Why do we have sin?
Before we look at why there is sin or where it came from it is good to have an understanding of what sin is. Sin is anything and everything that is evil, from a simple white lie to murder. You will also see sin in forms of addiction such as alcohol, drugs, pornography, and so on. Ultimately, sin is rebellion against God. It is doing things our own way instead of His way. To answer the question, “Why do we have sin?,” we must go back to when there were only two people on the earth: Adam and Eve (Genesis 1-3). In the beginning, God created a beautiful garden and He placed the man in the garden to take care of it and live by the fruit from it. God told Adam that he could eat of any tree in the garden except from the tree in the center of the garden called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said, “For if you eat of that tree you will surely die.” One day God caused a deep sleep to come over Adam and He took one of his ribs and made him a comparable help mate for him, a woman named Eve. When he woke up he said, “You are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. You will be called women for you were taken from man.” So Eve lived in the garden with Adam and they were both naked and not ashamed because no sin had yet been committed. Then one day while Eve was passing by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a cunning snake (The Devil) started to talk to her and challenge what God had commanded concerning the tree. The serpent told her that if she ate of its fruit, she would not die, but become like God. Believing the lie, Eve ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband Adam, and he also ate the fruit. With that first act of disobedience, sin entered the world.
