SERMON TITLE: Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q 15 & 16
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-21
SPEAKER: Joe Sherrieb
DATE: 08-03-2025
This sermon was during our Outdoor Communion Service, and there is no recording.
Westminster Shorter Catechism
Good evening everyone! My name is Joe Sherrieb — Life Group Director at Gateway Church. And tonight — we’re gonna be making our way through our mini series on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Up to this point, we’ve preached through the first 14 questions and answers of the catechism and now we’re gonna be focusing on questions 15 and 16.
Back in May, Ed preached on question 14, which asks, “What is sin?” And we learned that sin is either disobeying God — a sin of commission — or not conforming to God’s law —a sin of omission — in any way. Tonight we’ll be focusing on the very first sin in history — a sin of commission — starting in the Garden of Eden. So let me read Questions 15 and 16 of the catechism:
Question 15: By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition?
Answer: Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit.
And question 16: Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first disobedience?
Answer: Since the covenant was made not only for Adam but also for his natural descendants, all mankind sinned in him and fell with him in his first disobedience.
Okay — let’s go ahead and read the story starting in Genesis 2:15-17. And while you’re getting there — I’d like to look at the framing of question 15 real quick. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition? What was their original condition? If you remember back to when Jeremy Sickmiller covered question 10 of the catechism, we learned that God originally created man in his image — in true knowledge, in righteousness, and in holiness. So if we wanted to expand question 15, we could ask it this way. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition of true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness? The answer: Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit. Let’s see how this plays out. We’re in Genesis 2:15-17.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
And if you skip over to Genesis 3 with me — starting in verse 1 — we read:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Okay — so Adam — and Eve — fell from their original condition in regards to their true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. And they did so by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now we don’t really know why God decided to create this tree and put it in the midst of the garden and command Adam and Eve not to eat from it — other than to simply test them— that is — to test their faithfulness to him.
But what we do know is that Adam and Eve failed the test. They sinned against God. And this may cause you to go, “ Wait a minute! If Adam and Eve were made in the image of God with true knowledge and righteousness, and holiness, how was it even possible that they were capable of sinning against God in the first place?” It’s a great question— but just because they were created in this state, does not mean that they were created with the inability to fall from it. Their original state was innocence, and they had complete freedom and the natural ability to will and to do what is good and pleasing to God — but God also made them in such a way that they could lose that freedom. Listen to Ecclesiastes 7:29, “See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
Here’s an analogy that I hope will be helpful. Imagine you have a pure white garment. It’s beautiful, it’s flawless — no snags, no wrinkles or stains —and it fits perfectly. And you’re told to wear this wherever you go — except don’t go into this one room because it’s full of ink, oil, and tar and it will ruin the garment. And let’s pretend you had no idea what ink, or oil, or tar were.
Now suppose you decided for whatever reason you wanted to explore the room. Let’s say someone convinced you that the garment wasn’t capable of getting dirty or damaged, and the ink and oil and tar didn’t really pose a threat to the garment. You walk in the room and explore it for a while, and you get ink and oil and tar all over your garment. You try to wash it, but the stains won’t come out. You’ve ruined the purity and beauty of the garment.
Adam and Eve are the garment in this illustration. Just like the garment’s original state of purity and flawlessness was true and real — and was able to be changed and become filthy, Adam and Eve’s original state of true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness were true, yet were capable of falling from it.
In fact, the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 6 article 1 even adds this, “It pleased God to allow them to sin, because in his wisdom and holiness he planned to order their sin to his own glory. Romans 11:32 says:
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
We’ll hold onto this thought for later. But all of this is to say that by Adam and Eve eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were able to fall from their original condition, for their original condition was not permanent —- it was able to change.
And this original condition is what made man’s fellowship with God possible. It was only in their original state that they could walk with God, commune with God, and enjoy him forever. But by this sin — by this eating of the forbidden fruit, they fell from their original condition and lost these privileges. They could no longer be in the presence of God. Genesis 3:23-24 says:
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
They could not be in God’s presence anymore. He kicked them out and made sure they couldn’t get access to him, for they were no longer in right standing with him because they were impure.
Which leads us to our next truth. Not only did they fall from their original condition, they became dead in their sin — as the Westminster Confession of Faith says — “completely polluted in all their faculties and parts of body AND soul.” This is what theologians call “total depravity.” One of my favorite theologians said this about Total Depravity,
The idea of “total” in total depravity doesn’t mean that all human beings are as wicked as they can possibly be. It means that the fall was so serious that it affects the whole person. The fallenness that captures and grips our human nature affects our bodies; that’s why we become ill and die. It affects our minds and our thinking; we still have the capacity to think, but the Bible says the mind has become darkened and weakened. The will of man is no longer in its pristine state of moral power. The will, according to the New Testament, is now in bondage. We are enslaved to the evil impulses and desires of our hearts. The body, the mind, the will, the spirit—indeed, the whole person—have been infected by the power of sin.
