This is a very interesting question to me, and one for which I am not sure there is an answer. One thing is certain, God ordained that Adam would fall, therefore, somehow in His Sovereign wisdom and working throughout history, Adam’s defeat is for our good and for God’s glory.
I’m just going to throw a few ideas out there. You can take them or leave them. All I ask is that you play nice in the comments. Here’s what DIDN’T happen in the Garden on that fateful day:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God know that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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, but Adam remembered the word of the LORD. Rather than answer the serpent, he grabbed the serpent by the neck, threw him down to the dust and crushed his head.
Adam destroyed the serpent, doing away with all possibility of sin and death, confirming himself in his holiness and righteousness, and henceforth never able to sin nor die.
He lay with his wife Eve. And they bore many children who inherited his righteous and holy nature. And they (and their children after them and their children after them, etc.) worshiped and honored Adam as savior of all mankind for all eternity.
And here’s why I think God ordained the Fall (all of my reasoning basically comes down to glory):
#1 It pleases God to glorify His Son, Jesus. If Adam had achieved a victory over Satan, then we would have no need for Jesus and He would not be glorified. I do not subscribe to open theology, therefore I do not believe that God is waiting for people to act so that He can react. As in, Adam sinned therefore God had to put plan B (Jesus on the cross) into action. God didn’t “create” Jesus after Adam said, “I ate the fruit you told me not to eat.” I believe that Jesus existed eternally with God (John 1:1; Colossians 1:15-16; John 17:5). If the Son existed eternally with God, and it is God’s will that His Son be glorified over all, then Adam has to fail.
#2 God knows what is the highest good for His creatures, namely God Himself. Adam, though created in the image of God, is not altogether worthy of worship. Even a perfect Adam is still a finite man. But, “In him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was please to dwell” (Colossians 1:19). Our all-wise, infinite God knows that our highest good and greatest pleasure come from knowing and worshiping Him. If we are to know and love Him above all, then Adam has to fail.
#3 God does not share His glory (Isaiah 48:11). If God is going to be honored and worshiped and glorified as God, then Adam has to fail.
#4 If Adam is victorious, then we only know God as Creator. We would miss knowing so many of His other characteristics and attributes. Consider what knowing God’s grace and mercy, his love, and his patience toward you mean to you. Would you trade that relationship through Jesus for the Garden of Eden? If God is going to reveal all of Himself, then Adam has to fail.
#5 When I came to the end of that thought process of Adam being victorious in the garden and I realized that he would be the one we look to and worship, I felt completely let down. Not that Adam wasn’t awesome as the crown of creation. No one has ever been more intelligent, more handsome, or more able than Adam. But he was still a man. Not a creator, not infinite, not majestic, not brighter than the blazing sun, not supremely merciful and gracious, not unconditionally loving, not a fount of wisdom, not all-powerful, all-knowing, nor all-present, not a friend to the lowly (because there wouldn’t be any)…not Jesus. Jesus is so much better!! (Read the New Testament.) If I am to be exceedingly happy for eternity, then Adam has to fail.
I’m sure you can come up with some more reasons why you think God ordained the Fall. I made no mention of the Holy Spirit and His work. (Or you may think this post has come from way out in left field.) I just decided to stop with 5. Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
Ads
Leslie Wiggins 
12 responses to “What If Adam Were Victorious?”
Your post is one that makes me think! I just read something along these lines in Piper’s “God is the Gospel.” I’ll quote some of it here, if you think it doesn’t pertain, or if it’s too long, you may delete with my permission!Piper has just asked the question why God doesn’t just go ahead and “snuff Satan and his demons out of existence.””Why does God tolerate Satan?… God’s purpose is to defeat Satan in a way that glorifies not only Christ’s raw power, but also his superior beauty and worth and desirability. Christ could simply exert sovereign power and snuff Satan out. This would indeed glorify Christ’s power. But it would not display so clearly the superior worth of Jesus over Satan… The aim of the gospel is to put the glory of the crucified Christ on display and to shame Satan by the millions of people who ‘turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God’ and forsake Satan’s lies in preference for the beauty of Christ in the gospel.”
