Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 2


embraced and loved in the glorious hereafter. In Heaven we will not be uninformed, naive or unaware in any sense. This gives us a partial insight into why God allowed the Fall. Because of the Fall, it was necessary for Christ to descend from Heaven, come down into our world and take our place. The Creator came to suffer dreadful humiliation; the perfect One took sin for us and was punished in our stead. Because of the Fall, we really do know the love of God and exactly how far God would go to redeem his people. We would never know this if there had been no Fall. Without a Fall and redemption,


Heaven would be peopled by those who in great measure would be robots without clear understand- ing. Even angels depend on man’s redemption to admire the mercy of God. In those circumstances we could certainly love him for ever, but we would not know gratitude or indebtedness in infinite measure. Neither would we have ever seen the perfections of God against the backdrop of sin, having only known perfection and righteousness. But when the redeemed are in the eternal glory, God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will be appreciated in fullest glory. Here is one further aspect of the


Fall and redemption. If there had been no Fall, God’s children (cre- ated in glory) would not be entirely free, for they would not be there by choice. This is highly important, for Heaven is ultimately the home of the free. ‘The truth,’ said Christ, ‘shall make you free.’ Free from the ceremo- nial law, yes, and from condemnation


and bondage to sin, but also free in the widest possible sense. Even the created world shall be


‘delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Romans 8.21). Without a Fall, however, there would not be true freedom in glory.


Caused to willingly choose


In salvation, the Holy Spirit ena- bles us to see our state and condition, inclining our minds to believe and making us willing, but all in such a way that we freely and longingly trust and embrace Christ, ‘for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2.13). It is God’s irre- sistible work, yet we are caused to willingly and freely choose. We had no freedom before the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, when we came to Christ and bowed the knee to him we gave our lives to him, saying in effect, ‘Lord, take me, and take away my freedom to fall. Bind me to thee, hold and secure me, so that I cannot do so.’ The inhabitants of Heaven have voluntarily handed over their imag- ined freedom to God. If we had been created in Heaven with no Fall and no redemption, that would not be the case. Those in Heaven will be there for ever willingly, having voluntarily surrendered free- dom to God. Romans 9.22-23 gives us a view of some of these things, as being a part of the reason for the Fall. We repeat the quotation. ‘What if God, willing to shew his wrath [his attributes], and to make his power known, endured


Why Did God Allow Sin and the Fall? page 33





Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36