Genesis 3 is often interpreted as an explanation of the origin of evil & sin: the serpent is the devil, and Adam and Eve’s sin is what corrupted the world from the start. But the text doesn’t actually make any of these points. Rather than being an explanation of how things were, it is much more an explanation of how things are. 

The heart of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is not disobedience. God is not a God who just wants obedient little children. The heart of Adam and Eve’s rebellion (and all of humanity’s for all of time) is independence. We, just like Adam and Eve, go after something we already have - divinity and wisdom - but we do so without God. We grasp for something beyond ourselves. In doing so we lose both our intimate connection with God, and our status as God’s idols in creation. This is the death we experience. 

But Jesus, the true new Adam, returns us to our recreated selves. So let us come to him and admit our pursuit of independence. God is not a strict task-master mercilessly recording our wrong-doings. He is the loving creator God who wants to restore us to our intended status as his presence and power in creation. Let us be humble enough to let him do it.