Of the nature, aggravations, and
sad
effects of the sin of man
John Gill
1. First, The nature of this
sin: It seems to have been brought on through inadvertency, thoughtlessness,
and being off of guard; it began with doubting and disbelief
of what God had said; appeared in an inordinate desire after the forbidden
fruit; and in an unlawful curiosity of knowing more than he did: and in pride,
affecting to be as God; at least to be upon an equality with angels.
The nature of it may be learnt
in some measure from the names it goes by; it is called
"sin", and the "sin", the grand "sin", the first
and fountain of all sin among men, #Ro 5:12. It is called a "transgression",
#Ro 5:14 a transgression of the law, as every sin is defined, #1Jo 3:4 a
transgression of the covenant, a breach of that; and what is more heinous than
covenant breaking? to break covenant with men is a great evil; but to break the
covenant with God is a greater still. It is called "disobedience",
#Ro 5:19 disobedience to the will of God, and to his law; and as obedience to
God is well pleasing to him; so disobedience, in any case, is highly resented
by him. It is often called the "offence", #Ro 5:15,17,18,20 it being
in its nature, and in all its circumstances, very offensive to God, and
abominable in his sight, as all sin is; and in the last mentioned places the
word used signifies a "fall"; and hence it is
common with us to call this sin the "fall of Adam"; it being that by
which he fell from a state of integrity, honour, and happiness, into an estate
of sin and misery.
2. Secondly, The aggravations
of this sin were, the place where it was committed, and the
time when, with other things.
2a. With respect to place; it
was committed in the garden of Eden. Here man was put when he was formed; nor
was he cast out of it till after he had sinned, and for that reason: here were
all manner of trees for his use; and he was allowed to eat of them
all excepting one, which was forbidden him; and not to attend to that
prohibition was great ingratitude to his Creator and Benefactor, who had so
richly provided for him; and in the midst of all which plenty he sinned. Had it
been in a remote part of the world, or in a desert, where this tree grew, and
where scarce anything else was to be had, it would in some measure have
extenuated the crime; but in a garden, where he had enough
of everything, it was a very aggravated crime; and by how much the less that
was which was forbidden him, by so much the greater was his crime in not
abstaining from it.
2b. With respect to the time
when it was committed; that is, how long after the creation
of our first parents. This cannot be precisely determined: some make the time
after it too long, and others too short. Some think that the first Adam kept
his state of integrity as long as the second Adam lived here on earth; but this
is a mere fancy, without any foundation. Some have fancied that he fell on the
tenth day of September, and they suppose the creation of the world began with
that month; so that as Adam was created on the sixth day,
his standing could be no longer than three or four days; and this is supposed
for no other reason, but because the Jews in later times had their grand fast
on that day; but that was not for Adam's sin, but their own; and had it been
for that, it should have been general, and kept by all mankind, if at all. And
others are of opinion that he fell the same day he was created;
but the text of which it is founded will not support it, #Ps 49:12 since it
speaks not of the first man, but of his sons, and those in honour, whose
continuance in it is not long; and the word for "abideth" or
"lodgeth", as some choose to render it, signifies often a longer
duration than a night's lodging. However, it must be very early that man fell,
since the account of his fall is very closely connected with what was done on the first day of his creation; and Satan is said to
be a "murderer", that is, a destroyer of mankind "from the
beginning", #Joh 8:44. Now this was an aggravation of Adam's sin, that he
should be guilty of it so soon, having just received his being from God; placed
in so happy a situation; and blessed with so much honour, power, and authority,
and with so many indulgent favours; he and his consort
taking their walks in the garden, no doubt, often "sung the praises"
of their great Creator and kind Benefactor, in tuneful lays, in melodious
strains; but, like some of their sons afterwards, "soon forgot his
works".
(He may have fallen toward the
end of sabbath day or the seventh day after creation. Then
Christ, the second Adam, could truly be
said to have preeminence in all things, including the keepinmg of the sabbath.
#Col 1:18. Editor.)
2c. The sin of Adam was a
complicated one; he sinned against light and knowledge, and when he was in full
power to have resisted the temptation; he could neither plead
ignorance nor weakness in excuse of his sin; it was the height of ingratitude
to his Maker; it was affronting him in the highest degree, by disbelieving his
word, and thereby making him a liar; it was intolerable pride, an affectation
of deity, or of equality to God; a want of thought, of care, concern, and
affection for his posterity, with whose all he was intrusted. In short, it
included all sin in it. For the laws of God are so connected
together, that he that "offends in one point is guilty of all", #Jas
2:10.
