By Jordan Burgen
Question:
"Dear Flatirons Church,
Pastor Jim spoke about how he thought that the first sin in the bible was Adam leaving Eve unprotected and letting her go alone. If this is true, doesn’t that mean that people were never perfect even before the fruit was eaten, even though god is perfect? Please help me navigate through religion, struggle, and I can’t wait for the women series!"
Thank you for your very intuitive question. I will do my best to answer it!
From the moment Adam was created, and then Eve, they always had the option to not follow God. God gives us free will so that we can respond to Him in an authentic way (as opposed to coerced or forced). God set the boundary of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fact that He didn’t put a wall around it or otherwise make it inaccessible speaks to this fact. So, the potential for sin was always there. We have to assume that some time passed between that rule being spoken and the moment they chose to disobey. In other words, they were never above sinning, they just hadn’t chosen to yet. If being perfect is choosing not to sin, then yes, at one point they were perfect. I think this is a good metric for perfect-ness, as Jesus was tempted and had choices He could have made that would have been sinful, yet He never made those choices. So, whether the first sin was Adam being passive and not protecting Eve, or Eve actually taking a bite of the fruit, their sin was not obeying the commands God gave them and looking for satisfaction someplace other than Him. Which one came first is irrelevant.
I hope this helps in your understanding and thank you for reaching out! Please let me know if I can answer any other questions for you
