When it comes to the Christian faith, the truth that all humans are sinful is central to our understanding of our need for the gospel.

And because of this, it's important for us to grasp the story of the fall in Genesis 3 and how that story impacts the rest of the Bible and our own lives.

And yet this pivotal moment in the story of the world is complex and often leaves us with a lot of questions.

In my interview today, Mitch Chase walks us through the story of the fall from Genesis 3,

showing how it connects to the whole of Scripture and highlighting key moments that we need to understand.

Mitch Chase is an associate professor of biblical studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He's also the preaching pastor of Cosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky,

and the author of several books including Short of Glory,

A Biblical and Theological Expl exploration of the fall from Crossway.

Let's get started.

Well, Mitch, thank you so much for joining me today on the Crossway podcast.

Matt, I'm glad to be with you. Thanks for inviting me.

Yeah, so set the stage for us, going back to the Garden of Eden, why did God create a garden?

The location of the garden and the beauty of Eden was a particular location on the globe

that was meant to have a trajectory of global dominion and glory to honor God and to bless

his image bearers. And the goal of the garden was never to remain in that particular spatial

location. Do we have a sense for where that actually was? Well, so you have rivers that are named.

You have the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, you have the

Ghihan and the Pichon rivers.

These are named in Genesis 2, and two of those rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are still

known today.

So it's in that ancient Near Eastern area of Mesopotamia.

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