God is not the Author of Sin

• Sin is disobedience to God and encompasses anything that is not according to his will. It may include acts of sin or failing to do what is right. It is fulfilling self-will as opposed to God’s will.

  1 John 3:4, Romans 3:23, James 4:17

• God created Adam and Eve “very good” and upright with a natural disposition to obey, although capable of sin. God did not create mankind with sinful lusts within or a tendency to sin. Mankind’s natural sinful desires originated from the world, not from God.

Genesis 1:31, Ecclesiastes 7:29, 1 John 2:15

• Adam and Eve were created neither mortal nor immortal, as proved by their subsequent sentencing to mortality and denial to access the Tree of Life, as this would have made them immortal as soon as they ate of it. In their “very good” state they were capable of death but not subject to it.

  Genesis 3:19, 22-24

• Adam and Eve were in harmony with God and placed in the Garden of Eden on probation with a simple law not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. the consequence of disobedience being death by mortality. There is no command concerning the Tree of Life but it is clear that they did not eat of it as doing so would have made them immortal as soon as they ate of it.

  Genesis 2:16-17, 3:2-3, 22-24

The Temptation of Adam and Eve

• Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve were not tempted of their own lusts from within as humankind is now. They were tempted externally by an outside source.

  Mark 7:20-23, James 1:13-15, Romans 7:15-25

• Eve was initially tempted by the serpent who was an animal created by God which was amoral and could not discern between right and wrong. The serpent’s lie was not deliberate or malicious but an expression of his animal mind.

  Genesis 3:1, John 8:44 (the serpent is called the devil or diabolos because he told the first lie)

• When the serpent suggested Eve eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, her disposition was one of implicit obedience and she spoke the truth.

  Genesis 3:2-3

• Eve was deceived by the serpent’s lie that she would not die from eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Her legitimate God-given desires to eat what was provided by God and be equal to the angels were corrupted into deceitful lusts by her belief in the serpent’s lie. It was only after being deceived that she experienced temptation, of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

  Genesis 2:9, Luke 20:35-36, Genesis 3:6, 13, 2 Corinthians 11:3

• Eve became Adam’s external tempter and enticed him with her words to eat it as she gave it to him. Even though Adam was not deceived by the serpent like Eve was, he only experienced lust and temptation to eat it after being enticed by Eve’s words when she gave him the fruit to eat it.

  Genesis 3:6, 12, 17, Ephesians 4:22, 1 Timothy 2:14

Changes in Human Nature After the Entrance of Sin

• As soon as Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they knew they were naked and experienced shame and fear.

  Genesis 3:7-10

• God sentenced them to sorrow and death by mortality, which was the penalty for disobeying his law. Their bodies were changed physiologically to become mortal.

  Genesis 3:9-19

• The impulses and tendency to sin now became a natural part of human nature that had not existed when God created Adam and Eve. We are tempted within of our own lusts and experience an inner conflict between a desire to do good or to sin, which Adam and Eve did not experience until they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

  Mark 7:20-23, James 1:13-15, Romans 7:15-25, 1 John 2:15, Isaiah 55:8, Jeremiah 17:9, 10:23, Job 14:1

• Adam and Eve were no longer “very good”. Mortal human nature, resulting from its condemnation to mortality because of sin, has no good in itself and is corrupt. Mortal human nature is sometimes called “sin” by the figure of speech of metonymy because the impulses and tendencies to sin that come from our human nature. For the same reason, it is also called “sinful flesh” or “flesh of sin”. This is different to the “very good” state in which God created Adam and Eve. Mankind is defiled by what comes from within out of the heart. Mortal human nature cannot be described as clean or undefiled physically or morally.

  Romans 7:18, 17, 20, 8:3, Luke 18:19, Galatians 6:8, Ephesians 4:22, Genesis 1:31, 6:5, Ecclesiastes 7:29, 1 John 2:15, Philippians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 15:53, Job 14:1-4, 15:14, 25:4, Matthew 15:10-20, Mark 7:14-23

• All of Adam and Eve’s descendants have inherited this mortality with its impulses and tendency to sin from them. Humankind does not inherit any guilt for Adam and Eve’s sin.

  Romans 5:12-19, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22

• It is impossible for mankind not to sin.

  Romans 6:23, 3:10, 23