Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Creation Moment 8/18/2022 - Luther on Eve's creation

"V. 18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him (which may be before him).
But we may here inquire when God says, "It is not good that the
man should be alone
," what is that "good" of which God is speaking, seeing that Adam was righteous and had no need of the woman as we have, who bear about with us our flesh all leprous with sin? 
 
My reply is, that God is speaking of a common "good," or the good of the species; not of personal good. All personal good Adam already possessed. He enjoyed perfect innocency. 
He could not propagate his species by generation. Adam was alone. 
Nor had he as yet a companion for that wonderful work of generation and the preservation of his species. 
The "good" therefore here divinely expressed, signifies the multiplying of the human race. 
Wherefore, in contemplating woman, we must consider not only the place in domestic government which she fills, but the remedy for sin, which God has made her to supply; as the apostle Paul says, "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife," 1 Cor. 7:2
 
---Hence it follows that if the woman had not been deceived by the serpent and had not sinned, she would have been in all respects equal to Adam. 
For her now being subject to her husband is the punishment laid upon her of God since sin and on account of sin; as are also all her other troubles and perils, her labor and pain in bringing forth children, with an infinite number of other sorrows. 
---Woman therefore is not now what Eve was at her creation. The condition of woman then was inconceivably better and more excellent than now; she was then in no respect whatever inferior to Adam, whether you consider the endowments of her body or those of her mind."
Martin Luther