[5] But if our wickedness provides proof of God's righteousness, what can we say? Is God unjust, humanly speaking, to inflict his wrath? [6] Of course not! For how else is God to judge the world? [7] But if God's truth redounds to his glory through my falsehood, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? [8] And why not say - as we are accused and as some claim we say - that we should do evil that good may come of it? Their penalty is what they deserve. [9] Well, then, are we better off? Not entirely, for we have already brought the charge against Jews and Greeks alike that they are all under the domination of sin, [10] as it is written: "There is no one just, not one, [11] there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.
(CCC 397) Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of (Cf. Gen 3:1-11; Rom 5:19). All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness. (CCC 398) In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God" (St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua: PG 91, 1156C; cf. Gen 3:5).
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