"But sin took advantage of this law and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power" (Rom. 8:8, NLT).
God had warned Adam of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as being off-limits, and not to partake of its fruit--i.e., the so-called forbidden fruit. The very fact of it's being forbidden lured Adam all the more and made it even more desirable to Eve, who was deceived by Satan's deception and lie in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Don't you also wonder why he never ate of the Tree of Life? Augustine, in his Confessions, tells of eating forbidden (i.e., a stolen pear) fruit as a child and how it became all the more desirable because of that--the Law is likewise something that foments what it forbids.
We are all equally to blame for Adam's sin and cannot pin it on him alone--we would've done the same thing if we had been in his shoes. Adam's sin represented all sin and showed utter contempt for God's wisdom, sovereignty, grace, law, and justice, while Adam sought his own wisdom, goodness, and delight, he spurned God's best for getting his own way. You cannot say that Adam knew what good and evil were, but they were completely innocent and were not choosing evil, but self over God. That's the essence of sin--putting yourself in God's place and declaring your independence from Him.
Sin is now a virus that affects us all and is our legacy from Adam, as we are all born with solidarity with Adam, whether we want it or not. We do have a choice to become free in Christ as we acknowledge the truth and lose sin's grip on our lives. Sin doesn't demonstrate our freedom but shows our slavery. And that's what sin is: it both alienates and estranges us from God, offends Him, and enslaves us. We are not born free, but in bondage to sin, and must be set free by the Son (cf. John 8:36). Eve sought the here and now and to doubt God's Word ("Has God indeed said?" cf. Gen. 3:1), and then she doubted disbelieved it; then Satan told a lie and she believed him! Finally, in an act of her willpower, she disobeyed God's Word and became a sinner--note that doubt is not sin per se, and may only be an element of faith, for no one's faith is perfect or it wouldn't be faith, but knowledge.
Adam got no second chance and dragged all mankind with him down the never-ending spiral of sin and rebellion. For sin is ultimately a rebellion against God and His Word. The biggest temptation Eve faced was that she wanted to be "as God." She wanted to be a god, so to speak, and not godly--a sin that even Christians are guilty of to this day. The theological axiom of Mormonism is that we can become gods, and this heresy traces itself to the garden and the original sin of Adam and Eve.
Adam's sin had to be atoned for in a multifaceted way: He had to be redeemed from the slave market of sin with the penalty paid by the blood of Christ; the wrath of God had to be averted in God's temple by the propitiation of Christ on the cross; the righteousness of Christ had to be exchanged in God's court of justice and justice or giving sin its due had to be rendered; the relationship and fellowship with God had to be restored in Christ's act of reconciliation with His family. Salvation can be seen as the sum total of all these events taking place in God's throne room and Jesus being the Savior of mankind securing the Father's plan and purpose and being applied by the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
As a consequence of Adam's sin, we are all born in a state of sin and inherit Adam's guilt and have lost all inclination to good, though we remain human with the ability to make choices; however, we make the wrong choices! Our freedom is a curse since we choose evil and God must work grace in our hearts to bring us to repentance and faith (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 18:27). We don't need free will to be saved, but wills made free! Adam had the ability not to sin and chose sin. As humans before salvation, we have the inability not to sin, or all we can do is sin!
Upon salvation, we are being saved from the power of sin and have the ability not to sin and the ability to sin by our own choices. Salvation is threefold: we are saved from the penalty of sin by the crucified Christ; from the power of sin by the living Christ; and the presence of sin by the coming Christ. Our salvation is past, present, and pending! We are saved, being saved, and to be saved! Our past is forgiven, our present given meaning and our future secured by salvation began in eternity past, completed in time, and looking forward to eternity.
Some think it's unfair to be charged with Adam's sin (by the disobedience of one person but we are in Adam who gets a bad rap). We would've done the very same thing if we'd been in the Garden of Eden too! The point of all this is that "we are not ignorant of his [Satan's] devices"(2 Cor. 2:11) and know his trickery and schemes: mind games; lies; deception; propaganda; sensual pleasure; lust or inordinate desire for anything, including power, riches, or fame; psychological warfare--indeed the devil fights dirty and will resort to any means to get our attention away from God, God's work, and Word, and unto ourselves, and he knows our weaknesses! His tactics are not original, but he's basically an imitator and can only distort and debase the truth, and mask a little truth with a lot of error--for no heresy or false religion is completely void of truth; they all have an element of truth and just enough to inoculate you to the truth.
Adam turned his back on God's light and sought his own, we second that motion as we seek our own way and refuse to see the light. Erich Fromm, the famed psychologist, wrote a book, You Shall Be As Gods," in which he denied the existence of evil (and that sin is all in your head) and that you can make yourself out to be your own god; however, we either trust in God, or we make ourselves gods--it's that plain.
Adam was tricked into thinking he'd become free by his independent act of defiance, but he became a slave without any control over sin--he lost all inclination towards good and God. He didn't break God's law, but God's law broke him! He didn't become more human, but less of a man, for when we lose godliness, we lose true manhood too. The measure of a man is in fulfilling his relationship with God, not in human standards and opinions. We must be what we are meant to be and not "quarrel with [our] Maker" (cf. Isaiah 45:9).
