What was the original condition of humanity before the fall of man, when Adam and Eve were originally created? This chapter looks in summary fashion at some of the main features. Genesis 1–3 and later parts of the Bible indicate that the original condition of human beings included at least three noteworthy features: (1) they were a good creation, (2) they were in fellowship with God, and (3) they were morally upright.
Original Goodness
First, human beings were originally good, and they were part of an overall creation order that was “very good” in God’s sight. We know from Genesis 1:31 that when God finished his work of creation on the sixth day, he saw that “it was very good.” Evaluations at earlier points in Genesis 1 say that something was “good”:
And God saw that the light was good. (Gen. 1:4)
And God saw that it [the situation after the gathering of the waters into seas] was good. (Gen. 1:10)
And God saw that it [the situation of the growing plants] was good. (Gen. 1:12)
Genesis 1:18, 21, and 25 are similar. At the conclusion of Genesis 1, it is not only “good,” but “very good.” The statement includes the creation of humanity in verses 26–27. It implies not only that there was nothing defective, but that there was a positive goodness about humanity. This positive goodness is confirmed by the blessing in verse 28:
And God blessed them. And God said to them . . .
This picture of goodness and blessedness contrasts with the later curse that comes with the entrance of sin (Gen. 3:14–19) and with the exile imposed on man in driving him out of the garden of Eden (vv. 22–24). It also contrasts with the modern picture from evolutionary naturalism. Evolutionary naturalism says that humanity is a product of unguided evolution, and therefore an accident. Evolutionary naturalism makes it almost meaningless to speak of humanity as being either good or bad because, in the absence of God, there is no absolute standard for evaluation. According to this view, human tendencies toward murder, envy, hatred, and selfishness are just as much a product of evolution as are their opposites. In the end, moral evaluation has no meaning, except as it is generated by human opinions and human preferences, which themselves are products of evolution.
In Genesis, the contrast between good and evil is also a contrast between life and death. In Genesis 2:9 and 16, God gives man access to the tree of life, symbolizing life in fellowship with God (cf. Gen. 3:22). Death would come in if Adam disobeyed (2:17). Hence, human death is not normal. That is, it is not an integral and inevitable aspect of the created order, but is a curse, a judgment of God resulting from sin. This abnormality of human death is confirmed in Romans 5:12:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man [Adam],and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . . .
Implications of Original Goodness
Important long-range implications come from knowing about this original goodness. It means that our present experience is not normal. The uncooperative character and sometimes the hostility of fellow human beings is not normal. The uncooperative character of the created order around us, with the thorns and thistles mentioned in Genesis 3:18, is not normal. If such things were just normal, as evolutionary naturalism claims, there would be no hope for an escape.
Technology has allowed modern people a limited escape from the “sweat of [the] face” of Genesis 3:19, but it cannot eliminate the internal disorders, the sinfulness of humanity. If sin is normal, human beings can never escape it, but at best only mitigate it. If, on the other hand, it is not normal, God can provide a way out that eliminates the abnormality of sin without also inevitably eliminating the normality belonging to what humanity originally meant. And of course, the Bible does announce that God has provided a way out, in Christ and his work.
The principle of original goodness also affects the meaning of the work of Christ. Christ became fully human. If there were no original good situation, then being human would also mean being sinful. Christ himself would have been caught in the problem and could not offer us a solution. But he became human without being sinful:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15–16)
The abnormality of death means that it is something hostile and also something that Christ overcomes. There is hope for eternal life: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54).
Original Fellowship with God
The second significant feature in the original situation is that human beings were created to enjoy personal fellowship with God. This feature comes out when God personally addresses humans in speeches about their privileges and responsibilities:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” (Gen. 1:28–30).
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:16–17)
These speeches are a form of personal fellowship. God speaks his mind, and human beings receptively interpret what he says. The positive atmosphere of the speeches contrasts with the atmosphere of judgment after sin has entered (Gen. 3:14–19). The atmosphere of fellowship indicates that humanity enjoys friendship with God. There is untroubled communion with God.
