Fallen
Study Guide
Our culture’s message is to “believe in yourself.” While we may not verbally affirm this mantra, many of us live this way. How have you seen this way of thinking evidenced in your own life? Where is self-confidence apparent in your choices, planning, and problem solving?
When we see so much sin in the world around us, it’s easy to make ourselves the standard of justice. Has there ever been a time in the past when you justified your own sin because it “wasn’t as bad” as someone else? Why is that thinking faulty?
Read Romans 8:18-25. Living in a world that is “cursed” may seem dark and discouraging. How can this truth actually bring us hope? Instead of being frustrated in difficult circumstances, how should we view the brokenness in the world around us?
Read Isaiah 64:5-6. If we don’t understand the reality of our fallen condition, we won’t look to Jesus for hope. Can you think of a time when you were faced with your own corrupt nature? How can you “own” your fallenness and let it move you toward Christ?
There is nothing more important for us than to understand the distinction between God as our Creator and ourselves as created beings. Clarity or confusion around our identity will have lasting effects for generations to come.
Through Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden, we have been condemned and are objectively guilty before God. However, God’s plan for redemption and restoration was already in place from the beginning.
Another result of the fall is the curse of death. God put death into place in order to limit evil in the world and to instill in us a desire for a better world.
Each one of us is corrupt from within—even our good deeds are not worthy to be compared to God’s holiness. But we can take hope in that fact that our fallen nature drives us towards the merciful redemption found in Christ.
While the world tells us to “believe in ourselves,” we must embrace our limitations as created beings, be humbled by our fallen nature, and look to our Creator for hope of a better world.
Scripture: Genesis 3:4-7
