Man’s fall was not a partial fall but a complete fall, and a continual fall. Man did not stay under the ruling of the conscience but he continued to fall. How did man fall further? We see from human history that man’s fall into sin was progressive. First, man fell into the conscience, and it was the conscience which enlightened and ruled over man. Yet man was not able to stand firm under the ruling of the conscience, and so from there he fell again. After the first step of man’s fall, man had the conscience within him which represented God to rule over man. Yet man ignored his conscience in everything he did and fell again. At this time the dispensation of law began, and man started to be penalized if he disobeyed the laws of the nation. At this juncture man had fallen to the uttermost.
Man is really strange: The more he is ruled by man, the further he falls. For instance, a person who is always supervised by his parents will do improper things once his parents are not supervising him. A student will also do something against the rules when he is not under school regulations. If there were no police in a nation or a society, the whole nation would be full of crime. This is why many robbers and bandits fear neither heaven nor earth, but they fear the laws of the nation. If they have a way to escape from the law, they will do many evil things. This proves that man is utterly fallen.
We have no way to really categorize man. If we have to do so, we may simply divide man into three categories. The first category is the highest, but there are very few people in it. This category of people lives directly before God. These people are full of light and are like the shining of the sun. However, the number of people in this category is extremely small. Those in this category are Christians who are very spiritual and very holy.
The second category of people is also composed of Christians and is also small. This category comprises those who live by their conscience and have a very keen conscience. The children in this category do not require the supervision of their parents; the students do not require the regulation of their schools; and the common people are law-abiding people who do not require the ruling of the police. This group of people lives under the ruling of the conscience. They do not require the ruling of man because their conscience enlightens and regulates them. Anything that they sense is improper, they would not do. No law can completely rule over man, but the ruling of the conscience far exceeds the ruling of the law. This is the second category of people—those who live under the ruling of the conscience.
The third category of people is neither governed by God nor by their conscience. The people in this category do not fear the laws of the nation or the regulations of their families. They are able to do all kinds of evil things.
Another category of people, between the first and the second categories, is composed of those who live according to their conscience and, at the same time, are learning to live before God. These are advancing Christians. A normal and progressing Christian lives not only by his conscience, but also before God.
In the fall, man fell from the face of God to the conscience and from the conscience to the law. We all, more or less, also have this kind of experience. When we were young, our parents charged us not to steal any candy. If we did, our heart would beat very heavily. When we stole some candy a second time, our heart beat less heavily. When we stole candy a third time, our heart beat even less. Then the fourth time we stole candy, our heart did not beat any heavier than normal because our conscience did not have any more feeling. The fifth time that we stole, we did not fear anything except being caught by our parents. At that point it seemed that to steal candy was nothing; the only thing we feared was being caught by our parents. Similarly, the first time we cheated on an examination in school our heart beat very heavily; then the second time our heart beat less heavily; the third time our heart beat even softer; and the fourth time our heart did not beat any more than normal. As long as we were not caught by our teachers, everything was fine. What does this illustrate? This illustrates how we have fallen from the ruling of the conscience to the ruling of man.
Moreover, immoral relationships between males and females are also the same. The first time when people do something immoral, they do have some feeling in their conscience; the second time they have less feeling; the third time they have even less feeling; by the fourth time they do not have any feeling at all. The fifth time they fear very little; they fear only the laws of the nation, or they fear being seen by man. This is the fall of man from the feeling of the conscience to the ruling of man. Robbers and thieves are the same all over the world; if there were no police or government, the chaos of the world would be beyond our imagination.
Most lawless people fear the penalty of the laws of the nation. Our Lord is saving us from living in this way. After our salvation if we still do things against our family’s rules, against school regulations, or against the laws in society, then I am afraid that we are not truly saved, or that if we are saved, we do not look like Christians. God saves us out of the lowest point of the fall. An unsaved person makes a mess in his family, in society, and in the nation; this is the fall of man. A saved person does not require the control of his parents at home because he is already an obedient child; he does not require the supervision of the school because he is already a regulated student; he also does not require the governing of society or the nation because he is already a good man, a law-abiding citizen. He abides by the laws not because he fears the laws, but because he is living by his conscience. In the fall, man fell from the face of God to the conscience and from the conscience to human rule. Human rule is the lowest point of man’s fall, the place where God’s salvation reaches man.