The terms “original sin” and “imputed sin” refer to the two main effects that Adam’s one act of sinning had upon the whole human race.  

“Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world (the orderly arrangement of the kosmos), and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)

1. First, as a result of Adam’s sin we all enter this world with the fallen Sin-nature of the Serpent. I call this the Serpentine nature, by which we innately sin the sins of “pride”; we are self-loving, self-serving, and self-preserving… at almost any cost. The credo of fallen man is: “Thou Shalt not be Found Out” (Berta Buxton), so we are born liars as children of “the father of lies.”

This is what is commonly called “original sin.” It is the sinful tendencies, desires, and dispositions in our hearts with which we are all born. Thus, original sin is something inherent in us, it’s a morally ruined character. The original sin that we are all born with manifests itself throughout our lives in actual sins--the actions, thoughts, and feelings we have that violate God’s moral commands. So, our sinful hearts (original sin) cause us to make sinful choices, think sinful thoughts, and feel sinful feelings (actual sins). We are not sinners because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners. We are all born totally imprisoned in original sin. There is no island of goodness left in us.

2. In God’s eyes, there’s but one man (Adam), one Devil, and the One Lord Himself who are active on the stage of creation. Seeing this will help us to realize and define “imputed sin." Imputed Sin" conveys to all men the guilt of Adam’s sin; that guilt does not apply only to Adam himself, but to us all.  Paul wrote; “For as by one man's (Adam’s) disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus) shall many be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:19) Being ‘of the one man, Adam’ we are all regarded as having sinned “in Adam,” hence deserving of the same punishment, which is death. So, we’ve not only received the infectious sinful nature of Adam, simply because we’re all Adam’s physical progeny. We are also regarded as ‘having sinned … “in Adam” such that we are guilty of his act as well. “For as “in Adam” ALL die, even so “in Christ” shall ALL be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22) Whereas Adam’s “original sin” is the ruin of our character and thus is a reference to our corrupted internal qualities, this imputed sin is the ruin of our standing before God. Thus, imputed sin is an impartial accounting of guilt upon “all: men. Both original sin and imputed sin place us under the judgment of God.

So, we have seen two things that need a remedy. Since the consequences of Adam’s sin are twofold, original sin and imputed sin, the remedy of our salvation is also twofold. One is our sinful nature that enslaves us to sin, and the other is our original guilt and condemnation that is rooted not first in our own individual sinning but in our connection with Adam in his sin. The book of Romans—indeed the whole Bible— is the story of how God has worked in history to remedy these two problems. The problem of our condemnation in Adam God remedies through justification in Christ. The problem of our corruption and depravity he remedies through sanctification by the Spirit. Or to put it another way: The problem of our legal guilt and condemnation before God is solved by his reckoning to us the righteousness Christ; and the problem of our moral defilement and habitual sinning is solved by his purifying us by the work of Spirit. The first remedy, justification, comes to us by the imputed righteousness of Christ. The other, sanctification, comes to us by imparted righteousness of Christ.  Now “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” (Rom. 4:8), since our justification is by sins forgiven instantaneously, at the moment we first trust in Christ as Savior. However, our sanctification is progressive by our growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ’s finished Crosswork.

Let’s now see what we can learn from Genesis 3:6-8. Here see the Progressive Steps to Sin and Death:

1. Questioning God’s Words (v1)
2. Modify God’s Words (compare Gen. 2:17 with 3:3)
3. Deny God’s Words (v4)
4. Disobey God’s Words (v6)
5. Die (2:17)

3:6 - The fruit of “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil” (2:17) had these three attractions:

1. It appeared as “good for food”
2. “pleasant to the eye”
3.  and to be “desired to make one wise” … “ye shall be as gods” by “knowing…good and evil” (v5)

“Wisdom” was Eve’s the strongest draw to the tree. She fell for the Serpent’s marketing scheme, the first advertising campaign of Satan… that she and Adam could “be as gods.” Satan’s marketing scheme in the garden appealed to two of his own attitudes by which he had rebelled against God:

1. Coveting - The woman experienced the attitude of coveting -  desiring as if she needed something else to be complete.
2. Pride – The “Words of God” were abandoned for personal thoughts, conclusions and desires.

