Dr. Couch, I don't see in Romans 8:22 that it says that death came into the world because of Adam's sin. All creation groans to be delivered but is this also implying that death is part of that groaning, brought on because of Adam's fall?
ANSWER: In court cases, circumstantial evidence is considered valid evidence as well as "direct evidence." The proof that death came into the world is circumstantial and this is valid. The proof is in what happened to all flesh. Circumstantial evidence can be evidence! The violence of all in the animal world circumstantially points to the sin that entered the world through Adam's fall.
In Romans 8 we read that God causes the creation to be subjected to futility—creation is enslaved to corruption because of the sin of Adam. The entire creation now groans to be delivered. Humanity is at the top of all flesh that has been created. Man is the epitome of the creation of flesh. What happens to man, and what man did, brings about a subjection to the rest of the animal world.
Below are some quotes that give to us circumstantial proof that, because of Adam's sin, the entire realm of the creation of the animal world, suffers and moves towards death. The Lord told Adam "Curses 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 because of you" (Gen. 3:17b-19).
God "grieves in His heart because He made man on the earth. He said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man to animal to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them" (6:7). "The earth (the animal life) was corrupt in the sigh to God,and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it (the animal kingdom) was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. … The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth" (vv. 11-13).
"I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish" (v. 17). How did the earth, and all flesh, become so corrupt? The only answer is the fact of the sin of mankind.
All flesh will die. "Every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds" (7:14).
With the flood waters, "All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died" (vv. 21-22). God "blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animal to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth" (v. 23).
Until mankind is finally and ultimately redeemed, "creation is subjected to futility because God has so subjected it" (Rom. 8:20). "The whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now" (v. 22).
What does the Greek word "futility" mean? It means to be "void of force, lack of truth, useless, without purpose, to be devoid of appropriateness, frailty, lack of vigor, to be made empty, deprivation, vain." Because of sin, brought into the realm of creation by mankind, the creation no longer has purpose or meaning.
Thanks for asking.
—Dr. Mal Couch (7/11)
