The doctrine of the Fall of Adam is so integral to the plan of salvation that if we do not understand it, we cannot fully comprehend Christ's Atonement. This doctrine is surely one of the plain and precious things that were taken away from the Bible. Through the teachings in the Book of Mormon and the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, much of this doctrine is restored. Study and understanding of the Fall of Adam increases faith in our Savior and His Atonement and allows greater comprehension and appreciation of man's agency.
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“his eternal purposes”
God's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
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“it must needs be that there was an opposition”
Agency to choose requires opposition; without a law that could be transgressed, the consequences of the Fall could not have been justly imposed.
“enticed by the one or the other”
Agency is a gift from God, but it required an opposing influence.
“driven out of the garden of Eden”
The physical removal from the presence of God is spiritual death, which the Fall brought upon all mankind.
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“if Adam had not transgressed”
The act that produced the Fall is called a transgression, not a sin, echoing the second article of faith. See the teaching of Dallin H. Oaks on the careful choice of that word.
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“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy”
Adam's fall initiated the mortal, probationary state for all mankind, and joy comes through the agency made possible by the Redemption.
“the Messiah cometh ... that he may redeem the children of men from the fall”
This introduces the causal relationship between the Fall and the Atonement.
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