Sermon by John Wesley – “God’s love to fallen
How
exceedingly common, and how bitter is the outcry against our first parent, for
the mischief which he not only brought upon himself, but entailed upon his
latest posterity! It was by his willful rebellion against God “that sin entered
into the world.” “By one man’s disobedience,” as the apostle observes, the
many, as many as were then in the loins of their forefathers, were made, or
constituted sinners: not only deprived of the favor of God, but also of His
image; of all virtue, righteousness, and true holiness, and sunk partly into
the image of the devil, in pride, malice, and all other diabolical tempers;
partly into the image of the brute, being fallen under the dominion of brutal
passions and groveling appetites. Hence, also, death entered into the world,
with all his forerunners and attendants; pain, sickness, and a whole train of
uneasy as well as unholy passions and tempers.
“For all
this we may thank Adam,” has been echoed down from generation to generation.
The self-same charge has been repeated in every age and every nation where the
oracles of God are known, in which alone this grand and important event has
been discovered to the children of men. Has not your heart, and probably your
lips too, joined in the general charge?
How few are there of those who believe the Scriptural relation of the
Fall of Man, and have not entertained the same thought concerning our first
parent, severely condemning him, that through willful disobedience to the sole
command of his Creator,
Brought death into the world and all or woe.
Nay, it were
well if the charge rested here: but it is certain it dies not. It can not be
denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his Creator. Have not thousands,
even of those that are called Christians, taken liberty to call His mercy, if
not His justice also, into question, on this very account? Some indeed have
done this a little more modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner: but others
have thrown aside the mask, and asked, “Did not God foresee that Adam would
abuse his liberty? And did He not know the baneful consequences which this must
naturally have on all his posterity? And why then did He permit that
disobedience? Was it not easy for the Almighty to have prevented it?” He
certainly did foresee the whole. This can not be denied. “For known unto God
are all His works from the beginning of the world.” And it was undoubtedly in
His Power to prevent it; for He hath all power both in heaven and earth. But it
is known to Him at the same time, that it was best upon the whole not to
prevent it. He knew that, “not as the
transgression, so is the free gift”; that the evil resulting from the latter, not
worthy to be compared with it. He saw
that to permit the fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general;
that abundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam by
his fall; that if “sin abounded” thereby over all the earth, yet grace “would
much more abound”; yea, and that to every individual of the human race, unless
it was his own choice.
It is
exceedingly strange that hardly anything has been written, or at least
published, on this subject: may, that it has been so little weighted or
understood by the generality of Christians: especially considering that it is
not a mater of mere curiosity, but a truth of the deepest importance; it being
impossible, on any other principle,
To assert a gracious
And
justify the ways of God with men:
And considering withal, how plain this important truth is, to
all sensible and candid inquirers. May the Lover of men open the eyes of our
understanding, to perceive clearly that by the fall of Adam mankind in general
have gained a capacity,
First, of
being more holy and happy on earth, and,
Secondly, of
being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have been.
And, first,
mankind in general have gained by the fall of Adam a capacity of attaining more
holiness an happiness on earth than it would have been possible for them to
attain if Adam had not fallen. For if
Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died. Nothing can be clearer than this:
nothing more undeniable: the more thoroughly we consider the point, the more
deeply shall we be convinced of it.
Unless all the partakers of human nature had received that deadly wound
in Adam, it would not have been needful for the Son of God to take our nature
upon Him. Do you not see that this was the very ground of His coming into the
world? “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Thus, death
passed upon all: through him, “in whom all men sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) Was it not
to remedy this very thing that “the Word was made flesh”? that “as in Adam all
dead, so in Christ all might be made alive”? Unless, then , many had been made
sinners by the disobedience of one, by the obedience of one many would not have
been made righteous (vs 18); so there would have been no room for that amazing
display of the Son of God’s love to mankind. There would have been no occasion
for His “being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” It would not
then have been said to the astonishment of all the hosts of heave, “God so
loved the world,” yeas, the ungodly world, which had no thought or desire of
returning to Him, “that he gave his Son” out of His bosom, His only begotten
Son, to the end that “whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.” Neither could we then have said, “God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself”; nor that He “made him to be sin,” that is, a
sin-offering “for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God through him.” There would have been no such occasion for such “an
advocate with eh Father” as “Jesus Christ the Righteous”; neither for His
appearing “at the right hand of God, to make intercession for us.”
What is the
necessary consequence of this? It is this: There could then have been no such
thing as faith in God, thus loving the world, giving His only Son for us men,
and for our salvation. There could have been no such thing as faith in the son
of God, as loving us and giving Himself for us. There could have been no faith
in the Spirit of God, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, as raising us
from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Indeed, the whole privilege
of justification by faith could have no existence; there could have been no
redemption in the blood of Christ: neither could Christ have been “made” of God
unto us,” “wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, or redemption.”
