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Did Adam Stand for All Humanity? Edwards on Genesis 1–3 | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We're about to be getting
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another deep dive and today we're getting into some really
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foundational material. We certainly are.
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We're going to be decoding the doctrine of original sin, and
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we're anchoring our entire discussion in the text itself,
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specifically an interpretation of the first 3 chapters of
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Genesis. So our mission for this deep
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dive is to tackle a very specific question, one that
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really shapes everything that follows in the biblical
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narrative. That's right.
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The question is this, does the history in Genesis lead us to
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believe that God dealt with mankind as a whole, as a single
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group included in our first Father Adam?
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Which then brings up the big one.
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Was the threat of death aimed only at Adam, or did it have
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respect to all of his descendants?
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To all of us. And you have to understand why
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that question is so critical. We're trying to show the origin
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of the state we find ourselves in now.
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This, you know, sinful and often miserable condition of mankind,
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a state that made God's mercy and grace absolutely necessary.
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Right. And to get clarity on this, you
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often have to look at opposing views.
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So today we'll be contrasting the Reformed position with the
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arguments of a pretty influential 18th century
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theologian who are sources just called Doctor T.
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Yes, Doctor T, he held a view that really challenged this
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whole understanding of Adam's sin and its consequences.
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He wanted to defend God's benevolence.
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But as we'll see, his solution created, let's just say, some
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massive theological problem. The.
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Far bigger problems than the 1 he thought he was solving.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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OK, let's start at the very beginning.
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Then the scene of the transgression.
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The ACT itself was, of course, eating the forbidden fruit.
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And it's interesting the sources are always careful to point out
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we have no idea what kind of fruit it was.
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It was simply the fruit of a tree that Adam was commanded not
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to eat of. The type of fruit is completely
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irrelevant then. Completely what mattered was the
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command, the prohibition. It was a test, you know, a test
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of what we'd call stipulated obedience.
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It was a legal arrangement. So a very simple law.
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What was the penalty attached to it?
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What was the warning? The original threatening God
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gave Adam was just crystal clear.
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Thou shalt surely die. That phrase alone, it feels so
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heavy. It is.
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It established the whole judicial basis for their
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relationship. This wasn't just some fatherly
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advice, it was the legal stipulation of a covenant.
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Now that phrase, thou shalt surely die.
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We need to be careful with how we understand that.
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I mean, if you read it in a modern, literalistic way, you'd
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think Adam should have dropped dead on the spot.
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And that's a common misunderstanding.
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People think it means, you know, execution within 24 hours.
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But in the Hebrew idiom, when you have that doubling of the
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verb, it's like dying, you shall die.
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It signifies a certain an inevitable connection.
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Connection between the sin and the punishment.
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Exactly. It means the moment you commit
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the ACT, you are immediately exposed to death.
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You are brought instantly under its condemnation.
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Your legal status changes in that instant.
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So it's not about the timing of the physical event so much as
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the immediate legal reality. The source material brings up an
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analogy from the Book of Ezekiel that helps clarify this.
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It's a perfect parallel in Ezekiel 33.
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It says the righteous person won't be able to live in the day
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that he sins, but for his iniquity he shall die for it.
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The language shows that instantaneous judicial link
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between the crime and the judgement of death.
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So the moment the sin happens, the claim of death is, in a
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sense legally executed on that person's status, even if their
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body keeps breathing for another 900 years.
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Precisely. And after that transgression,
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after that immediate change in legal status, we get to Genesis
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3.1 E. This is where the sentence is
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actually pronounced. God says to Adam, unto dust
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shalt thou return. And this is some new separate
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punishment. No, not at all.
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The text makes it clear this was pronounced in pursuance of the
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original threatening. It's the judicial follow up,
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it's the detailed breakdown of how that sentence of death will
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be carried out and. What did that look like?
