on 9 June 2021
Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.
I once went to the church youth group of a friend when I was a teenager. The Minister there was very eccentric and welcomed me infront of the group during the meeting part. He asked me who my father was? to which I replied ‘Alan’ and the Minister said ‘No Adam’. I thought he’d misheard and said ‘He’s Alan’, again the minister stated ‘No, Adam’. I was flushed with embarrassment and said slightly louder ‘Alan’ and he emphatically replied ‘Adam’. ‘Alan’ ‘Adam’ ‘Alan’ ‘Adam’. It went back and forth in a rally – my friend who’d brought me to his youth group and the girls he was trying to impress were mortified. Eventually the Minister made the point that for all of us our father was ‘Adam’. It was the introduction to his talk and though theologically correct at 14, I didn’t particularly appreciate the point he was making.
God gave to Adam and Eve, our first parents freedom of their own will. That is they had the capacity to choose good and evil, there was no external compulsion placed upon it. No effect of sin to ruin it and so Genesis 3:6 is the one verse which forever changed the world, nothing has ever been the same since it.
In Genesis 1 the scale is cosmic, the universe is created and then ‘Google earth’ like Genesis 2 focuses in on the creation of humanity but in Genesis 3 the camera slows down and verse 6 it goes in to slow motion
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6 The writer deliberately slows the narrative down
She sees that the tree is
i) good for food
ii) a delight to the eyes
ii) desired to make you wise
So she takes, eats, gives to her husband who is by her side and he eats.
It’s a tragic fall. When we see an old person fall in the street, we do not think that is a little thing. There is that foreboding sense of horror, things slow down and we feel an instant sadness and concern. Pity wells up within us
The fall of Adam and Eve is an horrific thing for its effect on humanity but the catechism rightly puts our concern in its right place. Their sin was against God and God alone. As David writes “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight