A little boy got hold of a toothpaste tube; interestingly, its lid was removed. The boy squeezed it and saw a colourful paste coming out. He started walking, squeezing it, and filled the whole house with lines of toothpaste. Being excited, he called his mother to come and see what he had done. Mother was distraught. She could not put the toothpaste back inside the tube. It was not just the loss of toothpaste, but the mess that he had created, which would take hours of hard work to clean up.
Innocent experiment
A child’s curiosity and experimentation could create a mess. It was a playful, innocent work of a child. The kid’s mischief could be excused. If an adolescent or a teenager did that, it cannot be excused. They would be punished.
Willful rebellion
In contrast, Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and were forbidden to eat a particular fruit from a tree. It was not a mischief, but a rebellion in heart and mind that led to disobedience. Willingly and joyfully, they believed the deception of Satan, ignoring the Word of God. (Genesis 3:1-24)
Bitten fruit
Like the toothpaste cannot be put back, the fruit cannot be retrieved. Like the mother, God saw the mess of human sin, eternal consequences, curses, and alienation from God. The mother was able to clean up with detergents, a brush, and water, which was much easier than the task Adam and Eve gave to God.
Spiritual and Eternal Consequences
The sin of disobedience and rebellion has to be atoned for. There was no other human who could do that. Angels are inadequate for that. The triune God decided to delegate the Son of God into the world to bear the punishment of sin, to shed his blood as atonement, and to die on the cross of Calvary. He was buried and rose again on the third day.
Clean-up operation
Unlike the toothpaste, human sin needed the whole heaven to marshal resources to send the Messiah.
Have I been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? (I John 1:7)