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What were the immediate tangible effects of this Doom to dust, as
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the source calls it? Well, it meant that life was
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going to be hard. Man was now obligated to get his
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food through difficult labor, through sorrow and suffering.
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He had to fight against a ground that was now cursed until the
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day he physically died and his body returned to the earth.
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The whole dynamic change, the ease of Eden was gone it.
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Vanished. And this toil, the sorrow, the
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decay, it's all part of the sentence of death being
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executed. OK, this is what brings us to
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the core theological claim that really is the only thing that
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makes this entire story coherent, the idea of a
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representative role for Adam. Yes, the history of the fall,
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the fact that these consequences are universal, that the hard
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labor falls on every generation, it all leads you to suppose that
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God was dealing with Adam as a kind of public person.
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As the head of the human species.
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The federal head, that's the theological term.
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It means he was a legal representative.
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He was standing not just for himself, but for the entire
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human race that would come from him.
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It was a covenant of works. And his obedience would have
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secured life for everyone. And his obedience, as we see,
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secure death for everyone. But why is it so important that
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he has to be a representative? I mean, why can't we just say it
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was a tragedy that, I don't know, messed up the gene pool
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and now we all suffer the consequences?
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Because of justice. If Adam was only acting for
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himself, if this was just a private matter between him and
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God, then the sentence of universal death and universal
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misery for everyone else makes no sense at all.
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It would seem incredibly unfair. How could a righteous judge
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condemn billions of people who weren't there to physical death
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and spiritual alienation? The only way for the sentence to
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be a just execution of that threat is if all of us who
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suffer the punishment were, through our representative,
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justly under the condemnation of that same threat.
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So without that idea of Adam as the federal head, you're left
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with God imposing a penalty, a judicial condemnation on people
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who are by definition, completely innocent of the
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crime. Which would be an abomination to
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justice. The universal scope of the
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penalty demands a universal scope of the transgression, and
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only representation can provide that.
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Otherwise, Adam would have just died and the next generation
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would get a clean slate. Exactly.
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But that's not the world we observe.
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We are all born subject to the same state of decay and
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alienation. Adam wasn't just losing a
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personal perk, he was defaulting on a contract that legally bound
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all of his descendants. So it's a legal framework, not
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just a moral 1. That's the key.
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This was a covenant. Obedience meant life,
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Disobedience meant death, and the actions of the
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representative determined the legal fate of the entire body he
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represented. OK, this brings us right to the
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heart of the controversy and to the arguments of Doctor T He was
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trying to defend God's goodness, but in doing so he got tied up
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in some serious knots. He did.
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What's so striking when you read his work on Death is that he is,
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as the source says, utterly inconsistent with himself.
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He's trying to hold 2 completely opposite ideas at the same time.
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What are those two ideas? On the one hand, he uses
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incredibly strong legal language affirming that death is a
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judicial act. On the other hand, he insists
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for Adam's posterity, it's not a punishment at all, but a
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wonderful gift. A gift.
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OK, let's break that down. First, the judicial side.
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How does he describe the sentence?
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Unto dust shalt thou return. Oh, he uses the most severe
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terms imaginable, he calls it. And this is a direct quote, a
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judicial act of condemnation. That's pretty unambiguous.
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He goes further. He says this specific sentence
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in Genesis 3 is the one judgement to condemnation which
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came upon all men that's recorded in Scripture.
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He even says God was acting the part of a judge condemning them
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to temporal death. So God is the judge, death is
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the condemnation. It sounds very orthodox so far.
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And he says that because of this, mankind was judicially
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constituted sinners, that is, they were subjected to death by
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the sentence of God the Judge. He says this condemnation is, in
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effect, the same thing as being dead.
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OK, so that's one side of the coin.
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A clear statement of universal judicial condemnation.
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But then he flips it completely. Completely.
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After all that talk of judges and condemnation, Dr. T insists
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that this very same sentence is not a punishment for Adam's
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posterity. It's a paradox.
