Genesis 3:1-24
The Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Romans 5:12-21
Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Matthew 18:21-22
Jesus on Forgiving
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
John 3:16-17
God's Love for the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
When I read about the fall of man and about our first sin...I wonder sometimes if it was Eve and Adam's first wrong...Was this there first mistake?...After all we are all prone to mistakes, and to sin...And they were prodded along by the great deceiver, the serpent, the evil one...After all, God knew that the evil one has unworthy motives and might try to trick the two, which he did...We would know that the great deceiver would have been quick to get Eve and Adam to temptations and sinning...
I, also, wonder how long Adam and Eve were in Eden and their Paradise, before they sinned...I thought once when I was much younger, we could be in Paradise, and that we would not have to be perfect -we, after all, do make mistakes...Didn't Adam and Eve deserve a second chance to stay in Eden?...It is only one mistake, cannot their Father forgive them...But then would that be Paradise, if they could commit sin after sin and still live in Eden?...But regardless of this, if this is their first and only mistake (or their fiftieth), God first chastises them for their disobedience, and then He banishes Adam and Eve from Eden after they had eaten from the tree in the middle of the garden...Because Adam was disobedient and ate the forbidden fruit, Adam has brought death to this world...But thanks to the grace of God, He sent His Son to correct Adam's and our mistakes and our sins and give us eternal life...Adam and Eve may have been sinless before their first sin, and now they are imperfect...Perfection cannot mix with imperfection...Because when something that is imperfect, mixes with Perfection, that Perfection becomes imperfect...God would need something or Someone to reconcile this problem...
Jesus gets to earth and does teach us about forgiveness...Jesus is sinless...When ask by Peter how many times do we forgive our sinful brother...Jesus says not seven times, but seventy times seven...We are always to forgive our brother...I bring this up, because, in a way it seemed when Adam and Eve fell from grace, my first reaction, was why doesn't God forgive them, teach them a lesson and allow them back in the Garden of Eden...Maybe we are perfect until we make or commit our first sin, but that is only a guess...But God knows best...These are things I do not understand...But I trust His Plan...
God by His very nature is Perfect...Adam and Eve were in the Presence of God, in the Presence of His Spirit while in the Garden of Eden...Adam and Eve lost this most unique relationship with their Creator, their Father, when they were disobedient to Him...This unique relationship, and being with Him and His Spirit, seems to me to be somewhat with the Patriarchs, and the Prophets, but not quite...This unique relationship with God, does not come back to earth, in my opinion, until Jesus comes...Jesus feels the Presence of God (and He is not in Paradise)...He is walking with man, and men who have sinned...Jesus can walk and talk with man, without sinning...God is the Father of Jesus, like He is the Father of Adam and Eve...These three share this uniqueness...All others who have walked the earth have came from the seed of another man...These three are different...
God is Perfect, Good, and Holy...And our LORD and Father is merciful, forgiving, and full of grace...He never stopped watching over and protecting Adam and Eve...Adam and Eve went from the Paradise of Eden, to the natural laws on earth...They and all of us would live and die by the natural laws of the universe...God can always intervene when He chooses in the natural laws, but most of the time nature, the universe He created, our genes, the way we live, our environment, and parents will determine how long we will live on earth...God has given us have free will to live the way we want...But yet, we still have His fate in our lives...There is His Holy Spirit in us...Somehow He knows the number of hairs on each of our heads, and when we will pass away..But the interesting thing is since God is Divine, it is almost that He controls the fate of our lives, while our minds seem to determine (and we think control) our free will and the choices we make each day...With God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37)...
God loves Adam and Eve, and He loves the world...That is why He sent His Son to us...God so LOVES the world that He sent His Son to die for Adam and Eve's sins, and for my sins...As He was being tortured on the cross, I think, these are what my sins did to Him...But God did not send His Son to condemn us, but to save us...He sent His Son to save the world...