A special place in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament is occupied by an event that reversed the course of development of human history. Many have heard of the fall of the first people and their expulsion from paradise. Some prominent artists even turned to this topic in their works, recording this moment on canvases that became immortal masterpieces of world painting.
Orthodoxy refers to the act of a person committing the first sin. The Bible describes this as eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, after which people were expelled from paradise.
The essence of sin was to choose a person to disobey the only commandment of God. The latter was given so that a person with his free choice would constantly improve in good (life according to the commandment of God). The Bible says that after eating the forbidden fruit, people were able to distinguish between good and evil. It is at this time that evil enters human life, and the fall of man changes the nature of people. Thus, in Christianity, evil is understood as a free choice of the will of personal beings in an effort to violate the divine law. Once entering the world, sin (evil) penetrates the nature of man, changing it radically.
Thus, human nature becomes predisposed to sin. She loses her original holiness and grace. Sin is no longer just a violation of the law, but a disease of human nature, which needs treatment. A person at a natural level has a desire and desire for sin. That is why Christ comes into the world to save man and give people the opportunity to cleanse their souls from sin. However, the very nature of people remains damaged. An irreplaceable consequence of the damage to human nature, according to the teachings of Orthodox Christianity, is physical death. It turns out that death was unnatural for a person who was created "neither necessary mortal nor necessary immortal" (quoted by priest Oleg Davydenkov "Dogmatic theology"). People were predisposed to one and the other, depending on the choice of their free will.
Thus, the main consequences of the fall for human nature were a change in the nature of people, the entry into human life of death and a spiritual disposition to sin.
