"Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin." John 8:34

Adam's first sin brought the penalty specified in this lesson. The Bible proposition is that God, having made Adam perfect, required perfect obedience as the condition of everlasting life. One act of disobedience broke the covenant between God and Adam. (Hos. 6:7, Margin.) Immediately he dropped from favor, under the sentence, "Dying, thou shalt die." Nothing that Adam or his children could do subsequently could recover covenant relationship with God. The death penalty was the limit. [HGL581] By the law of heredity, Adam transmitted to his race a share of what he possessed, good and bad. As Adam could not erase his penalty, neither can his children. But as Adam could, by obedience to the Divine Law, prolong the process of his dying, so may his children. But the impairment wrought by sin has so progressed that many of Adam's children die in infancy; and few maintain the struggle for existence for a hundred years.

Our forefathers during the Dark Ages misunderstood the Heavenly Father's character and Plan. Misunderstanding the Bible to teach that God arranged for the eternal torture of all except the Church, they sought to copy their misconception of Jehovah by torturing their fellow-creatures. Because God's people have been gradually getting back to the teaching of His Word, the horrible practises of the past are no longer approved. But many have much yet to learn respecting the true teaching of the Bible.

The curse which God pronounced against our race is not eternal torment at the hands of devils; but as the Apostle says, "The wages of sin is death." The remedy is a resurrection, secured through the Redeemer's death at Calvary. "The gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." All experience the death penalty. All will have opportunity sometime of regaining everlasting life through Messiah's redemptive work and His Kingdom.

For a Little Flock, who in this Age have obeyed the Master's Voice, God has provided glorious things, far superior to anything that Adam lost. To those who walk in Jesus' footsteps, God promises a share with the Master in His glorious Kingdom.

If our Christian forefathers could properly have appreciated today's lesson, they would have known what the Bible teaches respecting the "wages of sin," and have seen how seriously public thought had drifted away from the Divine testimony, to "doctrines of demons." How distinctly God forewarned our first parents that eating the forbidden fruit would bring upon them the death penalty! After they had disobeyed, God drove them out of Eden, that the penalty pronounced against them might be accomplished. Had they continued in Eden, eating of its life-sustaining fruits, they would have lived indefinitely.

God foreknew the fall of man, before the foundation of the world, and provided the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. God had a glorious purpose interwoven with His permission of sin, which the majority but faintly discerned until lately. Jesus intimated that shortly before the establishment of His Kingdom His Church will understand features of the Divine Plan previously kept secret they will have an appreciation of God's purposes, and His reasons for having permitted sin and death for six thousand years.

How Lucifer and the holy angels became disloyal to God we will inquire into later. In this lesson Lucifer, or Satan, is shown as seeking to alienate our first parents from the Creator, that he might enslave them as servants. A spirit being, he would be unseen to Eve. It suited his purposes to possess a serpent, through which to tempt Eve. The serpent doubtless spoke by signs; as we sometimes say, "Actions speak louder than words."

The serpent ate of the forbidden fruit in the sight of the woman and then manifested its wisdom. The woman perceived. She craved knowledge. Could it be that God wished to keep them in ignorance, and for that reason had forbidden their eating of the fruit? Such disloyal thoughts should have been promptly spurned. But the insidious poison worked. She was not deceived as respects the wrongdoing, but regarding the result. Seeing that the serpent was not poisoned by the fruit, she did not realize that the poison to her was that of disobedience bringing the death sentence. Adam's eating of the fruit was with full knowledge of the result. In love with his wife, he ate knowingly, preferring to die with her rather than to live without her.