Before we begin to learn about Adam’s sin,  we need to understand about the background that led to his sin. Scripture says:
 
“The Lord God formed the man [that is Adam]  from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” (Taurat, Gen. 2:7,8)

  The Scriptures relate to us how God prepared a delightful garden for the man whom He had created. The garden was called Eden {means: delight} or the Garden of Paradise. Some think that this garden in which God placed the first man was in heaven. However the Scriptures show us that it was located here on earth, in the east, in Eden, probably where the country of Iraq is today. The Writings of God’s prophets never confuse the Garden of Paradise (Eden) which was on the earth, and the heavenly Paradise which is above, in the presence of God.

  In the verses that follow, the Scripture says:
 
“The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters…. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Taurat, Gen. 2:9,10,15)

  Thus we see that God made for the first man, Adam, a lovely place where he could live in true prosperity. God placed him in a luscious garden full of trees that produced fruit beautiful to behold and delicious to eat. In this enchanting place, everything was perfect and wonderful.

  The most wonderful thing that took place in Eden, was that God Himself would come to the garden in the cool of the evening so that He might talk with the man whom He had created in His own image. (See Taurat, Gen. 3:8) Why did God come visit Adam? He visited Adam, because, God created man for fellowship. God’s intention was that He and humans might fellowship together, talk together, rejoice together, and spend eternity together with unified minds and hearts. Yes, God wanted man {Lit. humans} to grow in a deep and wonderful relationship with Him forever.

  Now there is something else we need to know about the garden into which God placed the first man. In the middle of the garden, God planted two very important trees. One was called the tree of life, and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God placed the tree of life in the garden to remind Adam that He intended for man to share His eternal life. As for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God placed it in the middle of the garden to test Adam. Read what the Scriptures say: “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for [in the day that] you eat of it you will surely die.” (Taurat, Gen. 2:16,17)

  Why did God forbid Adam to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Is God stingy? No, He is not stingy! In fact, one of His names is “the Generous One!” {Injeel, James 1:5} God told Adam, “You can eat of every tree …except one.” Was that a difficult command? No, it was not. God, in His grace, gave Adam everything he needed to be happy. He did not withhold any good thing from him. However, God, in His perfect plan, placed before Adam a simple test, so that Adam might have the opportunity to show God that he loved Him enough to obey His command. As the Lord God says in His Word: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my [word] …He who does not love me will not obey my [word].” (Injeel, John 14:23,24) God wanted to test Adam’s love and loyalty.  That is why He gave him this simple command. God did not create a robot. God created a man with a mind, a heart, and a free will so that he could choose for himself to love and obey God.

  What did God tell Adam would happen to him if he ate of the forbidden tree? Let us reread the Scriptures. God said, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for [in the day that] you eat of it you will surely die!” Thus, God informed Adam that disobedience to His command would produce death. God loved the man He had created; thus He warned him in unmistakable words, saying: Adam, if you disobey me, you will die because my holy law requires the death of “the soul that sins.” (Prophets, Ezek. 18:20)

  Perhaps you may be wondering: What is sin? The Scriptures say: “Sin is lawlessness.” (Injeel, 1 John 3:4) “All wrongdoing is sin.” (Injeel, 1 John 5:17) “Anyone…who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (Injeel, Jam. 4:17) Sin is going your “own way.” (Prophets, Isa. 53:6) Sin is anything that does not agree with God. What will happen to those who sin against God? The Word of God says, “The soul that sins must die!” (Prophets, Ezek. 18:20). And in another verse, it says, “the wages of sin is death.” (Injeel, Rom. 6:23) What is death? Some think that to die is to cease existing; everything is finished and you no longer know anything. But if we rely on the Writings of the Prophets, we will see that this is not what death is. In the Holy Scriptures, in the Hebrew language in which it was written, death signifies separation. Death is separation from life.

  When God said to Adam: “If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die,” this is what He was saying: Adam, if you eat of the tree which I have prohibited, in that day you will die, that is: you will be separated from Me. If you disobey me you can no longer have a close relationship with me. I am holy and I cannot tolerate sin or those who reject my way. I expelled Lucifer (Satan) and his angels when they sinned, and I will expel you too if you sin. Also, if you eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, your body will begin to grow old and, eventually, it will die, that is: your soul will leave your body. And that is not all. If you disobey me, not only will your body die, but your soul will go to the place created for Satan and his angels. And there you will be separated from me for ever and ever!

  Thus, we see that sin produces three horrible separations. First, your soul is separated from God here on earth. That is, you have no relationship with God the Holy One because of the sin in your heart. Second, your soul will be separated from your body on the day you die. That is, your body will die and your soul will meet God for judgment. Third, your soul and body will be separated from God forever in the lake of fire.

