Did Adam and Eve have a sin nature in them? What made them ignore God’s warning and listen to Satan instead?
Like all humans, Adam and Eve were created with agency, which is the freedom to make choices for themselves, but unlike the rest of us, they didn’t have a sin nature.
Satan took advantage of their freedom to choose. He deceived them and they did the one thing God had warned them not to do (Genesis 2:16-17). In Genesis 3:13 Eve said the serpent beguiled her, which means to influence by trickery or deception. (The Hebrew word translated “serpent” in Genesis 3:1 comes from a root that is sometimes translated “enchanter”.)
Since then all humans have had a sin nature, a predisposition toward sin. The sin nature is not something that makes it possible for us to sin. It’s something that makes it impossible for us not to sin and means we’re all destined for death.
But we can choose to become born again by believing that when Jesus died on the cross, He was paying for all our sins (John 1:12-13, Colossians 2:13-14). When we do this God chooses to see us as a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). As long as we’re on Earth we will still sin, but because we are born again He no longer counts our sins against us. Instead, He attributes them to our sin nature (Romans 7:18-20). When we are either resurrected or raptured, God will remove our sin nature and we will finally be the children of God we were always meant to be, and we will live in eternity with Him (John 3:16).
Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).