I often hear about how in the Garden of Eden, the serpent frustrated God’s original intent by tempting Adam and Eve, and causing them to sin. The evangelical church largely sees the original race of mankind in Adam as perfect and sinless, then fallen because of the introduction of sin courtesy of the devil, and Jesus restoring us to a forgiven state by his sacrifice on the cross. Implicit in this idea is that somehow, God did not see the scheme of the devil coming, or that somehow he was blindsided by Adam’s failure. By the way some preachers speak, one might think that God was wringing His hands, wondering what to do next when He discovered what Adam had done. ”Oh man, Jesus, what are we going do? How about you go down in 4,000 years and try to fix things?”
The result of the cross, we are told, is just to get man back to that right position before God. However, even with the our embrace of the Gospel in this schema, we are still just trying to get back what Adam lost.. and the best that we can hope for is to have a forensic righteousness or right standing… yet still carrying about the sin-marred flesh until our full redemption at the resurrection.
To me, this can raise more question than it answers. Why didn’t God see this one coming? How inept is He, compared to the devil, that it only took the devil about 60 seconds with Adam and Eve to completely mess up what took God 6 days to create?
The fact of the matter is that the Fall, and Gospel of Salvation through Christ is not “Plan B”. God’s sovereignty and omnipotence is not at stake here. And as believers, we are not just trying to regain a position or fellowship with God that Adam had. The truth is much more grand than that.
The fact of the matter is this- although the race of mankind vis a vis Adam was sinless, was still just a creation of the earth. “Adam” means “earth”. Everything born just of this earth is “earth”. It’s still just “Adam.” It’s not made of, pardon the coining of a new word, “Godstuff”. A natural man, simply forgiven, is just a forgiven man. He might be grateful, and happy he is forgiven. But he is still just “adam”.
However, the actual intent of God wasn’t just to restore Adam. God isn’t just trying to fix something that the devil broke. God’s plan was to do something that revealed His nature, and His qualities to the entire universe. Something that would make every intelligent being go “Oohhhhhhhh!”. Something that would demonstrate His justice, but, most importantly shine a spotlight on His unfathomable Mercy and Grace. The “Plan” was to take the most pitiable and pathetic creatures in the universe…selfish, hateful, despicable mankind, and shower such mercy upon them as to rip them out of the natural created order- the adamic race- and elevate them into a position that made them kin with God! In the process, He would inject those creatures with “Godstuff”- altering their spiritual DNA, so that they would ultimately resemble the character and essence of God himself. He is making human beings- stupid human beings- who were “made lower than the angels” into part of His family. Those who come to Christ are to be “born of God”… no longer part of the adamic or earthly race, but actually sons and daughters. “Oh what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God” (1 John 3:1).
Our ultimate state is to be seated with and in Christ in heavenly realms, at the right hand of God. That is an awe-inspiring thing. God’s mercy and love on display is the ultimate intent. He did this “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:7).
So you don’t need to buy the “Plan B” scenario. The one where the devil outsmarts God in the Garden, and the history of God’s workings is just trying to fix things. The truth is that God selected you and I to be objects and exhibits of his mercy- living examples that his grace qualitatively changes the most dysfunctional animals in the universe, and transforms us into his very own beloved family. Selah! ( translates- chew on that for a while!).