Reflections on the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. 23 Aug 14 began a perhaps unbroken, orderly, and personal journey through my favorite written confession of faith. This will be my personal reflections on this beloved written codification of the Christian Faith which is according to a Baptist flavor.
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Chapter 6, “…and gave him a righteous law, which had been unto life had he kept it, and threatened death upon the breach thereof, yet he did not long abide in this honour; Satan using the subtlety of the serpent to subdue Eve, then by her seducing Adam, who, without any compulsion, did willfully transgress the law of their creation, and the command given unto them, in eating the forbidden fruit…”
Some speculation on this, but why did God set it up this way at the start? Ever wonder that? I say it’s because SIN, to be truly shown as SIN, had to be in close relation to that which is good from God and not that which is evil. What’s wrong with eating that fruit? Nothing! It’s a gift from God. What’s wrong with the trees, or the serpent reptile itself? Nothing. Sin is shown to be sinful most in its relation to the glory of God. In its subtlety in his fellowship. We might understand God’s reaction if Adam and Eve attempted a heavenly insurrection with the devil or something and killed an angel. Sin is one thing when you think of murder. It’s another when you think of Adam and Eve disobeying their Creator’s command in his garden. What’s so bad about that, right? Any offense against God is infinite in one sense.
Adam was not, like his wife, deceived. He willfully transgressed God’s orders. With his position, this made it treasonous. While nearly all I’ve written here so far is speculative in nature, the effects of it are not. All of creation fractured in this sin. Mankind “died”.
When it says, “…yet he did not long abide in this honor” I take it to mean that Adam and Eve spent only months in the Garden of Eden before their expulsion. They’d been given the command to procreate by God and hadn’t. They left the garden alone. Scripture never mentions anyone leaving with them. When they left Eden they had their first kid. That first child was born accursed by God.
God’s law is always righteous. He sets the parameters for life. If he says “jump”, we say “how high”?! The effects of Adam and Eve’s fall in us show us why we simply don’t like that.
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