Proverbs 11:2 “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

1 John 2:16 warns of the attraction of “the world.” … “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, Is Not of The Father, But Is of The World.” (1John 2:16)

James 1:14-15 warns that “desires” lead to sin and then to death. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. ¹⁵ Then when lust (strong desire) hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

In Genesis 3:6 the woman “took,” “ate” and “gave.” The woman does not try to tempt the man, the woman gave and the man took. The man does not challenge her actions or question the ethics.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world (Gk. kosmos, the orderly arrangement), and death by sin; and so (therefore) death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity (total sufficiency) that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)
“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1 Timothy 2:14) 

Adam’s Sin Affects Us in 2 Ways:

1)     Adam’s “Sin” nature was imputed or counted to us… as sinners also.

a.      Impute means to attribute or ascribe or count something to someone.

b.      Adam was the federal head, the leader, the representative of the whole human race.

c.      God’s Answer for “imputed sin” is the “imputed righteousness” of Christ (cf. Rom. 5:15-19)

2)    The Inherited Sin-nature

a.      All men are conceived and born into Adam’s sinful state (Psalms 51:5) The Sin-nature has passed to all men, just as an infection may be past physically... to all his descendants, all the subsequent generations of Adam.

b.      All men are sinners “by nature” (Ephesians 2:1-3)

e.      Result is Total Depravity – Man is as bad off as he can be, but not always as bad as he can be.

f.      God’s Answer for Inherited Sin or the Sin-Nature is our co-death “with Him” at the Cross.

“Knowing this, that our old man (old soul-self) is crucified with him, (so) that the ‘body of sin’ might be destroyed (Gk. kartargeo, made of no effect), that henceforth we should not serve sin. ⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7) \

“that are Christ’s have (already thereby) crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Gal. 5:24)

3:7 – At the Fall, Adam and Eve’s Their “Consciences” were Activated.

1. Their eyes were opened.
2. Originally God’s representatives, but now their clothing of the light of God “went out.”
3. So “they knew” they were naked.
4. So, they sewed fig leaves (fig leaves being the largest leaf in the land of Israel).
5. They made themselves inadequate ‘coverings.’

The Man and Woman actually tried to be Self-atoning and Self-protecting, but Sin had brought:

1)     Guilt and Shame – immediately

2)     Broken Fellowship with each other – blaming each other; making excuses, Not Confessing their Sin or Repenting.

3)     Broken Fellowship with God. (3:8)

a.      They heard the “voice of the Lord” but did not respond

b.      They Hid from God

c.      They were afraid of God.

3:8 – God “Walking” with Adam “in the cool of the day” suggests a habitual action.  God would have come every day to the garden, in the evening to walk with the Man and the Woman. Actually, “in the cool of the day” is the Hebrew phrase “wind (“ruah”) of the day.”  A good and typical translation is “at the time of the evening breeze” which means “in the evening when the breeze had cooled the day” and is contrasted to the hot part of the day or “the heat of the day” (Gen. 18:1).

To “walk with God” in Genesis refers to righteous conduct of men like Enoch, Noah and Abraham.

But now, Adam and Eve do not walk with God.  They hid from God. So, their attempt to “be like God” has left them and mankind running and hiding from God.  They are now far from being “like God,” they became like their false father of sorts – “your father the Devil” (cf. John 8:44).

“Trees” are important throughout this story and the Bible:

1)     Ch. 1 & 2 – “The Tree of Life” is God’s Provision, representing Christ (John 15, etc.). It appears that the Man never ate of this tree when he could have.

2)     Ch. 3 – “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil” incites man against God. This is the Tree of mankind’s hoped for “independence from God”

3)     Ch. 3 – “Knowledge” illicitly gained by the Man and Woman eating of “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil” activated their consciences, causing them to Hide in the Trees.

4)     Ch. 3 – God’s drives Man from the ‘Trees’ and bars him from “The Tree of Life.”

“A Tree” is a place of death and curse.  

“And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: ²³ His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)

And “A Tree” removes the curse of “the Law of Sin and death” (Rom. 8:2b)

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatians 3:13)

Jesus removed Our Sins, bearing them “in His own body on the tree.”  

“(Jesus) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed (healed ‘spiritually’ from sin’s burden).” (1Peter 2:24)

Tree of Life is on both sides of “the river of life.”  “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life…”  (Revelation 22:2a)