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By Harry Bethel Before God gave Adam a wife He commanded him, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:16-17). This was a direct command from God to Adam, but not to Eve. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden..." (Gen. 2:16). After the fall it is recorded, "Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have...eaten from the tree about which I commanded you...'" (Gen. 3:17). There was no misunderstanding. Adam knew perfectly what God had told him. When Adam sinned he was not deceived, but rather sinned willfully and knowingly in direct disobedience to God. But Eve was deceived by the craftiness of the serpent. In the New Testament we are informed that "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:14), and that "the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety" (2 Cor. 11:3). God did not command Eve directly not to eat the forbidden fruit. That knowledge of God's will came from her husband. The information was secondhand, but it was true and authoritative. Adam evidently had told Eve not to even touch the forbidden fruit. Eve had assumed that God had included in the command not to touch the forbidden fruit, saying to the serpent, "God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die" (Gen. 3:3). Eve had not yet sinned, therefore she was not lying. Had God forbidden her directly, she would not have been able to be deceived on this point by the serpent's craftiness. Adam had unrestricted freedom on the earth, except eating of the forbidden fruit: "...God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth..." (Gen. 1:26). God brought every creature to Adam to see what he would call them, "and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof" (Gen. 2:19). In his innocent and pure state Adam had truly a free will untainted by sin, and had the utmost in freedom to do as he pleased, except the one restriction. Everything that Adam chose to do, except one, was in the perfect will of God. Adam told his wife not to eat of the forbidden fruit, and apparently deemed it necessary to tell her not to even touch it. This additional requirement that Adam made for his wife was not wrong or sinful, for he had not yet sinned. Adam was rightfully exercising his God-given authority. Again, it is clear from Scripture that Eve was deceived when she sinned, therefore she could not have been directly commanded by God as was Adam. But Eve sinned nonetheless by eating the fruit forbidden by her husband who had told her that God forbade the eating of that fruit. Eve listened to another (the serpent) instead of heeding her husband's warning. "She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat" (Gen. 3:6). There was nothing intrinsically lethal about the fruit. Eve did not instantly die (a spiritual or a physical death). Adam did not have to be persuaded by Eve. He saw that his wife ate the fruit and nothing happened. Yet he knew that Eve would die because God told him so. For whatever reason, Adam chose to identify with his wife rather than with God. (It is sad that so many Christian brothers make this costly choice today.) No doubt Adam cherished his lovely wife, companion, helper---perhaps the most beautiful woman (physically and spiritually) who has ever lived. Adam loved his wife more than he loved the Lord. God would have no other gods before Him (though it is not recorded or intimated that He had stated this to Adam). This truth is set forth in something that Jesus said: "If any man come to me, and hate not his...wife...he cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:26). This, of course, does not literally mean to hate one's wife. It simply means, among other things, that love and loyalty to God come first---an all-consuming love with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength---and when compared with the love for anyone else, it appears to be hate. Adam, in a moment of time, when he purposed in his heart to eat the fruit, had already sinned, even before he accepted it from his wife. (See Matthew 5:28 for the truth of being guilty of a sin before the physical act.) Adam was guilty of multiple sins. To name a few, he was guilty of covetousness because he desired something that was not for him to have, indeed, something forbidden. He was guilty of idolatry because covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5) and because he chose to identify with Eve rather than God. And he was guilty of murder (self-murder) because he knew he would die by eating the fruit. But the most infamous sin ever committed in the history of man, except one (that of murdering incarnate God on a cross), demanded God's most severe judgment of Adam. Adam enjoyed the most intimate relationship with God of any man ever created. (This, of course, does not include the intimacy of Jesus Christ the Son with God the Father; however, Jesus was not created, He was eternally existent.) Adam was judged with eternal death---separation from God, to be finally enacted on the Day of Judgment when all unsaved sinners will be cast into the Lake of Fire, to be separated from God for all eternity. Eve's punishment was great, but, of course, it was just. Her pain in childbirth was greatly multiplied, and she would be in a continual tension-producing relationship with her spiritually dead husband. That is, her desire would be for him, but he would rule over her in an unequal yoke that would be all but unbearable. There is probably no legitimate relationship more difficult in the human experience than that of a godly woman yoked (until death) with an unregenerate husband to whom she is to be submissive as unto the Lord (Eph. 5:22; Col. 3:18). But this judgment for Eve was only temporal, because she was given the gift of eternal life. The Lord clothed Adam and Eve with garments of skin. While this is a picture of unlimited atonement, it is not demonstrative of salvation. In this case the elect was only Eve, not Adam also. Animal sacrifices never saved anyone. In fact, "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats [or any other animal] should take away sins" (Heb. 10:4). Too much has been read into the act of the Lord covering Adam and Eve with animal skin. A close examination of Scripture reveals that Eve was saved, but not Adam. After the fall Adam named his wife "Eve" "because she was the mother of all the living" (Gen. 3:20). Eve means "life" or "living." God said, "And now, lest he [Adam] put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden...So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep [guard] the way of the tree of life" (Gen. 3:22b-24). Eve was allowed to eat of the tree of life and live forever, but not Adam. Eve's name ("Life") was indicative of her spiritual life, God having had mercy on her. The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome concerning election, "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion..Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth" (Rom. 9:14-15, 18). According to God's own choosing He had mercy on Eve and she was regenerated, but not Adam. One who has truly been born again should delight in acknowledging God as Lord. After Eve gave birth to Cain, she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord" (Gen. 4:1). Adam, having no spiritual life, indeed, being dead in his trespasses and sins, had no inclination toward God, nor did he acknowledge Him as Lord. Not only did Eve acknowledge God as Lord, but she acknowledged His sovereignty. After Cain murdered Abel, Eve gave birth to Seth and said, "God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel" (Gen. 4:25). Eve named her newborn "Seth," which means "the appointed one." Adam never did acknowledge the sovereignty of God. In fact, nothing else of Adam's words were recorded in Scripture after he indirectly blamed God for his sin. Adam said to the Lord, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat" (Gen. 3:12). The last thing written about Adam in the entire Pentateuch was yet early in the book of Genesis: "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died" (Gen. 5:5). Except for a genealogy in 1 Chronicles 1:1, the name of Adam is mentioned only twice in the remainder of the Old Testament, and both are negative comments about the first man: Job said, "Have I covered my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom?" (Job 31:33). And speaking of Ephraim and Judah as recorded in the book of Hosea, the Lord said, "But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me" (Hosea 6:7). After Adam sinned and was driven from the Garden, unlike Eve, there is nothing in the entire Bible that even hints that he was saved. Not to accredit one more than the other, but Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of our Lord, at least expressed worldly sorrow: "..He..repented himself..saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood" (Mat. 27:3-4). But Adam did not even express worldly sorrow---he never did repent. And Paul said, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation..but the sorrow of the world worketh death" (2 Cor. 7:10). In Luke 13:3, regarding the Galilean sinners that died in their sins, Jesus told the crowd, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." It is noteworthy that Adam was excluded from the list of "heroes of faith" in Hebrews chapter 11, his son Abel being the first listed. Truly, in all the New Testament there is nothing good said about Adam. The apostle Paul wrote, "...Death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam..." (Rom. 5:14). TOP OF PAGE * ARTICLE CONTENTS
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