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Christ. That is what Paul means, when he says: “So then as through one trespass the judgment
came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift
came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many
were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made
righteous,” Rom. 5:18,19.
C. THE NATURE OF THE FIRST SIN OR THE FALL OF MAN.
1. ITS FORMAL CHARACTER.
It may be said that, from a purely formal point of view, man’s first
sin consisted in his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We do not know what
kind of tree this was. It may have been a date or a fig tree, or any other kind of fruit tree. There
was nothing injurious in the fruit of the tree as such. Eating of it was not per se sinful. for it was
not a transgression of the moral law. This means that it would not have been sinful, if God had
not said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat.” There is no
unanimous opinion as to the reason why the tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. A rather common view is that the tree was so called, because the eating of it would
impart a practical knowledge of good and evil; but this is hardly in keeping with the Scriptural
representation that man by eating it would become like God in knowing good and evil, for God
does not commit evil, and therefore has no practical knowledge of it. It is far more likely that
the tree was so called, because it was destined to reveal (a) whether man’s future state would
be good or evil; and (b) whether man would allow God to determine for him what was good
and evil, or would undertake to determine this for himself. But whatever explanation may be
given of the name, the command given by God not to eat of the fruit of the tree simply served
the purpose of testing the obedience of man. It was a test of pure obedience, since God did not
in any way seek to justify or to explain the prohibition. Adam had to show his willingness to
submit his will to the will of his God with implicit obedience.
2. ITS ESSENTIAL AND MATERIAL CHARACTER.
The first sin of man was a typical sin, that is, a
sin in which the real essence of sin clearly reveals itself. The essence of that sin lay in the fact
that Adam placed himself in opposition to God, that he refused to subject his will to the will of
God, to have God determine the course of his life; and that he actively attempted to take the
matter out of God’s hand, and to determine the future for himself. Man, who had absolutely no
claim on God, and who could only establish a claim by meeting the condition of the covenant of
works, cut loose from God and acted as if he possesed certain rights as over against God. The
idea that the command of God was really an infringement on the rights of man seems to have
been present already in the mind of Eve when, in answer to the question of Satan, she added
the words, “Neither shall ye touch it,” Gen. 3:3. She evidently wanted to stress the fact that the
command had been rather unreasonable. Starting from the pre-supposition that he had certain