God created man. In the beginning, after He finished the heavens and the earth, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”… (Gen. 1:26)
He created Adam perfect. We read in Ecclesiastes 7:29,
“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”
Also in Ezekiel 28:15,
“You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you.”
Man was created in the image of God. That meant that he was able to make decisions, he had free will, and he could commune with God, but still, man was not like God. Man did not have the ability to recognize good or evil, or to foresee the future.
Jehova God had decided from before the foundation of the world to create a people for His pleasure and glory, because He is God, the Almighty. He wanted to make this creature free, that out of his own volition he would love, obey and worship God without fear or doubt.
That’s why God also created Satan and evil. He gave man a choice. He said to the man in the Garden, “do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if you eat of it, you shall surely die.”
Then, Satan said to the man, “You shall not die; you shall be like God knowing good and evil.” Adam fell on the trap. The possibility of being like God was much more attractive than any warning of death. Adam chose to believe what Satan said. He believed Satan’s lie, and he died spiritually that very day.
The immediate consequence of Adam’s disobedience was that he could not be in the presence of God anymore. He became subject to death. Now, he was a servant of Satan. He was cursed, and destituted of the glory of God. Man was not free anymore. He became a slave of sin, and a slave of Satan, destined to death and eternal damnation. He learned good and evil, but his own understanding of it, not God’s.
This is the present condition of humankind. Now, man is in need of a Redeemer who can bring him out of his lost state: The Second Adam.
This is a great post, thanks!