Fall

This state of fellowship did not endure. Humanity rebelled, wishing to turn things their own way, bringing death (Rom 6:12). As a consequence of this disobedience, the fellowship of the Spirit is broken. Humanity has fallen from their “original righteousness and communion with God and so became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body”[1]. Seen relationally, “sin is fundamentally opposition to grace. It is saying No to the invitation to receive God’s gift of life with our praise and thanksgiving, No to a life of glad service to God, No to a life of friendship with our fellow creatures.”[2]

This denial of the Spirit’s fellowship spreads insidiously to all aspects of the relationship of God, humanity and creation. As God’s image bearers, appointed as God’s vice-regents over creation, when humanity falls, so does the rest of God’s handiwork. The image is marred. The good creation itself is cursed because of human sin (Gen 3:17), and is a shadow of its former glory – there has been “a break in the harmony of creation”[3]. The fall is cosmic in scope – humanity and creation are in solidarity in their separation and alienation from God, but also alienated from each other.
In Romans 1 Paul links alienation from God to a misrepresentation of nature as divine and an object of worship. Humanity “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator” (Rom 1:25). In its bondage to sin, creation groans (Rom 8:19ff). Creation is enslaved, alienated and yearns for liberty. Humanity and creation both are in need of a saviour.

[1] Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Confession of Faith and Catechisms with Proof Texts: The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as adopted by The Orthodox Presbyterian Church. (Pennsylvania: The Committee on Christian Education of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 2005). http://opc.org/documents/LCLayout1.pdf. Accessed 11 June 2006

[2] Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding, 151
[3] Bouma-Prediger, The Greening of Theology, 240.