AFTER THE FALL.
Genesis 3:17-19.
As a result of the Fall of Adam, man's days as a gentleman gardener were at an end. The ordinance of work would give way to the tedium of toil. Since man had chosen to eat of the forbidden fruit, it would only be with a huge struggle that he would hereafter be able to sift out a living from the land.
Psalm 90:7-10.
Our mortality is on account of God’s anger at man’s disobedience (cf. Psalm 90:7). As the rhyming couplet goes, ‘In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.’
Each of us has also aggravated our collective guilt with our individual sins (cf. Psalm 90:8). Every deed, every word, every inmost thought is open to the One who dwells in eternity. He sees it all, and there is no fleeing from His presence (cf. Psalm 139:7).
Our days pass away under God’s wrath (cf. Psalm 90:9). Iniquity already had its hold upon us in our mothers’ womb (cf. Psalm 51:5). We were born already “dead in trespasses and sins” (cf. Ephesians 2:1), and our fragile mortal lives have been subject to decline ever since.
It is a far cry from the great age of the patriarchs to our mere seventy or eighty years (cf. Psalm 90:10). We have known trouble and sorrow ever since the fall. For the generality of mankind, it all leads down to the grave.
We cannot begin to imagine how angry God is. Our sin is against an infinite God, so He could only be satisfied with the payment of the sacrifice of His infinite Son on our behalf. His anger is in proportion to our failure to reverence Him.
The prospect of death at the end of his days of toil reminds man forever that out of the dust were we taken, and unto dust we must return (GENESIS 3:19)!
