Death for All Humans

Romans 8:20-22

20.  “For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him hath subjected the same, in hope” (KJV),

21.  “Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (KJV)

22.  “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travalleth in pain together until now” (KJV).

            The peaceful world of Adam and Eve was tarnished because of the original sin.  How we wish there were not any disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and blizzards.  How we long for days when we do not have to face bone chilling cold and searing heat.  If the original sin did not occur, we would be in Eden now without any type of wrong going on in this paradise. 

            Even though God appeared to be harsh to Adam and Eve, he was also merciful.  He could have killed them immediately.  He could have cursed the ground where no food grew at all.  Yet, he still provided food for them, even though Adam would need to work day in and day out to provide food for his family.

God’s mercy to Adam and Eve shows to us that God is a gentle and loving God.  He could have allowed both of them to eat from the Tree of Life.  However, by barring the way, he was protecting them.  Imagine having something on your conscience and it causes you emotional pain throughout your life.  If they ate from the Tree of Life they would live forever feeling guilty about the sin they committed.  It is true that they would live forever; however all their days would be full of despair.

            After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they did not die.  Does this make God a liar?  It certainly does not!  God did not tell Adam that he would die as soon as he ate the fruit.  The final curse God put on Adam and Eve was death.  They would not live forever; they would die after a specific time-God is the only one who knows the precise moment an individual is going to die.  Whether it is a plant, animal or human, everything that is alive will eventually die.  However, do not despair.  Everybody will have the opportunity to be with God in the new world.

            While Eve had listened to the serpent and took the fruit and ate it, Adam took the responsibility for sinning.  He was not angry with his wife; he loved her.  Even though they were cursed, Adam knew the world would become populated with their offspring.  There was hope that one day they would return to Eden.

1 Corithians 15:22 reads, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (KJV).  Since he was the father of the human race, when Adam sinned, we all fall victim to sin and death.  This is the consequence of sin.  While this seems devastating, God appointed his Son Jesus as the head of the Church.  According to 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are put away: behold, all things are become new” (KJV), we do not have have to suffer eternally because Jesus was obedient and we can live a life of righteousness because of his sacrifice on the cross.  When we have faith in Jesus Christ we are moved from the sin of Adam to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:15 “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift.  For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” (KJV).

Romans 5:17  “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ (KJV).

Roams 5:21  “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (KJV).

            Some may wonder how any of God’s children can return to the Garden of Eden if it was wiped out during the flood of Noah’s time.  Take a look at the last book of the Bible.  Revelation 22:2 states “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was where the tree of life, which bare twelve manners of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:  and the leaves if the tree were for the healing of the nations” (KJV).   God has already made plans for a new world.  He is the only one who knows when the precise time it will be created.

Hebrews 10:22  “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (KJV).

God make me more aware of the temptations that are introduced to me.  They may be so small, that I may not recognize them for what they are.  I realize that Satan is a big deceiver and will not know when I am being tempted.  These temptations interfere with you and allow me to give them priority over your Word.  Make me more discerning and give me the grace and desire to live a life for you.  Amen!

References:

The Holy Bible King James Version

The Consequences of Sin

1 John 4:6  “ We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (KJV).

1 John 4:16  “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (KJV).

            Godloves us even though we are sinners.  However, he hates the sins that we do.  While God is a God of love, he is also the God of light.  He is a holy God who has to deal with sin.  The discipline he gives when we disobey God is not also for our own good but also for the glory of his name.  With the first sin in this world, God had to discipline the serpeant, Eve and Adam.

            All three-Adam, Eve and the serpent-were cursed.  The serpent was cursed where all the livestock and wild animals would hate him.  He had limited mobility where he lost his legs and would have to slither on his belly to travel.  He could only eat things smaller than him.  Since these creatures scurried along the ground, he would be swallowing a lot of dust with his meal.  God also made humans and serpents enemies.  His offspring would bite her offspring on the heel and her offspring would crush his offspring’s head.  While this is true that some people will not blink an eye when they kill a snake, this is also symbolic.  This is a prophecy of God sending Jesus to the earth to save mankind and to defeat Satan.  Even the New Testament supports the prophecy made in Genesis:

Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to the seeds, as of many; but as for ones, and to thy seeds, which is of Christ” (KJV).

