Westminster Project 6.1 - 2

1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit this sin of theirs, having planned to use it to his own glory. 

2. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and abilities of soul and body. 
(WCF 6.1-2)

Over the past several months, we have been working our way through the Westminster Confession of Faith. So far, we have examined Holy Scripture (WCF 1), the Trinity (WCF 2), God’s Eternal Decree (WCF 3), Creation (WCF 4), and Providence (WCF 5). Over the next few weeks—in WCF 6—we will explore humanity, sin, and punishment. As we’ll see, this will reveal just how hopeless we are, yet how gracious and awesome our God is.

This chapter begins at the very beginning, with “our first parents,” Adam and Eve. After God created the “heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1; cf. Gen 1), He created man in His own image (Gen 1:26a, 2:7) to essentially reflect Him. Adam and Eve were given dominion over the animal kingdom and plant life (Gen 1:26, 29; 2:18-20a), and they were also commanded to create other humans (Gen 1:28a, 2:21, 24). Here is the interesting part: our first parents were created, commissioned, and equipped with the law firmly in their hearts, able to obey God’s commands flawlessly. Yet, as the confession states, they “being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned by eating the forbidden fruit” (Gen 2:15-17, 3:1-6; cf. Rom 5:12-21).

As we have seen over the past few months, God is in total and utter control of all that exists (WCF 5). So how, then, was Satan able to enter the garden? (Gen 3:1-5; cf. Rev 12:9, 20:2). The confession answers clearly: “God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit this sin of theirs, having planned to use it to his own glory.” This should not surprise us. Not only is God providentially in control, but He has also decreed all that will come to pass (WCF 3). 

While it might not make sense to us now, Paul’s words may help: “God bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Rom 11:32). As British theologian Chad Van Dixhoorn once observed, “It is perhaps the first irony, and arguably the greatest irony in history, that the Creator planned to use Satan's supposed subtlety to display ‘the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’” (Rom 11:33).

This brings us back to where we began. This part of the confession reveals just how hopeless we are because the sin of our first parents truly affected us all. “By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God.” What is the confession summarizing here? Essentially, because communion was broken between Creator and creation—between God and His people—there was no relationship we could mend ourselves. Because of our first parents’ rebellion, sin entered the human race, and “so (we all) became dead in sin” (Rom 5:12-21). That is the result of their rebellion; that is the inheritance of their labor. We are all born “wholly defiled in all the parts and abilities of soul and body.”

This is why Jesus needed to come. This is why we needed a new Adam to live and labor under the law of God and restore what was lost. And that is exactly what Jesus did flawlessly. He was born by supernatural means (Matt 1:18-25), born under the law (Gal 4:4-5), never once sinned (Heb 4:15), and His resurrection justifies anyone who puts faith in Him (Rom 4:25; cf. 1 Tim 1:15-16). The fall was decreed and providentially overseen, but so was redemption and salvation in Christ—and all for the glory of God.