God had given each creature its own nature. The cattle would graze and the birds would fly, each living as God had made it to live. Then God brought them before Adam and gave him the freedom to call them whatever he wanted.
God then told Adam that he could eat freely from every tree in the garden of Eden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told him what would happen if he ate from it. He would surely die.
Until then, Adam had lived in innocence in God’s presence. He knew which tree God had told him to leave alone, but he did not yet know good and evil.
While still in that state of innocence, Adam ate the fruit and transgressed God’s law. When he did, his eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil—he was able now to comprehend the difference between good and evil in a way that was entirely impossible before.
Now he had to answer to God. The price of his transgression was death. He would work the ground until he returned to the dust from whence he was taken. A payment was due. It would be paid. Adam would be held accountable for his choices.
Yes—Adam had transgressed God's law, but God’s plan held. God had allowed Adam to make that choice, knowing what it would bring. Peter tells us that Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Before Adam ever reached for the fruit, God had already purposed the rescue.
Before Adam and Eve left Eden, they heard God speak to the serpent. The woman’s Seed would come. The serpent would bruise His heel, and He would bruise the serpent’s head. We look back and we can see the promise Adam looked forward to—God would cover the cost His own plan required. We would not have to earn life or pay death for ourselves. Within God's established boundaries, He would give us the freedom to choose life by paying the price transgression required. He would die the death we owed.
Adam left the garden where he had lived in God’s presence. He now knew good and evil, and with that knowledge came the responsibility of choosing between them. The way to the tree of life was guarded behind him. He knew of God's promise, of the Seed to come, and he would carry that knowledge with him. He knew the plan—and he would freely choose where he would place his faith.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” —Genesis 3:15
—Jeff Wager
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