Personal Consequences of the Fall

There are many ways to describe the personal consequences of humanity’s fall into sin. But we’ll focus on four ideas, beginning with broken fellowship between God and human beings.

God designed this world to be a place where he could dwell with his creatures. But Adam and Eve’s sin alienated them from God; their fellowship with him was broken. And this fellowship wasn’t just broken from a human perspective; God also rejected their presence, and banished them from the Garden of Eden. Further, as a consequence of humanity’s broken relationship with God, Adam and Eve’s fellowship with each other was also broken. This is evident in the fact that they became ashamed by their nakedness, and covered themselves with fig leaves.

Humanity experienced a separation, being cut off from our ultimate source of security and significance and identity and being God’s creation, and so, we’re separated from God. We’re even separated from one another because human beings are intended to be finding all of their joy, their identity, their satisfaction in God. And when we don’t do that we seek it in the things of the world. And people, then, rather than being objects of affection and love, become competition for the things of this world we’re seeking for our identity, and so we’re separated from other people. [Dr. Erik Thoennes]

A second personal consequence of the fall is that humanity bears the guilt of Adam’s sin. Paul taught that Adam’s one act of disobedience condemned all humanity. In other words, God reckons Adam’s sin to the account of every fallen human being, so that we are all guilty of that first trespass. Listen to Paul’s description of this problem in Romans 5:18.

The result of one trespass was condemnation for all men.

This happened because Adam was the covenant head of all humanity. He represented not only himself, but also his wife, and every other human being that would descend from them through natural human generation. As a result, we need redemption that frees us from this guilt, and from the eternal punishment it brings.

The third personal consequence of the fall is depravity. The theological term “depravity” refers to sin’s corruption of human nature. Different theological traditions understand the extent of depravity in different ways. But all Evangelical Christians agree that it prevents us from gaining favor with God. Listen to these words from Romans 3:10-12:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Paul taught that our behavior is depraved, so that no one is righteous and no one does good. Our intellect is also depraved, so that no one understands. And our will has been affected, too, so that no one seeks God.

The fourth personal consequence of the fall was that all humanity began to experience suffering, pain and death. God’s curses on humanity are recorded in Genesis 3:16-19, where we read these words:

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children…” To Adam he said … "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you … By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground."

These curses didn’t just cause humanity pain and suffering; they also hindered them from fulfilling the tasks God had assigned to them. Humanity began to experience hardship in their tasks of multiplying and filling the earth, in working the ground and taking care of it, and in ruling over the earth and spreading God’s kingdom. Even worse, all humanity would begin to experience death. And these curses extended throughout all human generations. So, if we are ever to fulfill God’s purposes for humanity, we need a Redeemer that can rescue us from these hindrances and restore us to a blessed, joyful existence.