  Based on the authority of the Word of God, what is death? In short, death is separation from the God of Life. Sin separates man from God, the source of true life. God is holy and cannot coexist with sin. The soul that sins is like a branch of a tree that is cut off and cast away. What happens when a branch is no longer part of the tree? A branch that is cut off, is it alive? No, it is dead! The leaves do not become instantly dry, but they have begun to die. Similarly, if you have not received the way of forgiveness of sin which God has provided, you may think that you are alive, but the Scriptures of the Prophets say that, before God, you are “dead in your transgressions and sins.” (Injeel, Eph. 2:1) “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you.” (Prophets, Isa. 59:2) You are “like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (Injeel, John 15:6)

  The branch that is no longer connected to the tree cannot produce fruit. That is how a sinner is before God. He cannot produce anything pleasing to God, because he has no relationship with God, who is the “True Tree,” the Source of true life. Sinners can only expect God’s righteous judgment. However, in the Writings of the Prophets, God has declared how we can be made righteous before Him and know for sure that our sins are removed. It is this that we will be considering in future articles.

  “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life…!” (Injeel, Rom. 6:23a)

Now let us see how sin entered the world.  We have already seen that, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Paradise where they were perfectly satisfied and had everything for their enjoyment. The best thing of all, was that the Lord God visited the garden each day, in the cool of the evening, so that He might talk with Adam and Eve. God visited them because He wanted to have a meaningful and wonderful relationship with them.

  However, the Scriptures tell us that someone else was also in the garden. Do you know who it was? It was Satan, God’s adversary, the devil. When God created the world and all that it contains, Satan was watching. When God gave Adam the commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan was listening. And he did not stop at simply watching and listening, but he was also weaving a plan to spoil God’s wonderful works. Satan planned to tempt man whom God had created so that he would disobey God, commit sin, be separated from God and perish! As for God, He knew all that Satan planned to do, but Adam and Eve knew nothing about it.

  One day, when Adam and Eve were standing near the forbidden tree, Satan came as a serpent, and began to speak with them. Thus, the Scripture says: “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’?” (Taurat, Gen. 3:1)

  Let us pause here briefly. Why did Satan appear as a serpent? The Scripture gives us the answer when it says: “the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” Satan is the tempter, and therefore presented himself as one who is very wise. Satan did not come to Adam and Eve in the form of a huge red dragon saying, “Peace be on you, Adam and Eve. I am the devil, the enemy of God! I have come today to tempt you to turn your back on God, the Lord of life, so that you might perish forever!” Satan did not operate like that! How did he appear to them then? As a beautiful and wise creature. He chose to speak to them through a serpent, because at that time, before sin entered the world, the serpent was the craftiest of all the animals.

  Satan is still like that. He is crafty. He habitually presents what he has to offer as a good thing. The Scriptures say: “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (Injeel, 2 Cor. 11:14) Consequently, God warns us in His Word, saying, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Injeel, Matt. 7:15) Satan is a deceiver. That is why he appeared to Adam and Eve as a wise serpent. That is also why he preferred to talk with Eve, instead of with Adam himself, because he hoped that it would be easier to tempt Eve than Adam. Satan knew that God had given the commandment about the tree to Adam, before He created Eve. However, Eve also knew about God’s commandment. The devil is highly intelligent and he knew exactly what he wanted to achieve. Satan thought if he could convince the woman to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, perhaps Adam would follow her in disobeying God.

  Thus, the Scriptures say: “The serpent said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Taurat, Gen. 3:1) Did you read what Satan said to Eve? He said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” Do you see what Satan was trying to do? He was attempting to plant doubt in the mind of Eve concerning the sure Word of God. That is why he said, “Did God…say?” Did God really say …?” Satan still uses this method. He fights against the Word of Truth, because he knows that the Word of God has the power to disarm him and discredit his lies. Satan knows that the truth dispels lies, as light dispels darkness.

  Now let us read the rest of the conversation between the woman and the devil. The Scripture says:
 
“The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God has said, ‘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.’ ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Taurat, Gen. 3:2-5)

  This is amazing! What did God say would happen to Adam and Eve if they ate of the forbidden tree? He said, “You will die!” What did Satan say? He said: “You will not die!” Thus, Satan did not stop at merely casting doubt upon God’s Word, but he came right out and denied it! What do you think about this? Who was speaking the truth, God or Satan? The Holy Scriptures say that God is the True One and cannot lie. As for Satan, he does not hold to the truth, “for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Injeel, John 8:44)

  However, we must also remember that Satan is not only a liar. He is also a deceiver. He is crafty; he takes what is not true and mixes it with what is true. We can see that in what Satan said to Eve and Adam, “When you eat of [this tree] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When Satan said, “You will be like God!” that was a lie, because the one who sins is not like God, but like Satan. But when Satan said, “You will know good and evil” he was speaking the truth, because after Adam and Eve sinned they came to know what evil is. However, Satan did not tell them of the bitterness that such knowledge would bring into their lives. God said, “If you eat of the tree you will surely die!” But Satan said, “If you eat of the tree you will not die!” Satan is a liar. That is why when God said, “You will die!” Satan denied it, saying, “You will not die!”

