Did God need to rely on the free will of Adam to DETERMINE whether He would initiate a plan of REDEMPTION for sinners or not?
Is Adam Sovereign or God?
All things in Heaven and on earth happen because God FOREORDAINS them to occur, He is sovereign over ALL that occurs in, under, and above the earth.
Humans are dust.
There is a difference between having a “will” and having a “free will”. There’s no denying that man has a will to make choices ACCORDING TO HIS DESIRES. This is the crux, man is bound to the desires of his heart. The scriptures say that the heart is deceptively wicked above all else.
I, in agreement with scripture, deny that man’s will is free from confinement. Either mankind is at the will of his fallen nature or in the Will of his Savoir.
Mankind is naturally trapped and confined by the fallen nature of depravity, thanks to the Angels rebelling, Lucifer seeking to be sitting in the seat of God, and then the woman being deceived by the Serpent causing Adam to follow his wife into becoming, as the serpent promised, like god and then being put under the dominion of Lucifer and His Angels, FREE WILL IS A DELUSION.
This means that while humans make choices according to their ‘desires and influences’, humans CAN NOT MAKE CHOICES OUTSIDE OF THEIR FALLEN WICKED NATURE, the will to sin, NOT FREE WILL, complete bondage to sin against the will…
Adam didn’t even have “free will” in the Garden of Eden because he was CONTROLLED BY HIS DESIRES just as we are today. Up until the Fall, Adam was fully devoted to God, and his choices were DICTATED BY THAT DEVOTION, HIS DESIRES WERE FOR GOD. Until the Knowledge of sin through the woman’s disobedience and ignorance.
Important Note:
We are clearly told by Paul in 1Tim. 2:14 that ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED BUT EVE.
Recognizing that ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED we can speculate that Adam KNEW exactly what he was doing and the consequences. He loved the woman and DETERMINED to die with her for ADAM KNEW that was the penalty for eating the fruit of the tree God had withheld from them.
Eve could have eaten the forbidden fruit instead of Adam and I believe nothing would have happened except that God would have likely given Adam another woman to be his ‘helpmeet’.
Adam was the Federal Head and represented all of his posterity by the natural generation.
*WHEN ADAM SINNED WE ALL SINNED IN HIM. It is as though we had eaten the fruit ourselves. His disobedience is what plunged us all into sin and depravity. (Not our own free will)
But God is gracious AND IT WAS ALL ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE OF GRACE IN CHRIST JESUS.
Paul says in 2 Tim. 1:9 that GRACE was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN.
*IF ADAM HADN’T FALLEN, because he desired the woman more than he desired God, WE WOULD KNOW NOTHING OF MERCY, GRACE, AND THE LOVE OF GOD IN SENDING THE SON INTO THE WORLD TO ACCOMPLISH OUR SALVATION.
**”God didn’t cause Adam to sin BUT GOD CERTAINLY PUT ADAM IN THE POSITION AND UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ENSURED THAT ADAM WOULD SIN!
God is not the author of sin, sin, but IS THE ONE WHO DETERMINED BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN TO GLORIFY HIMSELF IN SOVEREIGN MERCY IN CHRIST JESUS THE LORD!
He purposed all that is needed to bring about His purpose and has been working providentially to bring it to pass exactly as He DETERMINED before the foundations of the earth.
GOD KNEW, FROM *BEFORE THE BEGINNING, that Christ would be necessary to save fallen humanity.
THAT shows how HUMAN DECISIONS ARE NOT FREE (including the decision to fall), and when I hear the claim “this is just God predicting what would happen”, who else but God would DETERMINE the process?
A conception of God in which ‘He whimsy foreknows something within His creation’ but does not foreordain it — or even in which ‘He foreordains it because He foreknows it’, makes God dependent on the creature.
GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE AND HIS OWN ETERNAL WILL ARE ONE AND THE SAME.
He does NOT learn from the creature or depend on the creature for anything.
Paul tells us:
“For the creation was subjected to futifutility, notlingly, but because of Him who subjected it yet, in; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now…” Romans 8:20-22
The point of this age is the glory of Christ Jesus the Lord in the salvation of chosen believers. It has always been the point of every age and the point of eternity.
