How the mighty are fallen
“Have you seen the news? Flooding, fires, earthquakes, wars. If we don’t watch ourselves the world’s going to fall apart completely.”
“I fear we’ll soon pass the point of no return!”
“We must be very near the end!”
These are statements I hear pretty regularly about “the state of the world today.”
The trouble is they’re all far too optimistic. And they’re tragically out of date. According to the Bible the world has fallen apart. We have passed the point of no return and the end was right at the beginning.
You see we live in a world made and loved by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s a good world to which this God of love is deeply committed. But it’s also a world that is catastrophically out of alignment with its Maker.
Adam was placed at the head of this world. When Adam was at peace with his LORD all was right with the world. When that peace was shattered all hell broke loose.
When sin entered in, first came shame then fear then hiding then blame. The LORD curses relationships, family, work, even the physical world is cursed. Death infects the planet and humanity is thrust out of God’s presence.
You could not imagine a more drastic “before and after” for Adam and Eve to cope with. The psychological and spiritual trauma involved in their ejection from the garden is almost inconceivable.
How the mighty are fallen!
That was a phrase coined when Israel’s first king died in battle: “How are the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19). Saul was the LORD’s king – he was meant to be foretaste of the true King, Christ. He was meant to be a righteous ruler who brought peace. He proved to be an unrighteous ruler who died in war. How the mighty are fallen.
The phrase applies so well to Adam. Again, Adam was meant to be a foretaste of his LORD – the One who would take flesh in the fullness of time. He was meant to be a king ruling under God in righteousness. But pride came before his fall and the chaos and darkness we see around has been the result. How the mighty are fallen.
But I wonder if we truly appreciate the heights from which we’ve fallen or the depths in which we find ourselves. Even the term “fall” could sound a bit trifling. As though we’re roughly on a plane with the life of paradise but have taken a small detour. Actually the Bible doesn’t really use the language of “fall”. Far more it uses the language of “death.” Fellowship with the LORD in the garden was “life”. What we’ve now inherited from Adam is “death.” There could not be a greater contrast.
Our world is not a little bit off kilter. It’s not heading towards calamity. Calamity has struck. Only a Saviour from beyond could possibly remedy the situation. Only a new Adam, a new King ruling in righteousness could restore the cosmos.
And that’s our one hope. Not cosmetic improvements. Not a smoother running world-system. We are much too far gone for that.
Instead our hope is wholesale and cosmic renewal. Jesus, the Divine Son of man, called it “the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory.” (Matthew 19:28) Only He can raise us from this pit. But rest assured – He most certainly will!
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