Where Sin Abounded, Grace Abounded all the More.
Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, For only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to him.
Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind’s origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure. Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gave to created persons so that they may be capable of loving him and loving one another.
Freedom Put to the Test
God created man in His image and established him in His friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil spells this out: “for in the day you eat of it, you shall die” (Gen. 2:17). Man is dependent on his Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.
Man’s First Sin
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in His goodness.
In that sin man preferred himself to God, and by that very act scorned Him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and, therefore against his own good. Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully divinized by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but without God.
The Consequences of the First Sin
Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first sin of disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lost the grace of original holiness. They became afraid of God and formed a distorted image of God.
The harmony in which they had found themselves thanks to original justice was now destroyed; the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body was shattered; the union of man and woman became subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation was broken: visible creation became alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation was now subject to its bondage and decay. Finally, the consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience came true: man will return to the ground for out of it he was taken. Death made its appearance into human history.
After that first sin, the world was virtually inundated by sin. Scripture and the Church’s tradition continually recall the presence and universality of sin in history.
