I have been considering this question as to what was the first sin. Let me qualify that I am speaking of the first sin as found in Adam and therefore the human race. For prior to the disobedience of Adam and Even, sin was present as found in the person of Satan and subsequently the angelic host that followed him into rebellion against God.
I wonder if we can rightly identify the first sin of Adam as being of singular facet. What I mean is this – is the sin of Adam “pride” or “self-confidence” or “rebellion against God”? Biblically speaking, the first sin of man is simply called “disobedience” (Romans 5:19) which is “the transgression” (Romans 5:15-18). And just what is this “disobedience”? This disobedience is Adam’s disregard for the revealed will (commandment of God). God “said” and Adam “did not heed” the commandment of the LORD. What prompted Adam to so disregard this command of God? Was it pride? Was it self-confidence? Was it rebellion? Perhaps it was a mixture of all these things. But let me appeal to Mr. Wayne Grudem who offers some interesting insights:
But with respect to the human race, the first sin was that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-19). Their eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is in many ways typical of sin generally. First, their sin struck at the basis for knowledge, for it gave a different answer to the question, “What is true?” Whereas God had said that Adam and Eve would die if they ate from the tree (Genesis 2:17), the serpent said, “You will not die” (Genesis 3:4). Eve decided to doubt the veracity of God’s Word and experiment to see whether God spoke truthfully.
Second, their sin struck at the basis of moral standards, for it gave a different answer to the question, “What is right?” God had said that it was morally right for Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruit of that one tree (Genesis 2:17). But the serpent suggested that it would be right and what would be good for her, rather than allowing God’s word
to define right and wrong. She “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,” and therefore she “took of its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6).Third, their sin gave a different answer to the question, “Who am I?” The correct answer was that Adam and Eve were creatures of God, dependent on Him and always to be subordinate to Him as their Creator and Lord. But Eve, and then Adam, succumbed to the temptation to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5), thus attempting to put themselves in the place of God.
It is important to insist on the historical truthfulness of the narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve. Just as the account of the creation of Adam and Eve is tied in with the rest of the historical narrative in the book of Genesis, so also this account of the fall of man, which follows the history of man’s creation, is presented by the author as straightforward, narrative history. Moreover, the New Testament authors look back on this account and affirm that “sin came into the world through one man” (Romans 5:12) and insist that “the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation” (Romans 5:16) and that the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning (2 Corinthians 11:3; cf. 1 Timothy 2:14). The serpent was no doubt, a real, physical serpent, but one that was talking because of the empowerment of Satan speaking through it (cf. Genesis 3:15 with Romans 16:20; also Numbers 22:28-30; Revelation 12:9; 20:2).
[Let me interject a thought here: if the story is simply allegory, then there is not a real man that brought sin and judgment into the world and therefore the argument for a real man (the God/man Jesus) to bring righteousness and justification could not be properly be understood as literal. How can we rightly interpret one action to be figurative and the other one literal when we have no basis to do so? The action of the first man is presented by Paul as just as literal as the action of Christ. The literal accounting of Genesis 1-3 is understood and offered by Paul as the theological proof that the forgiveness of sin introduced to mankind by the historical and literal Adam has been accomplished by the historical and literal person of Jesus Christ upon the cross].
Finally, we should note that all sin is ultimately irrational. It really did not make sense fro Satan to rebel against God in the expectation of being able to exalt himself above God. Nor did it make any sense for Adam and Eve to think that there could be any gain in disobeying the words of their Creator. These were foolish choices. The persistence of Satan in rebelling against God even today is still a foolish choice, as is the decision of the part of any human being to continue in a state of rebellion against God. It is not the wise man but “the fool” who “says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). It is the “fool” in the book of Proverbs who recklessly indulges in all kinds of sins (see Proverbs 10:23; 12:15; 14:7, 16; 15:5; 18:2; et al.). Though people sometimes persuade themselves that they have good reasons for sinning, when examined in the cold light of truth on the last day, it will be seen in every case that sin ultimately just does not make
sense.Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, pp. 492-493
A proper Biblical understanding of sin, its consequences and its remedy is only founded in both a literal Adam as understood from a literal reading of Genesis 1-3 and a literal “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). As it is written, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
One last thought – the key error in Adam and Eve’s thinking is well summarize this way. When they determined to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in direct violation of God’s expressly revealed will, they failed to take into consideration the following:
Knowing “good” they would be unable to do it; knowing “evil” they would be unable to resist it.
This is the curse. This is the total depravity of man – not that man is as bad as he can be, but rather that he is as bad off as he can be, unable to stand in the presence of the Holy God based upon any of his own works or merits. The first literal man (and subsequently all his posterity) needed a literal Savior. Praise be to our Father God, the Almighty, who has given us His Son (John 3:16), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), to be our Lord and Savior (Luke 2:11).
Soli Deo Gloria,
Pastor Ed
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