Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Adam Was Not Deceived

Eve was the one who was deceived into committing sin—not Adam (1 Tim. 2:14). Regarding her temptation, Thiessen writes:
"It made [man] desire to have what God had forbidden; to know what God had not revealed; and to be what God had not intended [man] to be."
Henry Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 254.
Eve then came unto Adam. I do not believe that she persuaded him to eat of the fruit because it was to him that God gave the command and he knew the complete consequences regarding it. Rather, I believe that he ate of it willingly. I believe that he saw the wrong that Eve had committed and was then struck with a mortal choice. Because Eve was created to be his helpmeet, I believe Adam feared being alone and so he ate of the fruit with full knowledge of what he was doing. That I am not alone in this understanding from Scripture that I gleaned back in 2006, observe:
"There is no need to say with interpreters, that he was not deceived first; and that he was not deceived immediately by the serpent, but by Eve; and that he is never said in Scripture to be deceived, as Melchizedek is never said to have a father or mother. The apostle's positive assertion is to be taken without any such limitations or qualifications; Adam never was deceived at all; neither by the serpent, with whom he never conversed; nor by his wife, he knew what he did, when he took the fruit of her, and ate; he ate it not under any deception, or vain imagination, that they should not die, but should be as gods, knowing good and evil. He took and ate out of love to his wife, from a fond affection to her, to bear her company, and that she might not die alone; he knew what he did, and he knew what would be the consequence of it, the death of them both; and inasmuch as he sinned wilfully, and against light and knowledge, without any deception, his sin was the greater: and hereby death came in, and passed on all men, who sinned in him:"
John Gill's Expositor,
1 Timothy 2:14
Had Adam chosen not to eat of the fruit, God may have been able to restore Eve. All of this, of course, is only speculation because the Scriptures are silent in this regard. What we do know is that Eve was the one deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), their eyes were not opened until Adam ate (Gen. 3:7), and the first act of sin is attributed to him because he is our Natural Head (Rom. 5:12, 19) and it was to him that God gave the command not to eat (Gen. 2:17). Because Adam chose to willingly sin, as John Gill has said, "his sin was the greater: and hereby death came in, and passed on all men."