To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:16-19

This passage of the Bible is one which few accept. Why? Because it speaks of the curse brought upon all mankind by the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden; and who wants to acquiesce to a life filled with pain, sorrow, hard work, trouble, hardship and, finally, death and decay?

To the woman God said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” How many women are willing to accept this truth and submit themselves to such a life of sorrow and pain?

To Adam God said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

One doesn’t have to be a farmer to know that the ground brings forth thorns and thistles, but the curse includes the fact that we will have to labor and work hard to earn and produce our daily bread; yet we so often forget this and seek an easier way. We grumble and complain about the need to labor and work long and hard hours, but we shouldn’t expect things to be easy in this sinful world.

We also will all die and return to the dust of the ground. We try to put this truth far from our minds, as well, and we live as though death will not overtake us; but it will! We will return to the dust of the ground from which we were formed and created. Some go to great lengths to avoid the inevitable, but they too die.

And why all this suffering, sorrow, toil, pain and death? It is because of sin – because Adam and Eve doubted and disobeyed God’s word to them and because we are born in sin and disobedience to the perfect will and design of our Creator. The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and these words are true. We die because we are sinners, and there is nothing we can do about it

Yet God has provided a solution to our self-inflicted dilemma. He sent His only-begotten Son into the world a true man to fulfill all righteousness for us, living in perfect obedience to the holy will and commandments of the LORD, and then to bear in Himself the full punishment for the sins of the world, by suffering and dying upon the cross, that we might be pardoned and acceptable in God’s eyes.

This Jesus has done. He lived a holy life in our stead and then suffered and died upon the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day. In Christ Jesus, God offers and gives to us sinners forgiveness for all our sins and everlasting life with Him in heaven. As the Scriptures say, “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Yes, as sinners, we suffer the heartaches, pains and sorrows of this world. We have to spend our days here laboring for our daily bread. And, finally, when our days here are done, we die and our bodies return to the dust (cf. Psalm 90). But as believers in Christ Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again in victory, we are assured that we too shall be raised up on the last day to life eternal. We are assured and take comfort in the fact that Jesus is right now preparing a place for us and will come again to take us to be with Him forever in the mansions of His Father’s house (cf. John 14:1ff.). For us, “to die” is “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better”! (Philippians 1:21,23).

Indeed, we live by faith in the Son of God who died for us, rose again and is coming to take us to be with Him forever! We endure the pain and suffering of this world in eager anticipation of the life which is to come for Jesus’ sake!

O dearest Jesus, You lived the holy and sinless life which I should have lived, and You took the punishment I should have suffered when you were condemned and forsaken of the Father upon the cross. Thank You for paying the price for my sin and opening up for me the way of eternal life. Graciously receive me into Your everlasting kingdom and give me never-ending life with You in heaven. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:14-15

Though, perhaps hard for us to fully understand, the serpent was cursed with a greater curse than that of the rest of God’s creatures for its role in the temptation and fall of mankind. Not only would it have to die, but it would spend its life on its belly, eating the dust of the ground.

There would be enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. This enmity is much more than a normal distaste for snakes and even destroying them when the opportunity arises. It speaks of the offspring of the devil’s lie and the Seed or offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head and undo the damage done by the temptation of the devil in the garden.

The devil would fail in his attempts to deceive and mislead the promised Seed of the woman — Jesus Christ, Son of God and Mary’s Son — for Jesus did not give in to the devil’s temptations but was holy and without sin (cf. Matthew 4:1-11; Hebrews 4:15).

And, Christ Jesus, when He suffered and died upon the cross for the sins of the world, paid in full the punishment for all mankind’s sin and destroyed the devil’s work, opening up for all of us a way of salvation through faith in Him and His shed blood (cf. Hebrews 2:14-17). And so, though the old evil foe bruised the heel of Christ Jesus when He suffered in agony upon the cross, Jesus crushed his head and destroyed his evil work, opening up for us the gates to heaven, by paying in full for all our sins and then rising again from the dead on the third day.

The devil used God’s holy law to bring about mankind’s condemnation by tempting Adam and Eve to disobedience and bringing them under the curse of the law. Jesus, true man as well as true God, obeyed God’s law in the stead of all mankind and then suffered the just punishment for the sins of the world, rising again in victory on the third day, that the law would be fulfilled for all mankind and the just punishment for all sin fully satisfied. Cf. Galatians 3:10,13.

It is also true that there is enmity between the offspring of the devil (the unbelieving) and the children or offspring of God through faith in Jesus Christ (the believers). Thus, true believers continue to suffer hatred and persecution here in this world from those who do not trust in Christ Jesus or follow Him. But, in the end, all who have not trusted in the innocent sufferings and death of God’s Son for their salvation will be condemned and cast into the eternal torments of hell; and all who have trusted in Christ Jesus will live forever with Him in the paradise of God (2 Thessalonians 1:3-10).

In Jesus’ own words, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life … He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16,18).

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man, thank You for redeeming me from the curse and condemnation of God’s holy law by keeping it perfectly in my place, bearing my punishment upon the cross and then rising again on the third day. Graciously keep me trusting in You, and You alone, for my salvation. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Psalm 51:10-12

After acknowledging his sin and praying to God for mercy and forgiveness for the sake of the coming Redeemer, David also prayed that God would create in him a clean heart to replace his sinful and wicked heart and renew in him a faithful and steadfast spirit which would hold fast to God and His Word and walk in His ways.

He prays that God would not cast him away from His presence and not take from him the Holy Spirit who creates and preserves faith in the Savior. Sin separates from God, but David prays that God would forgive his sins and restore in him the joy of God’s salvation and uphold him and keep him in the true and saving faith through the working of His generous Spirit.

We confess our sins to the Lord and ask for His mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross (cf. 1 John 1:7 – 2:2), but do we pray that God would purify our hearts and desires? Do we ask that God not cast us away but change our hearts and minds by His Holy Spirit that we might desire and walk in the ways of the Lord?

Often, we desire God’s mercy and forgiveness but we have little desire for a change of heart, for God to create in us a clean heart which loves Him and desires to walk in His ways and live according to His Word. We wish to be spared from the punishment we deserve on account of our sins, but we do not truly wish to forsake our sins and live in accord with God’s perfect will, revealed to us in His Word.

Remembering that the end result of living in our sinful ways is death – both physical and eternal – shouldn’t we cling in faith to Christ who won for us eternal life and seek to walk in His ways? After all, Christ did not die for us so that we could continue on in our sinful ways; He died for us that we might be pardoned and forgiven and live for Him in accord with His Word (cf. Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Ephesians 2:8-10).

And so, with David, we pray: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

Why do we as Christians teach that marriage is the life-long union of one man and one woman? Why do we oppose same-sex marriage, sexual relationships outside of marriage and all forms of adultery? It all goes back to Genesis and God’s creation of the first man and the first woman (cf. Genesis 1:26ff.; Genesis 2:7.18ff.).

God created mankind male and female and gave them the command and the blessing to be able to have children and populate the earth. He created woman for the man – from Adam’s rib – and brought her to the man to be a helper and companion comparable to him. And it is for this reason “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” – a new family unit in which children can be conceived and born and brought up to know and walk in the ways of the LORD God (cf. Ephesians 5:22-33; 6:1-4).

Why is divorce wrong and prohibited in the commandment against adultery? Jesus said (Matthew 19:4-6): “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Divorce, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, sodomy, bestiality and even lusting are not in accord with God’s purpose and design in marriage and are therefore a form of adultery – a perversion and abomination to our Maker (cf. Genesis 18-19; Leviticus 18; Matthew 5:27ff.; 19:3ff.; Romans 1:18ff.; Jude 7). And those who practice such things will not be a part of God’s eternal kingdom (Revelation 21:8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

What hope is there for those who have failed to live up to God’s purpose and design in marriage? Our hope is in Christ Jesus who fulfilled all righteousness for us and then suffered the just punishment for all our sins (cf. 1 John 1:8-9; 2:1-2; Ephesians 1:6-7; 2:8-9). We repent of our sinful ways, look to Christ and His cross for forgiveness and then, as a fruit of our faith, seek to live in accord with His will and do those works He created us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

O LORD God, You created woman for the man, brought her to the man and thus instituted marriage as the life-long union of a man and a woman unto one flesh. Forgive us, for Christ’s sake, for our failures to live up to Your purpose and design in creation and strengthen us to live for You. Amen.

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]