Fallen Sons

by Christopher Cuddy

 

Some would say that I was the product of sin.  My parents weren’t married when they had me.  Nor did they intend to get married.  My mother became quite alarmed when she discovered that she was pregnant.  She wasn’t wealthy.  She wasn’t an elite member of society.  While she knew that my father had affectionate feelings for her, she also knew that he could not be relied upon to act as the “provider” for a wife and child.  He was not “father material.”

She couldn’t keep me.  We wouldn’t be family.  She might be able to bring me into the world, but she would not be able to keep me there.  She couldn’t be my mother.  She would have to give me up.  I was born in an orphanage hospital in Seoul, Korea on March 25, 1984.   

I don’t know much about the situation surrounding my birth beyond what is mentioned above.  Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if my mother had decided to keep me.  I have no memories of her.  I don’t even know her name.  I don’t know if my father was present during my birth, but I doubt that he was.  I was born without a mother, without a father; without a family.   

I was alone.

I was an orphan.  

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Genesis 1:1 may be the most famous verse in the entire Bible.  It’s very simple: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.”  It is where all of our natural reality began.  Before God spoke the words of creation, there was nothing (except for God Himself, of course).   

God did speak, however, and God did create.  He created the world and everything in it: minerals, elements, plants, and animals.  In his love, God didn’t stop with the creation of animals.  He wanted something more.  Actually, He wanted someone more. 

The Bible tells us that everything God created was “good” (Genesis 1:31).  God didn’t make junk.  Everything He made had His divine fingerprints on it and showed traces of His working.  Everything that came from the hands of God was “good.”  But there was something different about his last and final creation... something special... something unique... 

Genesis 1:26-27 tells us about the creation of man.  It states that God created man and woman in His “image” and “likeness.”  This description of man – as created in God’s “image” and “likeness” – is very interesting.  God had made “good” things before, but never had He made something in His “image” and in His “likeness.”  Never had He made something that “good” before.  Thus, man was something unique, unlike all of the other creatures God had made.  Man had a special participation in, and resemblance of, God Himself.  Man was special. 

But how, exactly, was man special?  How was he different from all of the other creatures?  Sometimes the meaning of a particular Bible verse is pretty clear and obvious.  Most of the time, however, the meaning and implications of a verse is not so clear and one must delve deeper into the surrounding verses and look for clues about its particular meaning.  This is one of those times.  To truly understand what it meant for Adam and Eve to be made in the “image and likeness” of God, we need to look for other places in the Bible where this phrase is used.  We don’t have to look far: Genesis 5:1-3 states that just as God had created Adam and Eve in His “image and likeness,” so Adam had a son, Seth, “in his own likeness, after his own image” (Genesis 5:3).  What does this mean?  It means that just as God fathered Adam and Eve (in His “image and likeness”) so Adam fathered his son, Seth, in his “image and likeness.”  When the Bible uses the phrase “image and likeness” to describe Adam and Eve’s creation it is not trying to describe how they looked, rather it is describing who they are: God’s divine son and daughter. 

When the Bible describes the creation of man and woman it is not just describing how God created man biologically and physically, but it’s also describing how He created man theologically and spiritually.  Thus, God isn’t just our “maker.”  He didn’t just turn a pile of dirt into a body.  Rather, He breathed divine Life into the dust of the earth and created a person.  God didn’t just make a creature; He fathered a son.  Adam was God’s son, and God was Adam’s Father.  This is the key to understanding the tragedy of what happened in the Garden of Eden. 

Quite often when we think about what Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden, we think in terms of the lush valleys, friendly animals, and innocent nudity.  While these things are all true to one extent or another, Adam and Eve were given far more than they often get credit for.  Adam and Eve were not just perfect specimens of physical health.  They were God’s divine son and daughter.  God did not just create Adam and Eve; He made them members of His divine family.  Adam was a son of God (and likewise Eve was God’s daughter).  Therefore, God did not just give Adam natural life.  He also gave him participation in supernatural life.  Adam was holy, and the holiness which Adam had was nothing less than his participation in God’s own holy nature and being.  Adam was a “consecrated temple” of the Holy Spirit.  Adam had the fullness of sanctifying grace – God’s own life and power – infused into his soul from the very beginning.   

