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When God created Adam it could be said that he was created with a free will in the sense that he could make choices without coercion one way or the other when given a choice. At the same time, he was subject to God's will as seen by the warning given and the results of disobedience. He was in no way autonomous. He was duty bound to obey God. God set a choice before him in the Garden of Eden. He commanded him to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and gave him the results of doing so. We can speculate endlessly on why God did that, or whether or not Adam already knew evil in some form (he certainly knew by God's proclamation that he shouldn't eat of that tree) if he knew right and wrong, etc. but what we have is enough. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and there was a catastrophic shift in all of mankind's relationship with God. He put them out of the world He had created for them which is seen as the place where the dwelled with Him.
Why did He do this? We see in Romans 5:12-21 in Adam all became sinners. And this means much more than the individual sins we all commit, it refers to the type of creature we became. Before Adam's transgression mankind under Adam's headship of all mankind to follow, we were created perfect and holy in the image and likeness of God who is holy and perfect and we were created to dwell with Him. After the transgression, and for the same reason of Adam's headship of all mankind to follow, we became a sinful creature not a holy creature.
Adam and Eve were put out of the garden because sin cannot dwell with God. The unholy cannot approach the Holy. We see this in the Mosaic sacrificial system, through the cleansings and the sacrifices of substitution, that were put in place while we awaited the Redeemer, the Holy, to be the final sacrifice for the true cleansing of sin and the sin nature in its power to condemn, by the substitution of one made like us, but without sin.
It is God who says the sinner cannot come to Him. We have it upside down, thinking the way of salvation is for a sinner to choose Christ. It isn't about us. It is about God. He alone is Holy, Holy, Holy. Or even when we posit that utter depravity means that we can't/don't come to Him because we are unwilling, that we are by nature at enmity with God. That we view that passage as meaning we consider God our enemy when in fact, God considers us (mankind) His enemy. It is God who forbids a sinful man to approach Him in any way shape or form. He must be cleansed first. A sinful man cannot approach Christ, who is God, and Holy, Holy, Holy. God must cleanse them first. And this He does in the new birth by the Holy Spirit, applying the work of Christ to him. Then and only then may He come to Christ, and this same grace that He sends to save, opens his ears to hear the voice of the Shepherd, the gospel, and he receives it with joy. God gives him to Jesus.
It is Christ's righteousness counted as our own that gives us access to His throne. Nothing we choose and nothing we do. It is by the grace of God who gives us to Christ our righteousness.
Why did He do this? We see in Romans 5:12-21 in Adam all became sinners. And this means much more than the individual sins we all commit, it refers to the type of creature we became. Before Adam's transgression mankind under Adam's headship of all mankind to follow, we were created perfect and holy in the image and likeness of God who is holy and perfect and we were created to dwell with Him. After the transgression, and for the same reason of Adam's headship of all mankind to follow, we became a sinful creature not a holy creature.
Adam and Eve were put out of the garden because sin cannot dwell with God. The unholy cannot approach the Holy. We see this in the Mosaic sacrificial system, through the cleansings and the sacrifices of substitution, that were put in place while we awaited the Redeemer, the Holy, to be the final sacrifice for the true cleansing of sin and the sin nature in its power to condemn, by the substitution of one made like us, but without sin.
It is God who says the sinner cannot come to Him. We have it upside down, thinking the way of salvation is for a sinner to choose Christ. It isn't about us. It is about God. He alone is Holy, Holy, Holy. Or even when we posit that utter depravity means that we can't/don't come to Him because we are unwilling, that we are by nature at enmity with God. That we view that passage as meaning we consider God our enemy when in fact, God considers us (mankind) His enemy. It is God who forbids a sinful man to approach Him in any way shape or form. He must be cleansed first. A sinful man cannot approach Christ, who is God, and Holy, Holy, Holy. God must cleanse them first. And this He does in the new birth by the Holy Spirit, applying the work of Christ to him. Then and only then may He come to Christ, and this same grace that He sends to save, opens his ears to hear the voice of the Shepherd, the gospel, and he receives it with joy. God gives him to Jesus.
It is Christ's righteousness counted as our own that gives us access to His throne. Nothing we choose and nothing we do. It is by the grace of God who gives us to Christ our righteousness.