And the same
grand blank, which was in our faith, must likewise have been in our love. We
might have loved the Author of our being, the Father of angels and men, as our
Creator and Preserver: we might have said, “O Lord our governor, how excellent
is Thy name in all the earth!” But we would not have loved Him under the
nearest and dearest relation, as delivering up His Son for us all. We might have
love the Son of God, a being the “brightness of his Father’s glory,” the
express image of His person.[1] However, we could not have loved Him as
“bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,” and “by that one oblation of
himself once offered, making a full oblation, sacrifice, and satisfaction for
the sins of the whole world.” We would
not have been “made conformable to his death,” nor have known “the power of his
resurrection.” We could not have loved the Holy Ghost as revealing to us the
Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our understanding, bringing us out
of darkness into His marvelous light, renewing the image of God in our soul,
and sealing us unto the day of redemption.
So that, in truth, what is now “in the sight of God, even the Father,”
not of fallible men “impure religion and undefiled, “would then have had no
being: inasmuch as it wholly depends on those grand principles, “By grace ye
are saved through faith”; and “Jesus Christ is of God made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” We see then what
unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our first parent, with regard
to faith: faith both in God the Father, who spared not His own Son, His only
Son, but wounded him for our transgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities;
and in God the Son, who poured out His soul for us transgressors, and washed us
in His own blood. We see what advantage we derive therefore with regard to the
love of God, both of God the Father and God the Son. The chief ground of this
love, as long as we remain in the body, is plainly declared by the apostle, “We
love him, because he first loved us.” But the greatest instance of His love had
never been given in Adam had not fallen. ….
There is one
advantage more that we reap from Adam’s fall, which is not unworthy our
attention. Unless in Adam all had died, being in the loins of their first
parent, every descendant of Adam, every child of man, must have personally
answered for himself to God: it seems to be a necessary consequence of this,
that if he had once fallen, once violated any command of God, there would have
been no possibility of his raising again; there was no help, but he must have
perished without remedy. For that covenant knew not to show mercy: the word
was, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Now who would not rather be on the
footing he is now; under a covenant of mercy? Who would wish to hazard a whole
eternity upon one stake? Is it not infinitely more desirable, to be in a state wherein,
tho encompassed with infirmities, yet we do not run such a desperate risk, but
if we fall, we may rise again? Wherein we may say,
My trespass is
grown up to heaven!
But,
far above the skies
In
Christ abundantly forgiven,
I
see Thy mercies rise!
In Christ!
Let me entreat every serious person, once more to fix his attention here. All
that has been said, all that can be said, on these subjects, centers in this
point. The fall of Adam produced the death of Christ! Hear, O heavens, and give
ear, O earth! Yea,
Let earth and
heaven agree,
Angels
and men be joined,
To
celebrate with me
The
Saviour of mankind;
To
adore the all-atoning Lamb,
And
bless the sound of Jesus’ name!
If God had
prevented the fall of man, the Word had never been made flesh: nor had we ever
“seen his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” Those
mysteries had never been displayed, “which the very angels desire to look
into.” Methinks this consideration swallows up all the rest, and should never
be out of our thoughts. Unless “by one man, judgment had come upon all men to
condemnation,” neither angels nor men could ever have known “the unsearchable
riches of Christ.”
See then,
upon the whole, how little reason we have to repine at the fall of our first
parent, since herefrom we may derive such unspeakable advantages, both in time
and eternity. See how small pretense there is for questioning the mercy of God
in permitting that event to take place, since therein, mercy, by infinite
degrees, rejoices over judgment! Where, then, is the man that presumes to blame
God for not preventing Adam’s sin? Should we not rather bless Him from that
ground of the heart, for therein laying the grand scheme of man’s redemption,
and making way for that glorious manifestation of His wisdom, holiness,
justice, and mercy? If indeed God had
decreed before the foundation of the world that millions of men should dwell in
everlasting burnings, because Adam sinned, hundreds or thousands of years
before they had a being, I know not who could thank him for this, unless the
devil and his angels: seeing, on this supposition, all those millions of
unhappy spirits would be plunged into hell by Adams’ sin, without any possible
advantage from it. But, blest be God,
this is not the case. Such a decree never existed. On the contrary, every one
born of a woman may be an unspeakable gainer thereby; and none ever was or can
be loser, but by his own choice.
We see here
a full answer to that plausible account “of the origin of evil,” published to
the world some years since, and supposed to be unanswerable: that it
“necessarily resulted from the nature of matter, which God was not able to
alter.” It is very kind in this sweet-tongued orator to make an excuse for God!
But there is really no occasion for it: God hath answered himself. He made man
in His own image, a spirit endued with understanding and liberty. Man abusing
that liberty, produced evil, brought sin and pain into the world. This God
permitted, in order to a fuller manifestation of His wisdom, justice, and
mercy, by bestowing on all who would receive it an infinitely greater happiness
than they could possibly have attained if Adam had not fallen.
“Oh, the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Altho a thousand
particulars of his judgments and of His ways are unsearchable to us, and past
our finding out, yet we may discern the general scheme running through time
into eternity. “According to the council of his own will,” the plan He had laid
before the foundation of the world, He created the parent of all mankind in His
own image. And He permitted all men to be made sinners by the disobedience of
this one man, that, by the obedience of One, all who receive the free gift may
be infinitely holier and happier to all eternity!
[1] I omitted this parenthesis (although this ground seems to belong rather to the inhabitants of heaven than earth). RK