Adam's Laws

Students of the Bible often neglect to understand that there was more than one law in the garden and they often do not understand the reason for the law. Law provides the mechanism for volitional Love. “if you Love me you will obey my commandments, (John 14:15)” and my commands are not burdensome.”(1 John 5:3) The writing and enforcement of law is still supposed to be motivated by love. When false motives enter into the development or enforcement of law it starts to lose its redemptive value. There were several legal areas in the Garden that the Lord established for Adam. They will be elaborated on in the context of freedom within these articles but can be thought of in the context of law as well.

The Law of Self Denial, “you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it you will surely die."(Genesis 2:17) This law was the clearest and the one the most serious consequence. It was Adam’s figuratively cross in which he was to deny himself the fruit of a specific tree.

The Law of Work The Lord called Adam to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air” (Genesis 1:28)

The Law of Multiplication Adam was to be fruitful and multiple and fill the Earth.

The Law of Rest This law is not clearly delineated for Adam but it is seen in the example of the Lord himself and the Sabbath rest he would establish in the future. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27) Adam was called to trust God for increase and enjoy the fruit of his labor.

The Law of Sacrifice

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.” (Romans 5:12-14)

We know from scripture that Jesus was the “lamb slain from the foundations of the world.” Yet it is in his original sinless state that Adam was most like God. There was not a need for anything redemptive. There were simply commands that manifested the goodness of God.
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:15 -18

Adam’s Freedom In the Garden

The Lord put Adam in the Garden. He put him there because He wanted him there. He did not want him anyplace else. Adam was not born or fashioned in the Garden but was put in the Garden. This is the theme of the Great Commission. Men born in one place are called to another place, not to build it from scratch but to perfect it in the beauty that is inherent in that foreign place. When the term Redemptive Gift is used throughout these articles that will be its definition, it is the inherit beauty that God has placed in an individual, tribe and place, and time that the Gospel perfects through redemption.

The plain English meaning of the word, redeem, or redemption means to buy back or to repurchase. Therefore when our Lord Jesus Christ redeems us He is buying back or repurchasing that which is his own. He valued us when He created us and therefore He redeems us through His very own blood. He created us in a generation; we were born in a specific geography of His choosing. He placed us in a genealogy that he determined. Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” This is not only true of Jeremiah it is true of all men everywhere in all times.

“From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:26-28

The implication of Acts 17:26-28 is that the best place for Adolf Hitler to find Christ was World War II Germany. The best place for Idi Amin to find Christ was 1970’s Uganda. The best place for the Lakota, Sitting Bull to find Christ was in 19th century America. No matter the time or the place, God has placed us where we can find him. “Because He is not far from anyone of us, in him we live and move and have our being.”Acts 17:28 The best place for Adam to find Christ was in the Garden of Eden.

Freedom and the Indispensable Place

The Garden was Adam’s “determined time and exact place.” He was given a job to do. That job was more than a job however it was a redemptive task, more commonly we might define it as vocation, more accurately we would say it was a calling. He was doing the thing God had determined for him to do. That is why his work becomes a redemptive task. I would attest that a major portion of true personal freedom is found in the work we are called to do! Doctor Henry Morris of the Institute of Creation Research uses the term “dominion mandate” to describe what I am calling redemptive task in his book God and the Nations. God told Adam he was free, but free within limits. The limits were built around his task and his time. No man can volitionally jump generations, or choose what family or race he is be born to. Adam was predetermined by Triune God to be the first man and to work that Garden in Eden.

There has never been a place like Eden since the fall. It was a place of perfect freedom. It was a place of communion between God and man. God walked with Adam in the cool of the Garden. Many believe God’s presence was tangible and physical as we see in the many per incarnate appearances of Jesus throughout the Old Testament. (Gen. 12:7, 32:24-30 Exodus 34:5-28) Eden was a place of perfect health and of immortality. However, The Garden of Eden had an enemy. Jesus said,” “I saw Satan fall to Earth like lightning.” Luke 10:18 . Satan was present. He affected the animal kingdom and ultimately would be instrumental in the fall of man. Adam had only one restriction to his freedom. “You may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:17 Satan used this restriction for his own malevolent purposes but God continued to have a redemptive plan. It included, a specific person, born in specific generation, in a specific geography, and to a specific genealogy that was of the line of Adam and the seed of Eve. (Luke 3) In other words God’s Redemptive Gift was already prepared in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who would also be called to a redemptive task.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redeem
Henry M. Morris, God and the Nations (Master Books, 2002) pg 27
http://www.theopedia.com/Theophany