  Now the moment had come for Adam and Eve to choose between the Word of God and the word of Satan. The choice before them was this: Would they believe the words of God or the words of Satan? Would they accept the truth or the lie? Would they follow the Lord of Light or the Lord of darkness?

  Let us read on to see the choice they made. The Scriptures say: “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.” (Taurat, Gen. 3:6)

  Amazing! God created man in His own image so that he could know Him, love Him and obey Him forever. But what did man do? Did he love God enough to obey His command? No! He chose to disobey the God of love, and to follow Satan, the enemy of God and man!

  What a sad day this was! Our ancestors, Adam and Eve, turned their backs on the Lord God by eating the fruit of the tree that He had forbidden. Just as “An epidemic is not confined to the one from whom it originates!” In the same way, the Word of God says: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned!” (Injeel, Rom. 5:12) Whether we like it or not, that is the way it is!

You and I, and all people, take after Adam. We are born sinners and must die, because we come from Adam. The first man who disobeyed God’s commandment is our forefather and we are just like him. Who among us can say that we have never disobeyed the commandments of God? Not a single one of us! So where did we inherit this nature in us that disobeys God’s commandments? From Adam. Like a horrible contagious disease, the sin that was in Adam has spread to us all. Truly, “an epidemic is not confined to the one from whom it originates!”   In the words of Scripture:

“Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned!” (Injeel, Rom. 5:12)

  As we continue our study in the Torah, in the third chapter of the book of Genesis, to see what happened after Eve and Adam sinned against God. In verse seven, the Scripture says: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” (Taurat, Gen. 3:7)

  What is the first thing that Adam and Eve did after they disobeyed God? They tried to cover their shame and guilt! We already learned that before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they “were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Taurat, Gen. 2:25) But now their thoughts concerning their bodies had changed. Now they felt guilty and shameful before the Holy One who must judge them. Thus, in an attempt to hide their shame, they wove together leaves from a fig tree, and covered their naked bodies. However, the covering of leaves they put on their bodies did nothing to erase the guilt in their hearts.

  Next, the Scripture says: “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.” (Taurat, Gen. 3:8) How different things were for Adam and Eve after they sinned! Before they disobeyed God, they rejoiced whenever the Lord God came into the garden to talk to them. However, now when they heard Him approaching, they trembled with fear and shame, and attempted to hide from God among the trees of the garden! Why was Adam afraid and hiding? That is not difficult to figure out. If someone is stealing from another’s field, what will he do if he hears the voice of the owner of the field? He will try to hide. In the same way, Adam, who had taken what God had forbidden, was trying to hide. Adam knew very well that he had transgressed against God.

  Should Adam have been afraid after he had disobeyed God’s command? Absolutely! Why? Because God had clearly said to him, “In the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die!” Would God carry out His word? Would Adam really die? What do you think? Would God really punish the people He had created?  We can best answer this question with another question. What did the Lord do to Lucifer, that is Satan, after he rejected God’s rule over him? Did God acquit Satan and the angels who sinned? No, He did not acquit them! God expelled them from His holy presence. And not only that, He also created for them the eternal fire! (see Lesson 3 from “The Way of Righteousness”)

Like Satan, Adam had rejected God’s rule over him. Could God just say, “It’s no big deal!” and let Adam go free without judging him? Never! God is holy and He must judge sin! Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most brilliant men that ever lived, said, “He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done!” God can never approve evil. He must punish it. The prophet Habakkuk wrote: “My God, my Holy One…your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong!” (Prophets, Hab. 1:12,13) Yes, “The Lord will judge His people! It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Prophets, Heb. 10:30,31) God’s holy nature requires that He judge and punish every sin. Therefore, it was necessary that He judge Adam and Eve because of their sin. That is why in the next verse we read: “But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Taurat, Gen. 3:9)

  What did God do after Adam sinned? God went seeking after Adam, calling out to him, “Where are you?” Did Adam go looking for God? No! He was trying to hide from God! Why did God call out to Adam? Didn’t He know where Adam was? God, who sees and knows everything, knew exactly where Adam was hiding! God called out to Adam, because He wanted Adam to recognize and confess his sin before Him. God still loved Adam although he had disobeyed Him.

