The first level was that man fell from God's presence to man's conscience. This means that man fell from the divine government to self-government. According to Genesis 2, after God created man, He put him in front of Himself. Man was in God's presence, and there was nothing between God and man. There was no separation, hindrance, or frustration. Man was directly in the presence of God. In a very good and positive sense, man was directly governed by God's presence.
As we saw in message ten, God created man in three parts, with a spirit, a soul, and a body. The spirit was directly related to God's presence, the soul was under the direction of the human spirit, and the body was under the control of the soul. Originally, man's spirit was under God's presence, his soul was under his spirit, and his body was under his soul. That was the situation at the beginning. At the beginning, God's presence was the controlling essence. We may call this the divine government. Before the fall, the created, unfallen man was directly under this divine government. At that time man was not even controlled by something out of God. He was controlled directly by the presence of God. How wonderful that was! I like to be controlled by someone's presence. If the brothers simply leave me a word telling me to do certain things, I would feel quite bad. I do not like to be controlled by their word; I want to be under the direction of their presence. In married life, for example, the wives are often controlled by their husbands' presence. This is very sweet. I have observed this quite often when I have been invited to have dinner with a family. The husband did not have to say anything to the wife. As the wife looked into her husband's eyes, she knew exactly what to do next. Just a glance at the husband's face was sufficient to tell her that it was time to serve tea. How good it is to be governed and directed by the presence of our dear ones.
At the beginning, man was under God's presence from which man fell firstly to man's own conscience. This matter of the conscience has been a problem to most students of the Bible, because no one has been able to determine whether or not God created a conscience for man at the time of man's creation. There is no record concerning this. As a result, many Bible students have thought that man had no conscience before man's first fall. But we have to believe that, from the very beginning, there was within man an element created by God which eventually turned out to be man's conscience. The element of the conscience was within man from the time of his creation, but the function of the conscience was not developed until the time of the fall, until the time when Adam and Eve partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and their eyes were opened. Immediately, when their eyes were opened, the element of their conscience began to function. God is sovereign. He has foresight. In His creation of man, God made provision for the conscience. The element of the conscience was present in man, but its function was not in use until man had been seduced by Satan and had fallen. At the time of that fall, the conscience began to function.
Consider the example of a burglar alarm. Although an alarm has been installed in a building, it does not function unless there is a burglary. If there is no burglary, the alarm does not function. But when there is a burglary, the alarm goes off immediately. This illustrates the element of conscience in man. It was installed in man at the time of his creation. It was built into the human building when God created man. But the conscience, which had been installed in man, had to wait for the time to function. That time was the time of man's first fall. When that fall transpired, the conscience began to function immediately, and Adam and Eve realized that they were naked (3:7). They felt ashamed. That was the beginning of the function of man's conscience.
It is a good thing that human beings are able to feel shameful. If I stole a certain thing and then was able to boast about it, that would be terrible. If I steal something, I should feel ashamed of it. But so many young people today have no feeling of shame. They are not ashamed of their evil doings. But shamefulness is a protection for fallen man; it is a part of the function of our conscience. If we have a genuine, good, clean conscience, it will always cause us to be ashamed whenever we do something unclean or immoral. This is an excellent protection.
The function of the conscience has preserved the human race throughout history. Simply trusting in the law, the courts, and the police force would not work adequately. There is the need of a fine, inner, and deeper work—the function of the conscience. The function of the conscience not only condemns us, but also causes us to have feelings of shame. But how the human situation has deteriorated in the past fifty years! Today there is open immorality. Some people even boast of their immorality without any sense of shame. It seems as if they do not have a conscience. They are like animals. What is the difference between man and the animals? Man has a conscience that causes him to have a sense of shame. Animals do not have such a conscience. This is part of God's sovereignty in His administration over man. In the first fall, man fell from God's presence to man's conscience. To fall from God's presence was really a sad thing. However, to fall to man's conscience was still a preservation.