This article is the fifteenth installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
Like everyone else, your history is complicated. Some of your past is happy. Some memories are unpleasant. Some things have been done to you that changed the course of your life. But they, too, are part of you. You can’t know yourself without them.
This principle also applies to humanity at large. To understand personhood, you have to know human history. How did we get here? Are we responsible to anyone? Do we have the resources within us to have a good life?
How we answer these questions forms our understanding of humanity, our anthropology. Our anthropology, in turn, is a lens through which we see life. A biblical anthropology both affirms man’s good creation and makes sense of the evil in the world and the darkness within us. And it can prepare us to believe the gospel which gives us eternal life.
The Creation of Man
Genesis reveals the creation of man in two beautiful stages. First, “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground” (2:7; 3:19). God spoke the rest of the world into existence, but he made man as with his own hands, the way a potter molds clay into its desired shape. Second, into this precious vessel God breathed “the breath of life” (2:7). Man is a unique and special creation!
By breathing his Spirit into us, God made us “in his image and likeness.” The first man was like God. He could think, speak, and act differently from other creatures. Mankind has an “intellectual and moral nature; his personality [is] endued with reason, memory, judgment, will, and affections.”
In addition to broadly reflecting God, the first man was more specifically like him being “good, just, and holy.” Humanity’s goodness speaks of his moral rightness or righteousness. In addition to functioning properly, as other creations can, man could perform moral virtue. Being just, man could decide well, distinguishing between bad, good, better, and best. By his holiness, man was both distinct from the lower creation and separate from sin. Man, as God created him, was “able by his own will to conform in all things to the will of God.”
The creation of man is a vital truth. We did not descend by chance from lower life-forms. Humans are the crown of creation, patterned after our perfect creator. God was truly pleased with his world, but with man in the garden, everything was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). We have inherent dignity and a soul that, having come from God, can never die. David’s song reflects the human story: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Ps. 139:14).
But that is only the first part of our story.
The Collapse of Man
In paradise, humanity was on probation. Adam had “not yet attained the highest degree of excellence for which God had destined him … he needed to be confirmed in the way of complete covenant obedience to his maker.”
God gave the first people a trial command: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Gen. 2:17). It was truly a “commandment of life.” It was the way that humanity would walk in trusting obedience to God. But man failed to heed God’s command. Instead, he lent “his ear to the word of the devil” who had taken the form of a serpent (see Gen. 3:1). In man’s collapse, we witness doubt, unbelief, pride, coveting, illicit desire, and the overt act of eating the forbidden fruit. Adam was called to have dominion over the living creatures; instead, he allowed himself to be manipulated by them (Gen. 1:26, 28).
Adam willfully subjected himself to sin and its consequences. God didn’t trick man into sinning, and the devil didn’t put Adam under a spell. God clearly laid out the rules for living in his kingdom, and Adam was not bent toward doing the wrong thing—he was created with a freedom to act according to his desires.
Solomon accurately describes man’s fall: “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Eccl. 7:29).
The Corruption of Man
Now, after the fall, without God’s regenerating grace, man’s whole nature is corrupted. He “separated himself from God, who was his true life.” He became like a branch that cut itself from the tree from which it drew life. The light that was in him became darkness (John 1:5; cf. Eph. 4:18). In the fall, man lost three important things.
Man Lost God’s Blessings
By rejecting God’s goodness, Adam forfeited “his excellent gifts,” the image of God in the narrow sense—his innate goodness, righteousness, and holiness. The “small traces” of remaining light are sufficient only to leave man without excuse (Rom. 1:20). In addition, the good things humanity enjoyed now became cursed (see Gen. 3:16–19).
Man Lost His life
Death came into the world as a result of man’s sin (Gen. 2:17). Adam and Eve received a death sentence which, by God’s mercy, was not carried out until years later. Animals were killed to cover their shame. Soon, their own son would murder his brother. The psalmist’s description of the wicked is apropos: “Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” (Ps. 49:20).
Man Lost His Free Will
After the fall, man is a slave to sin (John 8:34). He cannot now “receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). He cannot come to Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). His mind is now “hostile to God” (Rom. 8:7). He cannot “accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him” (1 Cor. 2:14). He cannot do any spiritual good (2 Cor. 3:5). He cannot work to gain God’s favor; God must do it himself. (Phil. 2:13). Without Christ, man can do nothing (John 15:5).
Adam’s sin was a total disaster; every part of him was ruined. We will later learn how Adam’s fall relates to us (see article 15). But we can sense that Adam’s story rings true in our own experience. We yearn for the God who made us, yet we willfully disobey him, listening to the tempter’s lies. We do the things that we hate (Rom. 7:15). We are “led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). The Bible’s history of humanity challenges a materialistic view of humanity. We aren’t evolving into more excellent creatures. We are fatally flawed. We can’t fix our broken selves.
But into this world God sent Christ Jesus to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). So, if you believe that the story of humanity is your story, then the message of new life in Christ is for you.
Footnotes
Henry Beets, The Reformed Confession Explained, 116.
P.Y. De Jong, The Church’s Witness to the World, 1:258.