A lot of people assume that Adam chose to do evil, but he was innocent, not cognizant of evil and his eyes were only opened after his sin when he became self-conscious. The epitome of sin is selfishness, or putting yourself first and becoming self-centered, believing that it's all about you. They really made the choice between self and God, and in the process loss consciousness of God and became self-conscious in return and aware of their own shame and guilt. Guilt is cognizance of wrongdoing and is the sign that we know we've done something evil or sinful. Only in Christ can we become free from guilt by the atoning work of Christ on the cross, shedding His blood on our behalf. Just like Eve bought into Satan's rationalization, people today buy into today's secular worldview because of their ignorance of the Bible, as Eve doubted and didn't know the Word of God.
As we are born, we are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice--we confirm ourselves in sin and the theologians say we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners (it's our very nature!). We duplicate Adam's sin and verify that we would've done the same thing, having been there ourselves--we would've joined hands with Eve in rebellion too.
Adam was given just one simple rule to obey; and if he had been given no rules, it would not be possible to know if he was obedient to God willingly--he would be but a pawn of God. Given the gift of choice, there had to be a test of his will to see where his loyalties would be. Adam failed the test and we would've too, even in a perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Israel was given the Decalogue and promised to obey it, yet they fell short; however, the Law was not given to obey but to convict and show that they fall short of God's ideal and must be saved by grace, not obedience to the Law. The Law was merely given to show we can't keep it and need to plead for mercy, not attempt obedience in the efforts of the flesh.
Adam committed every sin in the book by partaking of the proverbial apple in what is known as "Edengate," and it was the prototype sin extraordinaire: "he rejected God authority; he doubted God's goodness; he disputed God's wisdom; he repudiated God's justice; he contradicted God's trustworthiness; he spurned God's grace" [source unknown, but well-known]. Adam's cover-up was also what we do when we run away from God and can't admit our sin and call a spade a spade in confession. Our guilt can only be expiated by God's grace and sacrifice on our behalf as God clothed Adam and Eve to cover their shame.
A word to the wise is sufficient: Eve didn't sin by doubting God's Word, nor by believing Satan, but only in disobeying God--doubt is only an element of faith, and God doesn't expect perfect faith without any doubt whatsoever, but sincere, unfeigned faith--for it isn't the amount of faith that saves or keeps, it's the object of it that saves and keeps!
God had warned Adam of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as being off-limits, and not to partake of its fruit--i.e., the so-called forbidden fruit. The very fact of it's being forbidden lured Adam all the more and made it even more desirable to Eve, who was deceived by Satan's deception and lie in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Don't you also wonder why he never ate of the Tree of Life? Augustine, in his Confessions, tells of eating forbidden (i.e., a stolen pear) fruit as a child and how it became all the more desirable because of that--the Law is likewise something that foments what it forbids.
We are all equally to blame for Adam's sin and cannot pin it on him alone--we would've done the same thing if we had been in his shoes. Adam's sin represented all sin and showed utter contempt for God's wisdom, sovereignty, grace, law, and justice, while Adam sought his own wisdom, goodness, and delight, he spurned God's best for getting his own way. You cannot say that Adam knew what good and evil were, but they were completely innocent and were not choosing evil, but self over God. That's the essence of sin--putting yourself in God's place and declaring your independence from Him.
Sin is now a virus that affects us all and is our legacy from Adam, as we are all born with solidarity with Adam, whether we want it or not. We do have a choice to become free in Christ as we acknowledge the truth and lose sin's grip on our lives. Sin doesn't demonstrate our freedom but shows our slavery. And that's what sin is: it both alienates and estranges us from God, offends Him, and enslaves us. We are not born free, but in bondage to sin, and must be set free by the Son (cf. John 8:36). Eve sought the here and now and to doubt God's Word ("Has God indeed said?" cf. Gen. 3:1), and then she doubted disbelieved it; then Satan told a lie and she believed him! Finally, in an act of her willpower, she disobeyed God's Word and became a sinner--note that doubt is not sin per se, and may only be an element of faith, for no one's faith is perfect or it wouldn't be faith, but knowledge.
Adam got no second chance and dragged all mankind with him down the never-ending spiral of sin and rebellion. For sin is ultimately a rebellion against God and His Word. The biggest temptation Eve faced was that she wanted to be "as God." She wanted to be a god, so to speak, and not godly--a sin that even Christians are guilty of to this day. The theological axiom of Mormonism is that we can become gods, and this heresy traces itself to the garden and the original sin of Adam and Eve.
Adam's sin had to be atoned for in a multifaceted way: He had to be redeemed from the slave market of sin with the penalty paid by the blood of Christ; the wrath of God had to be averted in God's temple by the propitiation of Christ on the cross; the righteousness of Christ had to be exchanged in God's court of justice and justice or giving sin its due had to be rendered; the relationship and fellowship with God had to be restored in Christ's act of reconciliation with His family. Salvation can be seen as the sum total of all these events taking place in God's throne room and Jesus being the Savior of mankind securing the Father's plan and purpose and being applied by the Holy Spirit on our behalf.
