Many people blame Adam for all the misfortunes on earth, because the ground was cursed because of his sin. As one preacher likes to joke: “Adam’s house in paradise must have a ten-foot fence with barbed wire around it, because everyone who gets to paradise wants to give him a piece of their mind.” But not many people know that Adam in fact had no other choice.

God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Could Adam keep this commandment? Scripture says that the law is spiritual. [Rom.7:14] But Adam was of the flesh, of the earth [1 Cor.15:47]. The earthly man is not able to fulfil what is heavenly or spiritual; only the Heavenly Man [Jesus Christ] is able to do that. So Adam was bound to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So God knew Adam was unable to keep it and planted the tree anyway? God knows everything in advance, doesn’t He? That is why He prepared the sacrifice from the foundation of the world [Rev.13:8]. Still, why did God arrange all this? God arranged it all because His dream was for man to become part of His family and a partaker of His divine nature. A creation, however good, is still not perfect. Only God is perfect. And for man to become perfect, he had to be born again, born from above. And how can you be born again without first dying? [Jhn.3:3; 2 Cor.5:14]