Some have laboured to make it
appear, that Adam by his sin transgressed the whole Decalogue, or the law of
the ten commandments, and no doubt but many, the most, if
not all, were broken. Dr. Lightfoot {1} expresses it thus, "Adam, at one
clap, breaks both the tables, and all the commandments.
1) He chose him another God, when he followed the devil.
2) He idolized and deified his own belly, as the apostle's phrase
is; his belly he made his God.
3) He took the name of God in vain, when he believed him not.
4) He kept not the rest and estate wherein God had set him.
5) He dishonoured his Father which was in heaven; wherefore his days
were not long in that land which the Lord his God had given him.
6) He massacred himself and all his posterity.
7) In eyes and mind he committed spiritual fornication.
8) He stole that (like Achan) which God had set aside not to be
meddled with; and this his stealth is that which troubles all Israel, the whole
world.
9) He bore witness against God when he believed the witness of the
devil above him.
10) He
coveted an evil covetousness, which cost him his life, and all his progeny.
"
3. Thirdly, The sad effects
and consequences of this sin. The account of what befell Adam after his fall,
is so short, that much is not to be expected from it; and besides, he was so
quickly recovered by the grace of God, and brought to repentance for his sin, and had a better image restored to him than what he had
lost; and had so early the revelation of the seed of the woman, as a Saviour
from this and all other sins; so that the mischiefs that personally accrued to
him, are not so manifest; but appear more clearly in his posterity. However,
there are so many things said, and hints given, as may lead us plainly to
observe some of the sad effects of this sin.
3a. A loss of original
righteousness followed upon it. God made man upright; but sinning, he lost the
uprightness and rectitude of his nature; or the righteousness in which he was
created; so that he because unrighteous, nay, full of all unrighteousness;
hence it is that there is none of his posterity righteous, no not one. Now this was signified by the nakedness of our first parents,
which was immediately perceived by them after their fall; for though it
primarily respects the nakedness of their bodies, which was the same before the
fall, but then was no occasion of shame to them; but afterwards it was; the
reason of which was, because of the loss of their inward clothing, the
righteousness and holiness of their nature; the want of which the
nakedness of their bodies was now an emblem to them of: and as Adam immediately
betook himself to get something to cover himself with, so natural it is for men
to seek to obtain a righteousness of their own, to cover their naked souls
with; for to be self-righteous is as natural to man as to be sinful; and what
men do attain to as a righteousness by their own works, is of no more avail
than Adam's fig leaves were to him; cannot cover a body
from the sight of divine Justice, nor shelter him from the stormy winds of
divine wrath and vengeance; nor justify him in the sight of God; nor entitle
him to heaven and happiness, nor introduce him into it.
3b. Guilt on the consciences
of our first parents presently appeared, and that in an endeavour
to hide them selves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden.
Guilt is the consequence of sin in all men; the whole world of Adam's posterity
is guilty before God; and this is sometimes intolerable, and nothing can remove
it but the blood of Christ. And from this consciousness of guilt, flow shame,
fear, and hiding themselves from God; they were ashamed to appear before him; and sin causes shame in everyone, more or less, unless
hardened, stupefied, and past all sense, and are like those that declare their
sin, as Sodom: hence men choose to commit sin in secret, in the dark, that
their sins may not be seen; nor do they care to come to the light, lest their
deeds should be reproved. Fear followed upon a consciousness of guilt in Adam;
"I was afraid because I was naked"; as there is in every
man, more or less, a fearful looking for of judgment and indignation, even in
the more audacious; yea, those daring creatures the devils themselves believe
and tremble; and through guilt, shame, and fear, Adam hid himself, but to no
purpose; there is no fleeing from the presence of God, to whom the darkness and
the light are both alike; of what avail could the shade cast by the trees in
the garden be to Adam, to hide him from the all seeing eye
of God? and yet such a notion possesses his posterity; see #Am 9:2,3 Re
6:15-17.