  What did Adam reply when God asked, “Where are you?” The Scriptures say:
 
 “[Adam] answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And the Lord God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?’ [Adam] said, ‘The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” (Taurat, Gen. 3:10-13)

  Did you hear how Adam and Eve answered God? Each tried to blame someone else. Adam accused both God and Eve, saying: It’s not my fault! The woman you gave me—it’s her fault! As for Eve, she blamed the serpent saying, Don’t blame me—the serpent deceived me! However, God who knows the heart of man, knew that they were both guilty. God did not make them eat the fruit of the tree. Satan also did not make them eat it. Satan can tempt and deceive people, but he cannot force anyone to sin. Satan deceived Eve, but what she did was still sin before God. As for Adam, the Scripture tells us that he was not deceived. (Injeel, 1 Tim. 2:14) He consciously chose to go his own way. Adam knew exactly what God had commanded, but he chose to stray from the way of righteousness, and follow the way of unrighteousness. And he didn’t stop with disobeying God, but added sin to his sin by trying to put the blame on others.

  To this day, people still attempt to blame others for their transgressions, but God knows the truth. Through the Holy Scriptures, God is speaking to people, saying: Where are you? Answer me! What have you done? Why do you refuse to believe and obey my Word? Why do you despise my goodness? Why do you try to blame others for your own sin? “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”(Injeel, Rom. 14:11,12)

  Let us now continue in the chapter to see how God judged the serpent, Satan, Eve and Adam. The Scriptures say:
 
“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. 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.’ 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.’ 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. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 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.’” (Taurat, Gen. 3:14-19)

  Do you see what their sin produced? It produced sorrow and pain, thorns and thistles, toil and sweat, sickness and death. Yes, “the wages of sin is death!” (Injeel, Rom. 6:23) What did God say would happen to Adam and Eve if they ate of the forbidden tree? He said, “In the day that you eat of it you will surely die.” Were Adam and Eve buried on the day they ate it? No. But did they die on that day? Indeed they did! On that very day, Adam and Eve died in their souls, because they no longer had a relationship with God.

  As we have already learned, death is separation from God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they separated themselves from God, the Source of Life. When they chose to believe the devil and go along with him, they forfeited their friendship with God and lost their share in God’s life. They had become God’s enemies because they had taken sides with Satan, God’s adversary. Their relationship with God had died. To illustrate, if you have an enemy and your friend takes sides with him, then is it not true that your friend has become your enemy? Your relationship with your friend has died.  In the same way, whoever obeys Satan is the enemy of God. Sin separates man from God.

  Before we conclude, there is something we must understand and remember. It is this: We are all born into this world as those who are “dead in…transgressions and sins” (Injeel, Eph. 2:1) and “separated from the life of God.” (Injeel, Eph. 4:18) We may not like this, but that is what the Word of God says. The day that Adam disobeyed God, he became a sinner. Adam, who sinned, is the father of the human race. Thus, the result of Adam’s sin is that all of his descendants are sinners. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Also, Adam’s sin caused him to be separated from God. Adam, who rejected God’s rule over him, is the father of all who live. The result is that all of Adam’s descendants are born separated from God. As the proverb says: “An epidemic is not confined to the one from whom it originates!” This is exactly what the Word of God declares, when it says: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned!” (Injeel, Rom. 5:12)

  Our forefather Adam, who separated himself from God, is like a branch cut from a tree. What happens if the branch is no longer united to the tree? It dries up and dies. And what happens to the branches which are part of the branch that has been cut off? Are they alive? No, they are also dead, because they belong to the dry branch. In the same way, all the children of Adam are like the small branches of the branch that has been cut off. Because of his sin, Adam is like the dry branch, and we are one with him. The sin of our ancestor Adam has affected all of us. We all share his character and condemnation.

  The Prophet David wrote in the Psalms(Zabur): “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Zabur, Psa. 51:5) Sin is much like AIDS—a dreadful disease which has spread throughout the world. Once AIDS enters a person’s body, it will never leave. The person who has AIDS can spread it to his children. AIDS is a killer and man does not yet have a cure for it. Sin is like that. It is a terrible calamity that has spread throughout the earth. Sin is a killer, causing man to perish forever, and man, in himself, has no remedy for it.

  However, we are praising God today with happy hearts, because God Himself has provided a remedy to save us from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin. However, we must believe God’s remedy and receive it. God willing, we will see in our future teachings see how God gave Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, a wonderful promise concerning a mighty Savior who would come into the world to deliver sinners from sin, Satan and hell.

 God bless you as you think about these words penned by the prophet David:
 
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Zabur, Psa. 51:5)

** This teaching from the Scriptures is a compilation of Lessons 6, 7 and 8 from “The Way of Righteousness” by Paul Bramsen.    Posted here by permission of copyright holder – Paul Bramsen. For comments or feedback, please contact him or The Abraham Connection.