Second Adam From Above
Jesus accomplished what the first man could not. A reflection for the end of a year and the beginning of a new one
So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it -- Genesis 3:6 (CSB)
And he ate it. In that moment—however long it takes to bite into a piece of fruit—the world was forever changed. Created in innocence, surrounded by an idyllic creation, enjoying intimacy with a beautiful wife, and experiencing perfect communion with God, Adam threw it all away.
I find it interesting that while God pronounces a curse on Adam and Eve, most of the Bible’s judgment comes for Adam. It is Adam who is banished from the Garden and Adam that God goes calling after. Sin impacted both Adam and Even, but though Eve was the first to eat the forbidden fruit, it is Adam upon whom responsibility rests for humanity’s descent into darkness. In Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, Paul uses the phrases “by one man” and “as in Adam” as the starting point of sin’s entrance into the world.
We too often think of the Fall in the Garden of Eden as only a story of a woman being duped by a snake. But the Bible tells us that there is much more going on here. I find it interesting that Scripture places responsibility for the initial sin—the sin that lit the match that set the world on fire—on the shoulders of Adam, whose actions, we are told, have ushered death into the world (1 Corinthians 15:22). While the curse pronounced to Eve is significant--childbirth marked by struggle and pain and often death and a world in which men would often abuse their strength and exploit women—the bulk of the curse seems to fall on Adam’s shoulders. It was Adam, after all, who was created first. It was Adam who was given initial responsibility for the garden. It was Adam, who abdicated his role as protector of Eve and steward of God’s good creation.
In the modern era, it is quite controversial to consider this arranging of roles. It almost strikes us as chauvinist for the Bible to put the blame mostly on Adam’s shoulders, as if Eve had no agency. But rather than disempowering women, it is pointing toward a kind of servant leadership required of Adam and every husband to lead in a way that protects the bodies and souls of those God has put under our care.
Adam allowed his wife to be poisoned by the rhetorical bite of the snake. It was Adam who we don’t see proactively fighting off the snake, declaring God’s promises over and against the lies of the enemy, but instead nodding his head and agreeing with the lies of Satan against the One who created him. It was Adam who should have used his God-given authority over the animal kingdom to resist the serpent.
Now, in an instant, Adam’s entire existence was changed and not for good. In an instant, he was separated from the God who knelt in the dust and formed him with such care. In an instant, his relationship with his wife went from harmony to discord, from mutual love and sharing to blame-shifting and resentment. This wife you gave me . . . his bitterness spills out.
And this one action didn’t just ruin Adam’s life, it distorted the lives of every single person who would ever live. The eating of that piece of fruit soured God’s good creation, twisted the human experience, and like a tsunami, brought waves of sin and death into the world.
If you want to know why the world is messed up, why the oceans rise, why tornadoes strike, why volcanoes erupt, why hurricanes ravage the coasts, look no further than this crime scene in Genesis 3. If you want to understand why young people are gunned down on our city streets, why tyrants like Hitler and Pol Pot put millions of people in their graves, and why governments could buy and sell human flesh as property, you have to glance backward at a naked couple, a rotten apple, and a hissing serpent. If you seek the truth about our human condition, why even the best of us have dark demons we hide from the world, why addictions ravage us against our best efforts, why we try and fail to love, don’t miss the stark truth from the opening pages of your Bible.
You can find other stories that try to explain the world as it is, but only this narrative squares with us and offers a mirror to our true selves. The world is on fire because a poison called sin slithered into the garden and poisoned the world God made. To quote the late R.C. Sproul, we are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. Every person who enters this world enters with a moral defect, a condition that can’t be cured by behavior modification, religion, or even medicine.
Of course, we read Genesis 3 and it seems so easy in hindsight, doesn’t it? Adam, you were given a beautiful garden, a beautiful wife, everything you need. Just don’t eat the wrong thing. Yet it wasn’t just Adam and Eve and a serpent there that day. I was there too, standing guilty with disobedience on my hands. When Adam sinned, we sinned. My sins contribute to the brokenness and devastation of our world. Your sins contribute to the brokenness and devastation of our world. We are what’s wrong in the world.
And yet Genesis 3 isn’t the end of the story the Bible tells. Even in God’s pronouncement of the curse, he hints at hope and offers echoes of resurrection. A violent clash between Adam’s offspring and the serpent would unfold in history in this sin-addled world, but a new Adam would arise to clean up the mess of the old:
For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous -- Romans 5:15-19 (CSB)
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. -- 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 (CSB)
There would be another garden, this time a Second Adam would not stand idly by but would accept God’s cup of divine wrath. The first Adam didn’t have the last word. The innocent one would climb a tree of death to rescue those separated from the tree of life. He would reverse the curse of sin and offer a new kind of fruit, not forbidden, but one born of the grace God now offers to Adam, Eve, and their ancestors.
It’s hard to see this through the dirty porthole through which we the world. Standing in Eden’s aftermath, we can only lament what our first family did to usher in sin and death. We can only see sorrow and guilt from our own unrighteous actions before God. And yet there is good news that on the horizon, a Savior awaits.
Grace cleans up Adam’s mess. Grace cleans up our mess.
Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.- Charles Wesley
This is an excerpt from my book, The Characters of Creation. If you are looking for a good resource to supplement your Bible reading in Genesis this January or if you are looking for a good resource to supplement a preaching series in Genesis this coming year, check it out here.