3c. Loss and want of knowledge
and understanding were soon perceived in him. The last instance, of hiding
himself, betrays his ignorance and folly; as if the trees in the garden could secure him from the sight and vengeance of the
Almighty; instead of gaining the knowledge he unlawfully sought after, he lost
much of what he had; hence he is ironically and sarcastically upbraided with
it; "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil!"
and his posterity are represented as foolish, ignorant, and devoid of understanding;
"There is none that understandeth", #Ro 3:11.
Though they may understand natural things and civil things, and somewhat of
moral things, though not clearly and distinctly, at least so as to do them; to
do good they have no knowledge: but they understand not spiritual things, the
things of the Spirit of God, which they neither receive nor know, because they
are spiritually discerned. They know not God, so as to glorify him; and much
less as in Christ: they know not Christ, nor the way of
peace, life, and salvation by him: they know not the Spirit of God, his person,
office, and operations; yea, men are as stupid as the beasts of the field, and
in some things more so; man is born like a wild ass's colt, and is more
ignorant, and less knowing, than the ox and ass, which know their owner; and
than birds of passage, which know the time of their coming and going,
when men know not the Lord and his judgments, #Job 11:12 Isa 1:3 Jer 8:6, 7.
3d. Our first parents, upon
their sinning, were immediately obnoxious to the curse of the law, and it was
pronounced on them, along with the serpent; though it is expressed
as if it only concerned the body, and temporal things; in which strain run the
several curses of the law afterwards; "Cursed shalt thou be in the city",
&c. #Ge 3:16-19 De 28:15,18 yet they extend further, even to the wrath of
God on the soul, both here and hereafter; for the curse of the law is no other
than the sanction of it, death; and which, as has been seen, is death corporal,
spiritual or moral, and eternal; Adam, upon sinning, was at
once stripped of the immortality of his body, which God had bestowed on it, and
became mortal, subject to diseases, and a corporal death, and so all his
posterity; "In Adam all die"; and a spiritual or moral death seized
on all the powers and faculties of his soul; his understanding darkened; his
mind and conscience defiled; his affections inordinate; his will biassed to
that which is evil, and to every good work lifeless and
reprobate, until restored by the grace of God; as every man is dead in
trespasses and sins, until quickened. And eternal death is the just wages of
sin, which is no other than the wrath of God revealed against all
unrighteousness, and which comes upon the children of disobedience: and there are
none of the sons of Adam but as such, and in themselves,
are obnoxious to it; even God's elect are "by nature children of wrath as
others", #Eph 2:3. This is the grand curse, the flying roll in Zechariah's
vision, that goes over the face of the whole earth, and cuts off the sinner on
this and the other side; and which the wicked will hear at last denounced on
them, "Go, ye cursed!" But the righteous will be saved from it,
because Christ has redeemed them from the curse of the law,
and delivered them from wrath to come.
3e. Ejection out of paradise
is another thing which followed on the sin of Adam; "So he drove out the
man", #Ge 3:24. An emblem of that alienation from God, from the life of
God, and communion with him, which sin has produced, and which has set man at a distance from God; hence Christ suffered to bring his
people near unto him; and by his blood they that were afar off were made nigh
unto God. And besides these,
There are many others, which
are the effects of the sin and fall of Adam; as a general
corruption and depravity of all the powers and faculties of the soul, which are
all immersed in sin, and full of it; and all the members of the body yielded as
instruments of unrighteousness; a propensity and proneness to all that is
sinful; an inordinate desire after the lusts of the flesh, and of fulfilling
them; a serving of various lusts and pleasures; a serving lusts as pleasures,
being lovers of sinful pleasures more than lovers of God.
There is, moreover, a disinclination to all that is good, yea, an aversion to
it; an hating the good, and loving the evil; yea, the carnal mind is enmity
itself to God, and all that is good; and there is also an impotency, an
inability to do that which is good; hence man is represented as without
strength, having lost it, and become unable to do anything that is spiritually
good; to which may be added, that sin has brought man into
a state of slavery to sin, Satan, and the world; this is what we commonly call
the corruption and depravity of nature, the effect of the first sin of Adam.
This is the "pandora" from whence have sprung all spiritual maladies
and bodily diseases; all the disasters, distresses, mischiefs, and calamities,
that are, or have been in the world.
{1} Works, vol. i. p. 1027,
1028.