The Death Sentence
“And indeed it was very good” is God’s own description of all that He made in His creative act (Genesis 1:31) It was a perfect world where all life existed in harmony. The crowning act was the creation of a man and a woman who lived in open and unhindered fellowship with their Maker.
The Lord God leased the earth and all it contained to the man, Adam. In response, the man was to demonstrate his love through absolute obedience. Adam, along with his helper wife, was given only one rule. They could enjoy everything in their paradise home, except the fruit of one tree. Temptation to enjoy the forbidden fruit arose and Adam disobeyed his Master, exchanging the freedom to serve for slavery to sin. Disobedience brought God’s curse on the earth and broken fellowship between the Creator and His creatures—Adam and Eve. By his sin, the man also subleased his dominion of the earth to the tempter, Satan. Previously unashamed of their nakedness, the man and woman attempted to cover it by sewing together fig leaves. Yet, when the Lord came to visit them, they still felt the need to further hide their nakedness behind trees. The sin of disobeying God’s command brought the shame of guilt and the awareness of being naked. Feeble attempts to cover up the guilt didn’t work. They could no longer stand in their Maker’s presence in open fellowship. Because holy and just God won’t fellowship with sin, the man and his wife had to leave His presence. In addition, justice had to be served. The man was judged guilty of violating God’s only command to him. The punishment as a lawbreaker was physical death and spiritual death—the torment of separation from his Maker for all of eternity! The sentence was declared: a cursed life en route to the penalty of hell. See Genesis 3 for the details. (to be continued)
Sin cera, Erik
Erik O. Garthe is Associate Pastor at Canton Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland.