God Rescued Adam and Eve

God Rescued Adam and Eve

God could have left them in that state of spiritual death, and would have remained perfectly righteous and just if He had done so. He owed them nothing. He had created them as marvelous creatures in His own image and placed them over all the earth and every living thing upon it. He’d given them the opportunity to live forever, united with Him in perfect spiritual fellowship. And, he’d given them only one command: He forbade them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had rebelled and violated that one command. And then they hid from Him, not even seeking His forgiveness.

God could have justly turned His back on them, letting them suffer the full consequences of their sin. But that’s not what He did. God is loving; He continued to love them in spite of their sin. Though His righteousness required them to suffer consequences for their sin, including a permanent fallen nature, He mercifully provided them with a means to return to a degree of fellowship with Him.

Though Adam and Eve were hiding from Him, He sought them out and clothed them with garments of skin. We may take it as God sacrificing animals to temporarily cover the penalty of Adam and Eve’s sin. It was temporary, for no animal sacrifice can permanently cover sin; only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. The provision of animal skins was looking forward to the day when God’s own Son would die on the cross to pay not only for Adam and Eve’s original sin, but also for all sins throughout history.

Adam and Eve accepted the clothing, evidence that they repented of their sin and desired continuing fellowship with Him. They continued to recognize Him as their Creator and God, and desired His mercy. This is equivalent to what we do when we “believe in,” or place our faith in Jesus Christ. We recognize Him as our Savior and our only way to peace with God.

I’ve given the fact that “Eve” means “living,” or “life,” as evidence that God restored their spiritual life. But, God also drove them out of the Garden (Gen. 3:24), evidence that their fellowship with Him during the remainder of their lives was never to return to the closeness shared when they were first created.

With their sin covered, God could accept them back into fellowship without violating His righteousness. So we see that Adam and Eve were created with spiritual life, obtained a sin nature and died spiritually because of sin, but were restored to spiritual life on the basis of faith and the temporary remission of their sin through the blood of sacrificed animals. Though they were restored to spiritual life, they retained their sin nature, preventing the perfect fellowship with God they once enjoyed.