When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in a garden and said that they could eat the fruit from any of the trees apart from the one called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for disobedience was to become mortal and eventually die (Genesis 2:15-17). Disobedience to God is sin and the result of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
To test their obedience, God placed a snake in the garden with the ability to talk. He put doubt in Eve’s mind about God’s intentions and suggested the reason they were not to eat the fruit was that it would give them God’s knowledge about good and evil. He also accused God of being a liar in claiming that the threat of death was not real (Genesis 3:1-5).
Adam and Eve had a choice - should they believe God who created them, or an animal who they were given dominion over? They chose to disobey God (Genesis 3:6-7). This led to them knowing good and evil. The good they experienced in the garden was taken away from them and their life would be full of hardship ending in death (Genesis 3:16-19, 23).
The irony was that God intended them to be given immortality if they were obedient (Luke 20:35-36).
As a result of their disobedience, they brought a tendency to sin to all subsequent generations (Romans 7:15-20; Mark 7:20-23). This results in death (Romans 5:12; James 1:14-15). But this didn’t frustrate God’s plan. He will still achieve His purpose through a man called Abraham.