This is what is meant when we talk about being “dead in sin.” — unregenerate. The minute Adam and Eve ate the fruit, their whole being became corrupted — body, mind, will, and spirit — and in bondage to sin. Which means that on their own — from this point forward, they can do nothing to please God — in fact — they don’t want to please him.
And here’s where we get to the very uncomfortable, yet true reality for the rest of mankind. Question 16 of the catechism asks, “Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first disobedience?” Its answer? “Since the covenant was made not only for Adam but also for his natural descendants, all mankind sinned in him and fell with him in his first disobedience.”
This is a tough pill to swallow. But unfortunately, it’s something every human — past, present, and future — has to deal with. We sinned in Adam AND we fell with him in his sin. And I know this sounds super unfair —why should we be penalized for the sin of those who came before us? And while we’re at it — why did we fall in Adam and not in Eve? I mean — Eve is the one who ate first and convinced Adam to eat after her. Shouldn’t we have fallen in her instead?
If I had more time, I’d love to get into the theological weeds of how this all works, but for the sake of time, I’ll have to keep it somewhat brief. The reason that we all inherited our sin nature, often what we call “original sin” from Adam, is because in the beginning when God created Adam, he didn’t just make a man — he made a representative. Adam had a unique role in that he represented not just himself, but all mankind. And this is because God entered into a covenant with Adam — for God — all throughout history — has dealt with his people in terms of covenants. So Adam wasn’t the only one bound by this covenant relationship, it was a covenant established with all God’s image bearers. O. Palmer Robertson has a great book on this called, “The Christ of the Covenants.” I highly recommend you read it.
But he defines a covenant as, “a bond in blood, sovereignly administered.” Meaning, a covenant is a binding relationship that ties God and his people together — and it’s a bond “in blood,” that is — it’s a life and death commitment, which is why we see some sort of sacrifice that needs to be made when the terms of the covenant are broken. And it’s sovereignly administered — so it’s initiated by God and he alone sets the terms. So God made a covenant with Adam, and his natural descendants — all of mankind — in the garden when he commanded him not to eat the forbidden fruit. If he obeyed, he’d live. If he disobeyed, he’d die.
And since Adam disobeyed, death eventually came upon him — just as the terms of their covenant relationship stated. And since all mankind was included in this covenant with Adam being our representative, all mankind — including you and me — sinned with him and fell in his first disobedience.
And we know this is true when we read passages like Romans 5:12-21 which says,
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We’ll get to Jesus’ part in just a minute — but what Paul is telling us is that we all died in Adam by his first disobedience. The reason this is possible is from what we know about how God deals with his people through covenants with a covenant representative. And this is why David could say in Psalm 51:5,
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
From the womb — before we could do anything good or evil — we were declared sinners — for the guilt of Adam became our own. We — by nature — were dead in sin. So you and I could echo the words of David here. Paul shows us what being dead in sin and enslaved to sin actually looks like practically:
Romans 3:10–19
As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Paul uses other language as well, he says:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
To be dead in sin and in bondage to sin is to have your mind set on the flesh. And when your mind is set on the flesh, it’s hostile to God. And it’s incapable of submitting to God’s law. And when Adam fell — and when we fell with him — every one of us — we lost our original true knowledge, “no one understands” Paul says. We lost our original righteousness. “None is righteous, no, not one.” And we lost our holiness, “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless.”
Now — I wasn’t going to do this originally — but I felt I’d need to lighten up the vibe at this point in the sermon. I mean — it IS an outdoor evening communion service. It’s supposed to be a little fun right?
Alright — so I’m gonna share a little bit about the totally depraved Joe Sherrieb before God’s grace got ahold of me.
My Life Group loves hearing about “Old Joe.” It’s encouraging — but also a little alarming — why they like “Old Joe” so much.
Now we might have some LB teachers here today who were teaching when I was in school —13 years ago. And yes — that timeline is meant to casually insult your age. Sorry Mr. Arnold — Mrs. Arnold — Mrs. Bixler, Mrs. Saums.
One of these teachers might even remember a faculty meeting where the topic of discussion was — no joke — me. “Old Joe.” At least that’s what I was told by my high school track coach, Jack Quisno. I don’t know if that meeting actually happened or if Quisno was just trying to make me feel important — but if it did happen — I’d like to formally apologize. I won’t get into why that meeting was needed...
There are way too many stories I could tell about “Old Joe.” Like the time I thought It’d be hilarious to torment the foster kid who stayed with us by paying him 10 cents to put my sock in his mouth. Which he did. And when he threw up his hotdog from earlier that day, I offered to pay him another 10 cents to eat it — which he did. But — ya know — I don’t know what’s more depraved — my offer? — or his willingness to eat it. I mean COME ON!
