Day 2: The Fall
“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” – Romans 5:12, New International Version
Broken
I vividly remember how I felt when I was a child and my favorite toys broke. Do you remember those reactions of frustration, despair or even anger?
We had not yet learned to suppress or soothe our pain, and we felt the sting of those losses. As we grew, we learned that not only toys break, but also homes, hopes and hearts.
Each of us feels it differently, but we all experience the brokenness of our world.
As we continue in God’s story, we learn how everything was broken.
Paradise Lost
Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world and enjoyed a pure, fulfilling relationship with God and with each other.
Satan, the enemy of God, slipped into this perfect world in the form of a serpent to wreak havoc.
His strategy feels familiar to anyone who struggles with sin. He slithered in when Eve was alone and vulnerable. Undermining her belief in God’s love, he appealed to her pride, conjured a hunger for the forbidden, and, with deceptive half-truths, minimized the consequences of disobeying God.
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. At that moment, our world broke.
Like a super-virus, sin infected all aspects of humanity’s perfect existence. The environment became harsh, our relationships discordant and death our common fate.
Most importantly, that decision doomed us to a gnawing inward emptiness that compels us to look for love and purpose in all the wrong places.
We did not just fall. We leaped from the heights of God’s perfection.
Not Yet
In a way, it’s comforting to know that something is wrong. Your longing for more is not imaginary.
The Fall reminds us we live in a damaged world.
In those ruins, there rises in us a yearning for redemption, renewal and resurrection. God promises us a place where nothing is broken. I might even find my old toys there.
Next: The Fall did not doom humanity forever. Even at that moment, God had a plan for how He would redeem the world.
Going Deeper:
- How do you experience the brokenness of our world?
- How do you relate to the temptation of Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:1-7)? In which ways do you see the tempting work of the enemy in your life?
- In sickness, we yearn for health. In want, we seek plenty. What kind of desire does the fall of humankind produce in us?
- What hope do we offer a broken world?
Next Steps:
- The Fall did not doom humanity forever. Even at that moment, God had a plan for how He would redeem the world.
- Read Genesis 3.
- Learn more about what it means to live in a world of evil and suffering.
- Read “But Christians Aren’t Supposed to Be Broken.”
