The original sin was an act of free will, but it was a set up from the beginning. It was inevitable that Adam and Eve or their descendants would sin on their own accord.
Sin was inevitable in the plan of God. Freewill was given to Adam as a necessary part of his created condition. Temptation presupposes choice. In order for the human race to mature into the perfection of its relationship with God it was necessary that it experience a fall from innocence of its own choosing and then redemption by divine choice that leads to an eternal state of union with God or glorification, to put it in theological terms, the Eastern Church says divinization, which means the same thing, eternal union with God.
Adam was created in the state of sinless innocence, just as the eternal state of glorification will be sinless; a vast difference separates the two. The current condition of fallenness provides Adam’s Race with the knowledge of good and evil, a consciousness of sin and disobedience (Genesis 2: 17). This knowledge combined with grace creates the necessary conditions for humanity to mature.
If Adam or one of his children never gave into temptation and sinned they would have remained perpetually in a state of blissful innocence comparable to a childlike state. It only took one act of disobedience to separate from God and eventually either Adam or one his children would have succumbed to temptation. Thus sin was part of the plan of God from the beginning.
The condition of innocence was never made to last but to give way to the condition of knowledge (consciousness of sin) and then redemption (saving knowledge of Christ) leading to the final state of glorification or Adam’s maturity in Jesus Christ (the Second Adam, Romans 5: 14; I Corinthians 15: 45). Humanity never passes into the eternal state of union with God if it does not go through the fiery trial of fallenness first.
In the same way parents love the innocence of children, but expect eventual maturity, so God loved the innocence of Adam, but planned for his maturity. Education, training and knowledge are the path to adulthood, so the experience of sin, death and salvation was necessary for Adam’s Race to achieve eternal union with God.
Lawrence Terlizzese, PhD
Probe Ministries
May 2014