We who believe the gospel
doctrine of absolute predestination do not for a moment entertain the monstrous
notion that God forced Adam to sin in the garden, though there are many who
delight in accusing us of that evil. Yet, we do not accept the preposterous
idea that the sin and fall of our father Adam was an accident, which took the
eternal God by surprise and shattered his plans for man and creation. A god
whose plan and purpose could be shattered, or even shaken, by his creatures
would be no God at all. Two things must be kept in mind by all who worship God
and receive the revelation of Holy Scripture as the Word of God.
1. If it had been his will
and purpose to do so GOD COULD HAVE KEPT ADAM FROM SINNING IN THE GARDEN, AS
EASILY AS HE KEPT ABIMELECH FROM SINNING WITH SARAH.
When Abraham gave his wife
to Abimelech for fear of the king's displeasure, God
kept Abimelech, a heathen king, from taking Sarah as
his mistress. God said to him, "I withheld thee from sinning against
me" (Gen. 20:6). Now, if God could keep an unbelieving, sinful man from
committing an act of adultery, surely he could have kept Adam, an innocent man
who had no inward and natural inclination toward sin, from eating the forbidden
fruit, had it been his will and purpose to do so.
2. And all who believe the
testimony of God in Holy Scripture must also recognize that, like all other
things, THE SIN AND FALL OF OUR FATHER ADAM WAS PREDESTINATED BY GOD IN
ETERNITY AND WAS BROUGHT TO PASS BY THE RULE OF GOD'S SOVEREIGN PROVIDENCE, FOR
THE ETERNAL GOOD OF GOD'S ELECT AND THE GLORY OF HIS OWN GREAT NAME.
This is clearly the
teaching of Holy Scripture. The apostle Paul tells us that God, who
predestinated all things that ever come to pass, "worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will" (Eph. 1:11). Now "all things" means
all things, and that includes the sin and fall of Adam. Paul also tells us that
"all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to purpose" (Rom. 8:28). Yes, even the sin and all of
Adam, and our sin and fall in him, works together for good to God's elect,
according to God's own wise purpose. "For", as the Word of God
declares, "of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be
glory for ever and ever" (Rom. 11:36). And God's sovereign purpose, in
predestination and providence, is "To the praise of the glory of his
grace" (Eph. 1:6).
God did not force Adam to
sin. God did not in any way compel or constrain Adam to sin. But all the
circumstances which brought to pass the sin of Adam and the fall of our race in
him were ordained of God in infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace. In the same
way, God did not force those wicked man at Jerusalem to crucify his Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, his Son died by the hands of wicked men at exactly the
time and in precisely the way which God from eternity had predestinated (Acts
2:23).
God almighty is answerable
to no man's Judgment. And I certainly do not pretend to have understanding in
the mystery of God's eternal purpose and providential ways. But I do see one
glorious aspect of God's wisdom and grace in the fall of Adam. HAD IT NOT
BEEN FOR THE SIN AND FALL OF OUR FATHER ADAM, WE COULD HAVE NOT KNOWN THE GLORY
OF GOD'S REDEEMING LOVE AND SAVING GRACE IN CHRIST. Adam fell in the
garden, according to God's sovereign purpose, so that we, his elect people,
might know the love, the grace, the wisdom, and the glory of God in Christ.
Long before Adam sinned, Christ was appointed as the Lamb of God, slain from
the foundation of the world. Only through the sin and fall of Adam was
necessity made for Christ to come as our Substitute in infinite love, to
satisfy God's justice and extend to sinners God's mercy.