Before sin spoiled the picture, Adam and Eve enjoyed intimacy with their Creator in a beautiful Garden of Eden. Tragically, they bought into Satan's lie about becoming as wise as God and broke the bond of trust with their Maker. Their sin resulted in alienation, an alienation which quickly extended to the first family, tearing it apart (Genesis 3:15 to 4:8). Separation from God did indeed result in death, "for the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

After being expelled from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve found life a lot tougher on the outside. Childbearing and tilling the soil now came with blood, sweat, and tears. But much harder to endure was the emptiness of heart that began to plague them. Their intimate bond with God broken, they found themselves vulnerable to all kinds of hidden longings, unsatisfied desires, painful yearnings. They were not unlike that seaman abandoned on an island, surrounded by the greatest tragedy of all: the loneliness of sin.

What condition now exists for all humanity?

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way DEATH CAME TO ALL MEN, because ALL SINNED.”
—Romans 5:12.