I Started a Fight, Finally Concluded
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 7:13PM 
Episode 5: Things Get Untwisted
(You may want to read Episode 1, Episode 2, Episo de 3 and Episode 4 to learn the back story.)
The whole thing started when I went to my sister’s Bible study and said that God planned for humankind to fall and that he put the tree in the Garden of Eden as one of the means of the fall. The teacher, you remember, hadn’t liked this statement much. But he wanted to continue the discussion, so he and his wife had been invited to my sister’s home for Sunday night supper.
Sunday night rolled around and we had a pleasant supper. Then the time came for me to defend my “twisted theology.”
(If you are reading with a feed reader, now’s when you click through to read the rest.)
I had already decided that I’d rest my case on the first half of Ephesians 1. There were other passages I could have used, but this one seemed the simplest. I know you’ve read it before, but read it again. This time read it in light of the primary thing I wanted to prove—that even before God created, he planned for redemption to be central to the history of creation.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…. (Ephesians 1:3-11 ESV)
God’s plan for the fullness of time—the mystery of his will, his purpose—was to unite all things in Christ (verses 9-10). This plan was formed before the foundation of the world (verse 4). How did God plan to accomplish this uniting of all things in Christ? By redemption through Christ’s blood, by the forgiveness of our trespasses (verse 7). Redemption, then, is no contingency plan. It has always been God’s planned turning point in the history of creation.
And in order for God’s plan to unite all things in Christ to unfold, humankind had to sin. There had to be sins to forgive, people to die for. The fall, then, was a necessary part of God’s eternal plan.
For good measure, it is in this context of salvation history that we are told that God works all things according to the counsel of his will (verse 11). By implication then, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as one piece in salvation history, was put in the garden as part of God working all things according to the counsel of his will. The fall that came about as a result of God placing the tree there was an intended result, then, moving us one step closer to redemption and forgiveness and the final consummation.
At this point my dad, who was also there, added that without the fall, we would not know God’s grace. God would still be a gracious God, but we would have no need of his grace. I hadn’t noticed it, but this truth also found in Ephesians 1, for the intended result of this whole eternal plan is “to the praise of his glorious grace (verse 6).” You might say that God’s ultimate goal is the magnification of his glorious grace, and redemption is the centerpoint of creation because it is God’s purposed means by which he shows us how glorious his grace is.
This lead to a short discussion of the definition of grace. “Grace is,” my dad said, “getting better than we deserve.” It is closely tied to forgiveness. No sin to forgive? Then no grace shown.
After this, the teacher asked me who made the real choice for the fall—God or Adam and Eve. I answered that both made real choices. God planned and Adam carried out that plan by making a real choice to eat the forbidden fruit in the garden. God’s choice and human choice are seen together throughout the Bible and I accept them, then, as compatible.
“Yes,” said the teacher, “there’s that verse in Acts that puts them together in the context of Christ’s death—in one verse, I think. How does that works?”
“I don’t know, really,” I said. “I accept that they’re compatible because they’re both there in scripture, even though I don’t exactly how it all works.” (I do think scripture gives us some information about how we can rightly be held responsible for our choices even though they are predetermined by God, but bringing that up would have led us down a rabbit trail.)
“Why,” he asked my dad, “do we see God trying all those different things in the Old Testament if he knew they were going to fail?”
My dad’s answer was that he thought God’s purpose in many of the different things he did was to show us what doesn’t work as a solution for sin. All those non-solutions show us that our only hope is through the forgiveness and rebirth that comes through the death of the Son. God worked as he did so that we could see how much we needed God to do everything for us. He worked as he did so that we could see how much we needed God’s grace.
And that was that. I’m sorry if you were hoping for a knock-down-drag-out.
It turns out that the teacher who said my theology was twisted valued the truth enough to want to consider my reasons for believing as I did. He wanted to understand where my shocking statement had come from. Did he change his mind? Probably not. But I’d be willing to bet that he doesn’t think my theology is quite as twisted now as he did in the beginning.
Do you have any comments or questions about my “theological soap opera,” as someone dubbed it? Do you agree or disagree with me? What would you have done differently? I know at least one thing I’d do differently if I had it to do over. If you have enough comments and questions that I have to put up another post to respond, I’ll tell you.
Update: Here are the follow up posts:
Reader Comments (9)
Ok. My question is how do you make this compatible with God not being the author of sin? We can say God chose and Adam chose - but God's plan preceded Adam - so wouldn't this make him the author?
I've no idea what you could do differently. I have never thought this through like this. I've always stopped at Jesus death and resurrection being pre-ordained before the foundation of the world. And I suppose I stopped at foreknowledge of human nature. So I'm challenged and not sure if I completely agree or not. Looking forward to hearing more.
I think you did an excellent job of explaining this from the Scriptures, and I'm glad you had your dad there for support. Maybe the teacher didn't change his mind, and maybe he will. One never knows how He'll use His word to transform a mind and blow away some skewed doctrine.
:-)
Great storytelling Rebecca. Don't apologize that it was not more dramatic, since it was a wonderful way to tell a story. The pictures that went with the story were very clever also.
How influenced was he in Open Theism? Because if he's well versed in it, I could see some mental objections he could raise. Like being in Christ was for holy and blameless existence and that wouldn't necessitate a Fall; it could've happened some other way (I think Augustine raised this point years ago but I don't remember where I read it--either On Genesis or Christian Doctrines). So the ultimate plan in such a view would have all in Christ and then how it works out could be several ways (in your view it would include the tree and in his view it might include some other hundred ways but the tree being the stupid route that people took). The Fall, having had occurred, winds up making the plan work through a redemption payment.
I guess the answer would be citing Revelation that the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world but in such a case, I guess he could say that the whole Tree thing wasn't actualized until it happened. So that would be a chronological plan but logically not implemented until whatever route panned out, occurred.
I don't know if that makes any sense since my head is really stuffy and I can't think straight.
Thanks for the comments; keep them coming.
I plan to respond sometime this week. Before Friday, if I can, but these next two days will be busy.
Great post Rebecca! I enjoyed it and it was one I really looked forward to each day. My husband and I ended up in some deep discussions and our son got in on it too ... that is what is supposed to happen ... the meat instead of the milk! What we came back to alot was, "Is God the author of sin or man?" "Did Satan sin when he was removed from Heaven?" "Was sin created in eternity past or when Adam fell?" Great stuff. Handled very well I might say. Sorry if you felt pressured to post. I'll go back to 'lurking".
I really enjoyed this series! Please share what you would have done differently.
I enjoyed this too, Rebecca. Will check back for your further thoughts.
Whew! Glad I came in late. Cliff-hangers do me in.