The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland

own desire"? It would be blasphemy to suggest that
God created him with a sinful nature or with builtin
temptations to sin. The Lord's warning to the
sinless pair was specific: they were to beware only
"of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"
(Genesis 2:17). They were totally safe anywhere
else in the Garden. Satan could not have appealed
to them anywhere else. If there were temptations
lurking within them that could spring up while they
were anywhere else, the Lord was remiss in not
warning them. We read how the temptation of the
forbidden fruit was external: "When the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise," she sinned. The "desire" was
created only by external stimuli. We dare not say
that God implanted within her that evil "desire"
like a seed waiting to sprout. She and Adam were
tempted from without and fell. In their sinless state
Adam and Eve did not need to deny their own will
in order to follow God's will; they knew no cross
on which a sinful self needed always to be
crucified.
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