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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
14. Part 2, Section 14: Of the Transgression of God’s Command
Man broke that salutary command which was given to him by God; and by so doing, overturned and destroyed that godlike happiness in which he was created.
1. The salutary preventive furnished by the merciful God, had not the desired effect upon man. His bodily affections overcame the powers of his reason; pleasure, by flattering his feelings, overthrew his sound reason; and material beauty and enjoyment were preferred to that which is spiritual and divine. Thus you behold in what manner this fatal fall of the human race happened, of which we are assured by the word of God; Gen. iii. Paradise abounded in all that was beautiful, and possessed all that was capable of charming the senses of man. But man was most of all attracted by the beauty of that tree, which was forbidden by the command of God, and which by the dictates of reason, ought to have been avoided; because, as above shewn, by partaking of it, sensual gratification was preferred to spiritual pleasure, which consists in obeying the command of the blessed God.
Eve, being less able to resist the insinuating and destructive assault of the tempter, was first deceived; and, as the Holy Scriptures inform us, he, under the form of a subtle serpent, deceitfully assured her, that not only no evil consequences could happen from what she did, but, that on the contrary, she would thereby be brought into a more perfect condition: “Ye shall be as Gods;” Gen. iii. 5. This transgression of the woman was the most pernicious example for Adam himself, who, with all his exalted mental abilities, was overcome by sensual temptation.
We have above stated, that the happiness of man could not be destroyed, so long as reason continued to reign in him; but, behold, this chief ruler of human actions hurled from his throne, and, in place of him, fleshly lusts assume the reins, and make reason their slave and prisoner. The terrible consequences of such a change could be nothing less than mortal.
The effects of Transgression.
2. After man had disobeyed reason, and transgressed the command, he fell from a most blessed into a most miserable condition. The powers of reason were now overcome, and its light became dim; the holiness of the will was defiled, the peace of the soul disturbed, the door to the passions, that always oppose reason, was opened, and man became the mournful theatre of this internal war. Along with the passions also vices entered, and they became the causes of innumerable sorrows and diseases,—diseases debilitating the body, and grief and sorrow enervating the mind. Thus followed the temporal death, which God threatened as the reward of transgression.
But this temporal death drew after it a still more awful spiritual death, which consists in the soul being cast out from God, because the bonds which united God with man, namely, the light of his reason, and the holiness of his will, were, by his transgression, dissolved. Such a condition is, in different places of the Holy Scriptures, styled a fallen state, a state of sin, of the flesh, of misery, of darkness, of ignorance, of slavery, and lastly, a state of death. At the fall of man also, the very earth was cursed of God; Gen. iii. 17; that is, it was subjected to vanity, which consisted in this: that from that period, by the idleness and carelessness of man, it was not adorned with such beauty and abundance as it received at its creation; and farther, that the inconsiderateness and wickedness of man would lead him to pervert all the good things it contains.