The Question Of Adam's Sin...

To refresh your memory, on Thursdays I will post to my blog by answering questions I get in the "I Wonder..." box in the Crash room. Today's question is an interesting one, and it's one I've gotten many, many times. The question is this, "Would there still be sin in the world if Adam hadn't sinned?" What a great question.


As always, lets start at the beginning, in Genesis 2. God makes Adam, and Eve. he doen't make them perfect, but he makes them good, innocent and gives them free will, which is the ability to make their own choices. God, really at this point, has only one rule- don't eat from the one tree in the center of the garden.


We don't know how many days passed before Adam and Eve made the fateful choice. It could have been years or days, or even hours. It really doesn't matter how long they lasted not eating the fruit. What matters is that they eventually gave into temptation, and did eat the fruit. "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. (Genesis 3:6)" Some of you may say, "Well Satan tempted them." Yes, but it was still their choice. Despite pressure from the serpent, they still had the choice. That's the great thing about free will, God gave us the choice to either choose to obey Him, or not.


A number of things happened after they ate the fruit. Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden. Also, the serpent (who tempted Eve) got cursed, Eve, herself, got cursed, and Adam got cursed (To find out what their curse was read Genesis 3:14-19). This curse not only affected them but it also affected their offspring, their flesh and blood. We are the offspring. We all come from Adam and Eve, and thusly we are all cursed just as they were. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in theis way death came to all men, because all sinned... (Romans 5:12)"


At this point you may be saying, "Oh great Adam! Good job! You ruined it for everyone! All you had to do was stay away from one tree... ONE tree!" But I want to ask you a question. Do you sin? Have you ever disobeyed God? "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)" See, yes, we do all have to deal with the curse that was put on Adam, but lets be honest, we wouldn't do any better. Every day we are in the same position as Adam, we have a choice to either obey God, or not. Yes, there are times we choose the right thing and we do obey Him. But we all reach that point where we give into temptation and choose to disobey God. Again, we don't know how long Adam and Eve lasted, but we do know, they eventually chose to disobey God.


So to answer the question, "Would there still be sin in the world if Adam hadn't sinned?" I would say yes. It's not something you can just blame Adam for. The words of Jesus Christ ring out in my mind, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone... (John 8:7)"