In my Grandmother’s house, there is a large family tree hanging on the dining room wall. It's a wooden cut-out that has six branches going out from its trunk to represent her six children. Then it spreads out to accommodate each of their spouses, their children, and even now their children’s children! All represented by cute little wooden apple cut-outs. It’s really an incredible thing to see.

Isn’t it interesting to think that we all have two of the same people at the top of each of our family trees? Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, though, we’ve inherited their sinful nature.

Genesis begins with a list of things God made—light, land and sea, plants and trees, the sun, moon, and stars, all the creatures… and after each act of creation, He said, “That’s good.” But then He created man and woman in His own image and exclaimed, “This is very good!” (Genesis 1:26-31, NLT)
 
Well, everything was going along swimmingly until they ate some bad food. Understatement of the year, because the results were devastating. The perfect world was now imperfect. There were several results:

• First was guilt and its best friend, shame. (Genesis 3:7, NLT)  “they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”
• Second was fear. (Genesis 3:10, NLT) “I heard your voice in the garden and hid myself because I was afraid.”
• Next was blame. (Genesis 3:12, NLT) “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”,” said Adam.
• Fourth was excruciating work. (Genesis 3:18-19, NIV) “It will produce thorns and thistles..and you will labor by the sweat of your brow.’”

Yes, sin came into the human heart from our family tree patriarch. But over the next few verses in Romans 5, the tide changes, and we are met with the good news of the Gospel: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19, NIV). Don’t overlook the name on that branch of humanity’s family tree! Jesus changes everything.