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So how does he describe it then? He says death comes to us merely
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by the gracious disposal of a father.
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He redefines this massive judicial consequence as a
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positive thing, calling it a benefit of the highest nature.
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Wait. A judicial act of condemnation
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is also a benefit of the highest nature.
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How does he square that? He doesn't.
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He argues that death is appointed only as a favor and
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benefit and even a fruit of fatherly love.
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Love. The curse is an act of love.
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In his view, yes, he says, mortality is just a way for us
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to achieve a more happy existence and a great increase
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of good. So for him, the sentence was a
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punishment for Adam personally, but for all of us, it was just a
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mere promise of favor. But the whole context of Genesis
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3 is 1 of displeasure, of loss, of expulsion.
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How can a loving father give a benefit by cursing the ground
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and sentencing his kids to a life of toil until they die?
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That's the logical disconnect. The entire scene, God speaking
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words of rebuke, setting up cherubim with a flaming sword to
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block the way back to the tree of life.
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The whole atmosphere is penal. It's judgement.
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Let's apply his logic to that other part of the curse, the
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curse on the ground. God says cursed be the ground
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for thy sake. The straightforward reading is
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that this causes thorns and thistles, which lead, demands
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sorrow and suffering. It's a punishment.
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Right. But for Doctor T to maintain his
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position that this is all a benefit, he has to argue against
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the plain meaning of the text. He claims that the curse on the
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ground was actually a blessing, a happy change in it.
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A blessing? How could thorns and thistles be
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a blessing? This is where it gets, frankly,
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a bit absurd. He claims that the thorns and
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thistles were meant to act as excellent medicines.
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Medicines for what? To prevent moral distempers, the
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idea is that the hard labor required to deal with them would
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keep humanity too busy to get into worse trouble that might
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lead to eternal death. So the thorns aren't a sign of
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God's displeasure, they're moral vitamins.
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That's a very creative reading, The text says in sorrow shalt
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thou eat of it. Sorrow isn't a side effect you
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expect from an excellent medicine.
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It completely guts the narrative of its meaning, and it brings us
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to the core logical flaw in his entire system, the problem of
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condemning the innocent. Right.
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A sentence that comes from a threatening has to be a
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punishment. You don't threaten people with
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favors. Exactly.
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You don't say if you disobey me, I will bestow a great kindness
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upon you. And yet, Doctor T believes that
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God carries out a judicial act of condemnation on Adam's
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posterity, while at the same time insisting they are
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perfectly innocent of Adam's sin.
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It's a direct contradiction. It is, and the author we're
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looking at points this out using scripture itself.
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Doctor T actually quotes Proverbs 17.1 fiend which says
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he that justify at the wicked and he that condemns the just
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are both an abomination to the Lord.
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And yet his own system has God doing exactly that, condemning
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the just, or at least those he considers innocent in that
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specific transgression. By saying God condemns Adam's
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posterity to death while they are innocent of the crime,
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Doctor T is, by his own scriptural standard, making God
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do something that is an abomination.
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So how does he try to get out of that bind?
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How can he explain condemnation without guilt?
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He tries an evasion. He argues that it was the
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possible existence of Adam's posterity that fell under the
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law's warning. The idea is if God had killed
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Adam instantly, none of us would exist.
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So in a sense, subjecting us to temporal death is a lesser
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version of that threat of non existence.
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That feels like a huge stretch. Suffering a physical death is an
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actual experience of pain and loss.
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It's entirely different from just not being created.
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There are infinite possible beings.
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God doesn't create. We don't say they're suffering.
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And the specific nature of the punishment, the toil, the
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sorrow, the decay, that requires a specific crime.
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You can't equate the withholding of existence with the active
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imposition of misery. And it gets worse for his
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argument, doesn't it? He contradicts himself about the
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law itself. He does.