LikeLike
Very thoughtful post. I’ve thought on this before, but not with such depth. These posts on Adam and Eve have been quite thought-provoking. I appreciate how you look to scripture for answers, too!By the way, I mentioned you on my blog today….:)
LikeLike
All right, here’s a thought: going back to your re-write, for A & E’s children to inherit his righteous nature, then A would have had to step in a tad bit earlier and kept E from her poisoned meal as well, or it would have been a house divided (Mt 12:25-27)But in that line of thought, I agree that God willed to have a nation of holy and righteous people in personal relationship with Him, that worship and honor His name. A couple of proofs perhaps from Gen 18:19, 1 Pet 2:9, obviously from a post-Fall proving point. Adam of course, was not from the Fall going to be able to do that.Another idea I’ve heard is that the issue of Satan having fallen from heaven was still to be dealt with and God willed to exert all final authority and power over Satan’s rejection through the forming of a created people for Himself. The ultimate ruler of that people could not have been Adam because he was still only Adam, all man and no essence God. Whereas Christ is fully man and fully God.Great post, Leslie.
LikeLike
Great comments!!!
LikeLike
Interesting points… I heard Dr. R.C. Sproul say that he does not have an answer as to how evil entered creation apart from God being the author. There is no doubt that God allowed it and thus has ordained it. Since you have a link to Ligonier, I mention Dr. Sproul.
LikeLike
Elle–would it have been more correct to have Adam intervene and Eve submit to his authority over her?jazzycat–the only thing about that is that God is not the author of sin and evil. He did ordain it, but he is not the author of it.
LikeLike
I heard Dr. R.C. Sproul say that he does not have an answer as to how evil entered creation apart from God being the author.I could have worded that better….I heard Dr. R.C. Sproul say that he does not have an answer as to how evil entered creation since God is not the author of evil. This is in agreement with you.
LikeLike
When I got to your alternate ending, it caught me off guard and I was like, “Whoa – read that again!” You definitely had me chuckling by the time I finished that section. =)But my second thought was that Adam couldn’t really have crushed the serpents, head – death didn’t exist yet, prior to sin, right?I am not debating your points that God ordained sing and receives more glory because of the fall. But, I have to ask – If Adam had not fallen and we all existed in a sinless world, how would we look to him as righteous? Wouldn’t we all have the perfect, unseparated relationship with God as Adam and Eve did in the garden? We couldn’t create an idol out of Adam if sin didn’t exist, and we all worshipped God as originally intended, could we?
LikeLike
Loraena–OK, let me try to understand what you’re saying. You think it makes more sense to have Adam just refuse to sin. What would he do with the serpent? Would he send him out of the garden? Would he pronounce a curse on Satan? Would he take the serpent to God for God to deal with? As I was thinking through it all, it made sense to me to have him defeat Satan completely. He had authority over all the creatures, so he could have done that, right? I don’t know. Would he have been a murderer, then? Would it have even occurred to him to kill one of the creatures in the garden? What if there were a way that Adam could have “unmasked” the serpent, revealing its true identity? Then what would Adam have done? Could he have taken on Satan? Now I don’t know what to think!:) In my very simplified look at it, I thought it made sense that Adam would be confirmed in his own righteousness by works, the work of defeating Satan. Then, his righteous nature would be passed to his children like his sinful nature is passed on today.I think the point I was trying to make was that if Adam defeated the serpent, then Adam would be our savior rather than Jesus. We would still relate to God in some way, I suppose, but it would be completely different because we would relate to him in our own righteousness and not by grace. He would “owe” us, so to speak.Not that any of it really matters that much anyway…I was just thinking “out loud.” I can’t think of a proof for any of it. I appreciate your comments, though…making me think more!!
LikeLike
This is a very interesting train of thought – I’m just thinking out loud, too!I’m thinking that Adam, being “innocent” probably didn’t know about death at all. I don’t think he could have been capable of killing Satan. Although what his alternative would have been, I don’t know – would Satan have returned and continued tempting daily? Would God have stepped in and dealt with Satan? I think this also brings up the question about Eve. She was deceived, but she also disobeyed God’s command. If Adam had not chosen to eat the fruit, what would have happened to her? Would she alone have been lost? I just think this is an interesting discussion you have brought up. I know the “might have beens” really don’t exist, because we KNOW that God is sovereign in His ordination of events, but I still enjoy theorizing. =)
LikeLike
What if Adam had to die to save Eve?But I’ve also heard it preached that sin didn’t enter until Adam sinned…Eve was just deceived and not a sinner until Adam, her “head,” sinned.
LikeLike
Hmmmm…..
LikeLike