What’s the real meaning behind of the concept of original sin? And why is it assumed that Adam and Eve are the first human beings to blame for bringing sin into the world?

This is a rather silly notion that many have blindly swallowed because they do not think deeply enough about the book they are reading.

The true meaning of sin is to miss the mark. And it has nothing to do with the physical actions. Original sin is a beautiful concept explaining the reason that you seem alienated from God as you dwell in a physical body.

When Paul stated that the wages of sin are death, he was speaking spiritually. We can see this is true from the story of Adam and Eve. God told them that they would die upon partaking of the tree of knowledge. But the author of Genesis was speaking spiritually, not physically. They died spiritually, but were given physical life.

All physical things eventually die, and physical things died for millions of years before man came onto the scene. The actions of man did not originally bring death into the world. Death of the physical body is part of the cyclical state of nature.

In fact, it would be more correct to say that in the case of the story of Adam and Eve, partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil gave them physical life. They were removed from paradise (consciously) and placed into the physical world we know today. It is a world full of thorns and thistles and physical suffering, even though it is also a place of physical beauty. The symbolism and metaphor is strikingly obvious when we stop to think about it.

The Adam and Eve story was a brilliant attempt by the authors of Genesis to explain why we are separated from what we term “God.” Spirit, or Ruach, is simply an ancient term somewhat analogous to consciousness today. It is likened unto wind, which cannot be seen but has force. Consciousness is the spark of life, but it must have a body to experience through, to learn through, and to grow through. Adam and Even are metaphorical representations of mankind’s beginnings into a physical experience. Even the term Adam means humanity, and it is not the name of one man.

Eden is not a physical location either, but a state of consciousness. Consciousness allows the creation of the lower self and ego (the “I”) when it is active in a physical body. It becomes more complex and diversifies as it evolves through the physical bodies it operates through. The story of Adam and Eve explains this process through the language and culture of ancient times. Mankind’s fall from paradise is really the story of consciousness playing in a physical world.

Where Original Sin Comes In

 Original sin is simply the state of ignorance man now finds himself in. It is his ignorance of spiritual things. And this is what the Apostle Paul was speaking of. The wages of sin leads to death because as man is ignorant of his true nature, he is spiritually dead. Paul taught that faith in Jesus Christ (even without works) was the answer to this dilemma. Have you ever wondered why some argue whether Paul really believed in faith without works? They are arguing over something that isn’t even an issue. Since Paul is speaking completely spiritually, physical acts aren’t even in the equation. They are therefore wasting their time and debating about a religious idea that was born from Paul’s hard-to-understand writings.

So what is it that Paul means exactly when he states that Jesus Christ is the answer to our spiritual death problem? Is he stating that belief in one man’s act on the cross who was really God makes us become spiritually alive?

Well, yes and no. If it were possible to have a conversation with Paul today about his meaning, he would probably chuckle at how the ideas in religion have evolved over these past thousand years. For Paul, Jesus Christ was the symbol for spiritual truth and life. For Paul, Jesus Christ was the escape from spiritual ignorance. But not just because you believed in the actions of a man that was really God, but because you believed that Jesus Christ was the symbol for the truth of your true spiritual nature. The act of Jesus Christ and the cross is the grand metaphorical theme of your redemption.

You see, when Paul was penning his letters, the Gospels hadn’t even been written yet. When he spoke to Timothy about scriptures being the only inspired word of God, he was speaking of the Old Testament. And Paul made it crystal clear that the symbol of Jesus Christ, as a type and metaphor, was prevalent throughout the inspired writings of the Old Testament. Paul never mentions the virgin birth or lineage of Jesus because he wasn’t concerned with such things. He was concerned with the Jesus Christ nature that is birthed within man as his spiritual ignorance is overcome with the knowledge and understanding of God, that is within man’s true spiritual nature.

If you want to retain the idea that you must believe that a literal human who was God died on a cross for your sin, there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand the deeper meaning of the Gospel’s Jesus as well. You see, a belief in something is simply an idea you hold with conviction, and a belief can never open the eyes of your spiritual ignorance to you. That can only happen if what Jesus Christ represents is actually birthed inside of you, as Paul advocates. Even Jesus himself stated that you must go within yourself, to your true spiritual nature, to see the Kingdom of God. Religious people look to religion and belief systems to save them, but they retain their ignorance of spiritual things unless they go within themselves, to an aspect of you that is much greater than the limited physical body and personality that you operate through now. Your physical body is fearfully and wonderfully made, but the spiritual aspect of you is so much more wonderful that when Paul went within himself (to the third heaven), he stated that he could not even talk about what he experienced, because it would not make sense to our conscious “I” operating in this limiting physical world.

It would seem today that many religious people cannot understand even the basics of Paul’s writings, which was also true with the church back then. This is not to speak badly of anyone, because we are all immersed in a religiously minded culture that is responsible for us reading Paul’s text, and the entire Bible, with blinders on. Our religious biases (most of us have them to a certain extent), cloud every verse and line we read until we learn to read the Bible with spiritual eyes instead of physical ones.

But you can detour all this religious thinking by just taking Jesus’ advice. Go within yourself and learn what the kingdom of God is truly about. That’s where the real knowledge of Jesus resides. The entire Bible explains this process perfectly, if only we could see what the spirituality of it, or the metaphor and symbolism of it, is all about. Even the scientist and hard skeptic could then appreciate the Bible for what it really is, instead of what religion tries to make it be.

Blessings!