Why can the first sin–Adams disobedience— be likened to a hereditary disease?
God’s will as expressed to Adam and his wife was primarily positive, setting forth things they were to do. The only prohibitive command was given to Adam, that forbidding eating of (or even touching) the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. (Ge 2:16, 17; 3:2, 3). Tragically, Adam and his wife, Eve, disobeyed. They chose to ignore the will of their Creator, and they reaped the consequences. “Dust you are and to dust you will return,” God told them when he outlined the results of their sin. (Genesis 3:19) They became seriously defective—imperfect. Their imperfection, or sinfulness, would lead to their death. This defect—sin—was also passed on to Adam and Eve’s offspring, the entire human race. In a sense, it was like a hereditary disease. Not only did Adam lose the opportunity to live a life free from the scourge of death but he also transmitted imperfection to his offspring. The human family was taken hostage to sin. The Bible states: “That is why, just as through one man sin entered
