The Fall of Man
The Fall – Original Sin
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9)
These are the only trees named in the Garden. They represent “Life” and “Wisdom.”
But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
James 1:5
Within the Garden, there was a provision for mans desires. A plethora of trees with fruit for food, the tree of Life for immortality and God’s daily presence for instruction and training in righteousness.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:16–17).
We know that God desires us to be His image and part of that is wisdom. But, it is His wisdom that He wants to give us Himself. A choice is created by God’s command. God also gave man the freedom to make his own choices. Jesus shows us the path of choice by the righteous:
“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42
Eve, we are told desired “Wisdom” – but Adam, desired to be “Like God. The same desire as Lucifer.
No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13
The temptations which face Eve and then Adam – appealed to their separate desires. Each had their own individual choice and reasons. Both were enticed by partial truth:
“… the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.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
The serpent told them things that justified their choices”
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3
Upon eating the fruit, the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and they became like God – knowing good and evil. And as a consequence, they knew they were naked. They were no longer innocent (naive).
“And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; … “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” – Genesis 3
The knowledge they gained brought awareness. Then, Adam and Eve hid themselves from God… Adam and Eve “hiding” is man separating themselves from God. And, this separation from God leads to death – both physically and spiritually.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. – Genesis 3:22-24
With Adam and Eve, the pattern is explicit. They sin, their communion with God is disrupted, and they are driven from Eden:
And then comes an especially important detail:
“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword… to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Genesis 3:24
Notice what is being guarded: the way back.
After Adam’s expulsion, cherubim guard the way to God’s sacred presence and to life.
The Decent of Man
Eve is punished for her disobedience, the serpent it also punished. But, for Adam – the choice of his will is more profound.
There is only one God – You cannot say to God “I have a right to live by my own choices! I will do whatever I please.” Life is not a democratic republic – it is a monarchy – with God as the Lord.
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Then the LORD said to Job, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who rebukes God give an answer.” Job 38
The choice separated man from God. The relationship was broken. A spiritual law was violated. A judgement was pronounced and a consequence is due.
So, the big question is “How does man return to God?” Answer – An atonement must be made – reparation for the offense must be paid.
In human law we have “Capital” punishments (the death penalty) for things like murder. In God’s justice, Attempting to be god is a capital crime.
By God’s law – expressing your desires – aligning your will with God and enjoying the provision that God has provided is Holy and Righteous.
Sex within marriage between a husband and wife is an example of desire (will) in alignment with God’s desire for man to multiply and fill the Earth.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heaven, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17
However. “Sex” – outside of marriage and in an un-natural union – expressing your own will (choice) is a “Sin” – a violation of God’s moral holiness.
“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Hebrews 9:22
“11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood … that makes atonement…. 14 For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life.” – Leviticus 17
When Adam “sinned”, the penalty was “Death.”
“12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin…” Romans 5
In following – the guilt and punishment of mans sin – is evidenced by physically dying
“and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned … death reigned from Adam until Moses…” Romans 5
A blood sacrifice is required for redemption.
“11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls” – Leviticus 17
Symbolically, the image that the animal blood sacrifice portrays is the atonement for the death penalty of man.
But, there is no symbolic sacrifice to offer for man saying – “I will be like God” (aka – I have a right to do what I want)
God’s purity and justice require a life. And more – specifically – that is the reason Jesus had to “shed” His blood (die).
He is the propitiation (the action of appeasing a god, spirit, or person) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. – 1 John 2:2
The death of Jesus was the actual atonement for the penalty of death caused by Adam. All of scripture paints this picture.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, – Ephesians 1:7
It is the single message that all of scripture is based on. Everything in the bible can be understood in terms of how it relates to mans condition and God’s provision.
The “curse” of sin continues through out a mans lifetime and through out history. Every man dies – with a few exceptions.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, Hebrews 9:27
At some point there will be a final judgement.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the “book of life”, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Man’s first sin
397 Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.278 All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. (1707, 2541, 1850, 215)
398 In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God,” but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.”
404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam “as one body of one man.”293 By this “unity of the human race” all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state.294 It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all
mankind, that is, by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called “sin” only in an analogical sense: it is a sin “contracted” and not “committed” — a state and not an act. (360, 50) 405 Although it is proper to each individual,295 original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but
human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death; and inclined to sin—an inclination to evil that is called “concupiscence.” Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle. (2515, 1264)
406 The Church’s teaching on the transmission of original sin was articulated more precisely in the fifth century, especially under the impulse of St. Augustine’s reflections against Pelagianism, and in the sixteenth century, in opposition to the Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held that man could,
by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of God’s grace, lead a morally good life; he thus reduced the influence of Adam’s fault to bad example. The first Protestant reformers, on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by each man with the tendency to evil (concupiscentia), which would be insurmountable. The Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation on original sin especially at the second Council of Orange (529)296 and at the Council of Trent (1546).297
A hard battle…
407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man’s situation and activity in the world. By our first parents’ sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails “captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil.”298
Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action,299 and morals. (2015, 2852, 1888)
408 The consequences of original sin and of all men’s personal sins put the world as a whole in the sinful condition aptly described in St. John’s expression, “the sin of the world.”