Adam was a figure of Christ to come, and Adams’s representative disobedience and subsequent death served as an ANTITHETICAL PARALLEL to the representative obedience and life of Christ.
God works ALL THINGS (not some things) after the counsel of His own will, WHICH MUST INCLUDE THE FALL.
***”And He put ALL THINGS under His feet and gave Him as Head over ALL THINGS to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills ALL IN ALL.
Ephesians 1:22-23
“… So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” ***THEY STUMBLE BECAUSE THEY DISOBEY THE WORD, AS THEY WERE DESTINED TO DO.”
1 Peter 2:7-8
“…Christ has been appointed the HEIR OF ALL THINGS (not some things), hence ADAM’S DOMINION WAS SUBSERVIENT to the glory of Christ”
“…For by Him ALL THINGS were created, in heaven and on earth, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—ALL THINGS were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together.”
Colossians 1:16-17
“…but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the Heir of ALL THINGS, through whom also He created the world…. And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;….”
Hebrews 1:2, 10
“…You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting EVERYTHING IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” Now in putting EVERYTHING in subjection to Him, **HE LEFT NOTHING OUTSIDE HIS CONTROL. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.”
Hebrews 2:7-8
“…As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the One Man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous. Now THE LAW CAME IN TO INCREASE THE TRESPASS (God gave the law), but WHERE SIN INCREASED, GRACE ABOUNDED ALL THE MORE, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:18-21
“…For as by a man came death, by a Man has come the resurrection of the dead. In Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive…. For “God has put ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that He is excepted who put ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIM… When all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be ALL IN ALL…. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But IT IS NOT THE SPIRITUAL THAT IS FIRST BUT THE NATURAL, AND THEN THE SPIRITUAL. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 27-28, 45-49
God and His story is the point of EVERYTHING.
1. God works ALL THINGS (not some things) after the counsel of His own will, Ephesians 1, WHICH MUST INCLUDE THE FALL.
***”And He put ALL THINGS under His feet and gave Him as Head over ALL THINGS to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills ALL IN ALL.
Ephesians 1:22-23
2. Christ has been appointed the HEIR OF ALL THINGS (not some things), hence ADAM’S DOMINION WAS SUBSERVIENT to the glory of Christ
-For by Him ALL THINGS were created, in heaven and on earth, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—ALL THINGS were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
-but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the Heir of ALL THINGS, through whom also He created the world…. And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;….
Hebrews 1:2, 10
-You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor, putting EVERYTHING IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” Now in putting EVERYTHING in subjection to Him, **HE LEFT NOTHING OUTSIDE HIS CONTROL. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.
Hebrews 2:7-8
3. Adam was a figure of Christ to come, and his representative disobedience and subsequent death served as an ANTITHETICAL PARALLEL to the representative obedience and life of Christ, Rom. 5; 1 Cor. 15.
-As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the One Man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now THE LAW CAME IN TO INCREASE THE TRESPASS (God gave the law), but WHERE SIN INCREASED, GRACE ABOUNDED ALL THE MORE, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:18-21
For as by a man came death, by a Man has come the resurrection of the dead. In Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. For “God has put ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that He is excepted who put ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIM. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be ALL IN ALL…. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But IT IS NOT THE SPIRITUAL THAT IS FIRST BUT THE NATURAL, AND THEN THE SPIRITUAL. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 27-28, 45-49
4. Christ, the lamb without blemish and without spot, was FOREKNOWN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, entailing that the sin for which He became a sacrifice must have been a foregone conclusion.
-He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
1 Peter 1:20
5. God predetermined not only the death of Christ but also the instrumentality of wicked hands, Acts 2, 4.
Sixthly, God subjected the creature to vanity in expectation of its deliverance from bondage at the manifestation of the glorious liberty of the children of God who have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Rom. 8. Seventhly, those who stumble at the word of Christ, being disobedient, were appointed thereunto, 1 Pet. 2.
These are facts of biblical revelation, there should be no doubt that the Scriptures explicitly teach the fore-ordination of the fall.
