When Adam sinned, he did so from a condition of perfection.
Before Adam sinned, he knew no sin. His nature was unfallen. He had no
experience with disobedience nor any modeling of it from any source within his
culture. The only interpersonal relationship he had on a regular basis, other
than with Eve, who also was perfect before the Fall, was with God himself – the
Lord of all Creation and the archetype of righteousness.
Of course, Adam’s culture changed when Satan – himself a novice at the
temptation of humans, though inexpressibly and universally successful on his
very first attempt – made his appearance in the Garden in the form of the
serpent.[i]
Even with such a nature and inheritance of righteousness, upon the
first opportunity that Adam had to express his will in a case calling for a
moral decision, seemingly without hesitation or argument he chose to reject the
very God who created and nourished him.
Even though he possessed an unfallen
nature and derived from an uncorrupted environment, when Adam was given the
choice, he chose personal pride over personal perfection and rebellion against
God instead of the righteousness of God.
Even though he was perfect in nature and existed in perfect
surroundings, with his eyes wide open to the consequences of his actions, Adam
found it impossible to exercise his free will in the direction of righteousness
when left to his own devices and apart from the direct influence of God.
Yet today there are those who insist that salvation ultimately turns on
a man’s expression of his free will. God may offer the gift of salvation, but
man must accept the gift before it becomes effective.
This is the same man whose nature, unlike that of Adam’s, is corrupted
by sin from the moment of conception and whose environment and culture are
equally corrupted as a result of the Fall. This is the same man who is
surrounded and nurtured by individuals and a people of the same corrupt nature
as himself.
According to this doctrine, man’s salvation is dependent upon his
making a free will decision in favor of righteousness – a decision that, by its
very definition, cannot be manipulated or managed by any external constraint,
including that of God.
God may bring positive and righteous influence into the man’s life. He
may have him born into a Christian family, surround him with Christian friends,
and manipulate his life so that everything brings the man to the very brink of
a decision for salvation. Yet God is powerless to move the man past that point,
because God’s will is effectively blocked by the free will of the man.
For God to intentionally and willfully and unilaterally move the man
from a condition of certain eternal damnation into a state of eternal life
would be immoral – and therefore sinful – on God’s part if such a move was in
violation of the man’s will.
Since God is perfect and cannot sin, then man’s free will is
effectively more powerful than God. Therefore, assuming this assessment to be
true, God cannot be omnipotent.
Yet, God is omnipotent.
And in spite of the apparent contradiction, there is a solution.
[i] Note that Adam never had a
conversation with the serpent – with Satan. Satan never attempted to deceive
Adam. Adam never bought into the lie that the fruit would make him wise or that
he would become like God. Adam ate of the fruit with his eyes wide open to the
consequence of death that awaited him and Eve for doing so. His sin was not so
much that of pride as it was of idolatry. He listened to the voice of his wife
over that of God.
