We've been looking at the Genesis 3 fall narrative and its consequences for the sons of Adam. Now, we step away from Genesis 3 and look at how this passage of Scripture is interpreted by Paul in Romans 5-6. Along the way, we survey the apostolic witness (in the rest of the New Testament) as well as the Patristic witness (in the early centuries after the apostles) to uncover a way to respond to all of those questions above. In order that we might reconstruct religion for the hurting, with theology that doesn’t hurt.

Instead of original sin and inherited guilt, we find ancestral consequences and personal guilt. Instead of a master demanding obedience upon pain of death, we see a Father who freely gives to all the gift of his own life, if only they will trust him enough to shema his voice. Instead of an implacable Judge demanding death, we see a gracious Son entering into death on our behalf: to turn the prison of Hades from a tomb into a womb.

Jesus and John Wayne (Kristen DuMez)