Bound to a Master - Bound in Adam
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6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The earth was perfect. God, in His goodness, created the heavens and the earth. He filled the heavens with the Sun, moon, planets, comets, stars, and galaxies. He filled the earth with plants, trees, birds, and animals. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden. Absolutely everything gave glory to God in their perfected state. The lions roared for God’s glory, the crickets chirped for His glory, the waves crashed upon the sand for His glory, the winds blew over the earth for His glory, and Adam and Eve were created in His image to bring Him glory. All was good, very good.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God to fulfill His purposes. They were bound to God and the covenant He made with them. In this gracious covenant, they were told to fill the earth, rule over the earth, and have dominion over the creatures of the earth. Furthermore, they were given free reign of the entire garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God gave Adam a direct command not to eat of this tree. Their God, their master, had spoken. He created a perfect place for them to fulfill the covenant He made with them.
Scripture makes it seem as though this perfected state did not last long. Moses writes that a serpent entered the Garden. This serpent, who is later identified as Satan, deceives Eve. In her deception she eats of the fruit. Eve then gives the fruit to Adam, and he partakes as well. The perfect state of the Garden is shattered. The perfect state of their relationship with God and one another comes crashing to an end. Humanity is separated from God because of sin. It is one of the worst days of the history of the world, second only to the crucifixion of Christ on the cross.
Prior to this moment, Adam and Eve were not bound to sin. They were not slaves to sin. They were bound to God Himself. If any two people in the world had “free will”, it was Adam and Eve. Adam’s role as prophet, priest, and king of Eden was to remove the serpent from the Garden. In his rebellion against God, he did not remove Satan and disobeyed the command from the Lord. Adam, in his free will, chose rebellion against God. Disobedience over obedience. In one moment, Adam went from being bound to God to being bound to sin.
Before we look further into Adam being our covenant head, we should understand that we too would have made the same decision. When we read the account of the Fall, we should see ourselves in Adam. Adam is our covenant head. He is the representative of humanity, and He chose to rebel against God. We would have either been deceived by Satan, like Eve, or directly rebelled against God, like Adam.
The question that must be wrestled with regarding the Fall is did God preordain the Fall or did God give Adam and Eve the ability to choose obedience to Him based on their own self-determination? This question has been debated for thousands of years and will certainly be debated moving forward. However, most theologians believe that God created humanity and He decreed to give them self-determination to choose whether to obey Him. Obviously, Genesis 3 records the reality that Adam and Eve chose not to obey God. Adam, as our covenant head, spread sin to each person born afterward. Yet as Romans 5:12 says, everyone one of us are guilty because we all sin.
The evidence of sin spreading into humanity is easy to see. Cain kills Abel in Genesis 4 because of his direct disobedience to the Lord. As God said in Genesis 4:7, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” The image of sin here is one of a beast that desires to consume Cain. Cain, slave to sin, is consumed by this beastly desire and kills his brother. One generation removed from the Garden and sin reigns over humanity. Since Eden, sin has enslaved humanity.
In Romans 5, the Scripture reveals that we are all in Adam. He is the covenant head who acted as humanity’s representative in the Garden. As a result of his disobedience, we have inherited a sin nature. All of us. Prior to salvation, sin is our master. We seek to please our master and gratify our sinful desires. Again, this desire and enslavement is because we are bound to sin due to Adam’s rebellion. Adam’s disobedience leads all of humanity to become sinners
Again, not only do we see ourselves in Adam, but we also realize that we are bound to sin prior to salvation. Our desire is opposite of Christ. We are enemies of God and seek to gratify our flesh and please our sin master. We, like Cain, give in to the beastly desires that desire to rule over our hearts. We are bound not to Christ, but to the power of sin. This sin leads to death. Death, both physical and spiritual, reigns over humanity because of sin. When Adam and Eve determined to sin against God it appeared as all hope was lost. They hid from God knowing they had sinned against Him.
Though it appeared as though all hope was lost, our Triune God was not surprised and already had a plan. In fact, in eternity past the Triune God made a covenant with one another to redeem all of creation. Here the glorious Gospel shines brightest. Against the backdrop of sin, evil, wickedness, and darkened hearts, the Gospel, the power of God, breaks into hearts of men and women and saves them from the power of sin. The bondage we have to sin, because of Adam, is broken because of the wondrous power of God’s glorious salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to a great God!