Do you remember when you became aware of your sin before God?
Do you remember the increasing dread of realization that you deserve hell?
It took months of my friend talking about God and sharing the gospel with me as well as listening to the word preached on my own for me to arrive there. However, by God’s grace that is where he put me; under conviction for my sin and unable to do anything about it.
This is where God put Adam and Eve. They sinned and broke God’s law in the Garden and upon doing so had no better action than to hide from him in shame. (Genesis 3) It was God who questioned Adam and Eve and brought confession from them. They were convicted of their own sin by their own admission. He proceeded to pronounce judgment on the Serpent, Eve, and finally Adam for their sin.
Yet with Adam and Eve there is a glimmer of hope. In verse 15 God foreshadows the coming war between man and sin. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” We know this to be fully and finally fulfilled in Christ. Christ was not fully and finally injured. Death could not keep him. Hence, his heel was bruised. He most assuredly crushed the power of the serpent at the cross. He crushed the head of the Serpent under his foot by his atoning sacrifice on the cross and victorious resurrection. This foreshadowing of redemption in verse 15 is called the protoevangelion.
Was this a plan or a reaction to our sin?
The question often then comes up; was this all in God’s plan or was this a reaction to our rebellion?
It was most definitely a plan. Let the Bible speak for itself. Acts 2:22-24 says: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”
Definite plan and foreknowledge. Jesus was delivered up to crucifixion and his subsequent resurrection according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. The fall was not a surprise, Jesus was not plan B, and God knows and decrees the end from the beginning. He is God. He is knows everything. He is all powerful. He does not change. Not only that, the redemption of sinners is trinitarian. “It is the Father who conceives, plans, and wills the work of salvation; it is the Son who guarantees it and effectively acquires it; it is the Spirit who implements and applies it.” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3 , 195.
A Covenant of Grace
He has made a covenant of Grace which he guarantees by his blood. God does not lie nor change his mind. This redemption is sure. He planned from the foundation of the world who would be His and how He would redeem them. He elects, calls, regenerates, and saves those whom He chooses. Many hear this and accuse God of being a puppet master or of reducing humanity to a robot like state. Not so.
“At the same time, the covenant of grace also allows the rational and moral nature of human beings to come into their own. Here it differs from election, in which humans are strictly passive. The covenant of grace describes the road by which elect people attain their destiny; it is the channel by which the stream of election flows toward eternity. Christ sends his Spirit to instruct and enable his own so that they consciously and voluntarily consent to this covenant. The covenant of grace comes with the demand of faith and repentance, which may in some sense be said to be its “conditions.” Yet, this must not be misunderstood. God himself supplies what he demands; the covenant of grace is thus truly unilateral—it comes from God, who designed, defines, maintains, and implements it. It is, however, designed to become bilateral, to be consciously and voluntarily accepted by believers in the power of God. In the covenant of grace, God’s honor is not at the expense of but for the benefit of human persons by renewing the whole person and restoring personal freedom and dignity.” Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, 195–196.
After the fall we are unable to approach God. We are totally unable to choose him. (Romans 3) Yet as Bavinck says, God supplies what he demands. Praise God! Without his sovereign action, we would remain dead in our tresspasses and sins.
Hi there, I’d just like to thank you for your ministry through writing – I’ve been following the blog here via RSS since the 30 Day pray for your church series and have been very blessed.
I do have a question on this topic of God’s sovereignty vs man’s original sin. I think this question takes many different forms – as you mentioned, was this all in God’s plan or was this a reaction to our rebellion? Or in another form, how did God’s perfect creation get tempted into sin if they were made perfect? Logical links are quickly drawn in that because creation could be tempted to sin, hence creation could not be perfect, and hence the Creator is not sovereign. I would even say that we hear traces of this question in questions like “if God was sovereign, why does He allow suffering” and so on.
And I’ve heard these questions tackled from many different angles, from the one you picked (that this was part of the plan, and in it it shows God’s love and sovereignty), in Ravi Zacharias’ approach on the supreme ethic being love and hence freedom of the will (autonomy), in Piper’s approach of it working for God’s glory. But it ultimately sounds like the answer boils down to – we don’t know, but we trust that His word is true and His sovereignty cannot be compromised. And the argument for that is that it is simply impossible for creation to understand the Creator, and as we see in Deut 29:29, there are “secret things” and “things that are revealed to us” and we should respond appropriately to His law that has been revealed to us.
My question is – is this understanding coherent and correct, or is there more to it? I ask this because it is difficult to navigate the pride in my own heart and in others as I try to minister to them and myself – “I don’t know” seems to be a dead end, one commonly seen as waving the white flag and synonymous to the loss of an argument.
Thank you once again for your ministry 🙂
Good afternoon!
It’s commendable to say “I don’t know” when you don’t know. If that’s where you are, be honest and say that. We love to have the answers and to boil things down precisely. I certainly do. However, I have to swallow pride and say or admit that I don’t know plenty of times.
Ravi and I naturally disagree though we are brothers in Christ. There is room for disagreement while maintaining the bonds of fellowship.
I do not follow your comment about God not being perfect if creation fell. God is perfect, not us. We are not made perfect, nor were Adam and Eve. It was possible for Adam and Eve not to sin, whereas after the fall the taint of sin meant it was impossible not to sin. Only in glory after our resurrection will it be impossible for us not to sin. Still, this doesn’t demean God’s perfection. I agree with PIper that it was God’s plan for us to fall and thus need redemption which displays God’s glory.
It is wise to admit that we don’t know. There is much we don’t know about God. There is much we think we know that I am sure He will set straight in Heaven. Until then, we study Him, worship Him, and eagerly await the day we go to be with Him!