A Race of Men Better Than Adam

For a moment, imagine that you discovered a time machine and ventured back into the days just before the Fall. Upon arriving in the Garden of Eden, you were provided with two options: (1) You could emphatically warn Eve to resist the temptations of Satan in an attempt to prevent the Fall, or (2) You could quietly stand by and allow Adam & Eve to eat from the tree.

If presented with these options, most people would instinctively choose to prevent the Fall. Choosing this option might temporarily ensure that mankind would be free from the miseries of sin, suffering, sickness, death, and eternal judgment. This seems like a noble goal, but it also expresses a bit of distrust for God's ordained plan for mankind. The second option trusts in the wisdom and goodness of God. This option forces us to lean upon the promise that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God..." This trusts that the Cross will ultimately make a redeemed mankind who will far exceed the beauty of the original mankind.

The Bible makes this clear.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.... Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven."

The Apostle Peter explained how Christians are far better off than a pre-fallen Adam: "In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you ... For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

Now we are to "become partakers of the divine nature."

None of this would have been the case if mankind had succeeded in maintaining our own innocence, and our relationship with God would have remained conditional upon our obedience. We would be wound in the thin threads of our own deeds, instead of being adorned in the royal robes of Jesus Christ.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "[God] will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less."

One may not always understand the reasons for God's brushstrokes, but a Christian can trust that Christ's masterpiece will be far more beautiful than anything we could ever imagine!