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When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were not just making an innocent “mistake:” they were committing cosmic treason, and their fall from grace was the ultimate tragedy.  They gave up supernatural life with God Himself for their own limited, natural existence.  They rejected their divine sonship, and they made themselves theological orphans.  They did not want God as their Father, and they did not want to be His sons.  They wanted out of the Divine Family.  They gave up the sanctifying grace that had been infused into their souls.  While their souls had previously been full of God’s love and life, sin expelled God’s presence from within them.  They were empty.  God’s life was not within them any more. 

The Church calls this the “original sin.”  A lot of people think of “original sin” as a stain or mark on the soul.  However, this common understanding of original sin is not correct.  Original sin is not the presence of an “evil substance” within the soul.  Rather, original sin is the absence of God’s Trinitarian life (i.e. sanctifying grace) within the soul.  Thus, in a very real sense, original sin is “nothing:” it is nothing where there should be something!  It is an ominous emptiness instead of God’s loving and sanctifying presence. 

The effects of the original sin were not limited to Adam and Eve.  Although the first sin was “original” to them, sin did not remain original.  The effects of original sin have trickled down to all of Adam’s descendents.  We all experience the effects of sin entering the world.  We are all born in a state of original sin.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that original sin is the “reverse side” of the saving news of the Gospel (section 389).  We have to understand what we are saved from (the spiritual death of original sin) before we can understand what we are saved for (the spiritual life of divine sonship).  Rather than being born into God’s divine family, we are born into Adam’s dysfunctional/sinful family.  The Bible states that we were born a son of the “first Adam” and that we are re-born (through baptism) as sons of the “Second Adam” (Jesus Christ) (1 Corinthians 15:45).  Adam and Eve were created as members of God’s own divine family.  Through their sin, they rejected God’s family and started a “dysfunctional family” rooted in rebellion and sin.  We are all descendents of Adam, and thus we are all born into a state of original sin.  Adam is our father and representative.  We receive what Adam received because of the fall: a fallen nature without God’s divine life.  We are given natural life in a state of spiritual death (Romans 5:12).   

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they fell from their state of grace.  They rejected their status as God’s divine son and daughter.  They were no longer holy.  They were now sinners.  Naked and ashamed.  They needed a savior.  They needed to be justified. 

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I started this article by explaining some of the incidents surrounding my own birth as an orphan.  I was born without a family.  I had no home.  Not only was I born without a natural family, I was also born in a state of original sin.  Thus, as a son of Adam, I was also a supernatural orphan.  My soul lacked God’s presence within it.   

What is justification, then?  At its core, justification is divine sonship.  It is the process by which we as fallen sons of Adam are both made and declared sons of God.  Justification is not a purely legal declaration.  We are not just “named” or “called” God’s sons.  Through the gift of His divine grace we actually become His sons and daughters.  Thus, justification is the process by which we start off as “sons of Adam” (in original sin) and become “sons of God” (through the grace of divine adoption). 

This article is the first of three.  In this first article we have examined what original sin is.  We have seen that it is the loss of God’s divine grace and life and our status as his divine sons and daughters.  In the second article, we will examine the Catholic doctrine of justification and take a look at what “justified sonship” really is.   In the third part, we will examine the similarities and differences between Catholic and Protestant understandings of salvation and justification.  Throughout this series of articles, I will continue to share my own experience as an orphan who was eventually adopted by a loving family.  My own human adoption has really helped me understand and see what it means to be adopted by God on a divine and supernatural level. 

God is our Father.  We are His sons and daughters.  May we never cease to praise and love Him!