Or when my buddies and I spent our weekends late at night “beautifying” the Hillcrest neighborhood. Sorry to any of you who were affected by our shenanigans. Yes there was TP’ing — and forking — and ding dong ditching — but I’m talking about when we’d rearrange some outdoor furniture — taking one house’s outdoor furniture and swapping it out with their neighbors so when they woke up the next day, they’d wonder why their swing suddenly became two rocking chairs.
Or when we pulled out the solar lights from the ground that shined up on one of the big beautiful houses because we thought it’d be funny to brighten something else up that had MUCH less significance — like the trash bin they set out that night. I’ll tell you what! That trash looked like it was sent from heaven. I mean it was definitely giving off transfiguration vibes.
Gosh guys — there are a lot of things I can include in my “hostility toward God” days. I look back on the way I was — and I was in no way, shape, or form interested in God or his will for my life.
Maybe you can relate with that — maybe not beautifying neighborhoods — but before you were born of the Spirit — maybe the depraved “you” was a pathological liar — a thief. I won’t even get into when I stole from Walmart to make our beautifying the neighborhood possible. But maybe the gods you were worshiping when you were dead in sin were money, status, power, or the American Dream. Maybe you were filled with pride and arrogance — maybe you were an addictive gambler or drunkard or “fill in the blank.”
And ya know — unfortunately — even as Christians, at least for now until we die or Jesus comes, this sin nature still exists in us. Now — we aren’t enslaved to sin — we aren’t in bondage to it since we’ve been freed through faith in Christ — but it still lingers and we can choose to give into sin — and we still do every day, but God’s indwelling Spirit in us is progressively sanctifying us — conforming us more and more into the image of Christ.
So why does all this matter? Adam’s fall — our inherited sinful nature from him, what we call, “original sin,” — total depravity. Why is it so important that we understand that all mankind inherited a sin nature — one that is totally depraved and dead in sin — that is hostile to God? There are many reasons this is important. It influences how we parent —how we counsel —and how we evangelize — I wish I could get into all of those — but I’ll say this.
This truth about ourselves — taught in God’s Word — fights against society’s false narrative that we are all basically good people who may make mistakes every once in a while. And we can work on becoming a better person — or — right in God’s sight — through therapy — or behavior modification — or positive thinking — or something like that. This is a dangerous view —- because what lies behind this thought is the idea that we don’t need a savior, and that we can fix ourselves, our sinful selves — in our own strength. And that we can make ourselves right in God’s sight on our own — when in reality — God teaches us that apart from his work — and his grace — we are spiritually dead, unable to please him — unable to submit to God’s law, not inclined or drawn to the things of God — and where we find ourselves included in the description of Genesis 6:5 which says:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Thus — we need the Spirit of God — not our own strength — to bring us out of spiritual death to spiritual life in order that we come to put our faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross — and are free and empowered to obey the commands of God — and to desire him — and to desire to please him. And that should bring every adopted child of God great comfort — because our salvation doesn’t rest on our ability to climb out of the pit. It rests on God’s power to pull you out. And if God was the one who brought you from death to life, then he will surely preserve you — sustain you — and sanctify you in Christ Jesus.
Which leads us to the climax of this sermon. Paul says that Adam was “a type of the one who was to come.” In other words, there’s another representative — another covenant head — whose obedience would bring life instead of death. A second Adam. A better Adam. And his name is Jesus.
Just as Adam stood for us in the garden and failed, Jesus stood for us at the cross — and he prevailed.
Remember the verse I quoted earlier? Romans 11:32
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
The Westminster Confession of Faith says, “It pleased God to allow them to sin, because in his wisdom and holiness he planned to order their sin to his own glory.
Let’s go back to Romans 5:19-21:
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is why it pleased God to allow them — Adam and Eve — to sin — and it’s why it pleased God to make Adam our covenant representative. Because where sin increases, his grace abounds all the more.
So yes — we were born into the first covenant under Adam. We were born into guilt — we were born into death — but all those who put their faith in Christ — and I hope all of you have — have been reborn by the Spirit into a new covenant under Christ. That’s the beauty of Romans 5 — where Adam’s sin brought condemnation to all, Christ’s righteousness brings justification to all. Where Adam’s disobedience made us sinners, Christ’s obedience makes us righteous.
And here’s what amazes me every time I think about it — Jesus didn’t just come to mop up Adam’s mess. He came to be what Adam never could. Where Adam brought death from a tree, Jesus brought life through one.
This is the heart of the gospel — that we who were born dead in sin —have been born again — by the gift of God’s grace — unto faith in Jesus Christ — our covenant head — who is our new representative. In Adam, we died. But in Christ — we live. Let’s pray.
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