The Fall of Man and the Atonement

Today I read Romans 5 where Paul mainly talks about the Fall of man brought about by Adam and Eve and the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it corrects what happened because of the Fall. It got me thinking about the Fall of Man. I am given to understand that there are some religions that feel the Fall of Man was a mistake. That if Adam and Even had just resisted and not eaten of the forbidden fruit, we would all still be in a state of paradise. We know from the scriptures that this is not true.

Lehi teaches his son Jacob, and subsequently us, in 2 Nephi 2 that the Fall of Man was necessary and needed to happen. There would have been no progress without it and Adam and Even would have remained in their state of innocence forever. We really don't know how long they were in the Garden of Eden at all. But we do know that the Fall of Man was a necessary component of the plan of Salvation. Satan thought that he was thwarting the plan of God by tricking Eve to partake of the fruit but in fact he was doing what God knew would happen all along. God could not be part of what brings death and suffering into the world. That needed to be all man's doing. So He left it in the hands of Adam and Eve and Satan came and tricked Eve into partaking of the fruit after which Adam recognized that since Eve had partaken of the fruit, she would be cast out and in order for mankind to be born he needed to go with her so he partook of the fruit with full knowledge of what would happen.

So Adam brings death and suffering into the world, and Jesus Christ, through His Atonement was able to overcome and conquer death and suffering. We know of course that Adam's Fall brought about two types of death, physical and spiritual. The physical death is obviously the death of our mortal body. Spiritual death is the separation of our spirits from God's presence which is caused by sin. No mortal can overcome either of these obstacles on their own, it took the Atonement of Jesus Christ to save mankind from death and from sin. We are very fortunate that Jesus was so obedient to Heavenly Father's wishes and did not back out at the last moment. Without His perfect sacrifice in our behalf, we would all of us still be stuck, damned forever. I am eternally grateful to Jesus for what He has done for all of us, for me. Without Him we would all be lost forever. Until tomorrow.