Tarifas

If in the Fall man did not lose Heaven, the earth, his spirit, his body, his soul, or his potential, what did he lose?

1. Man lost his purity. The word purity is another word for

holiness. Both words convey the idea of cleanliness, of being without spot, stain, or blemish. A related idea is that of transparency, meaning “no cloud or shadow of deception or falsehood.” What was the first thing Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed God? They lied and tried to cover up their actions. They also tried to “pass the buck.” Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit, and even implied that God was at fault for giving Eve to him in the first place. Eve blamed the serpent for tricking her. Loss of purity means loss of honesty and openness. It means a life characterized by lies and deception. Adam and Eve tried to cover up their sin, and humanity has been a race of “cover-ups” ever since. In contrast, purity and holiness have to do with integrity. The word integrity, which means “complete or undivided,” is related to

the word integrate, which means “to unite or to form into a unified whole.” In other words, integrity has to do with “oneness.” Purity and holiness mean that what we say and what we do are the same thing; there is no difference between our public life and our pri- vate life. That’s integrity. Another word for purity, holiness, and integrity is glory. That’s what Adam and Eve lost. Impurity breeds hypocrisy. Before the Fall, they enjoyed perfect openness and trust in their rela- tionships. Afterward, they were unable to be honest with God, with each other, or even with themselves. 2. Man lost the Holy Spirit. When Adam and Eve sinned,

the personal presence of the Lord in their lives—the Holy Spirit—departed. His absence handicapped them because the knowledge, wisdom, power, gifts, and fruit that He provided, and which they had taken for granted, were gone. It became impossible for them to function properly, or to understand fully who and what they were and what they were capable of. This reality is still with us today. Without the Holy Spirit, man can never experience his full glory. 3. Man lost Eden (the covering presence of God). After God

drove out Adam and Eve, “He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24b). The word cherubim is plural. The way back into Eden was guarded by at least two angels, and possibly an entire host of them. With this eviction, God accomplished two things: He protected His holy environment from sinful man’s contaminat- ing presence, and He protected sinful man from eat- ing of the tree of life and thereby living forever in his fallen condition. By protecting them from the tree of life He protected them from eternal damnation. If

man had eaten from the tree of life in his fallen, con- taminated state, it would have rendered him a per- manent, eternal sinner. God in His perfect wisdom and grace protected man from his own eternal damnation and gave hope for the redemption of future generations in Adam’s loins. The immediate and long-term consequence of the Fall was that man, spiritually impaired by sin, had to try to function in an environment he was not designed for. In the Gar- den, life was purposeful. Even the work of tending the Garden was not laborious because Adam and Eve were fulfilling their natural glory. Outside, however, the environment was hostile and resistant. Life became a continuing cycle of blood, tears, toil, and sweat.

4. Man lost the fullness of the glory of God. Without the cov-

ering presence of God, and without His indwelling Spirit, Adam and Eve could not even fully express their own glory, much less the glory of God. Despite sin, man still had the image of God, although it was marred and distorted. The latent glory of God in them could not come out because it was buried under the sinfulness of their fleshly nature.

5. Man lost dominion over the earth. Satan used trickery

and deceit to induce Adam and Eve to disobey God. By their own choice they forfeited their dominion over the created order. Those who were created to rule took their crown and seal of authority and hand- ed them over to an unemployed cherub. The true glory of the sons of men has since been buried under the confusion, ignorance, and frustration of the Fall. 6. Man lost his sense of purpose. As the generations passed,

man quickly forgot who he was, why he was here, where he came from, and where he was going. Life

became a daily grind of fear, despair, and hopeless- ness. Having lost Eden, man was out of his element and malfunctioned. We have been malfunctioning ever since, struggling hard to answer those questions and to find a way back to where we once belonged. The presence of God conceals the purpose of man. Without God’s presence man has no purpose, and without purpose, life is an experiment.