When God made the world, it was perfect. He stood back and said, “It is very good!” Everything was beautiful and had its place. There was no sin, suffering, grief or death. God walked with Adam and Eve and shared his beautiful world, especially the garden he had planted for them. The only thing they were not allowed to do was to eat fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In short, evil did not exist. So, how did the world get to the place we know, where sin and death cast their shadow over everything?
Lucifer, whose name means “bearer of light” was an angel. He desired to be like God and sit on his throne. Though the might of Michael the Archangel and his armies of angels, Lucifer and his angelic forces were cast out of heaven to the earth. They became know as Satan and the demons. In the form of a snake, Satan challenged God’s word and told Eve she could be like God, knowing good and evil, if she would just eat the fruit. This is ironic, since Adam and Eve were already just like God.
Thinking only about themselves, Adam and Eve took the bait. Rather than be focused outward, to serve God and others, they became curved in upon themselves, focused only on what they thought would please them. They discovered this really did not satisfy. Instead, it ruined everything.
When Satan tempted Eve to eat the fruit of this tree, Adam was standing next to her. Since God gave the command to him and he did not speak to contradict Satan, God held him mainly responsible for the Fall. St. Paul explains that sin infected all people through one man, Adam. However, the good news is that by the sacrifice of one man, Jesus Christ, sin is paid for and God’s forgiveness comes to all people. Since by man, through a tree, came death to all, by Man, through the tree of the Cross, came the resurrection of the dead. In Adam, everyone died. In Christ, everyone is made alive.
We call this teaching original sin, because it is the origin of all sins. While we commit sins and these sins earn us a death sentence, the problem isn’t so much them, as the fact that everyone is born a sinner. It is not what we do. It is who we are that causes us to do these things. When we are baptized, this all changes. We are tied to Christ’s death on the cross, which breaks the power of sin and death. We are tied also to his resurrection, so on the last day, Jesus will call us out of our tombs into life forever. Then all will be very good once again.
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