The Eve in Us All

A favorite trope of family sitcoms goes something like this: child enters scene, child gets in trouble, mom yells a tried-and-true proverb at child, child storms off, mom’s eyes wide, mom says out loud, “Oh no, I’ve become my mother!” Cue fake audience laughter and cut to commercial. We laugh because we too often experience this very scenario in our own lives or in the lives of our friends. Christians fall into this scenario as well. We blame Eve for cramps during our periods, for disobedient children, for fights with our husbands, for warfare, for poverty, for the brokenness we encounter on a regular basis. Yet, if we take an honest look at ourselves, we would have eaten from the forbidden tree too.

Yesterday we discussed the brokenness we inherited from our first parents. And, though we could spend time lambasting their mistakes, we should only do so in rooms with no mirrors. Scripture and our own lives testify to us that we, like Eve, choose to listen to the voice of the liar instead of the voice of God. We not only choose to sin—we enjoy it. Sometimes we even celebrate it, or tweet it, or Instagram it. We then look around us and find others to drag with us to participate in it. We rebel often and with gusto.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they created original sin—a term the church has historically defined as the effects of their first sin. We inherited a fallen nature that changes our appetite toward things God has forbidden. As some would say, “We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.” In other words, we are obedient slaves to sin longing to be set free from this bondage.

This truth might be hard to swallow. It seems like a harsh way to view humanity. Yet we scream at those we love the most, we exploit others for our own satisfaction, and we struggle to really love ourselves every day. Instead of thinking this is too low a view of humanity, what if we turned the coin over and realized how great a salvation God offers? Humans who need only a little salvation to stop doing bad things do not need a great God to do so—they need behavior modification. But humans who recognize their utter brokenness know they need a cosmic salvation to not only change their behavior, but to also change their very nature. Eve ate the apple, and now we crave apple pie. We need a gospel that not only helps us put down the apple, but also changes us to no longer desire forbidden fruit.