It is important to remember that misery was not the original intention of creation, for it was “very good” in every way. Today we take a look at the ramifications of the fall. These things that are just a part of life for us were not intended originally, and part of looking at the coming reality after the consummation of all things is to live in joyful anticipation of these curses no longer ruling over us.
Q & A 9
Q. But doesn’t God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what we are unable to do?
A. No, God created human beings with the ability to keep the law.1They, however, provoked by the devil,2
in willful disobedience,3
robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.4
1 Gen. 1:31; Eph. 4:24
2 Gen. 3:13; John 8:44
3 Gen. 3:6
4 Rom. 5:12, 18, 19
GENESIS 3:16-19
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
One curse to the woman was pain in childbearing, which I would extend to a variety of discomforts women suffer in relation to this procreative act. Menstrual cycles, hormone imbalances, cramps, gestational diabetes, and this is all before the pain of childbirth. Add in the recovery time and many other factors that you may think of but I haven’t included. The other is more relational. The woman would have desires that are contrary to her husband but he would remain the head of household. This implies that the woman would desire the role of her husband, seeking to rule over him, and this is a curse brought about because the woman listened to the serpent when she was told she would be like God. There is a ranking of duties, and a woman is to obey God by obeying her husband. Only when the husband is commanding her to sin ought she refuse him.
Note that these are the only miseries expressed to the woman at this time. So many of the other things women endure today are related to the second curse that she would want to take on the role of a man. There are things men are to endure, but so many women seek the same curses in the name of equality. And what sort of curses to women apply to themselves?
The man’s misery extends because he allowed his wife to lead the family in the path directly opposite the instructions God gave him. He was complacent when he should have been resilient. The very ground is now cursed, which signifies his meaningful work. Thorns and thistles appeared in Adam’s work, adding complexity. I don’t work in a garden, but the thorns and thistles abound in my corporate job. Interpersonal difficulties, moving standards, risk management, office politics, the list goes on. Nothing is as simple as it was supposed to be and we will labor in one way or another until we return to the ground.
Neither of these examples was intended to be complete, and the tasks God gave us have not been amended in light of these obstacles. The layers of sin and the effects of sin are more than one could list in a lifetime. Some have said that it is unfair for the sin of a distant ancestor to have such an impact on present-day people. The matter of fair or unfair treatment of image bearers who no longer can display the image of God with original clarity is preposterous. For who are we to accuse God of being unfair or unjust? Such a thought process stems from our recurring desire to be like God, determining good and evil based on our preferences.
Rom. 5:12, 18, 19 12 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 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 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.
God had every right to leave our first parents in a lurch. The original warning was that they would die on the day that they disobeyed. (Genesis 2:17) They woke up the next morning, somewhere outside the garden, and began their lives anew. The fact that they weren’t struck down the day prior is all grace. The fact that you continue to breathe is grace beyond measure. No, God did not leave his image bearers in their treason. Instead, He told them that there would be another who would take their place. If it is unfair that God would apply the sin of Adam to me, then it is equally unfair for God to apply the righteousness of Jesus to my account. The concept of headship has been in creation from the very beginning, predating the fall. Headship and authority are not the ideas of sinful men! Rather, they are a part of God’s design for our good.
We are all inherently flawed. This is our birthright in Adam. Which is why we must turn from our love of this world and turn to our love of the savior. We must be born again and we must be adopted as sons, receiving a new birthright and a new inheritance if we are to have a future filled with anything other than the fearful expectation of judgement and fire (Hebrews 10:27).
