Man sinned through disobedience. He knew God intimately, and owed Him everything, and yet would not trust Him or obey Him on this one requirement, to desist from eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. People love their parents and disobey, who knows whether Adam and Eve could love God? And why "because God is God?" Through the ages, people have seemed to content to worship God or gods presumed superior to themselves, they do not necessarily make out of themselves gods.
Abraham also knew God intimately, and had received many blessing, so when God required it, he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, the joy of his old age, the fruit of his union with the beloved Sarah, and the promise through which God was to make him the Father of Nations. His trust in God made him the Father of Faith, and so great was the test that his obedience was deemed exemplary righteousness.
Adam and Eve were not even challenged to sacrifice anything dear to them, only to desist from taking it upon themselves to eat of the fruit. And yet the serpent was able to raise distrust of God and His intentions, and to tap into pride, and the transgression occurred.
In a manner of speaking, Man fell for looking a gift horse in the mouth, for not trusting or having appropriate gratitude, when so much had been bestowed upon him, but for taking for granted Paradise as if it were a right, and holding God under suspicion.
After the Fall, Adam and Eve no longer lived under grace, but under the violence and corruption of untended nature. They went from a place characterized as a garden to the wilderness. That wilderness, though, was not merely external to them, it was within their hearts....... |
