While Adam slept, God was doing something marvelous and wonderful. God was creating him a helpmate so that the man would not be alone. Adam could not help but love her, for she was created by God especially for him. She was the ideal for him, the perfect match, and the perfect compliment. Now, the spark of love that a man can only have for a wife was kindled for the first time. If there be such a thing as love at first sight, this surely qualified as the supreme example.
Adam must have flipped over her. I picture him saying, “Lord, I don’t know exactly what this is … but I sure like it!” Eve became the most important thing on earth for Adam. Likewise, at least for a while, he was the most important thing to her. Perhaps, for a time, Adam had enjoyed the companionship of a puppy or some other pet, but now all that assumed its rightful position far down on his list of priorities. Adam enjoyed a perfect love, in a perfect environment, with a perfect mate, unlike any man has experienced since. For his love was not marred by a history of human sin, failure, and compromise.
Now, the drama of the ages begins to unfold, as a story of love evolves into a beautiful portrait of self-sacrifice.
Act I
We find the curtain rising as Eve enjoys a private moment of solitude. For even in the purest of love relationships, time alone can be important. However, solitude also makes us vulnerable, and at such a moment the serpent comes to her. She is away from the protection of her husband. This becomes Satan’s most opportune time for entrapment. Perhaps she is already near the tree. Perhaps she is already deeply wondering why this particular tree is so special and why a loving God who has withheld no blessing from them, yet has chosen to keep this tree to Himself.
Act II
As if right on cue, Satan enters the scene. More subtle than any beast of the field, he is more than ready for the encounter. This was more than a serpent; it was the serpent. He beguiles Eve into believing that he has something she should want. As she opens her mouth to debate the devil, she loses the battle. We are told to resist him, not try to reason with him. The devil ultimately tells her that it is all a lie; “thou shalt not surely die.” He would not have said that at the beginning, but now he sees victory in sight so he has the confidence to expose the true nature of his plan. He tells her that she holds within her grasp the ability to do something that God cannot do, to actually experience evil and to intellectually and experimentally know about sin.
As she continued to look at the tree, as she harkened to the words of the wicked one, she began to fall in love. Not the same kind of love as she had for Adam, but it was love just the same. She found herself in love with an idea and ideal that she did not know up to this point. How hungry am I to experience a love that I have never known before … a love for the world? (I John 2:15-17) We are told that she took of the fruit and did eat.
Act III
Now, Adam enters into the picture. Exactly how much time elapsed between the sin of Eve and the sin of Adam we are not told. Perhaps he saw what she was doing from a distance and quickly ran to her. Perhaps she ran to him and told him of her failure. Regardless of the exact choreography of the moment, one thing I am sure of, during this indeterminate period of time a lot of things went through Adam’s mind. For as Eve was “tempted” by love, now Adam is “tested” by love. As Eve pondered over how much do I love the world . . . Adam’s question was; “how much do I love this woman?” Adam knew his love was boundless.
Adam was a smart man. He was not a bumbling idiot walking around on all fours as the evolutionist may picture him. I believe that Adam may have had the most natural and unrefined knowledge of any man that has ever lived. Solomon may have had more wisdom due to the general increase in technology and knowledge, but Adam had great intellectual power. During this period of time Adam began to conjecture a great process of thought. From the time the fruit touched her lips, until the time it touched his lips, what were his thoughts? Let’s probe the mind of Adam for a moment.
1. His love for Eve was immeasurable. His was a perfect love for a perfect woman by a perfect man.
2. He knew she was going to die. God had already imparted this information to Adam. This would be hard for any man to take. As one who has experienced such a loss, I can promise, that you will exhaust all possible avenues to avert this from happening. He has just received the report. The undisputed diagnosis is that your wife is going to die.
3. He knew they would now be separated from each other. More than just a death with the hope of one day being together again, Adam knew this was an eternal separation. It’s hard to be apart from those we love. Perhaps Adam pondered … I don’t want to be in paradise without Eve. He remembers how empty that garden was before she came, and visualizes how empty it will be when she leaves. Suddenly paradise has lost its glimmer. Sometimes, if you are like me, you may think that your house is too small. Perhaps we need to add on another room. Yet, when your wife is out of town for a couple of days, you feel as if you are living in a warehouse! Suddenly your whole world seems empty.
Adam’s heart begins to speak to him: “I don’t want to see the beautiful sunrise if I can’t see it with her. I don’t want to behold the fragrance of the rose, if I cannot share its aroma with her. I don’t care to walk along the banks of the river if I must do it alone. I cannot bear to be separated from her forever.” It was painful to be alone before, but now after experiencing the joy of her presence, oh how great the pain will be!
Act IV
Now, Adam remembers a commitment he made even before the fall, at the very beginning of their marriage relationship.
