Encore Post: Everything was perfect in the Garden of Eden. Sin did not exist. There was no sickness, suffering, grief or pain. Death did not exist. If nothing had happened, Adam and Eve would have lived in harmony with God, each other and all creation. There was only one rule: do not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Into this perfect scene, Satan came in the form of a snake.
Satan tempted Eve with a lie. This is not surprising because he is a liar and the Father of Lies. “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4–5) The irony, of course is they were already like God. And, in trying to become like God, they became not like God at all. They decided to become their own gods.
The church calls this the Original Sin. The effect was immediate. Instead of being turned outward to serve God and each other, the original sin changed their orientation. They were curved in on themselves, serving their desires above all else. They were separated from God and hid from him, as if you can hide from God. (which, of course, you cannot!) They transmitted this orientation to their children, and, through them to every human being (except one… but that’s later in the story of the Bible!) — including us.
God was not kidding when he warned Adam: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Everything was cut off from God, the author of life. From that moment, everything began to die: Adam, Eve, plants, animals, their children … even the air, the sea and the ground. Disease began to infect people. Everything became a struggle to survive. God summed it up: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
Yet even on this, the darkest day, the first ray of the gospel shone. God himself gives the first prophecy of Christ, called by the Church the protevangelium — the First Gospel. To Satan he said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” (Genesis 3:15) Jesus, the Descendant of Eve will wound Satan by defeating him on the cross. While God held Adam responsible for the Fall. St. Paul explains that sin infected all people through this 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. Yet much suffering was yet to come before his coming.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Original sin’s ravages will be reversed, as there is only perfection in heaven, no down syndrome or other retardation there, no aging, no injury, no myopia or cancer. The Only One with blemishes from suffering will be our glorified Christ!
True dat?