At the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth. God also created all the creatures, of both land and sea, who dwell within the earth. Of God’s creation, mankind was the most special because mankind was made in the image of God. For me, one of the most amazing verses in Genesis is the discussion of mankind’s similarity to God. According to Genesis 1:27, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In other words, all of humanity, including both men and women, initially mirrored God’s perfection. Therefore, the first two people on earth, Adam and Eve, were sinless and innocent. The only command given them by God was to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. According to Genesis 2:16-17, “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’”
I believe that God wanted Adam and Eve to remain innocent, and they would no longer be innocent if they had the knowledge of good and evil. Tragically, Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat from the tree, and she also led Adam into sin by having him eat the fruit as well. As a result of their disobedience, they were cast out from the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve’s disobedience, or original sin, sin changed the course of humanity in two ways: people would be unable to live a sinless life, and as a result of this inability, people would need a savior.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Original Sin".
The most immediate effect of original sin was that people, both men and women, would be unable to live a sinless life. Adam and Eve’s deliberate disobedience had ramifications for all of humanity: “The result of their disobedience resulted in their physical death and the death of their relationship with God. God deported them out of the garden, yet let them live” (Marcus, 2010, p. 77). Specifically, even though Adam and Eve proceeded to live for hundreds of years after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, they eventually died physically, and this death would have been prevented had they obeyed God. Moreover, they also suffered an immediate spiritual death: “the separation between humans and their Creator caused by sin” (Pentiuch, 2006, p. 28). Sin is a tragic part of today’s world, and it refers to “all that is wrong with the world” (Bahr, 2004, p. 52). Every type of hatred, malice, rage, and other negative emotion and situation can be traced directly back to sin, and these types of sins proliferated after Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
As a result of living a sinful life, one separate from God and one eventually doomed to physical death, people need a savior. In spite of people’s best efforts, they will not be able to live entirely free of sin: “We do not simply sin because we freely choose to do so. The Christian idea of sin is not limited to willful maliciousness. We sin despite our best efforts” (Bahr, 2004, p. 52). Sinning is the absence of perfection, and I believe that this absence bars all of humanity from having a relationship with God. However, God provided humanity with a means of salvation. Specifically, he provided his son as a sacrifice so that humans might still salvage their relationship with their Creator: “God offered a sacrifice to cover their shame of sin. An innocent life was substituted to die in place of their death. This is the type of sacrifice Jesus made for mankind. He became the living substitute that was innocent of any sin, dying in the place of a guilty man” (Bahr, 2004, p. 77). Therefore, I believe that God wants to have a relationship with his creation, and I also believe that God’s plan of salvation demonstrates his immense capacity for forgiveness: “In view of the nature of human’s sin, God designed a plan of salvation for his creatures. At the core of this plan lies the restoration of humanity to its primeval beauty as image of God” (Pentiuch, 2006, p. 32). Therefore, even though Adam and Eve’s disobedience resulted in the world’s sinfulness, there is a means of salvation.
After Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God’s one command in the Garden of Eden, sin changed the world in two major ways: no one could live a sinless life, and everyone needed a savior. Sin resulted in Adam and Eve’s knowledge of good and evil, and this knowledge resulted in their and all of humanity’s inability to resist sin forever. Humans have continually sinned ever since the first disobedience. Regardless of the degree of the sin, whether it is simple theft or mass murder, all sin represents a separation from God. However, God also provided a means of salvation from this sin, which demonstrates another significant result that occurred after original sin. Specifically, God sent his son as a sacrifice so that all of humanity may have a means of salvation. Therefore, original sin severed the relationship with God, and this severance would result in physical death. However, I strongly believe that this relationship can be healed through faith and forgiveness.
