LIFE AND DEATH IN CONFLICT

It is very sobering to realize that the effects of sin permeate all spiritual and physical reality, so that the entire universe is in a self-destruct mode. We see the principle that, when any of us sins, we affect many more and much more than just ourselves. When Adam and Eve sinned as the heads of the human race, they affected the entire human race. As the lords of the creation, they affected the entire creation.

Genesis 1:28 teaches that God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth, so when Adam and Eve sinned the consequences of their sin affected not just them, not just their human descendants, but the entire creation. But as we have seen, this condition of self-destruction is not the permanent mode of the creation. The "blessed hope" is that one day God will purge sin from His creation.

Now we live in a creation where life and death are in conflict. Many pagan religions, past and present, teach that this conflict between good and evil is an eternal struggle. But this state of death is only temporary, though now it permeates every part of life, even those aspects we most need for survival.

The sun, for example, has been ordained of God to be the giver of light and life in today's creation. Yet the sun itself is self-destructing. It is literally tearing itself apart. The sun loses tons of matter every day as solar flares throw gases off into space. The sun is giving off harmful radiations that kill us even as we receive its life-giving light.

Today's creation has life and death, wheat and tares, mingled together. Fortunately this will not continue forever, and in the new creation all the self-destructive aspects of sin will pass away. Christ will rule in perfection over a newly flawless creation (see Note 6).