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Doctor T also insists that the law given to Adam was entirely
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abrogated, basically cancelled before the sentence in Genesis 3
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was even pronounced. But wait, if the law was
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cancelled, how could it be the basis for the sentence?
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It couldn't. If the sentence isn't grounded
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on the law that said thou shalt surely die, then it can't be a
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punishment. Punishment is by definition, the
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execution of a penalty laid out in a law.
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And if it's not a punishment, that it can't be a judgement to
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condemnation from God acting as a judge.
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The whole thing collapses by trying to deny that death is a
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punishment for Adam's descendants.
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He makes his own use of judicial language completely nonsensical.
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He confirms the very legal structure of representation and
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guilt that he's trying to dismantle.
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It really shows that you can't just detach the consequences
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from the covenant mechanism that caused them.
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You can't. If death is a universal sentence
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from God the judge, then that universal sentence requires a
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universal transgression, and the only way to get there is through
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the doctrine of representation. There's no other logical.
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OK, so since Doctor T's arguments create more problems
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than they solve, let's look at the positive biblical evidence
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that actually confirms Adam was acting as that federal head.
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Let's start with the language God uses.
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The sources point out that almost every single word God
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spoke to Adam or Eve was clearly meant to include their
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posterity. Even when he's using singular
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language like thou. Yes, God is speaking to Adam as
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the head of the whole species. The application is collective.
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For example, before the fall, God says let us make man in our
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image and let them have dominion.
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The initial thought is already collective.
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And then there's the cultural mandate.
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Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.
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Obviously that wasn't just for Adam and Eve of.
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Course not. It was for every generation.
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So if the blessings and the commands were intended to extend
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to everyone, it just stands to reason that the warning and the
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penalty attached to the covenant would extend to everyone too.
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So the universal sentence unto dust shalt thou return confirms
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that the original warning thou shalt surely die was also
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universal in scope. Right.
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You can't just pick and choose. You can't say the promise of
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dominion covers the whole human race, but the stipulation that
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governed life under that dominion was only for one.
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The scope has to be consistent. And it's not just linguistic
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analysis. We have evidence from later in
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Genesis that Adam's descendants understood this curse as an
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inherited punishment. Let's talk about Lamech, Noah's
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father. This is a powerful piece of
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historical evidence. When Lamech names his son Noah,
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he says, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and the
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toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath
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cursed. This is centuries later, but the
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understanding is still there. It's crystal clear Lamech
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directly connects his own personal toil to the curse God
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placed on the ground way back in Eden.
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He doesn't say we're toiling because of our own sins.
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He traces the struggle back to that original inherited event.
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If the toil was just a benefit of the highest nature, as Doctor
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T claimed, Lamex language would be totally different.
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He'd be celebrating it as a happy change.
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Instead, he speaks of needing comfort from the toil that comes
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from a cursed ground. This shows a consistent
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historical belief in an inherited punishment.
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Now, in the middle of all this ruin, we get a glimmer of hope
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that actually confirms the depth of the disaster.
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And that's Adam's decision to rename his wife.
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This is such a profound moment. Her name was Isha Woman.
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But immediately after God gives the promise of a Redeemer, the
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seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, Adam
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renames her. He calls her Eve or Chawa in
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Hebrew, which means. It means life, mother of all
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living, and the timing of this is just stunning.
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It shows an incredible theological grasp of this
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situation. Why would it be, as the source
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says, perfectly unaccountable for him to do this otherwise?
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Think about it. If Adam believed he had just
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plunged his entire race into universal death and ruin, why on
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earth would he name his wife Life?
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It makes no sense. He's staring death in the face.
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She is now the mother of a dying race.
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So the name has to be a statement of faith in the
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promise he just heard. Exactly.