As a consequence of Adam's sin, we are all born in a state of sin and inherit Adam's guilt and have lost all inclination to good, though we remain human with the ability to make choices; however, we make the wrong choices! Our freedom is a curse since we choose evil and God must work grace in our hearts to bring us to repentance and faith (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25; Acts 18:27). We don't need free will to be saved, but wills made free! Adam had the ability not to sin and chose sin. As humans before salvation, we have the inability not to sin, or all we can do is sin!
Upon salvation, we are being saved from the power of sin and have the ability not to sin and the ability to sin by our own choices. Salvation is threefold: we are saved from the penalty of sin by the crucified Christ; from the power of sin by the living Christ; and the presence of sin by the coming Christ. Our salvation is past, present, and pending! We are saved, being saved, and to be saved! Our past is forgiven, our present given meaning and our future secured by salvation began in eternity past, completed in time, and looking forward to eternity.
Some think it's unfair to be charged with Adam's sin (by the disobedience of one person but we are in Adam who gets a bad rap). We would've done the very same thing if we'd been in the Garden of Eden too! The point of all this is that "we are not ignorant of his [Satan's] devices"(2 Cor. 2:11) and know his trickery and schemes: mind games; lies; deception; propaganda; sensual pleasure; lust or inordinate desire for anything, including power, riches, or fame; psychological warfare--indeed the devil fights dirty and will resort to any means to get our attention away from God, God's work, and Word, and unto ourselves, and he knows our weaknesses! His tactics are not original, but he's basically an imitator and can only distort and debase the truth, and mask a little truth with a lot of error--for no heresy or false religion is completely void of truth; they all have an element of truth and just enough to inoculate you to the truth.
Adam turned his back on God's light and sought his own, we second that motion as we seek our own way and refuse to see the light. Erich Fromm, the famed psychologist, wrote a book, You Shall Be As Gods," in which he denied the existence of evil (and that sin is all in your head) and that you can make yourself out to be your own god; however, we either trust in God, or we make ourselves gods--it's that plain.
Adam was tricked into thinking he'd become free by his independent act of defiance, but he became a slave without any control over sin--he lost all inclination towards good and God. He didn't break God's law, but God's law broke him! He didn't become more human, but less of a man, for when we lose godliness, we lose true manhood too. The measure of a man is in fulfilling his relationship with God, not in human standards and opinions. We must be what we are meant to be and not "quarrel with [our] Maker" (cf. Isaiah 45:9).
A lot of people assume that Adam chose to do evil, but he was innocent, not cognizant of evil and his eyes were only opened after his sin when he became self-conscious. The epitome of sin is selfishness, or putting yourself first and becoming self-centered, believing that it's all about you. They really made the choice between self and God, and in the process loss consciousness of God and became self-conscious in return and aware of their own shame and guilt. Guilt is cognizance of wrongdoing and is the sign that we know we've done something evil or sinful. Only in Christ can we become free from guilt by the atoning work of Christ on the cross, shedding His blood on our behalf. Just like Eve bought into Satan's rationalization, people today buy into today's secular worldview because of their ignorance of the Bible, as Eve doubted and didn't know the Word of God.
As we are born, we are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice--we confirm ourselves in sin and the theologians say we are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners (it's our very nature!). We duplicate Adam's sin and verify that we would've done the same thing, having been there ourselves--we would've joined hands with Eve in rebellion too.
Adam was given just one simple rule to obey; and if he had been given no rules, it would not be possible to know if he was obedient to God willingly--he would be but a pawn of God. Given the gift of choice, there had to be a test of his will to see where his loyalties would be. Adam failed the test and we would've too, even in a perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Israel was given the Decalogue and promised to obey it, yet they fell short; however, the Law was not given to obey but to convict and show that they fall short of God's ideal and must be saved by grace, not obedience to the Law. The Law was merely given to show we can't keep it and need to plead for mercy, not attempt obedience in the efforts of the flesh.
Adam committed every sin in the book by partaking of the proverbial apple in what is known as "Edengate," and it was the prototype sin extraordinaire: "he rejected God authority; he doubted God's goodness; he disputed God's wisdom; he repudiated God's justice; he contradicted God's trustworthiness; he spurned God's grace" [source unknown, but well-known]. Adam's cover-up was also what we do when we run away from God and can't admit our sin and call a spade a spade in confession. Our guilt can only be expiated by God's grace and sacrifice on our behalf as God clothed Adam and Eve to cover their shame.
A word to the wise is sufficient: Eve didn't sin by doubting God's Word, nor by believing Satan, but only in disobeying God--doubt is only an element of faith, and God doesn't expect perfect faith without any doubt whatsoever, but sincere, unfeigned faith--for it isn't the amount of faith that saves or keeps, it's the object of it that saves and keeps!
In sum, we can rejoice that we are not "under the Law, but under grace [cf. Rom. 6:14]," and that nowhere in the New Testament are believers told to obey the Law--we are under a higher law, the law of love, and we serve out of gratitude, not an obligation, as a "therefore," not an "in order to," that is we want to, we don't have to anymore! Soli Deo Gloria!
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