The answer
We have previously seen how the purpose of man’s creation is for him to live a continuous life in the love of God, until the image of God is established in him, and the warmth of love emanates from him to all of creation.
God provided Adam with free will, i.e. the choice between good and evil, thus placing on him the choice of either abiding by the commandment of God, or rejecting it, and thus rejecting God.
Man, however, wanted for himself to be a “god,” knowing good and evil. So, he preferred to do away with the love of God and His embracing him, disregarding that it is from God alone that man draws all gift, power, and life. The catastrophe then was that he listened to the voice of the devil through the serpent, transgressing the commandment of God and disobeying Him. This matter is of grave danger, for it is in opposition of God Himself, and also because it is from the First Man Adam, who is the crown and model for all of humanity. On account of this, the punishment had to be out of the norm.
Hence, the sin of the First Man Adam placed the whole of humanity in a vicious cycle, wherein by the absence of God from our lives, we have become inheritors of sin, and in it we are formed, thus becoming sinners, and no one is righteous.23 Apart from God, there is nothing but void, emptiness, and death.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Notes
23 Translator’s note: Cf. Rom. 3:10.
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 57–58.
The pages in the book (57–58)