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He understood that many of their descendants, the living, would
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be saved from this death sentence through the Redeemer,
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who would be her seed. He's declaring that she is the
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mother of the spiritually living those who will inherit the
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promised life. So the new name is a sign of
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redemption. It's a sign of incredible hope,
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and it proves that Adam didn't see the consequences, some light
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thing or benefit. He knew the ruin was total,
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which is why it required a Redeemer to bring true,
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everlasting life. There's one more analogy that
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helps cement this idea that the curse was aimed at humanity.
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It has to do with how blessings and curses on inanimate objects
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work in the Bible. Right.
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The curse on the ground wasn't about punishing dirt, it was
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about punishing the people who use the dirt.
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And the examples from Exodus. Yes, in Exodus 23 God promises
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He shall bless thy bread and thy water.
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Nobody reads that and thinks God is just blessing the H2O
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molecules. The blessing terminates on the
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person who eats the bread and drinks the water.
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It brings them health and prosperity.
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So likewise, when God says curse be the ground for thy sake, the
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curse terminates on mankind. It's a punishment.
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Precisely. God even explains how in sorrow
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shalt thou eat of it. The ground becomes the
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instrument of punishment, but man is the object of the
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condemnation. To read it any other way, as the
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source says, would be senseless. So when you put it all together,
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the language lame, it's understanding the renaming of
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Eve, it all points to Adam acting as representative and the
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consequences being universal and penal.
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It's a consistent picture from every angle.
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OK, so we've established Adam's role and that the consequences
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are a judicial condemnation. Now let's clarify exactly what
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Thou shalt surely Die fully means, because it's more than
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just physical. It is.
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The execution of the sentence started the moment Adam sinned.
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It wasn't completed in 24 hours, but the change was
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instantaneous. You can really break it down
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into three kinds of death that began that day.
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Spiritual, eternal, and temporal.
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Let's start with spiritual death.
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What did that entail for Adam? Spiritual death means he
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instantly lost his original righteousness, his innocence,
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and critically, he lost the favor of God.
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This caused a well, a dismal alteration in his soul.
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He went from being aligned with God to being.
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What? Corrupt, miserable, helpless.
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His entire moral nature was ruined.
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And you see the evidence immediately when they try to
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hide from God that perfect communion was shattered.
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So spiritual death is about that immediate break in the
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relationship and the corruption of his nature.
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Exactly. Then there's the second element,
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which is the most severe condemnation to eternal
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perdition. This is the ultimate legal
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consequence, right? Adam immediately fell under the
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full curse of the law, which is condemnation to eternal death in
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the language of the Bible. He is dead in that moment
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because he stands condemned. Now God's grace can intervene,
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but the legal status of condemnation was immediate and
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total. And finally, there's the one we
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can all see. Temporal or physical death?
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The change in his body was the start of temporal death.
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A body that was made to live forever lost its vigor.
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It began to decline. It became, as the source puts
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it, a poor, dull, decaying, dying thing.
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And that slow decay over hundreds of years is the process
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of returning to the dust. Yes, executed through hard
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labor, sickness, and aging. It's the visible outworking of
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the sentence. So it's this combination, the
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spiritual alienation, the eternal condemnation and the
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physical decay that makes the penalty so total.
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And This is why the author goes to such lengths to detail all
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this. The whole point is to show the
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origin of the present sinful, miserable state of mankind, and
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in doing so, show why the wonderful dispensations of
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Divine Mercy and grace were so necessary.
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The totality of the ruin demands an extraordinary grace.
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It has to be. Which leads us, of course, to
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the contrast between Adam and Christ, the superior federal
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head. The failure of the first Adam
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really just sets the stage for the triumph of the second Adam.
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And the benefits we get through Christ are far greater than what
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was lost. Vastly beyond.
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As the source says, what Adam could have secured through
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obedience was confirmed life in the garden.
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What Christ secures is infinite glory.
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He doesn't just reverse the curse.
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He doesn't just take us back to neutral.
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No, he saves people from the infinitely dreadful effects of
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Adam's sin, which includes eternal damnation, and raises
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them to a far greater dignity, Felicity, and glory than Adam
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ever had, even in his perfection.
