God inflicted punishment on Adam, and He punished Eve, Then the Lord Christ came and saved us with His blood. Why then – after such salvation – there is a punishment still: Man toils to eat bread and woman in pain brings forth children?
God inflicted punishment on Adam, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread”, “Cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it.” (Gen 3:19,17) and He punished Eve, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shaft bring forth children.” (Gen 3:16).
Then the Lord Christ came and saved us with His blood. Why then – after such salvation – there is a punishment still: Man toils to eat bread and woman in pain brings forth children?
In fact the punishment of sin was death and the Lord Christ came to save us from death by dying on our behalf.
God’s commandment to our father Adam was: of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:17).
Eve understood this well and mentioned it to the serpent, saying, “…of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'”. (Gen 3:3).
This is the teaching of the Holy Bible, for the apostle says, “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23). And about this death, he said also, “And you…who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph 2:1). “Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13).
Since the wages of sin is death, the only way leading to salvation is redemption, by which one dies on behalf of another. This was the essential idea implied in the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the essence of the crucifixion and death of Christ for us. That is why we say that the Lord Christ bore our sins on the cross and died for them.
As for toil and pains of conception, they are temporal punishments.
They are not the original punishment, but just to remind us that we sinned and thus redemption be valuable in our eyes. Therefore God kept these punishments for our benefit to remind us. But some might not suffer these punishments – such as children for example- but they remember them when they grow up.
