The Fall of Creation: The origin of sin

 This is the third part of the trilogy about the Garden Of Eden. Creation has been finished for an unknown period of time, but there has been enough time elapsed so that certain customs (like God visiting Adam and Eve in the evening) have been established. 

So, we start this chapter with a naked Adam enjoying a naked Eve as they go through the garden enjoying the fruit of the garden as well as sex with each other. This was the world that God had made for us to live in.

Now the Antagonist appears in this story. He is called the Serpent. A lot of time and ink has put forth many ideals of what this serpent was or was not. Most will agree that this either was Satan, or an animal that Satan was working through. The thing that I wonder about all of this is - Did Adam and Eve realize that they were talking to an angel of God?  Even in his fallen state, he still was an angel. I tend to think that they did.

So we now have Satan inquiring Adam and Eve about what God had told them about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We see that Eve does not quote God - word for word, but instead she puts a bigger hedge around the command of God.   She adds that they are not to even touch the tree.  I have heard sermons criticizing her for this, but I disagree with that thought.  Building hedges around  things that will cause us to sin, is not only biblical,  it is also recommended in the Bible to the point of even self-mutilation to prevent one from sinning.

So where in the story is the origin of Sin.  I believe that we see that when the serpent says, " The serpent said to the woman, “Surely you will not die,  for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  (NET)  When the serpent (or Satan) says that, then Eve (along with Adam) looks at the fruit of the tree and sees it as being  "good,  attractive, &  desirable".  They saw the tree as a mean to exalt themselves to be equal with God. You see I believe that the root of sin is the desire to exalt oneself or to abase others (including God). When you look at the commandments and/or the law, this is what you see is happening that results in bad behaviors.  So now Adam and Eve want to eat the fruit of the tree and this is what happens.

When they eat the fruit, they see that life is not better, it is worse. This is always the lie of sin and Satan. So they make clothes for themselves and hid from God.  God exposes then for what they did and kicks them out of the Garden. Man's work just got harder. Woman's labor just got harder. Instead of husband and wife being a perfectly matched pair, they would now be trying to dominate one another. and the serpent would forever be despised.  

So fast forward to today and we see that same thing happening in and out of the church with people trying to exalt themselves and debasing others.  However we also have the answer to all of this and that comes from Jesus coming to this Earth, being borned from a virgin, living a perfect life, and dieing a cruel death, only to rise from the grave on the third day. And if we take him to be our Savior, He will make his abode within us and others can see his love through us.  It is this love that changes our attitudes from being self absorbed to seeing others as they should be seen.