Adam’s fallen state

Genesis 3: 9 – 12: And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Before Adam fell, he lived in a world of perfect faith and perfect love, having no consciousness of what it was to be fearful or selfish. He portrayed Christ in every way, and his last act as ruler over the earth was to take Eve’s sin upon himself, even as Jesus’ last act was to take the sin of the world upon Himself. This selfless deed of sacrifice had an effect on Adam, causing him to fall and paradise to be lost. It was not Adam’s attribute (the eternal part that came from God) that fell, but was the flesh expression (the body and spirit) of the attribute that fell.

Adam gave up everything in order to save his wife from death; he loved her so much and cared so much about her that he was willing to lose everything just to be with her in a fallen state. But when he fell in order to be with his wife, it caused a change in him, for when God came down in an investigation judgment, to enquire as to his whereabouts, the Bible records that Adam ran and hid himself, being fearful of the very God he had once enjoyed intimate fellowship with.

Adam responded to God that he was afraid, and when God heard this, He asked if Adam had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, because the Tree of Life (that Adam formerly ate of) does not produce fear, but faith. Furthermore, rather than stand in the gap for his wife (as he did before he fell), Adam now pointed his finger at Eve, and blamed her for what had happened and the great big mess it had created. These few recorded words of Adam show how he had fallen from perfect faith to fear, and how he was more concerned for his own self-preservation than the welfare of his wife. In a moment, everything had changed for him. Where once he had been a loving kinsman redeemer to his wife, now he was running from responsibility, to be accountable and accept Eve’s ruined state upon himself.