i agree with your points about adam and eve. we cant really imagine how wonderful the pre-curse environment was-- they had all their needs met, they were perfectly healthy, etc etc. the idea of "selfishness" or "pride", which is the root of most if not all sin, simply wasnt an issue-- until the temptation. prior to the temptation, they had no "knowledge of good an evil." evil existed by then, because satan existed, but they didnt know what it was. think about it-- could adam have even had an impure thought? if so, what could it conceivably have been?
after they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened. i am not sure what this exactly means, other than the fact that all of a sudden they were aware of "the dark side" and more tragically, found themselves drawn to it and away from God. I think this is what the rest of the human race "inherited."
you wrote:
I agree that the former seems more impressive. the question i have, which still no one has been able to adequately answer, is if the former is true, HOW did he do so w/o "accessing" the fact that he was deity? I can remember, even as a kid, reasoning that Jesus didnt sin because he was both man and God. if you take out the God part, i dont see how he could never have sinned. But i wholeheartedly agree that Jesus can still sympathize with us, even if he "accessed his deity" to conquer sin. He created us, after all, and I am sure He knows what we go through. He saw it first hand while here, and knows the wiles of the devil.Again, I could be totally cracked on this, but it all has to do with the question of whether Jesus had the same nature as we do yet overcame it, or that He did not have a sin nature as we do and therefore was not "prone" to sin like we are. The former seems more impressive, but either way I think He can still sympathize with our temptations since he took on flesh.
TK