God created man to resemble Him (Gen. 1:26-27). Wiley quotes the Westminster Confession regarding the state of man before the fall: "God created man male and female, with righteousness and true holiness, having the law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfil it: and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will."

The possibility of a love relationship between God and man flows from man's freedom to choose. Therefore, man must be placed on probation, subjected to temptation, at the inevitable cost of man's possible sinning.

The commencement of sin in the human race is due to the sin of disobedience. The account of the probation and fall of man is found in Gen. 3:1-24.

The occasion of the temptation was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God placed in the middle of the garden (Gen. 2:9). God prohibited eating this tree's fruit (Gen. 2:16-17).

The serpent was the agent of the temptation, questioning God's prohibition (Gen. 3:1) and directly contradicting the penalty of death (Gen. 3:4). He then dwells upon the advantages to be obtained from defiance of the Divine decree (Gen. 3:5).

The deceitfulness of sin appears. The temptation made Eve "see how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise" (Gen. 3:6 – GNB).

The consequence is told in one brief sentence, "[Eve] took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate" (Gen. 3:6 – ESV).

It reminds one of James 1:14-15, "Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death" (ESV).

The fall brought with it the birth of a guilty conscience and a sense of shame and degradation. "As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves" (Gen. 3:7 – GNB).

Sin produced an immediate transformation in the relationship between them and God. They seem to have been on close and friendly terms with God – they trusted, obeyed and fellowshipped with Him frequently. But now all of this changed – "That evening they heard the LORD God walking in the garden, and they hid from him among the trees" (Gen. 3:8 – GNB).

God wanted to know where they were and called out to them (Gen. 3:9). The Hebrew word that is translated "Where are you" denotes God's gentle way of initiating a difficult conversation by asking tenderly, "What has happened to you? Where do you stand with respect to me?" This single word powerfully expresses the broken relationship between humanity and God.

Adam responded that he was afraid and was hiding from God because he was naked (Gen. 3:10). God enquired as to how he knew that he was naked and if he ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:11). Instead of Adam confessing and repenting of his sin, he blames God and Eve, then Eve blames the snake. This leads to God punishing them all (Gen. 3:12-19).

"Then the LORD God said, 'Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.' So the LORD God sent them out of the Garden of Eden" (Gen. 3:22-23 – GNB). Death became a reality, physical death (Heb. 9:27), spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-2; 4:18) and eternal death (Rev. 20:11-15).

This incident affected every descendant of Adam and Eve. Paul sums it up well, "All people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man [Adam]" (Rom. 5:19 – ESV). "One sin condemned all people" (Rom. 5:18 – ESV). "Sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned" (Rom. 5:12 – ESV).

The Bible does not explain how the effects of the fall and the sinful nature pass down through all of humanity but alludes to the fact that it does.

Man is now born a sinner and has a sinful nature from conception. David acknowledged, "I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful" (Ps. 51:5 – ESV). A sinner's sinful deeds result from what he is, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies" (Ps. 58:3 – ESV).

Note! Humans do not become sinners by performing sinful acts. Instead, they are sinners because they are born into a sinful state as descendants of Adam and therefore commit sinful acts.

Separating man's will from God's will alienated man from God and enslaved him to Satan. He is now subject to physical and moral corruption. Paul gives a grim description of a sinner's state: "dead in the trespasses and sins," "following the course of this world," "following the prince of the power of the air," "the spirit [of the prince of the power of the air] is now at work in the people who disobey God." They live in the passions of their flesh, "carrying out the desires of the body and the mind." They are "by nature destined to suffer God's anger" (Eph. 2:1-3 – ESV). The heart of man became the birthplace of all sinful thoughts, words and actions (Matthew 15:19 – ESV).

Man no longer bears the glory of his moral likeness to God, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23 – ESV).

Thank God! This is not where it ended for humanity. Christ came into the picture.

SOURCES

English Standard Version (ESV); Good News Bible (GNB).

The Lord’s Most Tender Inquiry

https://lp.israelbiblicalstudies.com/Gods Hebrew Question

Wiley, H.O, Christian Theology, Volume II, (Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, United States of America).

Erickson, M J, Christian Theology, (Baker Book House, Michigan).