The Law of Sin and Death

According to the Biblical record, after the disobedience of the first pair they found themselves under a different set of conditions. The circumstances surrounding this is found in Genesis chapter three. The background involves the reasoning of a serpent, who spoke falsely suggesting that God was not entirely on their side, as He had restricted them from reaching their full potential. The implications of the serpent’s reasoning was that God was not being fully honest with them and therefore his word was not to be trusted. He was holding them back, keeping from them a wonderful benefit of equality with God and His angels.

This form of reasoning has ever since been the spirit of those who misrepresent God. They claim to know better, and that what God says is either not true or not to be taken too literally. On examination, the lie of the serpent was actually a mixture between what was true and what was false. By mixing the two together, he was able to deceive the woman. This is the common challenge of deceptive speech and ideas. It takes real discernment and critical thinking to see through the charade of false ideas.

Diagram 8. The Serpent in ancient times represented life, enlightenment and power. It is sometime seen in current religious art, and in modern emblems.

The outcome of their rejection of God’s counsel and the adoption of foreign ideas had three principle consequences, all linked together in one unifying experience. This is described in the Bible as a life of sin and of vanity that eventually ends in death. 

This is not a very bright future at all, and it is one that is quite contrary to that purpose we have already seen alluded to in Gen.1:26-28. We will now expand on these three primary consequences or outcomes from their sin. 

 The Immediate Consequences: Gen.3:7-11. They now felt lust and pride in a way they had not previously experienced. They now saw the world with different eyes, for their eyes were now open. Their sin caused them to feel lust and uncleanness, with its associated feelings of guilt, shame and fear. These were feelings that they had not previously experienced. They were subsequently ejected from the Garden and all the benefits and advantages that it gave to them (Gen.3:23-24).

 The Life Time Consequences: Gen.3:16-19. The physical earth was cursed with thorns and thistles, and it would involve a lifetime of hard labour to extract a livelihood. The woman herself was cursed with increased fertility and pain in childbirth, and probably as a consequence of this, subjection to her husband who would often mistreat her.

 End of Life Consequences: Gen.2:17, 3:19. Death would be the final end of a life of hard labour, pain, trials and vanity. They would return to the dust from which they were made.

There appeared to be no hope for them. Death would be the final outcome of a life filled with hard labour. This has subsequently been the sad experience of all people who have ever lived since that day. This is mankind’s natural inheritance. But how was God’s purpose to be fulfilled if Sin and Death ruled all humanity? Speaking metaphorically, sin now reigned over all (Rom.6:12), and its dominion was seen universally in weakness and death (Rom.5:12, 21). 

Originally God had promised to the man, dominion over the earth and over all God’s creation. This promise was to the man (& woman) who was made to be like God (in thinking and behaviour). As a result of their choice to ignore and disobey God, sin now reigned in man. In this sense then, man was not like God at all. Yet God was not about to give up on His purpose with man and with the earth, therefore God provided a way that men and women might find redemption from the inevitability of their natural condition of sin and death. 

John.8:34. Jesus answered them, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

Rom.3:23 … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Rom.5:12-14. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Rom.8:2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

1.Cor.15:22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Although some of these references have to do with redemption, they firstly explain from what we need to be redeemed. It is important for us to understand this situation, for until we do we will not fully appreciate the extent to which God has worked to deliver and save us. From these references it is clear that we need to be redeemed from what is called in the Bible, ‘the law of sin and death’. This is the condition that we all inherit from Adam, our common father. That is why it says, ‘as in Adam all die’. We inherit the consequences of his sin because we are related to him, not because God is angry at us for Adam’s sin. It is important to appreciate this difference. This situation is our common misfortune, our shared natural heritage. We have no choice in this as we are born into it. Yet God offers us the choice and opportunity to exit this natural state.

As the natural descendants of Adam, from the day we are born we are guided by our innate natural lusts. That is, to survive and prosper we come to depend upon obeying our native instincts, otherwise called lusts in the Bible. These generally work to preserve our lives and are part and parcel of the natural order of things. We share these instinctive responses in common with all the lower creatures. However, as we grow into adulthood many of us come to realise that serving our instincts in all situations is very often a selfish response to circumstances, which often does not take into account the needs of others, let alone God’s will and purpose. 

Once we become enlightened by God to the His reality and holiness, we come to realise the enormity of this problem and the general awfulness and uncleanness of the human condition (Rom.7:9). We come to understand that the human condition is basically selfish. We further come to realise that man on his own is powerless to fully overcome this situation. Basic acknowledgement of this situation has given rise to many religions and theories, who each offer their own solution to the feelings of guilt and inadequacy associated with the human condition. Unfortunately, the solution to the human condition is not found in any of these. None of them really gets to the root cause of the problem. The down side to wrong concepts is that they mostly misdirect us away from what God has said and revealed on the matter. The Bible tells us that only God is able to solve the dilemma faced by man, and His solution is unlike any human concept or theory.

As negative as this subject appears, it is important to accurately understand it. For in fully understanding it we can begin to comprehend the importance of the offer God has made to us out of His love and kindness, and of the reason why He has called us to walk in His ways. By following His ways we will, in the end, find life and not death.

This ‘law of sin and death’ came because of man’s original transgression and rebellion. God is always true to His word, and as we would expect, He passed sentence upon them for their rebellion and defiance of His laws (Gen.2:16-17). The first pair’s own sinful actions defiled them and changed their relationship with God. The fellowship and oneness with God that they had previously experienced was spoiled by the consequences of their choice. 

Mortality was God’s just sentence upon them, and the full impact of this sentence became a daily struggle for them as the reality of mortality caused a fearful grasping for life which increased the feeling of guilt, shame and inadequacy. In this way the sentence also defiled them, as it influenced their thinking and moral sentiments. This weakness, sin-proneness and mortality was passed on to all their posterity by the natural laws of inheritance. 

As we noted earlier, this sentence was not only given as punishment for sin, but also that men and women might, in faith, look for that better day that God has promised when He restores to repentant man even more than he lost at the fall. That is, to look to the promised day when God completes His purpose with man and with the earth. These concepts are a major theme of the Bible, both OT and NT. 

Rom.8:20.   For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;

Rom.5:15. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Rom.5:18. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.

After the first pair had sinned they hid themselves from God, and to further hide their shame they also covered themselves with a clothing of their own manufacture, made of fig leaves. This was their attempt to cover their sins. It was to prove inadequate. Man has ever since tried to construct coverings (both metaphorically and literally) to cover his sins and inadequacies. None of these are of any value, for all God ever wanted from man was a faithful and loving response, and an open and trusting relationship. For He knows our frame, how weak we are. He already knows our sins and our mortality (Psalm.103:14). 

After their sin was discovered God called upon them to give an account of their actions. After this they were sentenced by God, who subsequently provided a covering for them. So we read in Gen.3:21 that God clothed them in tunics of skins. This can only mean that an animal was slain to provide the required covering. Their feeling of nakedness represented their new found lusts and their sin, and the covering stood as a type of the covering for their sins that God alone could provide. Only God can deal with sin, as we shall see. It is significant that the covering involved ‘death’, for it was to be by the death of one specially provided by God that the covering for sins and new life would come.