve’s ultimate action.
The immediate consequences of the Fall—pain, relational friction, difficult work, separation, and death—are felt both immediately in the Garden and continuously in our fallen world. Yet, interwoven with this judgment is the immediate appearance of God’s grace—the provision of covering through the first sacrifice and the promise of a singular offspring who will ultimately defeat the enemy (the Protoevangelium).
The Fall, though tragic, was ultimately part of God’s plan, creating the tension necessary for the subsequent resolution. It is only against the backdrop of sin that the depth of God’s attributes, such as mercy and grace, can be fully experienced, allowing humanity to reflect the image of God in an even greater capacity. The story now moves forward, asking the most hopeful question of all: How do we fix it?.