Felix Culpa
Most Christians would imagine that the universal fall of man into sin is something unfortunate. God is sad and broken-hearted at the current state of the world and wished that no one had sinned. He had no other choice but to curse the world to punish humanity for their abuse of free will. He forced Himself to do it. Many would have wished that Adam and Eve had not sinned against God and hypothesized what would have happened if man did not fall into sin. Some might have even joked that they would scold Adam and Eve in heaven for being deceived by the serpent. They imagined a hypothetical post-adamic world of peace and righteousness, where Christ does not even have to come to save mankind. Since God's original plan failed because Adam sinned and brought along his posterity down the drain, therefore now God must activate His back up plan to bring in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of men and rose again on the third day for their justification.
Is the above description accurate
in saying that the fall of man is something unfortunate in the eyes of God? The
Bible does not think so. It sees the fall as the fortunate or blessed – Felix
Culpa. Felix meaning "happy," "lucky," or
"blessed" and culpa, meaning "fault" or
"fall"[1]. If
we interpret the Scripture from the Calvinistic presupposition, God absolutely and
exhaustively determines and causes all things. He is ultimate cause of
literally all things without exception. He is the uncaused (i.e. not externally
caused) and self-caused (i.e. God is the cause of Himself) first cause of all. The unmoved mover. I
AM that I AM (exodus 3:14). The Bible teaches hard determinism i.e. nothing happens
outside of His causation or decree. We must then take logic to its consequence
that the fall of man and sin is ultimately caused by the omnipotent God who cannot
be surprised by things that move independently of Him. We may see things everyday
like as if they happen by chance i.e. without God’s causation. Some may even
think that God created the world, and He just allows it to run by itself while
He simply sits as an observer. Many inadvertently fall into the heresy of deism.
However, the Bible says that even the casting of lot into the lap is wholly disposed
thereof by the LORD (Proverbs 16:33). It is no surprise then that man’s daily planning
is wholly directed by the LORD (Proverbs 16:9). For in him we live, and move,
and have our being (Acts 17:28). Does Acts 17:28 make any exception of which part of man that is not controlled and determined by God? I
doubt so. God created all things for Himself, yea even the wicked for the day
of evil (Proverbs 16:4). God says in Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light, and create
darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
We have seen that God is the
absolute determiner of all things. Therefore, in biblical Christianity there is
no place for hypothesis of an imaginary world. It seems noble that we as
Christians imagine and hypothesize a post-adamic world that is without sin and
death and where Christ does not have to die on the cross for us. Ecclesiastes 7:10
has said: “Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better
than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.” This habit
of hypothesising is incompatible with the sovereign God who has determined all
things after the counsel of His will and good pleasure. There is no possible
world other than what it has been and it is now. The world and all in it must happen as God
determines and He cannot determine any other things that are not according to
His decretive will. He cannot contradict Himself. Therefore a post-adamic world that is without sin and without Christ's death cannot exist. It is a puerile dream. The fall of man then must be seen as fortunate not only
simply because God determined it[2],
but because it gives us the second and perfect Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. While I reject hypothesizing other possible world (despite my sinful and emotional human wish that this world could
have started better), Gary W. Crampton made a good argument from a hypothetical situation where Adam passed the so-called Covenant of Works:
Hence, it is
logically consistent that the Fall of mankind had to occur if God is to be
ultimately glorified through the glorification of His Son. That is, God’s
foreordination of the Fall, and His providentially bringing it to pass, are
necessary. He has purposed it for His own glory. The apostle Paul speaks to
this in Romans 5:12-19. There we read that Adam and Christ are federal heads of
two covenantal arrangements. It is necessary to postulate that if Adam had
successfully passed his probation in the Garden (that is, the covenant of
works), he would have been confirmed by God in positive righteousness. He would
have passed from the state of being posse pecarre (possible to sin) to the
state of non posse pecarre (not possible to sin). Adam’s righteousness, then,
would have been imputed to all of his descendants (that is, the entire human
race). And all mankind would have gratefully looked to him, not Christ, as
Savior. For all eternity, God would then share His glory with His creature:
Adam. Ironically, the obedience of Adam would have led to idolatry. Therefore,
that alternative world is logically impossible. Only the actual world, in which
the Fall of man occurred, is logically possible and redounds to the glory of
God alone. Had Adam obeyed, Jesus Christ would have been denied His role as
“the first-born among many brothers” and the Lord of His church. And the Father
would not receive the glory for His work through the Son. It seems, then, that
this supralapsarianism view of the purpose of creation is in agreement with a
number of the Puritans who referred to the Genesis 3 event as “the fortunate
Fall.”
Not only is the
only logically consistent universe one in which evil exists for God’s purposes,
but God’s people will be far more blessed because of the incarnation and Christ
than they could ever have been blessed by an obedient Adam.[3]”
This world that is filled with
sin and suffering which God ultimately caused is just for a moment. He sovereignly
used the temptation of this world to strengthen His elect. Instead of fighting
against God like the anti-theists do, why not just give all the glory to God
and joyfully give our due diligence to be a responsible and obedient Christians as His
preceptive will commands us to do? That is the only rational thing to do. Our blessed
hope is in Heaven, which is not an imaginary world.
This is the Felix Culpa, the fortunate fall, which God used as His means to His end i.e., the glory of God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There is no better theodicy than this.
[2] Though
evil is evil, it is good that it happens simply because God decrees it to happen.
[3] A
Biblical Theodicy, W. Gary Crampton https://www.trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=141
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