This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Dr. Wellum’s fifth session in his series, The Bible’s Big Picture, given on Sunday, October 11, 2009.
Everyone admits that something is wrong with the human race. It is hard to study history, read the local newspaper, and even think about one’s own heart, without acknowledging that the human race is deeply flawed. In literature, film, and other means, people have wrestled with the nature of the human problem, but how one explains what our problem is, is completely tied to one’s overall theology and worldview. It is not an overstatement to say that all non-Christian views think of the human problem as something that has been with us since the very beginning. Because all non-Christian views do not explain the human problem in terms of an historic fall, they eventually have to conclude that we have always been this way and that our problem is tied to our lack of knowledge, our genes, environment, and so on. The Christian answer, however, is completely different than all other views and it centers around one of the most important texts in all of Scripture—Genesis 3.
In the framework and storyline of the Bible, Genesis 3 is presented as an historical event and this is utterly important to emphasize. As we move from the “good” situation of Creation, in space and time, Adam, as the covenantal representative of the human race, makes a fatal choice. He chooses to set his will over against God’s, and to set himself up as a rival to the Lord of the universe. In so doing, by a choice which would have only taken a moment, he brings about a moral revolt against God which changes human history forever. In a tick of the clock, we move from a “good” situation to a “fallen” world which is characterized by sin, death, rebellion, and abnormality, and which has now brought about a situation in which all of us now stand under God’s wrath and condemnation. This is the true nature of the human problem; a problem which all non-Christian views do not take seriously enough. Our problem, biblically speaking, is not tied to our finitude and thus lack of knowledge, our genes, our environment, and so on, rather it is tied to our moral rebellion against the sovereign Lord of the universe. Ultimately, as we work through Scripture, the only solution to our problem is that God takes the initiative to provide an obedient one, to undo the work of Adam, and to usher in a new creation by the paying of our sin on the cross in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Even though the Bible presents the human condition in the most severe terms, it is only Scripture’s presentation of this which gives us hope for a solution to the problem. Given the fact that our sin is tied to history, this means that God is not to be blamed for our problem; it is completely our fault. And it also entails that since we have not always been fallen—we have become fallen in time—that there is hope that we can become what we once were—a return to our creation status which is spoken of as a “new creation.” This is precisely the good news that Scripture gives us as we move from Genesis, through the OT, and on to Christ and the NT Scriptures. The Triune God, by his sovereign grace, initiative, and power, promises to provide a Redeemer for the human race and he does so by the giving of himself in his Son who takes our sin to himself, pays for it, and sets us free.
Listen to this week’s lesson where we walk through Genesis 3 and discover how sin entered this world in Adam. Notice the disastrous results which occurred and reflect on how serious the human problem is presented in Scripture. And then continue to listen further over the next number of weeks as the divine solution to our problem is presented which ultimately culminates in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious work.