John 3:16 (New International Version, ©2010)
16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Why did God say this? Because ALL men are sinners! Every single one of us! Whether we are nice, kind, charitable, altruistic, etc, we are ALL sinners! Why? Sin came into the world through one act. Adam in Genesis ate from the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil.
Genesis 3 ( New International Version @2010 )
THE FALL
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
In Genesis, God had given both Adam and Eve orders NOT to eat from the tree that was in the center of the Garden of Eden ( which was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ). Eve wandered away from her covering ( her husband Adam ) and was beguiled into eating by the "smooth talking serpent" ( who was none other than Satan ). But Adam, willingly chose to eat. He knew perfectly well that he was disobeying God, but he loved his wife so dearly that he choose to eat in order not to be left out and separated from her.
God warned: "In the day that you eat, you shall surely die." God was not only talking about physical death, but spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God. Ever since that day, man had been dying because of Adam and Eve's disobedience. And from that moment on, Adam and Eve were separated from God.
Previously God would come down in the Garden, walk and talk with them, now that their physical eyes were opened and their physical ( fleshly ) nakedness was revealed, they both hid from God. The Bible says "They sewed together fig leaves." to cover themselves. Contrary to popular belief, they didn't just sew on patches in certain spots, they wrapped themselves from head to toe with fauna! Why? Because the shakana glory of God had been removed. They were now fully aware of their sinfulness and nakedness.
God's questions to Adam were: "Where art thou?" and "Who told you that you were naked?" Why did God ask these questions? Adam and Eve used eagerly meet God every day in the cool of the evening. They had no sin nature, were not self aware or self conscious so they had no problem seeing and meeting God. Now, they were hiding. Something was definitely wrong. Adam and Eve were not supposed to even know they were naked. The shakana glory of God covered them and hid their nakedness. Obviously someone else had crept in ( Satan ) and told them that they were naked. As soon as Eve pointed out who told her ( Satan ) God issued curses.
1. Upon Satan: That the serpent ( and every one from there on ) would crawl on it's belly in the dust.
2. That Adam ( and every man from there on ) shall work by the sweat of his brow. Heavy labor.
3. That Eve would crave her husbands affections and have pain in childbirth.
Ooooooh! So that's where all of the problems started, you say as you scratch your head. Yep! It is. But the most important problem was the fact that man no longer had an open relationship with God! Why? Because his flesh ( human nature ) now stood in the way, and will continue to stand in the way unless man WILLINGLY allows Christ to come in.
That means EVERY SINGLE MAN AND WOMAN must personally make that decision! When the Gospel of Christ is presented to you, you have a choice to make. You can either say "Yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior!" or you can say "No, I don't want to be bothered." or "Some other time.". Either way God will not force or make you decide. God wants man to WILLINGLY choose Him. So, friend. the ball is in your court.
