the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Fall
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or The fall of man is among the first of the portraits in the Bible on the great subject of redemption. When Adam came out of the hands of his gracious Creator, we are told, that he was created in the image of God. By which I apprehend, that he was formed in similitude to him who is "the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature." "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26) What image? Not the image of JEHOVAH as JEHOVAH, for JEHOVAH is invisible; but, according to what the apostle Paul hath delivered to the church, by the authority and instruction of the Holy Ghost, in the image of him who before all worlds stood up, at the call of God, as the glorious Head of his body the church secretly, though not openly, the "first-born of every creature." Let the reader read the whole passage. (Colossians 1:15, etc.) "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the Head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." Now from hence it plainly appears that Christ as Christ, that is, God and man in one person, had a priority of existence to every other, and was, and is, he image of the invisible JEHOVAH, in whose likeness Adam, the first man, was made. It appears also, that by him, that is, God and man in one person, all things were created. God created all things, we are told, by Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:9)
And it farther appears, that all things were not only created by him, but for him. The whole cause for which JEHOVAH went forth in acts of creation, as relating to our world, was for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, more than this; for the same Scripture saith, that he is not only before all things, but by him all things consist. As if this image of the invisible God became the only foundation for creation to rest upon, and the only power to preserve and keep the whole together. This image then of the invisible God was the Person in whose likeness, it should seem, Adam, the first man of the earth, was formed. And, therefore, in the holiness of that similitude, as well in mind as in body, our first parent came forth from the hands of his infinite and kind Creator.
By the fall he lost this resemblance, and all his faculties became ruined and defiled; yea, his whole nature virtually all sin. Hence the Scriptures, under the strongest expressions, speak of the mighty ruin. His understanding became darkened, so as to lose the knowledge of God. (Ephesians 4:18-19) His affections became carnal, sensual, and devilish. (Ephesians 2:1-3; James 3:15) His will stubborn, rebellious, proud, and disobedient. (1 Peter 4:3) Yea, his whole mind enmity against God. (Romans 8:7) The Psalmist, and after him the apostle Paul, hath given some of the more striking features of fallen man, when he saith, "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God." But the result of the divine enquiry was, that "they were all gone aside, they were altogether become filthy, there was none that did good, no not one." (Psalms 14:2-3 with Romans 3:10-19) Such is the Scripture account of the fall.
Blessed be He that, by his great undertaking, hath restored our poor nature from the ruins of the fall, and by uniting his church, which is his body, to himself, hath given to us a better righteousness than man had before. The holiness of Adam was but the holiness of the creature, peaceable, capable of being lost; and was lost. The holiness of the Lord Jesus, in which all his redeemed are beheld and accepted before God, is the holiness of God-man, perfect, and incapable of being ever lost or lessened. How precious the thought! So then, our present fallen state is not the original state of man, neither is it the final state. In Jesus and his righteousness the injury sustained by the fall is more than repaired, and the everlasting welfare of the church, which is his body, eternally secured from all the possibility of loss from an union and oneness with him. Hail! thou glorious, gracious, holy one of God, "the Lord our righteousness." (Jeremiah 23:6)
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Fall'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/f/fall.html. London. 1828.
