Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate where into man fell?
A. All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden …., and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Gen. 3:8)
“He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24)
"G. K. Chesterton once likened this world to the desert island site of a shipwreck. A sailor awakes from a deep sleep and discovers treasure strewn about, relics from a civilization he can barely remember. One by one he picks up the relics - gold coins, a compass, fine clothing - and tries to discern their meaning. According to Chesterton, fallen humanity is in such a state. Good things on earth still bear traces of their original purpose, but each is also subject to misinterpretation or abuse because of fallen, 'amnesiac' human nature." - Sins of the Body: Ministry in a Sexual Society, ed. Terry Muck (Carol Stream, Ill.: Christianity Today; Dallas: Word, 1989), p. 63.
“We don’t actually break God’s laws. They are still standing whether we obey them or not. To try to break God’s law would be like trying to break the law of gravity. If you try it, you’ll discover the law always wins. But when we violate God’s law, it breaks us. That is what guilt and shame is all about. Until we know we are forgiven, we will never walk again. We will certainly never make it home.” - Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, M. Craig Barnes, p. 90
“The real home for which we yearn isn’t the place where we grew up or the new place we’re hoping to build, but the place where we were created to live. Paradise. When Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, we are told that God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the eastern gate. It is the Bible’s way of saying that all of life is now spent east of Eden. In other words, as the saying goes, we can’t go home again. Paradise has been lost. The yearning for it is the only trace that remains.” - Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, M. Craig Barnes, p. 90
“We weren’t created to roam about the earth lost and confused. We were created to live at home with God, which is what defines paradise. Like Adam and Eve, we didn’t realize that at the time because there was something forbidden in the middle of the garden that we couldn’t have.
How could it be paradise, we wondered, if we do not have it all? It is striking that the creation narratives make a point of telling us that this forbidden fruit was in the midst of the garden and not off in some forgettable corner. This means we were created to live with an avoidable reminder that home was never meant to be perfect, whole or complete. That’s God’s idea of a good creation.” - Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls, M. Craig Barnes, p. 13
The oft maligned and much misunderstood Calvinist doctrine of “total depravity” never meant that every human being is as bad as he or she could possibly be, as if all of us were constantly on an unbridled but secret spree of sin and perversion. Rather, it means that no part of our being is untainted by self-interest, and even acts of supposed self-sacrifice run the risk of an inappropriate or prideful self-regard.
We have to think carefully about this tenet of Reformed theology, for in our day this teaching can be very hard to sell. It is common to hear parishioners complain about being called sinners – if they even hear this “s-word” mentioned. Yet the Reformers regarded a strong acknowledgement of sin as necessary both for salvation and for the well-being of the Christian life. To know oneself as sinner is truly to know oneself as the lost sheep who the Shepherd sought to rescue. To know oneself as a sinner is also to know the relief of dropping the most disabling pretense a person can have. If we are to have a gospel that holds forth the promise of redemption, it is essential to know ourselves as in need of redemption. If we do not know ourselves as such, then we have much to learn from these confessions.
“And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.” (Romans 5:16, NRSV)
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 24
Evening Psalm: 17, 77
Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28
Romans 2:12-24
John 5:19-29
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