Man’s fall and fallen state

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A. MAN’S FALL AND THE FALLEN MAN

1. Original Man (Adam) Sinned And Died Spiritually

        • Read the story of man’s fall in Gen 3:1-6.

 but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Gen 2:17). 

        • And He has made you alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins, (Eph 2:1).

You may argue that man did not die after having sinned; they still walked around, spoke to God, etc. Yes, physically they did not die immediately; that happened after a period, but as God looks at sin, their lives were totally corrupted by their single act of sin and they would certainly get worse and worse. There was, humanly speaking, no hope of recovering to their original state.

All unregenerate men are spiritually dead and physically they are slowly dying. Anything that is dead, decomposes, getting worse and worse and man is unable to restore anything that is dead, i.e. a dead animal, to life. Likewise, man cannot restore spiritual life to a person that has sinned.

2. Adam’s Descendants/Posterity Are Spiritually Dead

        • Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned: (Rom 5:12).

Adam’s sin was passed on to his children and through them to all mankind. All people come into this world infected by sin.

        • You may argue that you are a very respectable person, not murdering, not stealing, living honourably with your wife, but God has a different view: anything containing a speck of sin, is considered dead by a holy God for it cannot be restored to holiness. Sin is like a deadly virus or the poison of a mamba snake which, when it enters the bloodstream, takes over and kills the victim.

Poison may take a while, but the outcome, if not treated, is death. Likewise, sin is a deadly poison and whoever gets infected, is on his way to physical death as well as eternal spiritual death. For that reason, God writes off the infected person immediately when he gets infected.

  1. Unregenerate Man No Longer Resembles God
        • And Jehovah smelled a sweet odor. And Jehovah said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. … (Gen 8:21)
        • Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psa 51:5).
        • The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jer 17:9).
  1. Unregenerate Man Is Under The Devil’s Control And he Is Their Father

You are of the devil as father, and the lusts of your father you will do. … (Joh 8:44). 

  1. Unregenerate Man Is An Enemy Of God

See Joh 8:44 supra: Since the devil is an enemy of God, and man is his child, man is an enemy of God if he is not born as a child of God.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever desires to be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (Jas 4:4).

Since all unregenerate people are part of the world system of thinking and doing, they are friends with the world and enemies of God.

Doing some “good deeds” to try and earn God’s favour, is like a man’s enemy handing him bribes over the fence; God will not be bribed. If you do not surrender your life to him, you remain his enemy and you good deeds will be thrown in the dustbin; they stink.

  1. Unregenerate Man Is Under A Curse

Gal 3:10  For as many as are out of works of the Law, these are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.”

  1. The Anger And Judgment Of God Is On The Unregenerate Man

For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Rom 1:18).

But we know that whatever things the Law says, it says to those who are under the Law; so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be under judgment before God, (Rom 3:19).

  1. Man Is Unable To Restore Himself To Become Holy/Righteous/In Right Standing With God

… because by the works of the Law none of all flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law is the knowledge of sin. (Rom 3:20).

… not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, (Tit 3:5).

B. THE STATE OF A CHILD

 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you loathe shall be forsaken before both its kings. (Isa 7:16).

A small child cannot sin against God because he is unable to discern God’s will. Naughtiness and being disobedient to his parents, is not sinning against God. As he grows, he becomes aware of God and of God’s will. When he then goes against what he senses to be God’s will, he sins, and death enters into him as it entered into Adam and Eve. He then becomes a sinner. Before that, he is innocent, although he inherited Adam’s sinful nature. At what age this happens, only God knows. Once it has happened, he must be born again to be reconciled with God and to become a child of God and citizen of his new Kingdom.

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