The Fall And Salvation Of Humanity Series

The Fall and Salvation of Man

Christianity 101 series

CCCAG September 29th, 2019

Scripture- Genesis 3

Video- A graphic representation of the first sin committed by humanity.

Podcast- YouTube search- The Fall of Man

I liked it so much I wanted you to see it, and it will help introduce our subject and save some time from me having to go through it again as I know we have been talking about Genesis 3 a lot.

If you have been here most Sunday’s this month, it might seem that we are touching the same subjects over again.

That’s on purpose. This series is Christianity 101, and we have to build the right foundation so that when we get to the harder things about our faith, we are building on a firm foundation of biblical truth. - you don’t grab some wood and build a house on an empty plot of land- you have to build a foundation first otherwise that house will fall over at the first heavy rain or wind.

The same is true with spiritual things- we have to have a firm foundation to build on, so in this series we will refer back to Genesis 3 a lot because everything else in the bible is a response to what happened in the beginning.

That video was great example of what happened in the beginning and showed what we call the fall of humanity.

But the good news of Christianity- God didn’t leave us fallen- God loved us so much that he provided a way for us to be saved.

Let’s ask His blessing this morning-

Prayer

I want to start by answering a question that is asked by the world to us in the church- the people who follow Jesus and believe in the bible-

I. What was the big deal about them eating fruit of the forbidden tree?

But that’s not even the real question- underlying that question is this question-

“Is God really so petty as to condemn all of humanity because of one seemingly very little mistake? Wasn’t this a huge over reaction?”

We saw in the movie fruit was an apple- that’s just Tradition. It’s not found in the biblical record so it’s conjecture of exactly what type of fruit it was. However, it’s wrong to focus on the tree, or it’s physical fruit.

When God gave that command- “do not eat of that tree”. God was speaking to Adam. What was Adam? Was he merely human made of flesh- a higher form of animal like everything else around him?

No, God created Adam, and then Eve in His image, and in His likeness. God is not a man, God is a spirit. Therefore, when God was speaking to Adam He was speaking to a spirit inhabiting a physical body. Part of God’s image with Adam and Eve was a close, intimate connection with the Holy Spirit- the third person of the trinity. In essence, the source of their spiritual life was plugged straight into God.

I don’t know if you noticed in the video, but after they both ate of the fruit, the light within and around them disappeared. That was a dramatic representation of the spirit of God leaving them. The bible says their eyes were opened- that is true as for the first time they saw the world only through their physical eyes and not with their spiritual eyes.

That was the fruit, or consequence of their actions- there was no physical poison or power in that tree or it’s fruit, therefore their consequence wasn’t immediately physical.

The consequence came spiritually. Their spirits were created with the image of God stamped upon their entire being, and when they lost connection to that source of power- it was like trying to run an electric oven off of a 9 volt battery. It won’t even power the oven light. That’s why the consequence of that seemingly minor act of disobedience grew within them and their family, and within one generation a simple bite of a fruit turned into murder with Cain and Abel.

That’s the consequence of the fall. It wasn’t about the fruit, or the tree.

Ultimately, The fall of humanity happened because Adam and Eve failed to believe God’s word was true.

The whole rest of the Old Testament is God progressively revealing Himself to humanity again and putting into action a plan that would eventually allow humanity to exist, intimately connected with HIM again.

One of the ways we see this progressive revelation in God putting His salvation plan into action is within something called dispensations.

Dispensational theology is one of the tools for interpreting the bible.(as it something called covenantal theology)

Break down the bible into Dispensations are a way to understand how God progressively revealed Himself to humanity again. This tool explains why God seemingly, several times, changes what is required of humanity to gain his favor. Most of the dispensations are found in the book of Genesis.