I know that you probably clicked onto this article because you were thinking, “Are you crazy? What could you possibly be glad about? We were kicked out of Eden and all of humanity had to suffer from two people’s mistakes!” Well, I’m here to tell you that Adam and Eve did indeed do the wrong thing, but as God can turn even the darkest evil into good, here I am in complete confidence saying that this was all part of God’s perfect plan to greatness. Get ready to have your brain hurt a bit and read!

As most of us know, Adam and Eve both start out in the Garden of Eden. They get to see God every day and talk with him. They take walks and God is a good friend. This is the first state of human relationship with God. Most people say that this is the best kind of life and that we messed up badly to have to lose something this good. Now let’s dive deeper into The Fall and the end of the first state.

First, let’s look at Genesis chapter 3 verses 1-6 which is the account on The Fall. 

“The Fall”

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 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.”

This obviously has a lot to unpack but I want to focus on one thing in particular. The one line that we will focus on for now is verse three. In this verse Eve is clarifying to Satan the requirements that God gave to her and Adam about the garden. What to eat and what not to eat. If you look carefully, you can notice that she changes and mixes up what God tells her. 

God tells Adam and Eve, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Eve, however, changes God’s words to an idea that focuses on not the freedom to eat of every other tree, but only the restriction of the middle tree. She also drastically changes God’s warning of eating the fruit to just merely touching it and dying. This shows us how Satan can twist and change something simple and harmless to something untruthful and extreme. Eve builds on the devil’s trickery and decides to eat the fruit, disobeying God.

God then has to kick the couple out of the garden and banish them to try and survive with suffering and pain. This leads humanity to their second stage of relationship with the Lord. This is one of great longing, separation, sin, suffering, and hope. We are on Earth far away from Jesus and we have to face concupiscence, the inclination towards evil, and not let it take over us.

If we follow the lord with a profound faith then we achieve the third level: Heaven. This is where we can live in complete benevolence with the Lord in a perfect state of being for all of eternity. We have to work hard and it will be tough, but the reward is worth it. 

Now, I will explain why I am glad that Adam and Eve ate the apple. I am glad because it was all part of God’s plan to bring us closer to Him. If we were in the Garden of Eden today, sure we would see God every day, but we wouldn’t have the close relationship with Him that we now have a chance to get, today. With The Fall, we also learn of God’s true love for us by seeing Jesus die on the cross for us. 

In all, I think that it was truly crucial for The First Sin to happen so that we would be able to know and love God more deeply than ever before. 

Source: The Bible

By Gabri Ottaviani ‘30, Rising Faith Editor

30gottaviani@montroseschool.org