In the beginning, the first two humans were in a state of innocence and everything was good. They had purpose: God had placed them in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. God provided for them: they could eat freely from every tree in the garden with one exception. They had limits: they could not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Yes, life was good, and it would have been eternal since they were not prohibited from eating from the tree of life.
Yes, we began our existence in paradise. We lived in utopia. But, that changed when the serpent, which man had dominion over (Genesis 1:28), made it sound reasonable to Eve that it knew more than she and God about what was best for them. So the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, corrupting her mind (2 Corinthians 11:3). However, Adam was not deceived, but followed Eve's lead (1 Timothy 2:14) and they both ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Immediately, they lost their innocence. They hid when God visited the garden thus experiencing guilt. When God asked them if they had eaten of the tree of knowledge, Adam quickly blamed God and Eve for eating of the fruit since, as he explained, that God gave him the woman and she gave him the fruit and he ate it. When Eve's turn came to answer, she identified the serpent as beguiling her and she ate. Never once, with this knowledge that they had, did they consider saying they had sinned and were sorry. They blamed everyone and everything but themselves for their sin. We have not changed much, have we? It would seem that with the knowledge of good and evil, we have only been able to develop excuses blaming others when we sin and fail to do good.
As a consequence of this sin, they were cast out of the garden and lost access to the tree of life. All the misery, pain, and injustice we see around us is the result of this one sin. Rebellion against God brings only pain, conflict, unhappiness, and death. However, we can obtain access to the tree of life. In Revelation 2:7 Jesus said, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Only those that do His commandments will have a right to the tree of life (Revelation 22:14).
CharlesD. Royal, Decatur AL
