The First Sin of Man

In Genesis 3, our earliest ancestors, Adam and Eve encountered a temptation from the cunning serpent and they failed to obey God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were ashamed of their nakedness and hid away from God. God punished Adam and Eve by several means: pain in giving birth, toil, death, out of the Garden of Eden and no accessibility to the tree of life, etc.

Temptation is everywhere, even in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had two options: yes and no. They were given the free will to choose. Why didn’t they cherish all the beautiful things God granted them but choose to disobey HIM? Sad to say, they didn’t trust God giving all the best to them, best in terms of suitability. They wanted to be like God. The disobedience was an evil one, a transgression, definitely not expressing thankfulness to God.

God is omnipotent and incomparable. Eating the forbidden fruit won’t make Adam and Eve like God. On the contrary, they sinned and were drifted away from God since then because HE stands for goodness, not evilness.

This first sin of man, also called Original Sin, marked the fall of man and contaminated the seed. When man multiplied, sin also multiplied. One generation after another, we are still subjected to temptations, sins, pain in giving birth, toil, and death. With so many temptations around us, which are always sugarcoated to disarm our guard, are we hopeless?

Hope exists because there are things that never change albeit the fall of man. For example, God’s omnipotence, HIS love to man, our free will to choose to obey God and resist temptations instead of being defeated by them. In other words, we can choose to be a righteous person and return to God regardless of the absolute existence of Original Sin.

If God doesn’t love man and help us, the Bible might simply end at Genesis 3. But God never forsakes us. We heard more from God, including the Salvation to us, as the Bible is a record of HIS word. Given an invaluable opportunity of reconciling to God, we ought to learn a lesson from Adam and Eve and do better. Resist temptations, use our free will and choose to obey God from now on. It’s never too late walking in God’s way.

Let’s pray to God:

Great and loving God, You give us so many bountiful blessings and ask so little of us; only that we obey You. Your word is full of loving-kindness and for our welfare, and yet we always fail to resist temptations, and disobey You. Please give us wit and strength to do according to Your will, say “No” to temptations to avoid going against You. If we sinned, please correct us for we need to repent, ask for Your forgiveness and offer atonement shortly. O God, thank you again for Your love, care and mercy to us despite Original Sin and our sins.