The Origin of Sin (Part 2)
As far as God is concerned, Adam was the first man and from this man all men trace their lineage and heritage. This is critical.
In fact, because of the dire stakes of this point, the blood line of mankind through Adam is often attacked as being a fable or myth. It is my conviction that this is an attempt to diminish the importance of Adam and Eve's decisions upon all mankind. As will become clear, if the lives of Adam and Eve can be discounted, so can the work and life of Jesus Christ.
The fact of the matter is, Adam and Eve failed. In theological terms, they sinned. It was not enough for them to be created in the image of God; a fact that should have been celebrated. They wanted to be like God in that they wanted to be in charge, albeit their small section of turf and determination. Their fateful decision to go against God's command regarding ingesting the fruit—from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—carried incredible consequences.
With their sinful partaking of forbidden fruit they demonstrated through rebellion that they wanted to rule their small universe in the garden without the intervention of God or their dependence upon Him for guidance. In other words, they wanted to be independent.
Make no mistake: Satan's temptation was not to eat forbidden fruit. Satan's temptation was, "eat this fruit and you will be like God."
There were fruit trees galore in the Garden of Eden. Eating fruit from this tree or that tree was hardly a tempting temptation for the enemy to use on God's beloved. The seductive leverage of the devil's temptation was that Adam and Eve could be like God.
And what do we know of God? How does He behave? What does He do? What is He like? He is omnipotent. He is dependent upon no one and nothing. He is ruler of all that He commands and created.
In grossly overstated terms, Adam and Eve wanted to be their own gods—independent—and with their adoption of the devil's temptation as a legitimate option, they sinned. In a sad and insidious repetition of spiritual history, they sinned in the same way Satan, a.k.a. Lucifer, also sinned. Isaiah 14 records that he declared an intent to ascend and be like God. Just as his quest to have a throne for himself got Satan kicked out of heaven, it got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden.
Attempting to be like God by behaving independently is a bad plan, yet just as Satan did, and as he enticed Adam and Eve to do, each of us have also followed suit. Initially we did this through our lost and sinful natures as Unbelieving descendants of Adam. (Remember, God traces our spiritual lineage from Adam).
It would be a wonderful end to the story if with salvation we were returned to a perfect and innocent state in the utopia of Eden. But such is not the case. God envisions something more, something beyond what we could think or imagine.