Dear Mike,

I am reading over your article, The Head of Christ is God, and going on the assumption that you appreciate comments from readers like me, I would like to share my view about Adam and Eve with you. It could be that I am too sheltered, but I have not come across this view of mine about God’s mercy in the “fall” anywhere (and I have heard a lot of sermons in my time). A song I have been listening to for years by John Michael Talbot (a Catholic monk) called “The Shepherd Boy” helped me to see the spiritual meaning of Eve’s deception and Adam accepting her sin, symbolized by the fruit of the tree. After hearing the song many times, I somehow made the connection between the shepherd boy in the song and Adam who loved his wife so much that he took her sin. Eve was just the first to be deceived/beguiled.

Rom 7:11  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived <1818> me, and by it slew me.

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled <1818> Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

I noticed that Adam was found guilty of two things:  1) taking the fruit and 2) hearkening unto his wife. I found that “hearkening” by Adam, and others such as Abraham (another type of Christ) when he hearkened unto Sarah’s plea for a child by Hagar, is the doctrine of Mercy. As a type of Christ, I believe Adam was showing mercy to Eve. The whole matter of Eve’s deception – and Adam not being deceived – suddenly made wonderful sense to me, from seeing the spiritual side of the first sin.

Thank you for reading.

In Christ,

A____

Hi A____,

Thank you for sharing this with me. I very much agree that Adam knew what he was doing, and he placed his love for Eve above his own spiritual life and his standing with Christ, bringing the plan of God into action to have all who are in Adam subject to death.

Since we had no choice in that decision, and since Adam’s days were all written in God’s book, before there were any of them, God already had Christ “in [His] book… slain from the foundation of the world” as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world and not just for the sins of His elect in this age:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. 

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Those two verses make the meaning of “as in Adam all die” to mean just what they say. “In Christ” is not exclusive of anyone. “Not for ours only [who are] in Christ, but for the sins of the whole world”.

This is reiterated by the apostle Paul:

1Ti 4:10  For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially [not ‘exclusively] of them that believe.
1Ti 4:11  These things command and teach.

“These things command and teach”. Have you ever heard a sermon commanding and teaching that “Christ is the Savior of all men, specially of them that believe”? Has any minister ever shown you the scripture that teaches that “[Christ] is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”?

Those are just a few of the many dozens of verses of scripture which teach that God is in Christ bringing His entire creation, whose days He has already written in His book, to Himself through Christ, just as He gave all men over to death through “the first man Adam”.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 

These words are “not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world”.

What is missing in the doctrine of so many who come to see the Biblical teaching of the salvation of all is the means of producing that salvation. That means is through symbolic “fiery trials” in this age, and through a symbolic “lake of fire” in the coming age. It is fire that will save all men by destroying the old man and birthing the new man. This principle applies to “every man” who has ever lived:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

So what is it that God’s judgments accomplish?

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

God’s judgments are ultimately for one purpose only:

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [to the “great white throne… judgment”].

God’s chastening judgments do not exclude the “great white throne… judgment”:

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

It is the fact so many universalists leave out the entire subject of judgment which causes them to corrupt the doctrine of universal salvation.

I hope this helps you to see that just as Adam knew that he was laying his life down for his love of his wife, Eve, so to Christ has laid down His life to redeem all who are in Adam, through His death and resurrection to live His life of dying to this world in the lives of His elect of this age.

Here is another verse you may never have seen:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: 

Your brother who is praying to be granted to suffer with and to be glorified with our Lord:

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Mike