When Adam ate of "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" he received more than the fruit he ate of. With the eating thereof, Adam took into his self being the fallen Serpentine Sin-nature of the Devil. This is how it was that Jesus could say to Peter "get the behind me Satan." This fruit contained a seed as does all fruit. We might say the seed within the fruit is that fallen Serpentine Sin-nature of the Devil. As we said in an earlier installment, what the Adam really ate was the Devils words as the "seed" of the thought that he and Eve could "be as gods," that is what has infected Adam and all his lineage.

The Scripture below indicates the source of Sin and who Sin is. Sin is the nature of the Devil who is the sinner from the beginning. John says of those who practice sinning, sin is their manner or way of living, and this is "of the Devil." The source or governing nature of the natural man is the Devil.

1 John 3:8 (AMP) [But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visibly in Christ) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].

All men since the time of Adam enter the world with the life and nature of the Evil One in them, as a "sort of father." Satan is not a real father, but he is the usurping one, the Devil stands in the place of a father. Confirming this, Jesus plainly told the religious leaders of Israel their father was the devil.

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts (desire) of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The word "father" here above is the Greek "pater." meaning a father or one who stands in the place of a father. The Devil is the usurper of mankind and he stands in the place of a father over fallen mankind.

Paul here confirms the tyrannical rule of the Devil over mankind by his Sin-nature "in" mankind.

Ephes. 2:2-3 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation (manner of living) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Now, since the day of Adam's fall by taking of that forbidden tree, mankind is fallen Sin in his flesh and by his corrupted soul. All of mankind comes into the world with a corrupted mindset that is twisted, ignorantly thinking himself adequate, and to be free and independent from God. Actually, man is far from free. Man has become "the slave" of the Serpent's Sin-nature, which is the invasive and viral infectious nature in all men.

I use the word viral to describe the Sin nature of the Devil because the Devil's Sin-spirit in man's flesh is as a virus; it spreads and usurps the soul-life of its host to propagate itself, just as the HIV and most all viruses. The virus of the Sin-nature as the seed of the fruit Adam ate of came into man's body, but soon it also invaded the soul's mind. Thus the Apostle Paul writes that the carnal mind or the "mind of the flesh," which is "at enmity with God." Thus unregenerate men are hostile toward God and in opposition to true Godliness.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind (mind of the flesh) is enmity against (echthra, hostile to) God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Seeing that the mind is at enmity to God, Paul says the "natural man," which in Greek is the "pneumatikos," meaning, the "man of the soul," which is in all men, including Christians, cannot receive the things of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man (Gk. "pneumatikos," the mind of the soul) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This is because the mind that is "of its self" is really of the sinful flesh. With this we see the corrosive viral nature was borne in the fruit of the "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" and how it has infected all mankind.