Truth 01 · 1 of 4
Who died in the garden
Adam's transgression, and what it did to all of us
Read these first
Genesis 3:6-10 · NRSVue
6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
Romans 5:12 · NRSVue
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —
Ephesians 2:1-3 · NRSVue
1You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else,
A few words on what they mean
Have you ever done something you regretted? Do you remember the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realised you had made a terrible mistake? We are all prone to failure. Now think about the biggest mistake you have ever made. I am guessing it does not come close to Adam's in the garden of Eden. Worse, for Adam it was not really a mistake. Paul calls it a transgression (Romans 5:14). To transgress is to step over a line that has been clearly drawn.
And it was a killer of a mistake, quite literally. The Lord had said: "in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Genesis 2:17). Adam ate, and death came. Not a thunderbolt. Shame, and hiding. "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid." Adam was still breathing, but he had died on the inside. He was cut off from the presence of God, and his nature changed. Sin became a drive within him, and it did not stay in one corner. It reached the whole of him: how he thought, what he wanted, how he felt, and in the end his body too.
Genes are powerful. I only have to look at my children to see it. When our second child was a toddler he developed a hernia near his navel, the same one I had at his age, and the same one my father has had. There is something inescapable in our genes. Sin passed from Adam to every one of us just as surely. That is what Paul means: "sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all."
Paul describes what you were before Christ in Ephesians 2, and he does not soften it. "Dead through the trespasses and sins." Walking "following the course of this world." "By nature children of wrath." That was not an insult. It was a diagnosis, and a doctor who will not tell you what is wrong cannot help you.
Hold that picture of Adam hiding in the trees. The rest of this chapter is about how God came looking, and what he did when he found you.
Sit with this
Before Christ, where were you hiding? What did "dead through the trespasses and sins" look like in your life, in one honest sentence?
Verse to memorise · NRSVue
You were dead through the trespasses and sins
Ephesians 2:1
Say it until you can say it without looking.