After what you have read about the creation of the world, you may wonder: if everything was so wonderful at the beginning, why isn't it anymore? Where do suffering, grief and death come from? Why is there so much hate and misunderstanding in the world? What happened to all harmony, peace and joy? The Bibles answer to all these questions is clear and simple. It can be summed up in one sentence: everything changed when man fell into sin!

What commandment did God give to the first people He created? God told them not to eat from a certain tree in the Garden of Eden where they were living. God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16,17). Did they obey God's command? No, they rather went their own chosen way than God's way. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:6).

What happened when they had sinned against God? Their sin led to judgment, suffering and death. God said to the woman: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." 'To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:17-19).

But what do we have to do with their sin? When sin had come into the world everyone who ever lived became afflicted by it. Through one mans fault, Adam, sin came into the world and death is the logical result of sin. Death spread to all people, because they all sinned. Just as sin entered the world through one man, Adam, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12). Is everyone sinful and guilty before God? Yes, without any exception. "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10). All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. (Romans 3:23). Can't a loving God just let the fact that we are all sinners go? No, even though God is merciful, he is also just. God cannot leave sin unpunished. The Lord is infinitely patient and abundant in goodness and loyalty. He forgives sin and trespassing, even though He does not declare the guilty to be innocent... (Numbers 14:18a).