First, some background on the fall of Adam.
The Reformed view sees Adam sinning by his own free will, not by divine coercion.
Reformed, as well as other views, teaches that God’s predestining decree was made before the Fall, and in light of the Fall. This is important because the Reformed view of predestination always accentuates the gracious character of God’s redemption. When God predestines people to salvation God is predestinating people to be saved whom He knows really need to be saved. They need to be saved because they are sinners in Adam, not because God forced them to be sinners.
To be perfectly clear, God knew before the Fall that there would be a Fall and God took action to redeem some, His elect. God ordained the Fall in the sense that he chose to allow it, but not in the sense that God chose to coerce it. God's predestinating grace is gracious precisely because He chooses to save people whom He knows in advance will be spiritually dead.
Before the fall, Adam was free—more free than we have ever been. Adam was created with God's grace in a state of positive holiness, and was also immortal in the sense that he was not subject to the law of death. But Adam, created mutable, was only at the beginning of his existence and did not yet possess the highest privileges that were in store for mankind. Adam was not yet raised above the possibility of erring, sinning, and dying. He was not yet in possession of the highest degree of holiness, nor did he enjoy life in all its fullness.
God simply withheld that undeserved constraining grace with which Adam would infallibly not have fallen, which grace He was under no obligation to bestow. In respect to himself, Adam might have stood had he so chosen; but in respect to God it was certain that he would fall. Adam acted as freely as if there had been no decree, and yet as infallibly as if there had been no liberty.
The image of God in the man Adam was still limited by the possibility of man's sinning against God, changing from good to evil, and becoming subject to the power of death. The promise of life in the covenant of works was a promise of the removal of all the limitations of life to which Adam was still subject, and of the raising of his life to the highest degree of perfection. When Paul says in Rom. 7:10 that the commandment was unto life, he means life in the fullest sense of the word. The principle of the covenant of works was: the man that does these things shall live thereby; and this principle is reiterated time and again in Scripture, Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11,13,20; Luke 10:28; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12. The great question that had to be settled by Adam was, whether man would obey God implicitly or follow the guidance of his own judgment.It was a test of pure obedience. Adam had to show his willingness to submit his will to the will of his God with implicit obedience.
Adam could sin or choose to not sin. Adam, who had absolutely no claim on God, and who could only establish a claim by meeting the condition of the covenant of works, cut himself loose from God and acted as if he possessed certain rights as over against God. The idea that the command of God was really an infringement on the rights of man seems to have been already present in the mind of Eve when, in answer to the question of Satan, she added the words, "Neither shall ye touch it," (Gen. 3:3). Eve evidently wanted to stress the fact that God's command had been unreasonable.
Adam disobeyed and chose to sin...which was what he willfully and with full foreknowledge that his actions were contrary to what God had personally told him.
Adam's willful disobedience threw all of his progeny into a state of sin, breaking the covenant of works that God had established with Him—said progeny now being unable to not sin. The lost therefore can only choose to their own inclinations, being inclined to sin less or to sin more. This is unlike the regenerate, who can choose to sin or not to sin, but again, both choices made according to their own inclinations. Only now, the regenerate can be inclined towards God's purposes and righteousness, and hence enjoy a freedom the lost can never claim, a freedom to be the kind of creature God expects them to be.
The reason for the fall is assigned in that "God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that He might have mercy on all," Rom. 11:32; and again, "We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead," 2 Cor. 1:9; and it would be difficult to find language which would assert the Divine control and Divine initiative more explicitly than this.
For wise reasons, God was pleased to actively permit our first parents to be tempted and to fall, and then to overrule their sin for His own glory. Yet this permission and overruling of sin does not make Him the author of it. Sin is always the work of a moral agent's actions, not God's actions. It seems that God has permitted the fall in order to show what free will would do; and then, by overruling it, He has shown what the blessings of His grace and the judgments of His justice can do.
AMR
The Reformed view sees Adam sinning by his own free will, not by divine coercion.
Reformed, as well as other views, teaches that God’s predestining decree was made before the Fall, and in light of the Fall. This is important because the Reformed view of predestination always accentuates the gracious character of God’s redemption. When God predestines people to salvation God is predestinating people to be saved whom He knows really need to be saved. They need to be saved because they are sinners in Adam, not because God forced them to be sinners.
To be perfectly clear, God knew before the Fall that there would be a Fall and God took action to redeem some, His elect. God ordained the Fall in the sense that he chose to allow it, but not in the sense that God chose to coerce it. God's predestinating grace is gracious precisely because He chooses to save people whom He knows in advance will be spiritually dead.
Before the fall, Adam was free—more free than we have ever been. Adam was created with God's grace in a state of positive holiness, and was also immortal in the sense that he was not subject to the law of death. But Adam, created mutable, was only at the beginning of his existence and did not yet possess the highest privileges that were in store for mankind. Adam was not yet raised above the possibility of erring, sinning, and dying. He was not yet in possession of the highest degree of holiness, nor did he enjoy life in all its fullness.
God simply withheld that undeserved constraining grace with which Adam would infallibly not have fallen, which grace He was under no obligation to bestow. In respect to himself, Adam might have stood had he so chosen; but in respect to God it was certain that he would fall. Adam acted as freely as if there had been no decree, and yet as infallibly as if there had been no liberty.
The image of God in the man Adam was still limited by the possibility of man's sinning against God, changing from good to evil, and becoming subject to the power of death. The promise of life in the covenant of works was a promise of the removal of all the limitations of life to which Adam was still subject, and of the raising of his life to the highest degree of perfection. When Paul says in Rom. 7:10 that the commandment was unto life, he means life in the fullest sense of the word. The principle of the covenant of works was: the man that does these things shall live thereby; and this principle is reiterated time and again in Scripture, Lev. 18:5; Ezek. 20:11,13,20; Luke 10:28; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12. The great question that had to be settled by Adam was, whether man would obey God implicitly or follow the guidance of his own judgment.It was a test of pure obedience. Adam had to show his willingness to submit his will to the will of his God with implicit obedience.
Adam could sin or choose to not sin. Adam, who had absolutely no claim on God, and who could only establish a claim by meeting the condition of the covenant of works, cut himself loose from God and acted as if he possessed certain rights as over against God. The idea that the command of God was really an infringement on the rights of man seems to have been already present in the mind of Eve when, in answer to the question of Satan, she added the words, "Neither shall ye touch it," (Gen. 3:3). Eve evidently wanted to stress the fact that God's command had been unreasonable.
Adam disobeyed and chose to sin...which was what he willfully and with full foreknowledge that his actions were contrary to what God had personally told him.
Adam's willful disobedience threw all of his progeny into a state of sin, breaking the covenant of works that God had established with Him—said progeny now being unable to not sin. The lost therefore can only choose to their own inclinations, being inclined to sin less or to sin more. This is unlike the regenerate, who can choose to sin or not to sin, but again, both choices made according to their own inclinations. Only now, the regenerate can be inclined towards God's purposes and righteousness, and hence enjoy a freedom the lost can never claim, a freedom to be the kind of creature God expects them to be.
The reason for the fall is assigned in that "God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that He might have mercy on all," Rom. 11:32; and again, "We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead," 2 Cor. 1:9; and it would be difficult to find language which would assert the Divine control and Divine initiative more explicitly than this.
For wise reasons, God was pleased to actively permit our first parents to be tempted and to fall, and then to overrule their sin for His own glory. Yet this permission and overruling of sin does not make Him the author of it. Sin is always the work of a moral agent's actions, not God's actions. It seems that God has permitted the fall in order to show what free will would do; and then, by overruling it, He has shown what the blessings of His grace and the judgments of His justice can do.
AMR