Romans 16:20 “And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen” (KJV).

We all face a struggle with issues throughout our daily lives.  Some of us may need to make a decision if one choice is better than the other one.  Sometimes we wonder if we are making the smartest and wisest choices.  We wonder if God will be happy with what we decide to do.  While we want to live a life of peaches and cream, this will not happen until Jesus defeats Satan at the right time.  Some of us may ask why Satan has not already been overthrown.  This all is in God’s plan for humankind.  His timing is the perfect timing.

God next cursed the woman since she was the first of the two to eat the forbidden fruit.  She would desire after her husband, meaning that she would lust after him.  This may not sound like a curse, but it is.  God had caused Eve and all her female descendants to have pain when giving birth to children.  Eve could have decided not to have a sexual relationship with her husband to avoid the pain of giving birth.  However, God caused Eve to desire her husband so she would want to be intimately involved with him.

Finally, Adam was cursed. He could have ignored Eve when she gave him the fruit.  However, he chose her over the Lord.  He disobeyed God because of the woman.  He was cursed by having to work.  While everything in the garden was abundant-and he did not have to lift a finger to grow the fruit-he lost that privilege when he sinned.  Now, Adam had to do back breaking work to grow food.  Adam would have to till the land by hand (tractors were not around back then).  He would have to fight with weeds, storms, floods and barren land.

How many of us wish that we did not have to go to work to make a living?  What would you do if you had twenty-four hours a day where you did not hve to work?  I wish I did not have to work and actually have a plan of what I would do in my free time.  It would involve two hours of Bible Study, writing in my blog, doing some play time on my computer-I admit, I am addicted to Pogo-reading and working on a project.  I have some home improvement and sewing projects that are on my to-do list.  That would still give me plenty of time for me to be a serving wife and mother to my husband and children.

Genesis 4:7:  "If thou does well, shalt thou not be accepted?  And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.  And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” (KJV).

Song of Solomon 7:10:  “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me” (KJV).

The above verses symbolize the difficulties of Adam and Eve’s descendants.  Look around you.  How many people do you know are divorced?  The statistics are constantly on the rise.  Some wives may be in an abusive situation.  Some spouses are not faithful to his or her partner.  Some couples just simply cannot communicate with each other.  It may be that the wife wants to be the dominating one in the relationship.  However, Eve was cursed where she was no longer Adam’s equal.  Most married females during the Biblical era played the role of the serving wife.

Genesis 2:16-17 (KJV)

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God gave us freewill, so we can choose to return the love to him or choose not to.  Adam and Eve used their free will to go against what God commanded them not to do.  This act of defiance showed that they rebelled against God and hurt their relationship with him.  However, this did not mean that God stopped loving them.

            When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he already knew that they had done just that.  Since they had rebelled against them, he had to enforce the penalty of death.  However, he did not cause them to die at that time.  Since he loved the future human race, he gave them a chance to atone for their sins and protested them from the elements as Genesis 3:21 states, ^2” Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (KJV). This first sacrifice was a foreshadowing of redemption when Jesus Christ would come down to earth and die on the cross for all sins. 

1 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (KJV),.

            Since there are consequences for sin, Adam and Eve would eventually die for rebelling against God and sinning.  However, since God is willing to forgive and restore fallen humans he gave the rebellious and  sinful humans a chance to return to a realtionship with him.

            As Christians, when we know and accept that our sins are forgiven because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we have an eternal home in heaven.  When Jesus ascended to heaven, he went there to prepare a place for us.  We experience hard work, see death and suffer.  However, the bright spot is looking to a new life when we are in the presence of God.

John 14:2-3   “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (KJV).

Revelation 21:3-4  (KJV)

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

            To prepare yourself, study the Bible to understand God's word.  Walk in freedom each day and continue to keep your eye on your eternal home in heaven.

