Genesis 3:6-7 - The Loss and Restoration of Liberty

Genesis 3:6-7
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Message: The Loss and Restoration of Liberty

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

These passages are mirroring a series that RC Sproul did called Willing to Believe available here. I purchased the complete series for only $5. Currently, he is looking at Pelagius, a 5th century monk that taught that Adam's sin didn't mean that all people are sinners. Instead, people are basically good and grace is not necessarily needed as each person is able to follow the Lord's commands and make themselves worthy before God. This was in opposition to Saint Augustine and his words of the necessity of grace for salvation. I have also been listening to a sermon series by Tommy Nelson on Galatians where he mentions that this entire book is focused on the idea that grace is invalid if anything is added to it.

The following are my notes on RC Sproul's message - The Loss of Liberty.

Augustine coined the term sola gratia which means salvation is by grace alone. We have a fallen condition and a bondage to sin and only grace can set us free. On the subject of free will, Augustine made a distinction between liberium arbitrium (free will) and libertas (liberty). His point was after the fall man still had free will, but what he lost was his liberty. According to Augustine, liberty is the freedom to do good and to do evil. It is the power to embrace the holy things of God.

Man was created with a mind and the ability to think and he was created with the faculty to make choices. At the fall, something was lost. Paul talks about the human mind being darkened (Ephesians 4:18). The Noetic effect refers to how our mind is effected of sin. Thus, our cogitation (thinking deeply about something) has been affected just as our bodies have been affected as they are subject to disease and death. The mind has also been weakened. We also are impacted now by bias or prejudice.

Man did not lose his mind after the fall. We still have the ability to think. What Augustine is getting at is even though the fall has affected our volition (the power of using one's will), to our choices and decision making - it has not destroyed the will. And this will still has a choice and that will is not forced into action by an external agency or power. Thus, he is saying that before and after the fall, man still has a will and is free from external coercion.

The word freedom needs to be looked at is it is a term that is thrown around a lot. For Americans, freedom was a hallmark of the revolutionary war in that freedom has allowed us to do certain things without being hindered by an external authority. President Franklin Roosevelt redefined freedom as it being freedom from external things such as freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from starvation and that sort of thing.

Augustine says that man still has the ability to make choices according to our desires. Yet, he would argue that after the fall, the will is free, but the will is now evil. We have free will but our desires are only wicked in respect to the things of God. Thus, man has lost the desire to please God, to have God in his thinking, to seek after God. Thus, we will not choose God because we do not desire Him. Thus, he is spiritually dead and lacks liberty. He lacks the freedom to do good and to do evil.

In Latin is the term posse peccare. Posse is where we get power or possibility and peccare is the infinitive form of the Latin word meaning "to sin." Thus, if something is impeccable then it is without sin. Posse peccare is the ability or power to sin. Man had the ability to sin so prior to the fall man had the posse peccare. And he also had the posse non peccare or the power to not sin. This was Adam's structure of free will. Pelagius felt that both before and after the fall, man retained the power to sin or not to sin. The humanist and pagan thought today agrees that that man equally has the ability to choose good or evil and there is no bias or prejudice toward one or the other.

Adam does not have the non posse peccare or the inability to sin. This is something you would ascribe to God. God lacks the motive to sin because he is always about righteousness.

The biggest problem has been non posse non peccare. This means it is not possible to not sin or it is impossible for a person to live without sin. Augustine says we have lost our righteousness so it is impossible for us to live a sinless life. Today we call this moral inability. I do not have the power to choose God by myself because I have no desire to choose God by myself. Without the power I will not choose that which I do not want or do not desire.

The dilemma is then how can I be held responsible for sinning when it is my nature to sin. The fall was a judgment on the human race. Thus, we are living in the Fall. We are living in the judgment of the human race.

Summary - I have struggled to digest this message. Liberty is a term thrown around in our land. There is the proclamation in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" which proclaims the ability to do as one pleases. In this lesson is the contrasting views of Pelagius and Augustine. Pelagius made no distinction between free will and liberty. Free will is the ability to make choices according to my desires. Liberty is the freedom to do good and to do evil. The point of this lesson was to consider how we have been affected by the Fall (Original Sin). Before and after the Fall man still has a will. What man lacks after the Fall is the ability to choose good in relation to the things of God because after the Fall man only wants to please himself. Only God has the inability to sin. For man, it is not possible for us to live a sinless life. Pelagius disagrees.

Promise: By eating of the fruit, man knew he was naked, thus he knew that he would always be a sinner on this earth.

Prayer: Father, thank you always for the truth of Your Word. You continue to help me understand the nature of sin and what transpired from sin and how your grace is needed. I am not worthy and this world continues to make cloudy your message of grace. Help me to proclaim your message well. Help me to honor you.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of April is about salvation by grace alone. March was about the sovereign providence of God; February was about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve; January is about the doctrine of God.