Walking With Christ

Genesis 2:21-22 (21)So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. (22)And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.(ESV)

God made Adam from the dust of the earth, breathed life into him, then Adam became a fully formed human being. A lot of people assume that God started with the rib from Adam then made another lump of dust to breath life into when He made Eve. It’s important to know that every bit of what was used to create Eve came from Adam.

God is triune in nature, which is to say that He is three complete beings in one. Those beings are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Human beings were created with a three part being as well in that we have body, mind, and spirit. This isn’t a direct comparison to the Godhead, rather more of a loose comparison since we were made in the image of instead of being a clone or copy of. Eve was created with body, mind, and spirit as well. The bits all had to come from Adam. It’s easy to forget that God took more than just a rib from Adam. What does this mean though?

Adam was created in the original image of God. Adam was a full and complete being before Eve was made. Eve was the first change to the original design. This shows that the original design was planned to be changed.

Their relationship with each other wasn’t just based on convenience or lack of options but rather, it was based on the need to be complete. The need to find what was missing. Some pastors argue against the idea that our spouse completes us. I see the point, but also partially disagree. It’s true that only God truly completes us, but the goal of a relationship is not to have the other person truly complete you the moment you meet them. That’s a bit absurd to think that just meeting any non-Jesus person would mark a person as complete. We aren’t complete until we are standing before the throne of God. So, yes, it’s patently unfair to put that kind of pressure on your partner and shows a lack of understanding as to the purpose of such relationships. Our partners are intended to compliment us to make us more complete and capable along the journey to completion. My amazing wife fills in the many gaps I have. It’s through my relationship with her that I’ve been able to better understand the love our Father has for us. It’s through the gradual understanding of the love our Father has for us that I’m slowly working to improve my relationship with my precious gift of a wife.

The relationship that Adam and Eve had was, in part, based on knowing that the other person had what you were missing. Adam knew that parts of him were missing. He also knew that Eve had those parts. His body craved hers. His mind craved hers. His spirit craved hers. The opposite was also true. She craved him and needed him just as much as he craved and needed her. This went beyond merely a deep longing because each knew that the other one was what would complete them. It’s almost like the red\blue 3D glasses in that each side contained only part of the full picture, but when paired together properly, life became so much more vibrant.

This is one aspect about the fall that makes it such an incredible love story. Adam knew that she had made a mistake by eating the fruit. He knew that she had broken the rule that God had given. He knew that he had failed her in his job to protect her. He knew that she was going to die.

This is just my observation and personal opinion, but he chose to eat the fruit because it would have been better to die entirely than to live broken for eternity. After they ate the fruit, they both knew fear and isolation for the first time. I would go on to say that this is why Adam was so quick to blame Eve in Genesis 3:12. Again, this part is opinion, but goes to point out that Adam’s motivations for doing the things he did were far more complicated than we often give him credit for. The bible doesn’t explicitly say why Adam chose to eat the fruit, but we can know for sure that he did know what the result would be. Knowing the results of her actions leads me to believe he knew what he was doing when he also chose to eat the fruit.

That very same sentiment, it’s better to die than to live broken for eternity, is the exact reason why God kicked us out of the garden before anyone could eat from the tree of life. If one of them had eaten from the tree of life after eating from the forbidden tree then they would have been broken for eternity. By kicking them out of the garden, God left a way for the broken to be made whole.

It’s almost like God knew this was going to happen and had planned for it…