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
Who was Adam’s father? Before God, his Father, at the first marriage ceremony, Adam made a pledge to stick with her forever; to cleave unto her and to be bound unto her. What were the exceptions? None were given. Did this change due to her sin? It would appear not. At this moment, I believe Adam made a conscious and deliberate decision to save her, or die if need be, in the effort. And should he die, at least he would know he tried. Adam knew that Eve needed help beyond herself. She needed a redeemer. But, they were now eternally separated. They were to enjoy no more fellowship, no more oneness, and no more relationship.
Yes, I know that although it is against Scripture, Christians do sometimes marry lost people. But remember, Adam was totally pure. He was not a sinner saved by grace, for he was never lost. He was spotless, clothed in the glory of God and thereby could have no fellowship with Eve at all. He could not even look directly upon sin. No longer could he behold her countenance as she combs her hair, or as she prepares his favorite meal. Perhaps he is remembering the times their eyes would meet, and without a word being said, volumes were still communicated. But now all that is gone forever. It will never be again. She needs a redeemer, but how can that be? Eve is the only woman on earth, separated from the only man on earth, and they two are separated by an impassable gulf. A gulf she does not have the power to cross, and Adam is keenly aware of that fact.
Act V
Now, here is a love story that Hollywood could not even come close to matching. What was the grand conclusion of Adam’s thoughts? He decides that since she cannot come to him, he must go to her. He must assume her sin, share her guilt, and partake in her penalty. And with the separation removed, they could once again be one! Oh, it will not be as it once was, our relationship will lose its perfection, we will sacrifice our paradise, but we will be together as one. So, by love, a perfect and unconditional love, he took the fruit and did eat! Adam perhaps surmised, “I’d sure like to keep both! I’ve grown rather fond of this garden paradise. But I also deeply love my wife. I’d like to keep both. But if I must sacrifice one, I choose to keep my bride.” He made her sin his responsibility. He assumed her guilt and accepted the penalty of death that it would ultimately entail.
“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
(I Timothy 2: 14)
His eyes were wide open; he knew what he was doing. He may not have understood all the consequences, but he knew the general nature of his decision. He did not stumble into it. It was a calculated decision. He was not deceived.
Now, let’s build on this thought of a Godly love leading one to assume sin. These terms do not seem to go together.
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” (Romans 5: 14)
Adam was a type of Jesus Christ. God states that Adam’s sin was different. It was a transgression of another type. We are told that Adam’s sin would become a figure of him that was to come, Jesus Christ. Adam, giving himself for his bride, Eve, became a type of Christ, the second Adam, giving Himself for His bride, the church. You and I sin because we are sinners. Adam did not sin because he was a sinner. Why did he sin? Simply because he had a perfect love for his wife, an unconditional love that would pay any price. He chose to sin, at his own peril, for the benefit of another. Likewise, Jesus Christ loved the church with a perfect love. She also was deceived by Satan, separated from God, and awaiting the certainty of death. She also could not help herself. She could not come to Him. He knew the only answer was to go to her.
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
(II Corinthians 5:21)
He became sin for us, just as Adam became sin for Eve. When Jesus saw the plight of the one he loved, He considered no expense too great to reestablish that loss of fellowship. Adam did not stumble into the tree any more than Christ stumbled into the cross. Each, in their own way, according to their own ability, made another’s sin their personal responsibility. Did Adam make the right decision? It is obvious that he sinned, but God acknowledges that it was a different kind of sin. What should he do? If he takes the fruit, he disobeys God. If he doesn’t take the fruit, he still disobeys God; for Adam was commanded to cleave unto his wife. In the New Testament it is written this way:
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” (Ephesians 5:25)
Now, my belief is that any man that truly loves his wife would do the same thing. Being king in paradise would lose its luster without my wife being the queen. There is something divine and powerful about the love a man has for his wife. Even God Himself would call it different. This sin was of another type and character. “Lord, you told me not to eat. But you also told me to stick with her. If I don’t eat, I will be disobeying you and helping myself. If I do eat, I will also be disobeying you, but I will be helping her. Lord, I choose to help her!”
I honestly believe that God, who is never pleased with sin, somehow winked at Adam’s transgression. Not a wink of acceptance, but one of understanding. You see, that is the very same choice that Jesus Christ would make years later. He would choose to become sin for the benefit of His bride. He could stay in the paradise of heaven, but He chose to go to earth and assume the sin of the one He loved. The resurrection of Christ proved that the Father was pleased with the choice His Son would choose to make.
I know that I don’t totally understand love, but I recognize it when I see it, I see it in the love Adam had for Eve, in the love Christ had for the church and, on occasion, even in our earthly relationships. May God help us as husbands to live a life in such a way that our wives will always be aware of the unconditional nature of our love.
As written by Dr. Worthington, this article was originally printed in the February, 2001 issue of CarolinaLIFE,