One can hardly imagine what it must have been like to be the first and only person on earth. It is one thing for us to be lonely. But it was quite another thing for Adam. He had never known another human being. He missed very much that makes the modern man what he is. He never enjoyed a childhood, never experienced the love of parents. Neither did he have any company, family or friends. He had to learn to be human all on his own. Nevertheless, before long the good God presented him with an ideal companion and mate, Eve. Theirs was a life of complete innocence and openness.
One of Adam’s first conversations with his new-found delightful companion must have been about the rules of the garden God entrusted him with. Of course, God had given him full freedom in the garden with the responsibility to tend and care for it. But there was one ‘limit tree’. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam would have told Eve all about it. When satan approached her she was certainly, in the know of the forbidden nature of the particular fruit. However, consciously and willingly she decides to eat His forbidden fruit. She persuades Adam too. Oh, the fate of creation is on the line. At least Adam should have thought of the far reaching consequences. The very moment something large, beautiful and free was shattered. This tragic damage was beyond repair. The roof and crown of creation, man was separated from God, his creator. The villainy was the desire to act on his own. The effect on a plate glass window is the same whether a pebble or a boulder is hurled at it. The thousand and one fragments (of glass) can never be regathered.
Since man is very special to God. He had designs a plan to rectify the effects of sin, though it cost Him the whole of the paschal mystery with all its ramifications. The entire Bible tells us the story of how that plan unfolds. Ultimately it leads to God’s own visit to earth through His Son Jesus and all the rest of it. The paradise is regained potentially. The entire humanity is redeemed, once and for all. But only by sincerely asking forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world, can we become true children of God.
Adam’s strengths and accomplishments
- He is the first farmer on earth
- The first land scape architect
He is placed in the garden to tend and care for it
He is the first person created in the image and likeness of God.
Weaknesses and Mistakes
He shirked responsibility and blamed others. He chose to hide rather than confront God-presented excuses instead of readily admitting the truth of the matter.
His greatest mistake is to have lined up with Eve to bring into the world, thus losing paradise.
Lessons
Never forget the fact that we are the roof and crown of creation. Never lose sight of our dignity.
God wants people who would always love him in spite of their clear weaknesses.
Never blame others for our faults.
We can hide from everyone and everything, except, of course from God.
Key verse
The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit and I ate it (Gen. 3:12)
As in Adam, all die, so all will, all be made alive in Christ (1 Cori. 15:22).
We have Adam’s story in Genesis 1:26: “God said, Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that move along the ground”; “Adam lived 930 years, and then he died” (5:5). He is mentioned in 1 Cori 1:1;
“Kenan was the son of Enosh. Enosh was the son of Seth. Seth was the son of Adam. Adam was the son of God” (Luk. 3:38).
“Still, everyone died-from the tie of Adam to the time of Moses-even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, representation of Christ, who was yet to come”(Rom. 5:14).
“Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life” (1 Cori. 15:22); “The first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam-that is-Christ-is a life giving Spirit”(15:45).
“For God made Adam first, and afterwards he made Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived by satan. The woman was deceived, and sin was the result”(1 Tim 2:13,14).