Q & A 10
Q. Does God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
A. Certainly not. God is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit.As a just judge, God will punish them both now and in eternity,1 having declared:
“Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.”2
1 Ex. 34:7; Ps. 5:4-6; Nah. 1:2; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; Heb. 9:27
2 Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26
There is a saying in finance that all debts are paid. The question is whether they will be paid by the borrower or by the lender. If you borrow money and pay it back, all is good. If you borrow money and default on the loan, then declare bankruptcy, the lender may be unable to recover the funds from you and the transaction is considered to be completed. You didn’t repay the debt, but the lender can either go out of business or they can assume the debt on their side and continue with future loans. Of course, they will adjust future loan terms with all clients to offset this loss. So the debt is paid by the lender in addition to other borrowers unrelated to the faulty transaction.
It is right and good for God to react to such a thing as our unpaid debts that we rack up. God does not expect other people to atone for us. Rather, we accumulate deeper and deeper debt through our fallen sensibilities of a God who grades on a sliding scale. I’ve never murdered anyone, so I’m really not that bad. Never mind the fact that the sin of Adam was in eating a piece of fruit that had been denied to him. Our attempts to justify ourselves based on our own understanding of severity are laughable.
God is self-defined by His attributes. When we try to redefine Him based on our preferences, we make ourselves to be like God, knowing good and evil. There’s that phrase again! Idolatry is alive and well in the hearts of man.
NAHUM 1:2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.
God has spoken. He has provided us with a look at who He is and what He demands. He has shown us that there are serious consequences for any shortcoming and it is clear that every debt will be paid. If God were to allow insurmountable debts to be left unpaid, His own reputation would be reduced. God is thrice holy. He is not like us. We are blessed when we obey His instructions and we are rightly cursed when we fail to do so. The debt we accumulate before God is impossibly greater than the debt our government accumulates before her creditors. The US government has a military to persuade creditors from collecting directly. I have no such method to dissuade God from His due collection against me. I deserve only to be under the curse!
GALATIANS 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
The way I see it, there are only three options. We will perfectly follow His law, we will atone for our own sins, or those sins will be atoned on our behalf. That’s it. Option 1 is not available to us due to the sin passed down through the generations beginning with Adam. Option 2 is beyond our ability as nobody is able to comprehend the debt owed to God fully, let alone attempt to repay! We must have a substitute or all is lost. Option 3 is the only payment that can be used to propitiate the wrath of God.
Q & A 11
Q. But isn’t God also merciful?
A. God is certainly merciful,1 but also just.2God’s justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty— eternal punishment of body and soul.3
1 Ex. 34:6-7; Ps. 103:8-9
2 Ex. 34:7; Deut. 7:9-11; Ps. 5:4-6; Heb. 10:30-31
3 Matt. 25:35-46
A substitute must be given to us, and we are incapable of manufacturing a suitable proxy. Yet, despite our many egregious failures, God remains merciful while retaining His perfect justice. It is easy to look to the words of Jesus and the apostles to point out the mercy of God, which is why I like to look to such examples in the Old Testament, in contrast to the charge that God presents a different response to sin in the two covenants.
EXODUS 34:6-7 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.
This is God reintroducing Himself. In the grand storyline of the Bible, the Israelites had spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt until God sent Moses. At the burning bush, Moses asked who was sending him to Egypt and God introduced Himself. When Moses and Aaron took this message to the people, they demanded to know which god had sent them. After the people walked through the Red Sea they went to the Mountain and God introduced Himself more formally. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” After the original tablets were broken and replaced, God again told Moses who He is.
Despite the idolatrous scandal of the people, despite Moses’ reaction apart from God’s instruction, despite every layer of reasons why God had no reason to extend mercy, He reminded Moses that mercy is at the core of who He is. God is a forgiving God, but without any lack of justice, which is also doled out perfectly. That is because Mercy, Justice, Love, Kindness, Patience, and so on are all attributes God demonstrates to perfection, but the overarching attribute that defines who God is is His holiness. He is not like me. He is not like you. He is perfectly merciful and He is perfectly just, with no contradiction in the two statements.
PSALMS 103:8-9 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
We begin to discuss deliverance from our misery in the next installment. I hope you’ll enjoy it, for we will be celebrating our deliverance for all of eternity!
