But they [men] have gone in search of many schemes.
Ecclesiastes 7:29
Doing good and right was instinctive to Adam, but it was not inevitable. Adam’s righteousness was natural, but it was also changeable.
So, why did God allow the possibility of sin? If Adam and Eve had remained upright, the whole human race would have been born in paradise. We would all be living in fellowship with God and in harmony with each other in a world with no storms, no famines, no diseases, and no death.
God made man righteous, so why did God allow the possibility of sin? God made man upright, but He also made him free, and freedom means that there is another choice.
God made Adam with a natural bent and inclination toward good and right, but he was not a robot. God made him a thinking, willing being with real choices and real consequences. God said to Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Gen. 2:17).
Being upright, Adam would already have known this in his heart, but God made it plain to him by saying it face to face. Adam was upright, but he was not locked into righteousness. God placed him in paradise, but he was not a prisoner. There was a door by which he could leave.
You know the story. The serpent came to Eve and said, “You can be like God” (Gen. 3:5, author paraphrase). Eve was upright. She loved God. But she chose against the inclination of her heart. Adam joined her in this wretched choice, and all the blessings of paradise were lost.
Adam experienced frustration every day of his working life. Eve experienced pain in bearing her children. Their kids were born outside paradise and never knew its joys. It was not long before the first human family fractured—four people, and none of them upright. Friendship with God was broken and fellowship with Him was lost.
In your own words, what was lost by Adam’s sin?
