It may seem odd to speak of the Fall as damaging our ability to obtain moral knowledge. After all, unbelievers can pick up a Bible and understand its commands. And Scripture itself affirms that unbelievers know many true things about God. But when we look more closely at the Scriptures, we see that while fallen and unredeemed human beings possess some true knowledge, the Fall has prevented them from obtaining a proper knowledge of God’s commands.

Let’s begin with the way humanity’s access to revelation has been hindered by the Fall. One of the chief ways the Fall has hindered humanity’s access to revelation is by limiting the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination and inward leading. Illumination is a divine gift of knowledge or understanding that is primarily cognitive. And inward leading is a divine gift of knowledge or understanding that is primarily emotive or intuitive.

In some sense, God provides a measure of both illumination and inward leading to all human beings. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t provide the same measure of illumination and inward leading to unbelievers that he provides to believers. He works within unbelievers only enough to condemn them for their violations of God’s laws. And the reason for this is simple: God has chosen to reveal himself in ways that bless those who love him and that curse those who hate him.

The Fall has also hindered humanity’s understanding of revelation. Even though fallen human beings still have access to much of God’s revelation, we lack many of the skills needed to comprehend it. We still have the cognitive ability to understand the basic teachings of God’s revelation. But moral understanding depends on more than mere reason; it involves the whole person.

Our ethical judgments are not detached assessments of facts. Rather, many non-cognitive factors influence our ethical evaluations, such as our emotions, consciences, intuitions, loyalties, desires, fears, weaknesses, failures, natural rejection of God, and much more. In Ephesians 4:17-18, Paul spoke about the problem this way:

You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding … because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

The corruption of human nature in the Fall resulted in the hardening of our hearts. And this hardening keeps us from properly understanding God’s revelation.

Our obedience to revelation has also been corrupted by the Fall. On one side, knowledge of God produces obedience to God. First, we receive and understand God’s revelation, and then we obediently apply it to our lives. But, on the other side, the reverse is also true. In Scripture, obedience is a prerequisite for knowledge, and the obedient application of God’s revelation in our lives leads to knowledge of him. As Proverbs 1:7 teaches us:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

And as we read in Proverbs 15:33:

The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom.

In these verses and many others throughout Scripture, knowledge flows from obedience. When we submit ourselves to God’s lordship, we are in a position to understand his revelation.