Blogging The Institutes: Day 40 2.1.1 - 2.1.4

Understanding Adam's fall and the impact it has on the rest of mankind following him is an absolute necessity in understanding ourselves and what we can do to re-attain our original state. We first must look for the cause of Adam's sin, "infidelity opened the door to ambition, and ambition was the parent of rebellion, man casting off the fear of God, and giving free vent to his lust." In short, Adam's ambition to attain more, his pride, resulted in his casting off the fear of God, and once the consequence was blinded, the action prevailed. So "the strongest curb to keep all his affections under due restraint, would have been the belief that nothing was better than to cultivate righteousness by obeying the commands of God, and that the highest possible felicity was to be loved by him." Easy enough right? Just realize that when all the options are on the table, the best one is to realize that by cultivating righteousness we experience the highest emotion, the love of God.

Wouldn't it be great if that were it. Seems simple. Do Good, Experience Love. But that scenario only factors in our actions, and since the moment of Adam's fall, we became incapable of cultivating righteousness on our own.

Enter Jesus. Enter the Cross. Enter Grace. For God knows we are not able to cultivate righteousness so He made a way for us to still experience His love by sending His Son to die, to cover our inabilities with Grace.

So without understanding our inability to cultivate righteousness, without understanding the root cause of Adam's fall, we subject ourselves to the exact same trap, the trap of pride. And where pride lives, Grace can not.

So how do we re-attain our original state? We can't. Only by humbling ourselves and allowing the blood of Christ to cover our sin do we experience "the highest possible felicity" to be loved by Him.