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We become a doctored shoulder of God, not just perfect creatures.
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An unbreakable eternal inheritance.
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It's a whole different level. Now there's a technical
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distinction the sources make about how the two Covenant heads
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operated. It uses this phrase proper merit
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of kindignity for Christ's work. What does that mean?
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If that's a key distinction, merit of kindignity means a
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merit that is earned through an act that is a perfectly equal
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value to the reward. OK, so how did Adam's covenant
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work then? Adam's was based on what we call
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stipulated obedience. If he obeyed, God promised a
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reward. It was based on the fidelity of
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the covenant promise, not because Adam's simple act of not
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eating a fruit was intrinsically worth eternal life for billions.
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It was a conditional arrangement.
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But Christ's work was different. He didn't just obey.
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He endured the full curse of the law.
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He endured that condemnation and death as a substitute.
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And because Christ is the divine Son of God, His sacrifice, His
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obedience, His suffering, it all carried infinite weight.
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So his payment was truly equal to the debt.
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It was. He obtained the benefits through
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proper merit of can dignity. His purchase was a true
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equivalent sacrifice that satisfied an infinite penalty
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and therefore secured an infinite reward.
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This is fundamentally different from Adam's original deal.
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Christ's work is a true purchase guaranteeing the result.
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The depth of the fall really does determine the magnitude of
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the redemption. The fact that the whole human
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race stood justly condemned meant the only solution was a
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substitute of infinite value. Yes, you have to understand the
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horror of the original sentence, spiritual death, eternal
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perdition, physical ruin to get the full picture.
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If you don't see that we were all judicially constituted
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sinners, then the substitutionary work of Christ
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doesn't make as much sense. He didn't just give us a moral
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example, He rescued us from a death sentence.
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And in doing so, raised us to a dignity far above what Adam ever
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possessed. A glory that wasn't even on the
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table under the original covenant of works.
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It's union with Christ himself, the highest dignity possible.
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So let's try to sum up the key takeaways from this deep dive.
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The evidence from Genesis really does confirm that Adam was
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acting as a public representative for the whole
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human race. And that the threat of death
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therefore included all of his posterity.
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This means that the universal mortality we see around us is,
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correctly understood, a judicial act of condemnation.
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It's a punishment. And the counter arguments like
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those from Doctor T that try to frame death as a gracious
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benefit, they just don't hold up.
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They contradict the clear judicial language of the text.
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They require God to condemn people that He simultaneously
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considers innocent, which is the very definition of injustice.
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That internal contradiction just makes the whole system fall
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apart. So Adam's sin brought on this
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universal spiritual death and physical ruin, which made the
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appearance of a Redeemer absolutely necessary, a Redeemer
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Adam himself recognized when he renamed his wife Life.
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Right, and here's the final thought I'd leave you with.
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If the sentence of death is a judicial act, which even Doctor
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T had to admit it was, if we were all justly subjected to
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death by the sentence of God the Judge, then just consider the
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sheer magnitude of the deliverance that Christ brings.
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It's not a small rescue. Not at all.
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How much more glorious is his substitutionary work in
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redeeming us, the judicially condemned, and raising us to a
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state of glory that Adam in the Garden couldn't have even
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imagined? The depth of the condemnation
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reveals the infinite worth of the grace that rescued us.
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A powerful conclusion. We start our lives under
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condemnation, facing the ultimate penalty, which requires
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A savior whose merit wasn't just conditional but infinite.
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Think about that for a moment. If our starting point was just a
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minor set back, Christ's work would be, you know,
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proportional. But because the penalty was
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eternal death for every single one of us, the rescue had to be
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something that transcended anything Adam could have
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achieved. Just consider the scale of that
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divine rescue. A fascinating and I think
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necessary look into the first chapters of human history.
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Indeed, we look forward to our next deep dive with you.