Adam & Original Sin

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) and by the 6th day God had formed the earth, created all of the plants and the animals and the fish and the fowl… and at the end of the 6th day, God created man and woman and gave them dominion over all of the earth. Genesis 1:28 says:

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”

The Garden of Eden was beautiful! Adam and Eve lived with God right here on earth and they walked with God in the cool of the day! How glorious that must have been! They lived in the physical presence of God, knowing nothing of evil or of death. That changed when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

Genesis Chapter 3 tells us how the serpent deceived Eve and how she ate from the tree in the middle of the garden, the Tree of Knowledge. God told them to not even touch it or, “you will die”. But the serpent lied, “‘You will not surely die,’” the serpent continued. “‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4-5)

So, Eve did eat of the fruit and gave some to her husband. Suddenly, they realized they were naked. They were so ashamed they hid from God. Sin had entered the world. Adam and Eve did die that day. They died spiritually. They became separated from God because of their disobedience. They would also die physically eventually. (Adam lived 930 years!) Before Adam and Eve sinned, the world had not known death. Because all of mankind is descended from Adam, all of us are born into Adam’s sin and are separated from God.

Because of man’s separation from God, man’s nature became sinful. Genesis 6:5-6 says, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” So God brought the great flood. But, He saved Noah and his family. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) God spared the righteous even when he destroyed the wicked on the earth! The Promise!

After God destroyed the earth and all it’s inhabitants, He gave a sign. A rainbow. With the sign came a promise… that God would never destroy the whole earth with a flood again. Over time, Noah and his descendants repopulated the earth. Sin was still in the world and God even destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. Before He did, God rescued Lot and his family because they were righteous in the eyes of the LORD.

God later created the nation of Israel from the descendants of Abraham and his son Isaac. “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” (Genesis 18:18) After God created the nation of Israel and brought them out of slavery in Egypt, God gave Israel the 10 Commandments so that man would know what sin was. They are found in Exodus 20:3-17…

• “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
• “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”
• “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain..”
• “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
• “Honour thy father and thy mother”
• “Thou shalt not kill.”
• “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
• “Thou shalt not steal.”
• “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
• “Thou shalt not covet”

No one is able to keep the law with human strength. God provided a way for the nation of Israel to make sacrifices to God to atone for sin. In this way man was reminded that the wages of sin are death, but a suitable substitute, and the shedding of innocent blood, could pay the price for sin. Jesus was to be that suitable substitute once and for all! The Last Adam

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1-3) John was talking about Jesus! God became flesh to live as a man and to be the only man to live a sinless life. Only Jesus could do that because he was both man and God!

Matthew 1 verse 23 says, “…and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.” Jesus came to live a sinless life and then to be crucified on a cross, to shed innocent blood as payment for our sins! Through Adam we are born spiritually dead, already separated from God. Through Jesus we can be reunited with the one who created us for His purpose!

Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” We will be reconciled back to God! Our sins are forgiven and we are given eternal life in Jesus! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) is a familiar scripture, but Jesus went on to explain the great love that He has for all of us. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

The choice is simple. God made it easy for us. Believe in Jesus and have eternal life with Him! If we don’t, we are already condemned because of our sin, and the wages of sin are death.