The Whole Creation Groans…(Romans 8:22)

The Result of Adam’s Sin

 

In Chapter Eight of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, he noted the glorious future for Christians who have been led by the Holy Spirit.  He noted that believers have overcome their carnal past and have become “children of God” and therefore ”joint-heirs with Christ”. (Romans 8: 16-17)  As a result, we shall be glorified with the Lord when we complete the process of “adoption”, when we redeem our new bodies after this earthly phase of our lives is done. (Romans 8: 18-23).

In the meantime we as believers have been groaning within ourselves waiting for that blessed event.  But Paul points out that the anticipation of our manifestation as the sons of God is shared by the whole of God’s creation (also called “the creature”). The scripture says: “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Romans 8:22). In the preceding verses we were reminded that when the first man Adam sinned, his action brought not only death to mankind, but also disorder and destruction affecting the rest of God’s creation in our world.

To put all this in some perspective, it is important to review some concepts about both man and death.  Remember from Genesis Chapter Two, that man’s physical body was formed from the dust of the ground. But his soul / spirit (his true essence) was then breathed / infused into the nostrils of that body by the LORD God. Just as man was comprised of these two distinct parts (visible body vs invisible soul / spirit) , so therefore did death affect each of them separately.

God had told Adam that “…in the day that thou eatest (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) thou shalt surely die.” When Adam sinned by disobeying God, the impact on his and Eve’s souls / spirits was immediate and dramatic. They became aware that they had lost the glory that God had bestowed upon them to reign over the earth. Their souls’ spiritual connections with their Creator had died. They perceived that they were naked, and in their shame sought to hide their nakedness with fig leaves, and themselves from God. (Genesis Chapter Three)

On the other hand, the Bible also records that Adam lived 930 years before he died. (Genesis 5: 5) That statistic refers to how long his physical body endured.  The apparent discrepancy between that lifespan of 930 years and God’s sentence that death would occur “in the day” that Adam disobeyed can be seen in 1) viewing death / dying of the body as a process rather than an event as with the spirit;  and 2) the scripture’s later revealing that “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years...” (2 Peter 3:8) 

Consider the physical body of man, composed of the elements of the earth, like unto the rest of God’s Creation.  When the LORD God pronounced His punishment on Adam and his wife, He added: “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;”.(Genesis 3: 17) The earth has been under God’s curse since then, and subsequently it also groans in anticipation of the manifestation of redeemed man. What began as God’s perfect creation was changed. The perfect balance began to degenerate through what scientists have come to call “entropy”, or a movement to a less usable state. Think of the analogy between what happens to the human body that has been buried and begins to return to the dust from which it came (Genesis 3: 19); and what happens when a fallen tree lies on the forest floor.

The evidence of the groaning of the creation is becoming more evident every day.  With increasing frequency worldwide we are seeing drought, floods, earthquakes, shrinkage of polar ice masses, new virus variants, and various other indicators of what we now attribute to “climate change” or “rare natural occurrences”. However, even as mankind continues to contribute to the woes of our planet today, the scripture confirms that believers will experience the new heaven and the new earth that will be free from death and the curse brought by man’s sin. (2 Peter 3: 13) (https://www.gotquestions.org/all-creation-groans.html )

Dr. W. A. Robinson

 

P.S. The Creation has always remained responsive to God. Remember the Lord Jesus’ words during His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday when, as described in Luke 19: 37-40:

“the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

³⁸ Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

³⁹ And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

⁴⁰ And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

Other evidence that His Creation knew Him: He could calm the stormy seas (Matthew 8: 23-27). He could turn water into fine wine (John2: 1-11). And there were other examples. ( See: https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/15519/Jesus-Christs-Authority-over-Nature.htm