Of the Fall of Man, of Sin and of the Punishment Thereof

1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. (Gen. 3:13, 2 Cor. 11:3) This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory. (Rom. 11:32)

a) The confession is not only attesting to the fall, but to two historic individuals, Adam and Eve. Neo-orthodoxy, strapped in its ‘rationalism’ tries to remain connected to ‘the historic’ by agreeing with the doctrine of the fall, but denying the existence of a literal ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’.

b) Satan is not actually mentioned in Genesis. But 1 John 3:8 teaches that the devil has sinned from the beginning, and that he was involved in the murder of Abel (vv 10-12). In Rev 12:9 he is called ‘that serpent of old’, and in Rev 20:2 he is called the dragon. If we take a look at all of the data from the Bible, we can make an educated guess that Satan, before he fell, was a seraphim, a heavenly winged serpent.

c) While man was created in original righteousness, he was, unlike God, mutable. God left him to the freedom of his own will, and in withholding sustaining grace (which He was under no obligation to maintain), man abused that freedom. God did not withdraw from man that ability he had to fulfill his duty, nor did he infuse any vicious inclinations into his heart – He only withheld that further grace that would have infallibly prevented his fall.

d) The nature of the sin of eating of the forbidden fruit corresponds to the sin of ‘the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life’ – 1 John 2:16. This is ‘all that is in the world’ which we are commanded not to love.

e) God permitted this because He was pleased to do so. And in His infinite wisdom, He orders these things as well as all that came from them, in such a way as to redound to His glory.

2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, (Gen. 3:6–8, Eccl. 7:29, Rom. 3:23) and so became dead in sin, (Gen. 2:17, Eph. 2:1) and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. (Tit. 1:15, Jer. 17:9, Rom. 3:10–18)

3. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; (Gen. 1:27–28, Gen. 2:16–17, Acts 17:26, Rom. 5:12,15–19, 1 Cor. 15:21–22,45,49) and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. (Ps. 51:5, Gen. 5:3, Job 14:4, Job 15:14)

4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, (Rom. 5:6, Rom. 8:7, Rom. 7:18, Col. 1:21) and wholly inclined to all evil, (Gen. 6:5, Gen. 8:21, Rom. 3:10–12) do proceed all actual transgressions. (James 1:14–15, Eph. 2:2–3, Matt. 15:19)

5. This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain in those that are regenerated; (1 John 1:8,10, Rom. 7:14,17–18,23, James 3:2, Prov. 20:9, Eccl. 7:20) and although it be, through Christ, pardoned, and mortified; yet both itself, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin. (Rom. 7:5–8,25, Gal. 5:17)

6. Every sin, both original and actual, being a transgression of the righteous law of God, and contrary thereunto, (1 John 3:4) doth in its own nature, bring guilt upon the sinner, (Rom. 2:15, Rom. 3:9,19) whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God, (Eph. 2:3) and curse of the law, (Gal. 3:10) and so made subject to death, (Rom. 6:23) with all miseries spiritual, (Eph. 4:18) temporal, (Rom. 8:20, Lam. 3:39) and eternal. (Matt. 25:41, 2 Thess. 1:9)