Walking With Christ

Genesis 2:21 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.(ESV)

I ended the message yesterday saying: It’s almost like God knew this was going to happen and had planned for it…

How could the creation of Adam and Eve point to the cross?

God doesn’t make mistakes. When He created Adam, he was perfect. God took this creation then dropped him into the garden of Eden. When God put Adam to sleep to remove the rib that would become Eve, the original Hebrew term was “tardemah”, which is a profoundly deep and unconscious state. While this doesn’t exactly equate to the death that some scholars allude to, it certainly is much deeper than any normal sleep that people regularly get. We could do a pretty good study just on that word, but that’s for another day.

A perfect man in a garden gets a wound in his side and what comes out of that wound is used by God for a miraculous purpose. That seems familiar.

Adam’s sleep was symbolic of death. This “death to self”, as some might describe it, enabled the creation of new life just as Jesus’ death on the cross is what enabled the birth of the church. The sacrifice of Adam enabled the creation of his bride much like the sacrifice of Christ enabled the creation of His bride. What came from Adam became Eve. What came from Jesus became the bride of Christ. The rib from Adam became a human being, while the blood and water from Christ became mercy and grace. The removal of the rib and the formation of Eve represents the completion of humanity. The blood and water represent the completion for the purpose of Jesus on earth.

The garden of Eden was the beginning of life. The garden of Gethsemane was the beginning of grace. I would argue that the bible begins and ends in a garden. Adam and Eve’s relationship was intended to be one of completion and unity—two becoming one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In the same way, Jesus and the Church form a unity: through Jesus’ sacrifice, believers become part of His body, unified in purpose and spirit. Both Adam and Jesus underwent moments of complete surrender. Adam’s deep sleep allowed for the creation of Eve, while Jesus’ death on the cross allowed for the creation of a new covenant, a renewed relationship between humanity and God (1 Corinthians 12:27).

A couple of important notes here, Eve was not given a choice to be made or not. She just was. Eve made the choice to break the covenant with God by eating the forbidden fruit that caused the downfall of mankind. Through the blood of Christ on the cross, the bride of Christ, the symbolic Eve, is being given another choice, a second chance, if you will. We, humanity, must choose to return into that covenantal relationship with the bridegroom. We have to reverse the actions of Eve by reversing the choices that were made. It was by choice that the covenant was broken and it has to be by choice that the covenant is restored. Read Ephesians 5:25-33. It’s also important to note that Adam’s “sacrifice” was also not something that God asked permission to do. I think that this is a huge part of the reason why it was so important for Jesus to have that choice and to make it willingly. God did not give Adam the choice about whether or not he would be responsible for Eve. God had that authority and used it for the glory of the kingdom. To restore balance, Jesus, as God in human form, had to be given the choice to make the sacrifice or not. Christ had to go to the cross willingly. We know that Jesus did this willingly from reading verses such as John 10:18. It was Adam’s disobedience that caused the fall. It could only be Christ’s obedience to death that could restore the covenant. Just as our decision to join the body of Christ is a reversal of the decision of Eve, the obedience of Jesus in Gethsemane is a reversal of the disobedience of Adam in Eden.

I’ll end here for now even though I’m sure that a deeper dive to include more biblical references would find even more parallels between the first and second Adam. The symbolism and even direct comparisons between Adam and Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:45) shed light upon the patterns that are repeated in the bible. While some are far more broad or even obscure, there is no mistaking the fact that God is not afraid to repeat Himself when it comes to showing His love for His creation. All creation repeats “holy, holy, holy” while every breath of God is love.

How does recognizing these patterns help us see God’s consistent pursuit of us throughout history?

How do these patterns help us to see His working in and through the events of our lives?

How do these patterns help us to draw closer to Him in faith?

How might we actively choose to respond to or engage with this open invitation for unity with Him?