Booger McLovin

A common charge against Christianity is that it is unjust. Critics say we suffer because Eve reached for forbidden fruit, as though God punishes the children for the mother’s crime. To them, Christianity seems illogical, the story of guilt unfairly inherited. But this objection falters once we see sin not as a legal trick but as a deep corruption of the very soil from which humanity grows.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed, they did more than break a rule. They fractured the ground of human nature itself. Sin entered, and like a toxin poured into the earth, it sank deep into the soil of mankind. Paul declares, “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

We are not hauled into court for Adam’s offense as unwilling defendants. Rather, we are born from the same soil that was poisoned at the beginning. Every tree that rises from poisoned ground bears the corruption in its roots, branches, and fruit. Original sin is not a fine levied against us, it is a sickness in the very stuff of our humanity. And we do not stop at inheriting it, we confirm it with our own rebellion.

But why would God allow soil to be so vulnerable to corruption? The answer lies in free will. Love cannot be forced, and obedience without choice is hollow. God made His creatures free, even knowing the danger. As Moses told Israel, “I have placed before you life and death, blessing and curse; so choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Even angels, though created higher than men, bore this freedom. Some chose rebellion and fell, as Peter writes, “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell” (2 Peter 2:4). Their fall proves the point. If beings of such splendor could be corrupted, how much more fragile mankind? Yet without freedom, no angel and no man could ever have loved God. The disease in the soil is the price of planting a garden where love might truly bloom.

If all men, and even angels, failed, who could stand? Only Christ. He entered into the poisoned soil yet was not corrupted by it. “He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Where Adam failed in Eden’s garden, Christ triumphed in Gethsemane. He is the one root that sprang holy from the poisoned earth, the one tree untouched by decay. And by His cross He draws out the poison, offering life where death once reigned.

Even before His coming, God did not abandon His people to corruption. Abraham believed the Lord, and “it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Those who sought God, repented, and followed the law written on their hearts were counted righteous by faith. Still, these were shadows of a greater promise, for the soil could not cleanse itself. Full redemption awaited Christ, in whom salvation is offered freely. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The skeptic claims Christianity is illogical because corruption spreads from one to all. But the gospel answers, if corruption can spread from one, why not healing? As Paul writes, “So then, as through one offense the result was condemnation to all mankind, so also through one act of righteousness the result was justification of life to all mankind” (Romans 5:18). If poisoned soil brings death to all who grow from it, then Christ is the living water poured out to cleanse it.

Christianity is not the tale of a tyrant punishing children for another’s mistake. It is the story of a Father who gave freedom, knowing its cost, and when corruption spread through the soil of mankind, He sent His Son to renew the earth itself. In Adam all die, but in Christ all may be made alive. The soil is healed, and from it God grows a new creation.