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

What Happens when you Fall Into Sin

Eve ate the forbidden fruit first and gave some of it to Adam.  Then he ate it.  Even though the fruit was delicious and they enjoyed it, they only got temporary satisfaction from eating it.  Before we go on, who was it who sinned?  According to Romans 5:12-21 , Paul mentions that it was Adam who willfully sinned and brought sin and death to human. 

Since they were forbidden to eat this fruit, they sinned because they disobeyed God.  Things began to happen when they disobeyed God and it was not good.

First they felt shame.  Before they sinned, as Genesis 2:25 states, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (KJV).  However, after eating the fruit, they realized that they were naked.  Therefore, they rushed around searching for fig leaves to cover their nakedness.  Note only were they covering up the nude bodies, they were trying to cover up what they did.  This type of shame reflects mano of us today.  Many of us are ashamed of our bodies.  For one it might be too short; for another it may be too tall; for another it might be too fat and so on.  God created us with the intention for us to love our bodies and not be ashamed of them.  Whenever we knowingly sin we are ashamed of what we do.  There are some people who constantly and are not ashamed by their acts as the following verses state:

1 Timothy 4:2 “ Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (KJV).

Jeremiah 6:15 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not

at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord” (KJV).

Then they felt guilt.  They hid from God when he was walking in the garden.  Even though he called for Adam and Eve, asking them where they were, God already knew.  He was giving them the opportunity to fess up.  After all, God is a merciful God and wanted to give them the opportunity to confess to what they did.

Shame and guilt go hand-in-hand.  They felt ashamed because they realized they were naked.  They felt guilty because they realized that they disobeyed God.  This brought around their next reaction that comes along with sin,  It was fear.  They seemed to be hiding in fear when God walked in the garden.  He even admitted being afraid when God asked him why he was hiding.

Imagine that you are a young child in a store and see a toy that you want.  While it is not bad to want that toy, how you get the toy (the temption) can leat to sin if you go about the wrong ways of getting it.  Maybe you have enough money to buy it yourself or have a generous parent who is willingly to buy it for you.  However, let’s say you do not want the money but still want it.  You look around and nobody is looking.  So you stick the toy under your shirt and walk out of the store.  You keep looking over your shoulder, thinking that the storeowners or cops are on your trail.  You get home safely and rush up to your room.  Looking at your toy, all of a sudden you feel shame.  You know it is wrong to steal and if you had waited until you got your allowance, you could have bought it then.  Then you feel guilt since if you got caught stealing the toy you could have been in trouble with the store owner, the cops and your parents.  Then you feel afraid and have to hide that toy.  You are sure if your parents see it, they will wonder where you got the money to buy it.  Even if you do hide what you did from your parents, God will know what you did.  You can never hide anything from God.

  Adam and Eve felt shame, guilt and fear.  Because of this, they could no longer enjoy their garden paradise like they used to.  They used the trees that they used to enjoy and turned them into something where they could hide from God and keep him out. 

The reason why some people do not turn to God and Jesus is because hey feel ashamed of things they have done.  They are afraid that God will not forgive them of their sins.  If you are like these sinners, remember that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.  If you are afraid, turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.  He will forgive you.

            While they were hiding in the garden, God came walking looking for them.  They should have run to him as soon as they saw him, confessed what they did and asked him for his forgiveness.  However, they remained hiding until he called out to them.

That God asked questions such as why the man and woman were hiding, who told them they were naked and if the ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, makes people wonder why God did not know tese answers already.  However, he does know everything and already knew what Adam and Eve had done.  He basically asked these questions for their own benefit.  He was giving the opportunity to be honest and to confess their sins.  He mostly likely did not talk to them as if he was a judge yelling at a criminal but rather like a father who was very heartbroken.

God gave Adam the chance to explain himself.  This was when the blame game began.  Adam blamed the woman; she blamed the snake.  All they needed to do was acknowledge what they did was wrong.  I am not saying that God would have been more merciful in his judgements against all humans.  Now, don’t get me wrong, God showed enormous mercy to Adam and Eve.  He could have destroyed man and woman right there.  However, he showed them mercy.  Still Adam and Eve as well as the human race faced consequences for the original sin.