Adam is now outside of Eden as lost and ruined, but not without hope. The Seed of the woman was announced as the bruiser of the serpent's head, the destroyer of his power, and the deliverer of the fallen pair. We doubt not that, through grace, they laid hold on the blessed hope thus set before them by their merciful Creator. But though the subjects of God's saving grace, the helpless objects of His compassion, they had now, in addition to body, soul, and spirit, what scripture calls " the flesh "-a perverse will- the carnal mind which is enmity against God, which is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be. This is the dreadful evil which was infused into man's nature when he took of the forbidden fruit in obedience to Satan. It was then that the enemy dropped this deadly poison of unbelief into the heart of his victim, and which, in process of time, and with the increase of the human family, filled the whole earth with corruption and violence, and brought in the flood on the world of the ungodly.
This is the sin, the sin of universal man-the sin of Jew and Gentile, of believer and unbeliever -the root-sin of all others And yet how little the most enlightened Christian may sometimes think of it. But what is it? It is the principle of distrust in God, and results in every form of self-will; that I like my own way, and not God's; that I am determined to have my own will and my own way, whether God wills it or not. Whenever there is this strong desire to have what we wish, the voice of the tempter is listened to. He suggests many reasons to prove that this something which we so crave after is right in itself, and so blinds the mind as to God's will on the subject. This is the very essence of sin, and the root of all other sins, because it proceeds from the unbelieving thought, that we can do better for ourselves than God is disposed to do for us, therefore we reckon not on Him, wait not for Him, but take things into our own hand, and pursue our own way. " Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me " is the language of self-will—the worst sin of the prodigal son. His wish was to get away from his father's house, his father's will, his father's ways, and revel in his own.
This is " the flesh," that evil thing which Adam knew nothing of before the Fall, but the moment sin entered it displayed itself. " And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden." Guilt on the conscience causes man to tremble at the sound of God's voice. Self-convicted of departure from Him, they sought to veil their nakedness from their own eyes, and then to hide themselves from Him. This dread, this distrust, of God is the sad inheritance which the primeval pair have bequeathed to all their posterity, but from which, thank God, every believer is delivered through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam. There, on the cross, as a man and a sinner-a child of the first Adam-he comes to his end. He dies to sin in Christ's death, and is raised to newness of life in His resurrection.