lii. When we come to the NT, and especially to the Paulino Epistles, we find that this doctrine of the effects of Adam's fall receives at once ex]>lana- Sion and relief in the facts of the Incarnation and the Atonement. If we take the points in the order followed in the last section, wo see (a) that the universal depravity of mankind ia everywhere presupposed, and is the basis of the argument of the Ep. to the Komans. To (i) we shall return again, and only cite licre 1 Co ir>^ ' As in Adam all die, so also in Christ sliall all be made alive.' (c) finds illustration in two pa.ssagc8 : ' the serpent beguiled Kve in his craftiness (2 Co 11"), and ' Adam was first formed, then Eve ; and Adam
* 8e« Edenheim, IAif4 and Tima of Jaut (A< Uetgiah, I. 166 IT.
was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression' (ITi 2'''). (d) St. Paul refers to the ' bruisin" of Satan ' in Ro 16^ ; and the devil is spoken of as ' a murderer from the beginning' in Jn 8". Cf. also 1 Jn 3*-^. We then come to (e), as to which the classical passage in NT is Ro 5""". A commentary on these ditfi- cult verses cannot be written liere ; but certain broad principles laid down by St. Paul, who is undouht"<lly following and interpreting the narra- tive in Gn 3, can hardly be mistaken.* Tliat through one man sin entered into the world is his startinij-point. Death came through sui (cf. Ro 6^ and Ja 1") ; and hence death is tlie conniiun lot of man, first, because of his own personal sin ; and, secondly, because it is part of the inheritance which Adam has transmitted to his descendants. At the same time, St. Paul is careful to insist (/) that man's personal responsibility for his own acts, and for his own acts alone, remains unim- paired. He does not supplj' any theory by wliich the two complementary truths of man's inherited tendency to evil and man's free will may be recon- ciled ; but he lea\ es them side by side as equally parts of the doctrine wliich it has been given him to teach. And he goes on to show that the dis- tinctive feature of the gospel is that ' if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of tlie one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto the many.' Thus the tlieology of St. Paul is inextricably bound up with the doctrine of the Fall. The whole point of the C(.mparison and contrast of the lirst and second Adam is lost, if the destinies of the human race were not deeply affected by a backward step at the beginnings of human history, if it be not true that man's growth in holiness may be described as a recovery effected through grace.
iv. Tlie interpretations of St. Paul's language which have from time to time been accepted by Cliristians are various ; and they depend in part on tlie view that is taken as to the state of un- fallen man, and the divine intention for him. It would be agreed by most theologians that, to use the language of the Church, the ' original right- eousness' of which Adam was deprived, was, al- though in part natural, yet in part supernatural. That is to say, he is represented as divinely en- dowed with a virtuous character, without any such bias towards evil as we experience in our- selves. Tliis is what constituted the unique per- versity and hoinousncss of the first sin, and it is because of this that his sin is counted a ' fall' from a higlior sjiiritual condition. His sin had a disturbing iiilhience on the whole future devclop- iiiL-nt of the race, but the character of the dis- turbance has been differently estimated in dillerent schools of tliouglit. Speaking broadly, the Greek view was simply that the 'original righteousness' of the race was lost ; the effect of Adam's sin was a privatin, an iinpoverislimcnt of human nature wliich yet left the jiower of the will unimpaired. But the Latin writers who followed Augustine took a darker view of the consciiucnecs of the Fall. It is, for thorn, a depravalio nnturw ; the human will is disabled ; there ia left a bias to- wards evil which can be conquered only by grace. And this is, undoubtedly, nearer to the language of Scriiiture than the former mode of representing the facts ; but it was not always remembered, e contra, in August iiiian theology that the 'iiUMge of God' remained in man even after the I'all (Gn U'). It is therefore contrary to Scripture to represent man as wholly corrupt. And a deep
• For St. Puul's ar^inient, aa also for the witness of th« Apoc.rt/pha to the doctririo of man's corruption, see Sanday Ucodluni, liomaju fcti. v.j.
542
FALL
FALL
ind serious question arises here as to the relation between tlie Fall and the Incarnation. It ma^ well be, as the Scotists taught, that it is unjustih- able to represent the hi^h destiny which man may find in Christ as an after-thought in the divine counsels. The Incarnation may have been, for anything we can tell, the predestined climax of humanity, independently of human sin. Bearing these considerations in mind we return to Ro 5'^"-', and the various theories which have been proposed in explanation. They may be classified thus^*