How did sin bring disease into the world?

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I was recently asked, "How did sin bring disease into the world?"

My answer was, when sin entered the world, it came with an enormous cost, death. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience towards God, the death penalty was placed upon all of us. The Bible tells us, “Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). 

When God pronounced the death penalty on humanity (Gen. 3:19), He also “cursed” the ground (Gen. 3:17). It is important to note, that the Hebrew word for ground can better be translated as “earth.”1 In his book, The Genesis Record, Henry M. Morris says, the effects of God “cursing” the earth was that, “The basic material of the physical creation . . . the elements themselves, the “dust of the earth,” out of which all things had been made, were brought under the bondage of decay and disintegration.”2

Therefore, it is very possible that due to the fall of man, God cursed the ground, and the impact of that curse birthed the second law of thermodynamics. Morris points out, “This law [second law of thermodynamics] states that all systems, if left to themselves, tend to become degraded or disordered…Physical systems, whether watches, or suns, eventually wear out... Instead of all things being “made” – that is, organized into complex systems – as they were in creation week, they are now being “unmade,” becoming disorganized and simple. Instead of life and growth, there comes decay and death.”3

This sure makes a lot of sense when we look at the entire span of a person’s life. Our bodies suffer with aches and pains, our bones break, our teeth fall out, our hair turns gray, and for some, it even falls out. Our eyes dim, our ears grow dull of hearing. As humans we are experiencing our own internal second law of thermodynamics. Sickness and disease are simply byproducts of death much like a runny nose or a cough is the byproduct of being sick.

And because of our sin nature, we are now flawed human beings. Because we are flawed, we not only have to deal with sinful behavior (Romans 3:9-23), selfish motives (James 3:14), and evil desires (Galatians 5:19-21), but we also have to deal with bodies that are now subject to decay (2 Corinthians 5:1-4) and disease (1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 John 5:16).

Disease is simply one of many reminders that we live in a fallen world, and death is an inevitable event for all of us. But the good news for Christians is that when Jesus returns, death will be “swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54), and we will receive our glorified “incorruptible” bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52), and we will no longer be subject to the curse (Galatians 3:13), or to death (Revelation 21:4).



1. Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study, Old Testament. p.2297, 127 (AMG Publishers, 1994)
2. Morris, Henry M. The Genesis Record. p.125 (Baker Book House, 1976)
3. Ibid., 127 

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