Where Adam and Eve Failed, God Redeemed
Hello everyone! Today’s blog will be the last one for this week. I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving weekend!
Last week I was having a conversation on social media with a pastor that I follow. We were talking about Adam and Eve and the consequences of the fall for men and women alike. He had an interesting perspective for men and their role as husbands in regards to Adam’s response to eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. l will stop here and say this will not be a lengthy theological discussion, I don’t find that helps people in practical life and it’s just dry. I will also not focus on the roles of men and women in marriage in this blog. I want to focus on what God redeemed out of bad choices.
I will give you a short synopsis of Genesis Chapter 3 and feel free to read it for yourself.
Adam and Eve find themselves in the center of Garden of Eden. In my opinion, they were most likely attending to plants or animals. Eve studies the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and a serpent begins to speak to her about how good it is and about how God wants them to be like Him. We don’t know what Adam was doing during this conversation. My guess is he was listening. After all, they knew no fear so why fear a talking serpent right? We do know Adam, not Eve, had been instructed not eat of this tree. Why? God knew Eve was going to be deceived but He knew Adam would not be deceived. He provided a way out for both of them even then I believe but they made other choices. Eve decides she’s going to eat some fruit from the tree after hearing the serpent’s argument. Adam does not protest and does the same. Everything changes. The Bible speaks of their eyes opening and they knew they were naked and they hide in the Garden. The Lord comes along calling for them and they do not come. Adam tells God what happened, including about Eve’s deception. Adam passes the buck to Eve and Eve passes the buck to the serpent. If you read the text, neither of them take responsibility for what they have done. This was the world’s first blame game between the sexes. And so ended the paradise of Eden, and Adam and Eve’s life as they knew it.
How could this possibly have happened if Adam knew what to do and not do? I have pondered these things myself. I believe Adam and Eve ate the fruit because Eve reasoned in her own mind that if it seemed good, it had to be God. I believe Adam reasoned Eve was from God so she could not steer him wrong. He was looking to her when He should have cried out to God in that moment. They were wrong on both accounts. I also believe once Adam and Eve ate the fruit they not only understood nakedness, they understood fear. Fear entered the world in that moment and they were afraid of what God might do. I believe this is why they both passed the buck regarding their actions. Adam may have spoken for both of them but he had no intention of taking responsibility because he was afraid and so was Eve. Fear does terrible things to men and women.
Yes, Adam and Eve messed it up for all of us. Yet, all hope was not lost. God already knew this was going to happen but if you notice, he still created them and gave them a chance to decide differently. He had done this once before, long before Adam and Eve, when he purposely created another being; an archangel named Lucifer. Lucifer would become the voice of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, choosing to corrupt his purpose and collide with the destiny of mankind. Despite the choices of mankind and angels, the character of God had not changed. He was in the business of allowing choice even in a time before men and women were known to Heaven. He does everything on purpose. Why? God is love, and because he is love, he gives us and even angels free will. If He is love and if He knew this was going to happen, doesn’t it follow that He would make another way for mankind? Yes! He did not want to leave human beings in their fallen state. He did not want them separated from Him so He sent Jesus at an appointed time to be born, live a life free of sin, die, and rise again to redeem all of mankind – to be the second and last Adam. Jesus came to set us free from the failure of Adam and from the dominion of Satan (once known as Lucifer) on this earth. Jesus came to reinstate our relationship with God that the failure of Adam had caused so long ago. Where the choices of Adam and Eve gave us spiritual death, fear and separation from God, Jesus has come to give us life, grace, and peace. His perfect love casts out all fear! His light pierces the darkness of Satan’s kingdom and this light cannot be overcome. God has been turning mankind’s failure to good since the Cross. No matter what you have done or what you haven’t done, Jesus has come to set you free. He has come that you might have life and have it more abundantly! He has canceled the debt of sin for all who believe in and call upon Him, from the least to the greatest. He is no respecter of persons. He loves you and He wants to know you!
In this holiday season and especially this weekend as we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families and friends, let us give thanks for Jesus, the Light of the World, who extends His hands to all mankind and redeems us where Adam and Eve failed us. There is hope and His name is Jesus Christ!
John 1:5; The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Colossians 2:14; He (Jesus) canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
Genesis 50:20; You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Elizabeth