ADAM THE SINNER

Besides all God’s positive instructions about what he should do, Adam was+C128 given only one negative directive, and that was the test of obedience – ‘of the tree of the 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. 17. This command was given to Adam before Eve was formed, so he must have passed on instructions to her about the tree of life, making her later disobedience a positive rejection of his authority and headship, 1 Cor. 11. 3 (see also Eph. 5. 22-25; Col. 3. 18; 1 Pet. 3. 1; 1 Tim. 2. 11-15).

Satan had already seduced other celestial beings into following him, Matt. 25. 41. Now he sets his sights on Adam, the zenith of God’s creation, to entice him as well. The sly, crafty creature began to show the wiles that he would continue through later ages, John 8. 44; Eph. 6. 11; Rev. 12. 9, by approaching Adam through Eve, the weaker vessel, whom Adam loved. He began by being controversial about God’s word; ‘Is it true that God hath said, Ye do not eat of every tree of the garden?’, Gen. 3. 1 (Young’s Literal Translation), but next he flatly contradicted it, ‘Ye shall not surely die’, v. 4. Eve then capitulates – she saw, 1 John 2. 16, took, ate and offered the fruit to Adam, urging him to eat it too. When later challenged by God, Adam tried to shift the blame onto her; ‘The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree’, Gen. 3. 12. However, the difference between Eve’s and Adam’s sin was that her progress into the act of sinning was by a different route because she came into transgression via deceit (see 2 Cor. 11. 3 where ‘beguiled’ means deceived), while he came into sin directly, by hearkening to (i.e. listening to and obeying) Eve, perhaps out of misdirected love.

How awesome a responsibility was carried by Adam, and how devastating were the effects of his act of disobedience, Rom. 3.

Sadly, Christian husbands and wives might see much of Adam and Eve in themselves in terms of behaviour; however, in Christ, rather than being losers of spiritual life and inheritors of spiritual death, Christian couples are now ‘heirs together of the grace of life’, 1 Pet. 3. 7; cf. Rom. 5. 14-21 and 1 Cor. 15. 22.