The estate of sin and misery

Question 18 answers that the sinfulness of fallen man lies in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature, with all the actual sins that proceed from it; Question 19 counts its misery, from lost communion with God to the pains of hell. The catechism names misery this plainly so that grace may be seen.

Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828 · Source

This week's questions

Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Question 18

What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.
Question 19

Question 17 said that the fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery (last week). Now Question 18 opens the sin and Question 19 the misery, and Question 20 answers both with the gospel next week.

Root and fruit

On a riverbank where the soil has washed away, an old fruit tree leans with its twisted roots bared, its branches hung with shrivelled fruit and rotten fruit fallen on the ground. — An old fruit tree with bared roots and shrivelled fruit

Question 18 counts four things. The first, the guilt of Adam's first sin, is last week's teaching: our head's transgression is reckoned to us, as the first two proof texts say (Romans 5:12, Romans 5:19). The second, the want of original righteousness, is the loss of the upright heart with which man was made. The third is what took its place, the corruption of the whole nature. These three are what is commonly called original sin, and the next proof text describes them:

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
Ephesians 2:3

‘Whole nature’ speaks of reach, not degree. It does not mean that everyone does all the evil they could, but that no part of us, mind, heart, will or body, is left untouched. This is what the Reformed call total depravity. The Heidelberg Catechism, long taught in the continental Reformed churches, asks whether we are so far depraved that we are wholly unapt to any good, and answers:

Yes; unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.
Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 8

The fourth is the fruit of that root, the actual sins we commit. In another proof text Jesus says that what defiles a person is not food going into the mouth but what comes out of the heart, and names evil thoughts, murder, adultery and more (Matthew 15:19). Matthew Henry, an English minister, gives the reason: "there is no sin in word or deed, which was not first in the heart" Matthew Henry. James traces the same line: desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and sin full-grown gives birth to death (James 1:14-15).

Communion lost

The first misery Question 19 names is not sickness or want but lost communion with God. In the first proof text the man and his wife hear the voice of the LORD God in the garden and hide among the trees (Genesis 3:8). God's coming, once their joy, is now their fear, and at last cherubim and a flaming sword guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24).

Wrath and curse are not ill temper in God but his just and holy opposition to sin: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men" (Romans 1:18). The next proof text says that all who rely on works of the law are under a curse (Galatians 3:10); the one after calls death the wages of sin, and in the same verse names eternal life in Christ, "the gift of God" (Romans 6:23).

The miseries of this life belong to a fallen world, but that does not make each sorrow the punishment of a particular sin. In John 9 the disciples assumed that a man's blindness from birth came from someone's sin, his or his parents'. Jesus said it was neither: "but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him" (John 9:3). See Is sickness a punishment for sin?

Another proof text is Jesus' own word to those on his left:

Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41

Depart from me: so the Larger Catechism names the punishment of the world to come first as "everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God" Larger Catechism, Q. 29. Question 19's first misery becomes its last, made final. The Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches have historically taught that this punishment is eternal. Some evangelicals hold that the lost are at last destroyed and cease to be, and John Stott, a London pastor, put it forward tentatively in a published dialogue John Stott, Evangelical Essentials. The hope that all will finally be saved goes back to the speculation of Origen of Alexandria in the third century, which the church did not accept Origen, On First Principles. The Christian Doctrine course sets out these views in Resurrection, judgment and the new creation, and original sin in Original sin and its effects; see also Are heaven and hell real? and What is sin?

Having named misery this honestly, the catechism at once asks: did God leave all mankind to perish?

To ponder this week

In a dense garden whose treetops bend in the evening wind, two small figures crouch almost hidden by the leaves behind the trunks, deep in the shadows where a narrow path leads in. — Two people hiding among the trees of the garden at dusk

Do I feel the loss of communion with God as the worst of sin's misery, or only its consequences? The question is not meant to condemn anyone. Read Genesis 3:8-10, and notice who called first to the one who hid. This week bring God one thing you would rather hide, and pray about it in his presence.

Practice

Practice 1 of 6
Which three things, says Question 18, are commonly called original sin?
Practice 2 of 6
In Matthew 15, where does Jesus say evil thoughts, murder and adultery come from?
Practice 3 of 6
The Heidelberg Catechism, Question 8, answers that we are so far depraved as to be wholly unapt to any good. What does it add?
Practice 4 of 6
What is the first misery Question 19 names?
Practice 5 of 6
In John 9, what did Jesus say about why a man was born blind?
Practice 6 of 6
On the punishment of hell, which pairing of a view with those who have held it is accurate?

Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.

Source

John Stott, Evangelical Essentials 1988 — In dialogue with David Edwards, tentatively suggested that the lost are finally destroyed.
Origen, On First Principles — c. 220–230. Contains speculation on the restoration of all things, which the later church did not accept.

Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds, the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Reformed confessions, the Fathers and classic commentary. They teach the Catechism as the Reformed churches' own, a week at a time, and present both sides where the Reformed differ, and other traditions' views, fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.