Our questions (#1-16 of the 1692 Baptist Catechism, Collins) thus far have focused on the glories of God and His Word. Now we turn a hard corner to talk about the Fall and its consequences. Many people seem to want to ask Adam, “Dude, what were you thinking? Look at all of the pain it caused.” I don’t have that question. I understand rebellion and its consequences in my life. My question for Adam would be, “What did you think and feel like the next morning when you woke up and realized that you would not be walking in the garden that evening with God, discussing the day?” From intimacy to estrangement, what a harsh turn self-inflicted. Question #18 defines sin as transgression. For most of us that is not helpful as a definition. “Trans” means across. “Gress” means step. So, transgression means to step across or go over the line. God had clearly defined the line: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) But Adam’s reply came at his wife’s urging, and his full and willful rebellion: “…she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
Thus, the beginning was ended, and the end began. Earthly bliss was only a concept in the minds of Adam’s offspring, while heartache and loneliness and longing for God are the norm. But for all that, the pronouncement of the sentence included an intimation of better days and a better life: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15) Satan, possessing the serpent, would receive a fatal headshot for his troubles, the poison extracted, ironically through the serpent bruising our Savior’s heel.
Question 17: Did our first parents continue in the glad obedience for which they were created?
Answer: No, but desiring to be like God, our first parents forsook the obedience of faith, ate of the forbidden tree, sinned against God, and fell from the innocence in which they were created.
Genesis 3:1-7; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 5:12.
Question 18: What is sin?
Answer: Sin is transgression of the revealed will of God which teaches that we are to act in perfect holiness from a heart of faith to the glory of God.
1 John 3:4; Romans 5:13; 14:23; 1 Peter 1:16; Matt, 5:48; 1 Cor. 10:31.
Question 19: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
Answer: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Genesis 3:6, 12, 13.
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