he presence of sin to corrupt it.And the Lord commanded the man, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:16-17).19 Man was warned by God that death will be the consequence of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.20 He could also eat of any herb he wanted (Genesis 1:29). There was not even any restriction against eating of the fruit of the tree of life. There was only a single minor restraint; but it would be this restraint that would test mans love for God, giving him an opportunity to reject Gods word if he wished.21 God put Adam and Eve to the test, to see if they were worthy of Himself. The Devil, an angelic spirit who had rebelled when God made known to him the purpose of creation, tempted Eve and she sinned. She then led Adam into sin, and so both merited to be expelled from paradise. God punished them with the ability to suffer, to grow old, and to die.22Knowing that Adam was made to be ruled from his intellect, Satan slanted the appeal quite differently to him. He made an appeal to Adams emotions. For Satan did not tempt Adam at all. He let Eve do that.23 Once they ate from the fruit their eyes were opened to the fact that they were naked. It was not skin nakedness that they discovered, but the nakedness of their dead souls. It is more probable that they were clothed in light before the fall, and when they sinned the light went out.24 When Eve took the bite of the forbidden fruit she threw away innocence for conscience25, and she gave more credit to the word of the devil, than to the word of God. And unbelief brought forth actual sin.26 They knew they were naked. That was the knowledge for which they had sold their place in paradise, their daily fellowship with God, and their prospects of life for evermore.27They became aware of their condition and they sought to cover themselves a...
