Genesis 1-3 is the key to understanding original sin, because it
is the place were human sin began. In order to give an answer to what original
sin is or how it impacts people today we must define sin. Erickson defines sin as a failure to let God be God, thus
putting something or someone in God’s place of supremacy.1 I believe that the Bible’s definition is a little clearer.
Let us begin by looking at Genesis 1-3: God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created
him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”2Then the Lord God took
the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The
Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat
freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,
for …