The Basics of Christianity 2

The temptation

As you may very well know, the snake came to visit in the garden, (Satan that is), and questioned what God had said. He stated that they wouldn't die if they ate of the fruit. On the contrary he said, God was just trying to withhold from them the possibility of being as wise as God himself and be able to discern between good and evil.
The snake so fooled them both, and they ate from the fruit.

How could this happen?

God created us human beings with a free will. He didn't create meaningless robots that can't do anything but obey. It's quite the opposite. When we come to him, He wants us to come because we ourselves have chosen it and because we love Him. Adam and Eve choose to listen to the snake rather than obey what God had said.

In the moment they ate, they died spiritually. God's glory over their lives disappeared and they were aware they were naked. They even ran and hid. They could no longer come boldly before God and they felt both shame and guilt. Feelings that earlier were completely foreign to them.
God came by in the evening and called out for Adam:

"Where are you"? (1 Genesis 3:9).

This is where sin starts to reign in humanity. God had to drive them out of the garden because now they are mortal and marred with sin. He puts cherubs and a flaming sword to guard the road to the tree of life. In their present condition they cannot have eternal life. God pronounces a curse over the snake and gives a promise that somebody is going to come and crush his head.

" I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (1 Genesis 3:15).

God already had a plan of action prepared and this is His spoken promise of a coming Messiah.

All evil got access in the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience. Death, sickness, murder, envy, evil desires, lust.
Adam and Eve got two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain murdered his brother because of envy. The consequences of sin were fully at work.

Abraham

God's first step in his plan to save humanity back to himself, is to make a covenant with one man, Abram. He received the promise that he would become; "a Father of many nations". He was the first Jew.
God wanted to bring up a people who would know God and his ways. This was essential for God to be able to send Jesus to Earth. The Bible says that He needed " a well prepared people". God gives the law to Moses; the ten commandments written in stone. The law was to be "an up bringer to Christ".

In the book of Romans 7:7-8 we read;

"I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet”.

Without the law there's no sin. If we didn't have the command, "You shall not steal", nothing would stop people from grab a hold of other people's property.

Now God sent his word and revealed mans true condition.* She received something to measure herself with. By that she was to understand that she needed a savior since it was impossible for her to keep the law by her own strength. God had planned a new and living way where His law no longer is an outward constraint but as is written in Jeremiah 31:33;

" I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.".

How can this be true? Through the new birth in Jesus Christ.

* And this is how the word is still working today in people's lives. When you read the word of the Bible you will understand that you are truly in need of a Saviour, and there's no way you can save yourself, or meet God's standards in your own strength.