It’s easy to look around and ask what has happened to our world. Why have things gotten so bad? Who’s fault is this?

The truth is, it all began with the sin of one. The failure of one introduced sin and our perfect world was forfeited. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? It seems so totally unfair that someone we don’t even know forever ago screwed up and now we all pay the price for it.

BUT – isn’t there someone else a really long time ago that we’ve never met who did something right that paid the price to save us?

Neither are fair. We are fallen because of one and we are saved because of one. That’s not easy to understand.

Romans 5: 18-21:
“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Humanity failed. Jesus fixed it.

God said, “Don’t do this,” and we did it anyway. So Jesus did what we couldn’t do.

The first sin was from Adam and Eve. Because of their sin, we live in a fallen world where bad things happen. Perfection has been cut off because of the presence of rebellion and our own way. I’ve always read their story and felt like it had nothing to do with me. It was their problem and their punishment, so why would I still be paying the price for it? But I’m beginning to see it very different now. Let’s study it together.

Genesis 2, God creates the first man and breathes life into him to become a living person. Then God plants a garden in Eden and puts the man in that beautiful garden. In the middle of that garden he placed TWO trees, one was the tree of life and the second was tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warns the man, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – EXCEPT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Fair enough. You can live in this paradise. You can have anything you want and do anything you want, except for this one thing. That one tree is not good for you, don’t eat it’s fruit.

Then God takes one rib from the man and he makes a woman. Now together, they live in paradise. But literally a few verses after the introduction of this first man and woman, there comes a shrewd snake into the garden and that snake whispers to the woman. He whispers a suggestion that is a twist on God’s truth. Notice what he says. Genesis 3, begging in verse 1, “Did God REALLY SAY you must not eat the fruit from ANY of the trees in the garden?”

“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die!'”

“You won’t DIE!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”

That was how it all started. And I’ve struggled with a few parts of this for many years. Now, God is showing me his love and grace through this. Just in case you’ve struggled with the unfairness of how this impacts you, let’s dig deeper and seek God’s message.

First, do you understand you too would have done exactly what Adam and Eve did? Every single one of us would have eaten that apple. We would have been tricked by the enemy. We would have caved to the temptation. We would have wondered why we couldn’t have it and that curiosity would have driven us to do the same exact thing. God knows that. He knows every human he ever created would have failed here.

What? You think you wouldn’t have? You think God could have told you not to eat from that tree and you would have never touched it? Just like you’ve never ever failed in any other way, right? Just like you’ve always been blameless and perfect in every decision? Uh huhhhh, like that. Just like you have never tried it your way and put God’s instructions on the back burner. Yeah. Girl, you and I both would have been sneaking that apple at the first opportunity.

But, why did God say they would die if they ate from this tree? I mean really, Adam and Eve both ate it and they lived. So, was God wrong? Was God making an empty threat? What really happened here?

Actually, this was the introduction to life without immortality. Immorality cancelled immortality. God’s design of humanity was eternal, but their sin of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil took away their forever. Now they knew what it meant to do wrong, that’s the knowledge of evil, and if God allowed that to continue forever things would only continue to get worse and worse and worse without an end. God, in his love and kindness said I cannot allow things to grow worse forever, I must bring an end to it. So, death entered.

Did they die the moment they ate the fruit? No. It wasn’t like that. But they did die. Their life was now limited. And so is ours. That’s what sin did. It limited our lifetime.

Now, what about the other tree in the middle of the garden. Remember there were two and they are different. One is the tree they were told not to eat, that was the tree that would bring awareness of evil, and the other tree was the tree of life. That tree would bring eternal life causing them to live forever. Notice the devil didn’t trick them into eating from that tree. They were never told they couldn’t eat from that tree. But now that they had entered into sin, they couldn’t be allowed to live forever.

Genesis 3:22-23, “The the Lord God said, ‘Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!’ So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

That’s why we live here instead of paradise. We couldn’t be trusted with the tree of life. We can’t live forever when we can’t trust God enough to follow his instructions. We were created for perfection and eternal bliss, but we couldn’t be trusted with it, so we were separated from it.

BUT it doesn’t end there. God doesn’t just leave us out here, sinning and dying. He doesn’t just abandon us to the evil we have chosen. He saves us.

Through one man sin began, but through another sin was cancelled. That’s our Jesus!

The tree of life appears again in the very last chapter of our Bible. Revelation 22, an angel shows John a river with the water of life that flows from the throne of God. And on each side of that river grows a tree of life, and it says its used for medicine to heal the nations. The angel says to John in this revealing of our eternal paradise that awaits, “No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there – no need for lamps or sun – for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.”

My friends, that’s our future because of Jesus. That’s what he has done for us. He makes us right and forever good enough and brings us back to the tree of life where we will be healed and made eternal. We will live forever in paradise, just as God originally designed.

One man introduced sin to the world, and if he wouldn’t have done it, every single one of us would have. You didn’t have to be the one to eat the apple – the truth is, you would have.

And one man saved the world, and not a single one of us could have done that. We couldn’t have even saved ourselves. We could have never been good enough. We could have never met the requirements. Every one of us would have sinned and fallen short of the standard. But we didn’t have to be good enough – that’s why we have Jesus!

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