26-0412a - Detailed Summary

Focusing today on Genesis 3, specifically verses 17 through 18, the sermon examines God’s pronouncement of judgment on Adam: "Cursed is the ground because of you." This is a pivotal moment in Scripture that explains the "why" behind much of what we observe in the natural realm, the universe, and the earth. Before diving into the text, the preacher contrasts the natural realm before the curse with the realm that followed it. The stage is set by reviewing prior lessons in the "Beginnings" study. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Even before that act, the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—had a plan. God is from everlasting to everlasting, and this truth is essential because for anything to exist now, something or someone must have always existed; something cannot come from nothing. Robert Milligan, in his 19th-century book The Scheme of Redemption, observed that even God does not create out of absolute nothing. Since only the Godhead existed before the beginning, God brought everything into being from the only substance available—himself. This illuminates Paul’s statement in Acts 17:28 that in Him we live and move and have our being. Nature itself shows it is not eternal and had a beginning. This creates an insurmountable problem for any purely naturalistic worldview, which would require nature to be eternal. Yet scientific consensus affirms the cosmos had a beginning, meaning nature is not eternal.

There was a time when nature did not exist, raising the question of where it came from. There is no reasonable, nature-only explanation for the origin of nature. As Peter prophesied in 2 Peter 3:5, scoffers deliberately forget that by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. They willfully reject the supernatural. In contrast, the existence of God provides sufficient cause for everything that now exists. Paul declares in Romans 1:20 that God’s eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen from what has been made. The two necessary ingredients—something eternal (God’s eternal power) and something beyond nature (God’s supernatural spiritual nature)—answer the question that naturalism cannot: where did the material universe ultimately come from? The Bible supplies this answer, though scoffers reject it willfully.

When God created the physical realm, He first created darkness (Isaiah 45:7). Then the physical heavens and earth were formed within that darkness. Prior to creation, there was no darkness, for God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). God first created the heaven of heavens and its host, the angels, in light, where He dwells. Even after God spoke light into existence on day one in the natural realm, separating night from day, darkness remained. Today the universe is still mostly dark, approximately 95% of it. Even on a clear night, shielded from the sun, the sky reveals how much remains in shadow. The angels witnessed the foundations of the earth being laid. When God questioned Job (Job 38:4), the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy (Job 38:7) as they watched God create the physical realm. They were present as eyewitnesses. God possibly created the angels first so they could serve as eyewitnesses. Once created, they exist eternally and have observed all of history. They form part of that great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). In the final judgment, we will have not only God’s word but the testimony of all of heaven’s host, even regarding secret things. These are plain historical statements from Scripture with nothing figurative. God creates a perfect world in water, as Peter describes.

By God’s word, the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water (2 Peter 3:5). God created night and day, air to breathe, land and vegetation, celestial bodies for light and timekeeping, sea creatures and birds, land animals, and finally man. When He finished, He pronounced His creation "very good." Then came the fall. The serpent deceived the woman, but Adam was not deceived; yet he still sinned by listening to the voice of his wife and eating from the forbidden tree. Some religious traditions emphasizing total depravity or an inherited sinful nature from birth suggest that Adam’s sin corrupted human nature, rendering people morally unable to respond to God without divine regeneration first. However, as shown in articles from Apologetics Press, Scripture does not teach that we inherit Adam’s guilt or a sinful nature that makes us unable to choose obedience. We do not inherit Adam’s personal sin. Each person sins individually and is accountable for their own transgressions (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). The true impact of Adam’s sin was far broader, affecting not only humanity but the entire created order.

God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:17-18 state: "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field." There is a powerful Hebrew wordplay here: the man’s name, Adam, and the word for ground or soil, adamah, are intimately connected—masculine and feminine forms sharing the same root, often linked to the idea of "red" as in reddish earth or clay. God formed Adam from the dust of the adamah (Genesis 2:7). Now, because of Adam’s sin, God curses the adamah "because of you" or "for your sake." Adam is not personally cursed here in the same direct way as the serpent (that judgment comes in the next verse, to be discussed tonight). Instead, the ground or adamah from which he was taken and upon which he depends is cursed on his account. This is poetic justice and a tragic irony—the very source of his life and sustenance now resists him. A curse invokes supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment; when God curses, He is that supernatural power. Up to this point, the pronouncements on the serpent and the woman affected only them directly. But Adam’s judgment extends outward: the adamah itself is cursed because of him. This harms the ground to punish Adam and, by extension, all who come after him.

The ground is cursed in a way that now afflicts hardship: "In toil you will eat of it." Toil means extremely hard, incessant, constant, never-ending work. Food acquisition, once effortless in the garden, now demands sweat and struggle all the days of one’s life. This echoes Paul’s later command: "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Verse 18 clarifies the nature of this toil: "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field." Thorns and thistles were not part of the original "very good" creation. Whether these features were latent and now activated or newly created, the result is the same—agriculture became difficult and dangerous. Thorns puncture and cut; thistles prick. Handling plants now risks pain and infection. Before the fall, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, freely eating from its trees (except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Now, soon to be expelled from that paradise, they must eat the plants of the field, surrounded by thorns and thistles. The adamah, once cooperative and fruitful, now produces resistance and hardship. Why curse the ground? Why expand Adam’s punishment to impact more than just himself? Why curse the adamah and, by extension, all of nature, affecting every living thing? This is a massive judgment. The answer lies in God’s justice and the original warning: "In the day that you eat from it, you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Adam must die physically.

God did not strike Adam with lightning, swallow him in the earth, or send an angel. Instead, He subjected the entire natural realm to mortality so that the penalty could be honored consistently for every sinner who would follow. Before the fall, the physical realm operated in a state of immortality—nothing wore down, rusted, decayed, or died. This is the only kind of nature in which something like naturalistic evolution could theoretically function: eternal (though it had a beginning), with no death, perpetual motion, spontaneous generation, and no increase in entropy. But the evidence shows otherwise. The second law of thermodynamics declares that entropy, disorder, and randomness always increase with time. Death, decay, and extinction are now the rule. Romans 8 captures this reality vividly: creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope (Romans 8:20). The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth, waiting to be set free from its bondage to corruption when God’s children are revealed in glory. The thorns, toil, pain, childbirth, aging, disease, and death all trace back to this curse on the adamah because of Adam. According to Romans 5:12, sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin; death spread to all because all sinned. We do not inherit Adam’s guilt or a predetermined sinful nature that renders us incapable of response. We inherit mortality. Physical life is now brief, and we return to dust, as will be seen tonight, returning to the adamah from which we came. Each of us dies spiritually because of our own sins, not Adam’s.

Yet the good news shines brightly. Salvation is offered to all. Righteousness comes through faith to everyone who believes. The path is narrow and few find it, but the invitation is universal, not limited to a predetermined few. Through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, we can be made alive. One day the curse will be lifted, and creation will be liberated; the groaning will give way to glory. The curse on the adamah, the ground, explains the world we inhabit—full of toil, thorns, and death. It also points us to the Redeemer who bore the curse for us on a wooden cross, crowned with thorns. Let us respond in faith, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. May we live as citizens of the coming renewed creation, where there will be no more curse, no more death, and God Himself will wipe away every tear. The sermon concludes with an extended invitation: anyone subject to it, whatever your need, come while we stand and sing.