When God created Adam, He created a being neither good nor bad but with the capacity for either. Creating man in His image gave man the power to choose His own path, to create his own world, so to speak. The theological debate on Calvin’s inherited depravity assumes that Adam was created sinful or that he had a sinful nature. The first problem is that it fails to fit the description of Adam and Eve before the fall. We might liken them to innocent children, “knowing neither good nor evil” but with the power to choose either way. Yet, they began with life and the tree of life that offered the potential to live in Eden forever. All they had to do was to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew the law of God regarding that forbidden tree, but they had no knowledge of sin or its consequences. Not having experienced any pain for having transgressed that law, they had no sense of shame, guilt, or remorse. Separation (death) from God resulted only after they chose to transgress God’s law. As soon as they had eaten the forbidden fruit (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), as Satan promised, their eyes were opened to know the difference. They knew they were naked and that their world was about to change. But this occurred after they chose to eat the forbidden fruit and during the time of their innocence. God did not create their nature as evil. They were created with a choice but the potential for either evil or good. Being created in God’s image gave them this power. If he had created them evil, there would have been no need for Satan to tempt them to do evil. The fact that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the window of discernment was, at the same time, the proof of their sin. They explained to God that they hid because they were naked and God asked, “How did you know you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree in the midst of the garden?” The day their eyes were opened was the day they experienced death.
Second, Adam and Eve did not get any more life or brownie points for staying away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil than they had their first day in Eden. But, it only took one sin to lose fellowship with God. The beginning of sin and death that began from Adam and Eve’s choice to transgress God’s law reveals the nature of law and why death was the result. James describes it, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10). The nature of law requires two requirements. First, it demands perfection. Second, it demands the punishment of the violators. One violation is the same consequence as multiple violations. When we first read of Adam and Eve in the garden, they were alive because they had not transgressed God’s law. We cannot know how long they lived in Eden without touching the forbidden tree. After a year or two without sin, would we be able to argue that they were created with an obedient nature? However long they were in the garden without sin, a day came when they sinned. But, that no more proves a sin-nature as it does an obedient nature. Their nature is that they were created in God’s image with the power of choice. They could choose to obey, which they did for some period of time, and they could choose to disobey, which they also did on the day of the tempter’s snare. They could choose good or evil, but the day they chose evil over good was the day they died, and their eyes were opened to the reality of sin’s consequences.