Implications of Original Fellowship with God
This original fellowship with God has implications. It means that the present human situation of alienation from God, such as is depicted by the exile in Genesis 3:23–24, is not normal. Having fellowship with God is not a total impossibility, as it would be if human beings simply did not have such a capability. Human beings have religious desires. They have personal longings for God, or, in their confusion, longings for some kind of contact with the infinite. These desires make sense because there was fellowship with God in the beginning and will be in the end for those whom God redeems (Rev. 22:4). Mankind is meant to have communion with God the Creator.
The work of Christ makes sense against this background. Christ can restore and enhance what was lost. Fellowship with God is not an absurd impossibility. It is not, as some allege, that God is too far away, too remote for any finite being to hope for personal contact. It is sin, not our finiteness, that bars the way. Christ through his work opens the way. He is himself the Way (John 14:6). Christ is the path to renewed communion with God.
Moral Uprightness
The third notable feature of the original situation of humanity ismoral uprightness. What was the moral state of mankind in the originalsituation of creation? Theologians have often described it as innocence. This innocence contrasts with the later situation in which Adam andEve have fallen into sin and guilt. Genesis 2–3 makes this contrast evident. But was the original innocence a mere negation, an absence ofsin and nothing more? Does the later path into sin imply that Adamand Eve already had the tendency toward sin, from the beginning? Orwere they morally neutral? Were they morally naive, without a sense ofmoral standards?
A significant indication about the original condition of man occursin the specific instruction that God gave to Adam concerning the tree ofthe knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). God gave a command, clearlyexpecting that Adam could understand it and could understand that hehad to keep it. He knew tacitly that obedience to God is morally goodand that disobedience is evil. He was already oriented to fellowship withGod, as we observed in considering God’s speech in Genesis 1:29–30.
Later verses provide confirmation. Ecclesiastes 7:29 states, “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” This verse sums up the basic picture of Genesis 2–3. Ecclesiastes describes both original righteousness (“made . . . upright”) and a fall and deviation from that righteousness (“they have sought out many schemes”).
Ezekiel indicates that the original garden of Eden was on “the holy mountain of God” (Ezek. 28:14). This holiness is comparable to the holiness that belonged to Mount Sinai when God descended on it in cloud and fire and thunder (Ex. 19). No one can access God’s holiness without being qualified as holy. Exodus 19 illustrates this necessity by the restrictions placed on the people of Israel, who are a sinful people. And the tabernacle illustrates it through the ceremonies of purification that are necessary to approach God’s presence in the tabernacle. The fact that Adam and Eve were there in the garden of Eden, as a holy mountain, implies that they were themselves holy. They were qualified to stand in the presence of the most holy God, who is “holy, holy, holy” (Isa. 6:3).
Implications of Moral Uprightness
Understanding the original moral uprightness has implications. One is that it underlines the seriousness of Adam and Eve’s guilt. They forfeited an honored position of integrity and holiness; they did not merely make an “innocent mistake.”
As with the earlier observations about the original condition, this one too opens the way to hope. When uprightness has been lost, it is possible for it to be restored. And it is restored through the work of Christ:
And by that will [of God] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10).
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
The Bearing of Acts 2 on the Original Condition of Humanity
[Editor’s note: Poythress concludes every chapter in Making Sense of Man with an examination of Acts 2, because in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit is poured out. The state of mankind after receiving the Holy Spirit provides insight into the fulfillment of human nature and therefore Acts 2 deserves examination in our study.]
What light does Acts 2 shed on the original condition of humanity? Acts 2 is, of course, not a direct account of the original humanity, but rather tells of renewed humanity. Humanity is renewed through the completed work of Christ and then through the gift of the Holy Spirit’s applying the benefits of that work to the church, the people of God. This renewal is in harmony with the original, though it also surpasses it. The renewed people of God have the approval of God. It is as though God said, “Very good.” They desire to live in harmony with God and with fellow human beings and with creation. They are once again in fellowship with God and with one another, as the description in Acts 2:42 briefly indicates:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
They show moral uprightness by their commitment to God (“prayers”) and to fellow members of the church in need:
And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:44–45)
Summary
A basic understanding of the original condition of mankind provides a contrast with the present fallen condition of mankind. This affirmation of original righteousness is unlike false views that deny the unique original condition and see only a gradual rise from animal ancestry. Understanding the original condition plays a part in providing an understanding of the restorative work of Christ and hope for a future that completely eliminates sin and its consequences.
