In the beginning, when God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from Adam's rib, choices were given - instructions to follow or not.
Adam and Eve both chose not to obey God's instructions, which were according to Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. But the Lord God gave him this warning: 'You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die.' "
In the days of Adam and Eve it was God's original plan for mankind to live forever, to never die, to enjoy fellowship with him, but the one stipulation was to be obedient to Him.
God formed all creatures, not just humans. Most all creatures originally were peaceful, no fighting for territorial rights, etc., like the world we currently live in. But there was one that was different - the serpent, or snake, also created by God, was more cunning than any other. And so he questioned the woman, causing her to think and ponder what would be so wrong about taking fruit from the tree of knowledge, what would be wrong with knowing everything God knew.
In Genesis 3:3b, God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die.
The serpent convinced the woman she would not die. (Genesis 3:4-6)
The blame game began when after eating they were filled with shame, suddenly realizing what they had done. And when the Lord sought them, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent.
The serpent was sentenced by God to groveling, crawling along on its belly, not standing upright. He would forever be cursed - he became known as the devil or Satan.
Eve was sentenced to pain and suffering in childbirth.
The ground would no longer be lush and fertile; man would struggle continually to make a living from it.
Genesis 3:19 says: "All your life you will sweat to produce food until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from dust, and to the dust you will return."
Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden and sentenced to live in the world we know today.
Because of their disobedience to God, they became separated from God and a loving relationship with Him. Because of what they did, the rest of mankind was cursed as well. It was not God's fault they viewed his instructions for living with disdain and took their own path. It is not God's fault for the choices we make today. We were/are born to die. We (our physical bodies) would no longer live forever. Pain, disease, illness are part of this life and take its toll. We have brought about our own demise and continue to do so.
Our spiritual lives are something else.
Even with our mistakes, God still loved us and loves us still. God created mankind, which was His desire. He created you. You are not an accident. He knew you would be born; He knew the circumstances that would surround your birth and still He wanted you to be born. He loves you. You are precious to Him.
Choices still exist. We can know God. We can have a relationship with Him. Each one of us can choose to be obedient to Him or not. We can accept His son, His only son - as our personal Lord and Savior. We can have that one-on-one fellowship with God (that Adam and Eve had in the very beginning) through God's son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God's son and He is also Mary's son. God impregnated Mary. It's a miracle birth. All birth is a miracle. Jesus was born to die, but not in the same way we are. He was born to die; He became the sacrifice (Romans 8:3) for my sins, your sins, the sins of mankind, the sins acquired because of choices made by Adam and Eve.
Jesus went obediently to the cross at Calvary. He died, He was buried. And after three days, He arose, and after 40 days, He returned to His father in heaven. And as believers we await His return, His Second Coming.
With Jesus' death God provided the gift of forgiveness, and although we could not live forever in our physical bodies, we could spiritually have eternal life through Jesus Christ. Romans 8:10 says: "Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God."
Because of the original sin and the physical ailments and limitations that come our way, we as Christ's followers or Christians look forward to being released from our pain and suffering. (Romans 8:21-23)
The gift is offered to all.
We can each choose to accept Jesus did this for me. We can choose to live our lives based on how He lived his. Or we can choose not to. Whatever we do, we each face the consequences for our individual actions. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God..." God gives us free will, the choice to make our own decisions.
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