Read: The Impact of Sin

LECTURE

THE IMPACT OF SIN

The impact of the Fall of Adam and Eve extended to all of creation. Before the Fall, it’s difficult to imagine how rich and fertile the original garden must have been. As a result of Adam’s sin, however, God told Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground …” (Genesis 3:17-19).

God’s curse of the ground means there is now scarcity beyond the natural limitations of space and time. Scarcity is the problem of a cursed ground that will not naturally provide for man’s needs. Scarcity greatly worsens the challenge of natural limitations. As a result of the curse and the problem of scarcity, the basic question of man’s life is now “How will I survive from day to day?”

Scarcity combined with sin and ignorance consistently leads to poverty. Although the nations of the West have been prosperous for centuries, the majority of the world’s population has been poor through most of world history. It remains that way for billions of people today. No system of economics is going to eradicate poverty; history shows us, however, that some economic systems tend toward increasing poverty while other systems tend toward lessening poverty.

Since we, as Christians, are interested in reducing poverty, we should also be interested in the economic system that works best to marginalize and reduce poverty as well as to help us be better stewards of God’s creation. Stewardship is man governing and using the created order for God’s purposes and for God’s glory.

The Fall has greatly affected who we are as men made in the image of God. This includes the economic work God desires us to do. Those consequences include:

• We do not think in a rational way with consistency.
• We ignore our calling as stewards under God’s authority.
• We work for our own purposes instead of God’s purposes.
• We find ways to steal, to lie, and to exploit other men, especially through various forms of slavery.

A comparison of the line of Cain with the line of Seth in the first chapters of Genesis shows the radical departure within Cain’s line from what God intended.

Lamech, of the line of Cain, said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold” (Genesis 4:23-24).

But in the line of Seth: “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:22-24). The cultural mandate and God’s call to stewardship remain, but our sinful natures prevent us from being able to fulfill them without God’s grace.

Whenever we are overcome by sin, God intervenes in our lives to save us from ourselves. He gives us His law to provide boundaries within which we can find prosperity. Moses said, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). He demonstrates His grace to us by redeeming us from judgment and blessing us in our obedience.

The story of Noah is a picture of God’s call to stewardship and blessing. Noah was given a specific economic task to build an ark using land, labor and capital. Noah’s obedience was an example of godly stewardship. God saved Noah and blessed his obedience, then repeated to Noah the cultural mandate: “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’” (Genesis 9:1). God also gave Noah specific commands that helped him and his family live on the land. God did this to a much greater degree when He gave Moses His laws on Mt. Sinai.