Genesis 3:16-18

SINNERS MUST SUFFER

‘Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception,’ etc.

Genesis 3:16

By the Fall sin entered in, and by sin a change passed over the whole world. The change affected the moral relations of man. In becoming disobedient to God, he lost all control over himself. While subject to the Divine Will, he wielded absolute power over his own nature. His passions were then pure ones, held in a bond of unity and subjection. But when he rebelled, they rebelled too, and warred one against the other, bringing in turn the will into bondage to them. His will revolted against his Maker, and it became one with the will of the Evil One; it moved in concert with it, and became part of the evil which was in the world. Man represented the antagonistic power which broke the unity of God’s kingdom; his will was diametrically opposed to that of God. Such is Sin. Our present state in this world, then, is a fallen one and evil. Now there are two kinds of evil: one is moral, and the other is penal. Both imply a chastisement. All the laws of God, in the physical, moral, and political world, if broken, exact a penalty. But there is a law written in the hearts of men, and given to the conscience when the penalty is the result of moral transgression. It was the prospect of these two evils—the outward chastisement and the inward retribution—which wrung from Cain the confession: ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear.’

Consider the consequences of the Fall from both these standpoints.

I. The moral consequences and chastisement of the Fall.

(a) Man was driven away from the Presence of God; and from two causes, shame and fear. Ashamed, for they knew that they were naked; afraid, for they feared to meet their Maker. They had lost ‘that ignorance of innocence which knows nothing of nakedness.’ That it was the conscience which was really at work is evidenced by their fear, which impelled them to hide themselves. Man in his innocence knew nothing of either shame or fear. And this, too, is the peculiar trait of childhood. Adam was ashamed, but yet he thought more of the consequences of sin than of the sin itself; more of his nakedness than of having broken the commandment of God. And so it ever is now; men think more of the pain, the shame, the publicity, the humiliation induced by sin, than the transgression itself. But an evil conscience still fears to be alone with God; and, like Adam, the sinner would fain hide himself.

(b) The second moral consequence of the Fall is selfishness. That is the love and consequent indulgence of self; the liking to have one’s own way for the sake of having it. It is the root of all personal sin. It is the getting another centre besides the true one, round which we live and move and have our being. It brings the wills of us all into collision with the rule and will of the Eternal Good One. It is to revolve round ourselves, instead of making God the centre of our thoughts, feelings, opinions, actions, and aspirations. Everywhere there is mutual dependence, mutual support, and co-operation. ‘No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself,’ even in the body politic. Where, then, is any place for selfishness in religion? We cannot keep it to ourselves; our light must shine before men, that they may glorify the Great Father in Heaven. Christ has given us something outside ourselves to live for: the poor, the sick, sinners at home, heathen abroad, and all who need our help and prayers. Further, as Adam and Eve showed their selfishness by their cowardice in hiding, and by the severity with which they regarded the sin of the other, while lenient to their own share in the transgression; so it is still; the sinner first throws the blame on others as tempters, and then upon circumstances which God has ordained.

II. The penal consequences or chastisement of the Fall were threefold.

(a) The curse fell upon the ground. By man’s sin came death; death passed from man into the rest of creation, pervading the whole; and the curse fell on the ground (Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:22).

(b) The second penal consequence was the impossibility of ease; pain to woman, toil to man, and finally death to both. There was to be no rest for either the weaker or the stronger, for the tempter or the tempted.

(c) The third penal consequence was the being shut out from the trees of knowledge and life. After the germ of death had penetrated into man’s nature, through sin, it was Mercy which prevented his taking of the Tree of Life, and thus living for ever; the fruit which produced immortality could only do him harm. Immortality in a state of sin and misery is not that eternal life which God designed for man. Man’s expulsion from Eden was for his ultimate good; while exposing him to physical death, it preserved him from eternal or spiritual death. And man, too, was shut out from the Tree of Knowledge. We all know this by bitter experience. With what difficulty knowledge of any kind is obtained; what intense application and labour are required. There is no royal road to learning; we must pay the price—sweat of brain—if we would unlock its priceless treasures.

III. Lastly, consider the future hopes of the human race. The first ground of hope is from what we were originally. Man was created in the likeness of God—perfect, upright, pure, and holy. What we have been, that we shall be. The second ground is from the evidence we have in our own feelings, that we were born for something higher; this world cannot satisfy us. ‘We seek a better country, that is, a heavenly.’ The third ground is from the curse pronounced on evil. A true life fought out in the spirit of God’s truth shall conquer at last. ‘The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent’s head.’ The spiritual seed culminated in Christ. But, remember, except we are in Christ, we are in guilt. ‘We are yet in our sin’; for, ‘as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’

Rev. Morris Fuller.