Topic Video: Universal Consequences of the Fall

Humanity was so central to God’s kingdom purposes, that our rebellion brought a curse on the entire universe. We’ve constantly rebelled against God’s will, so that his kingdom on earth has failed to display his perfect glory as its benevolent King and Creator.
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“Humanity was so central to God’s kingdom purposes, that our rebellion brought a curse on the entire universe. Since that time, human society has continued to live for its own glory rather than God’s. We’ve treated each other with injustice and inequity. And we’ve constantly rebelled against God’s will, so that his kingdom on earth has failed to display his perfect glory as its benevolent King and Creator.”
We'll focus on two universal consequences of the Fall, beginning with the fact that it delayed the coming of God’s kingdom.
As we read in Genesis chapter 2 verse 8, when God created the world, the Garden of Eden was the only part that was a paradise. The rest of the world was undeveloped and wild. According to Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, it was humanity’s job to subdue the earth, that is, to cultivate it and establish human societies throughout it, so that the entire world would resemble God’s special garden.
But humanity’s fall into sin delayed the proper cultivation of the world and our rule over it. And therefore, it also delayed the coming of God’s kingdom. Our attempts to cultivate and rule were tainted by sin, and so the world we made wasn’t fit for God to inhabit. Without a doubt, human beings have successfully filled the earth. But the societies we’ve built are far from the perfect world we were commanded to make. Wars, crime, strife, hatred, and false religion are rampant, and even in the church we often find people who lack faith and commitment to God. And as a result of all this sin in the world, God’s kingdom still hasn’t come in all its fullness.
Peter addressed this problem in 2 Peter 3:11-12 when he wrote:
You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
In one sense, God can bring his kingdom to earth whenever he pleases, since he has to power to purge the world of sin whenever he wants. But God’s plan is to do this through the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And in this passage, Peter taught that by fighting against the corruption in the world, we can actually begin to move creation toward its original goal, and “speed” the day that God comes to dwell on the earth.
The second universal consequence of the fall we’ll mention is that all creation is now subject to futility.
When pain and suffering entered human experience, the peace and productivity of the rest of creation was also disrupted. The ground was cursed, so that it began to produce thorns and thistles, and the entire creation was troubled with chaos and corruption. In Romans 8:20-22, Paul described this curse by saying that “the creation was subjected to frustration,” that it’s in “bondage to decay,” and that it’s “groaning as in the pains of childbirth.” In other words, creation no longer produces the good things it was intended to produce, and it’s no longer even capable of becoming the perfect world that God intended.
A casual glance at the world around us confirms how true this is. Hurricanes ravage our coastlines. Earthquakes destroy cities and villages. Floods sometimes wash away whole villages. Insects, animals, and disease destroy crops. Sickness and injury cause suffering and death for millions. The effects of the Fall are everywhere. And the only way for the world to be made right is for God to redeem creation from this curse.
“Creation is waiting with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” That’s because, just as creation was, in a sense, doomed because of what humanity did, creation can be saved - all of creation - through humanity functioning properly under God, which we haven’t seen yet, but we do see when the second Adam returns and Christ takes up the job that humanity was created to do, and he orders creation as it ought to be under God’s rule and its proper dominion in that way.”