Pastor Zach's Blog

ABC Extra – How Could God Allow the Fall?

April 12, 2010 at 4:45 am 2 comments

This weekend, we continued our series in worship and ABC titled, “Five Family Fiascos!  Is There Hope For Us?”  This weekend’s topic was, “When You’re Caught in Blame.”  Blame, as we learned this weekend, is as old as the Fall itself.  God gives to Adam and Eve a single command: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).  But Adam and Eve transgress this commandment.  And when they do, rather than confessing their blame before God, they try to “pass the buck” of their sin:

The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13)

Adam and Eve, though they ‘fess up to their sin, refuse to take responsibility for their sin.  They are all too ready to blame someone else for their failing.  Adam blames Eve.  Eve blames the snake.  It’s a tragic – if not even a somewhat comical – scene.

One of the perennial questions I receive concerning the story of the Fall is, “If God knew that Adam and Eve would break His command and bring sin and pain and death and despair into this world, then why would God create them – and, by extension, us – in the first place?  Why couldn’t God just not have created anything and saved us all a lot of heartache?”  Though I would certainly not presume to try to answer every facet of this question, for we are not called to “fathom the mysteries of God and probe the limits of the Almighty” (Job 11:7), there is an answer, I believe, that at least partially and appropriately answers this familiar inquiry.  Perhaps an analogy will help us understand God’s willingness to allow us – and Himself – to endure the Fall of Genesis 3.

Before a husband and wife have children, they are no doubt vaguely aware that raising a child can be a burden at times – both for them and for the child!  There will be problems which call for a heavy disciplinarian hand.  There will be times at which a child feels as though his parents do not understand him.  And yet, countless couples have chosen to become parents regardless of the future problems they know they will encounter!  Why?  Because parents have a strange, truly indescribable way of loving their children before they’re even conceived.  The prospect of having a son or daughter excites them.  And so they are willing to take on the pain of the future they know they will soon have to endure for the child they love.

So it is with our heavenly Father.  According to His omniscience, God knew all about the Fall and all the pain it would bring into our world long before the Fall ever happened.  And yet He created us anyway.  Why?  Because He loved us even before He created us and so was willing to endure the pain and suffering He knew we would cause.  As the apostle Paul writes:  “God chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5).  God loved us before He made us, Paul says.  Indeed, God’s love for us was so deep that He even made arrangements for our salvation from creation.  This is reflected in Revelation, where we read of “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).  According to eternity, God was planning to send Jesus to be slain to forgive our sins from the very beginning of the world.  Thus is the depth of the love of our God.

The Fall of Adam and Eve was truly the greatest fiasco this world has ever known.  For from this Fall springs every subsequent fall into sin and fiasco from sin.  And living under the effects of the Fall is not always fun.  And yet, God’s love for us is stronger than the Fall.  And so, when you fall, rather than trying to pass the blame on to others for your sin, pass the blame on to the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.  For He willingly takes on your blame and takes away your sin.

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Entry filed under: ABC Extra. Tags: Adam and Eve, Blame, Genesis 3:1-13, The Fall.