We often have far too tame a view of the Fall of mankind into sin. We think of it as a mistake (even if not an innocent one), a slip (as if somehow accidental), or just not quite measuring up to God’s standard of perfection. But that doesn’t even begin to do justice to Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden.
The Fall was much worse than that. It was (to use R.C. Sproul’s phrase) “cosmic treason” or an utter and total rebellion against God.
Adam was shaking his puny fist at the Almighty!
John Murray writes,
The fall, then, was complete moral revolt against the sovereignty, supremacy, authority and will of God. In the command given to Adam there was epitomized the sovereignty, authority, wisdom, justice, goodness, and truth of God. Disobedience to it was an assault upon the divine Majesty, repudiation of his sovereignty and authority, doubt of his goodness, dispute with his wisdom, contradiction of his veracity. (The Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol.2, p.70)
Adam’s sin in the Fall was an act of revolt, not just against the command of God, but against God Himself – against everything about Him!
And every one of our own sins (big or small) is much the same way – a rejection of His sovereignty, authority, wisdom, justice, goodness, and truth. No wonder believers in Jesus Christ are to die unto sin and live unto righteousness!
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