Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 2:16, 17; Gen. 3:1–7;
Ps. 115:17; John 5:28, 29; Rom. 5:12; 2 Cor. 5:21.
Memory Text: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered
the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all
men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NKJV).
Christ was the Divine Agent through whom God brought the uni-
verse and the world into existence (John 1:1–3, 10; Col. 1:16;
Heb. 1:2). But when God the Father conferred special honor
on Christ and announced that They together would create this world,
“Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ” (Ellen G. White, The
Story of Redemption, p. 14) and plotted against Him.
Having been cast out of heaven, Satan decided “to destroy the hap-
piness of Adam and Eve” on earth and thereby “cause grief in heaven.”
He imagined that “if he could in any way beguile them [Adam and
Eve] to disobedience, God would make some provision whereby they
might be pardoned, and then himself and all the fallen angels would
be in a fair way to share with them of God’s mercy.”—The Story of
Redemption, p. 27. Fully aware of Satan’s strategy, God warned Adam
and Eve not to expose themselves to temptation (Gen. 2:16, 17). This
means that even when the world was still perfect and blameless, there
were already clear restrictions for human beings to follow.
This week we will reflect on the fall of Adam and Eve, on how sin
and death took over our world, and on how God planted a seed of hope
for humanity even back in Eden.
