4.3 The Crime
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Adam was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). There are no more awful or terrible words written in the Bible or uttered by any human than these words of Paul’s. The extent of the criminality that must be found through their meaning is so staggering that we can hardly even consider the horror and wickedness.
Adam knew everything. He knew Jesus; he knew the serpent. He knew what life meant; he knew what death meant. He saw the intended world of life flowing out from his faith in Jesus. He saw all the evil of 6000 years of human treachery. Adam’s heart called him towards the tree of life, to climb its branches and to eat of its fruit. Adam did NOT follow his heart.
God’s Intention. Having set the stage, but before delving into the full meaning of what Adam did follow, we must place Father’s Heart again. God has one intention towards Adam. First, through winning his heart by Christ Jesus, to enter into a symmorphic relationship with Adam through his willing permission, that God might show Himself to His creation through mankind. That God might be seen and known by all.
Adam’s choice of death has no place inside of God’s intention. Yet Adam’s freedom from a God who will never force Himself upon anyone is God’s big problem. Adam must have a choice, set by God out from Himself, a choice that is pure and good, but NOT for human consumption. (This is easy to understand. We freely eat potatoes. The potato plant, which produces those potatoes is pure and good in itself. BUT – we do not eat the potato plant for it will kill us.)
Option # 2. While Adam is beholding the Lamb upon the tree of life, the serpent and Eve have been engaged in conversation. Adam is fully aware of that conversation, though his mind is caught elsewhere. Nonetheless, as Adam turns to look at option # 2, the full meaning and all the implications of the serpent’s words explode into Adam’s full awareness.
Adam, with an IQ likely above 2000, perceives the serpent, his place, his appearance, his words, and his fear. The quality of the serpent, then, that overwhelms Adam, is his appearance – strong, smart, glorious, creative, gifted in all heavenly power and ability, a million times greater than Adam. Adam feels like Jesus upon the cross: I am a worm, and no man (Psalm 22:6).
“You Can Be.” The serpent’s words are the topic of the next two chapters, how every phrase overthrows the relationship God intends to enjoy with Adam. One phrase among them has the deepest impact upon Adam – “You shall be like God.” God had said to Adam, “You ARE like Me.” Adam had understood those words, yes, but without any comparison.
Now Adam’s eyes are fixated on a created appearance that “ought to be” what God looks like, that is, as the psychological force of this powerful angel conveys to him. God had said, “You ARE like God.” The serpent said, “You should and can be like God.” Inside the sight of his eyes, God’s words seem to Adam to be false, that he was not, after all, “what God looks like.”
The Way to Life. We must understand that Adam is entirely inside of God’s way leading him to life; God is always leading Adam in triumph. It is impossible for any human to be led to LIFE without passing by the press against that way coming from the tree of knowledge, of word under human control. No one can eat of life except they freely choose. For how can God live in symmorphy with any human except inside of a fully mutual and willing love?
The serpent, the tree of death, and even Eve herself, are entirely outside of Adam’s way to life. But Adam is utterly inside of that way, untouched by evil; evil can come to Adam ONLY out from his own preference, what he himself wants.
Adam’s Fatal Flaw. Yet Adam did contain inside of his form a fatal flaw, a fatal flaw possessed by all humans since. Because God intended to live inside of Adam through Christ and to energeo all things inside His creation entirely together with Adam, God gave Adam a faculty inside himself capable of containing all the fulness of God.
God created inside of Adam and all humans a HEART as fierce as God’s. Adam possess one quality far superior to the highest angel – a heart designed for omnipotence. The human heart, filled with God, is God’s path of expression into the knowledge of all created things. The human heart, empty of God, is the most dangerous thing in creation, willing to murder everyone.
Becoming Contempt. Adam is far fiercer than the serpent ever could be, for Adam was formed out from the Pro-Determination of God. Yet Adam’s heart is not filled with the Father, for he has not yet asked Jesus to live inside of his heart. Then Adam’s perception switches to the woman who is seeking his attention. And Adam’s piercing awareness understands exactly what she has done. In that moment, Adam despises Eve.
Caught between two images of “what God looks like,” human weakness as life laid-down versus all heavenly perfection and glory, the unthankfulness that had begun as shadow in Adam’s heart turns into contempt for the despicable weakness and stupidity of all other humans.
“Get Away from LIFE!” Adam despises Eve and all her children; she has become contemptible to him. – Remember, Adam is NOT outside of the way to life. This very press always comes against all who draw near to life. In fact, the closer any Christian comes to living only inside of the Holiest, the more opposition arises to keep them out. – “Get away from that tree!”
Inside of this press, now, Adam becomes desperate. – What do I do? Adam must respond, and because we know that Adam is not deceived, we know that he sees all things clearly. It is of critical importance for us to understand this moment, both those things outside of Adam pressing against him, and the inward construction of Adam by which his decision formed. Every Christian faces the same press Adam did and makes the same choice for the same reasons.
The Picture. Consider the diagram carefully.
Although Adam is poised between two, yet only one fills his consciousness. What does Eve think about me? What do these other Christians think about me? Like all humans, however, Adam knows only those things inside of himself. Eve is entirely an “other.” More than that, Adam judges all things only by himself. He cannot know Eve inside herself; he knows only his own judgment. As he despises Eve, so he judges her as despising him and his authority. Yet Eve in herself is true, only deceived.
The Answer of Life. In spite of all of this, with the shadows growing inside of the serpent, inside of Adam, and inside of Eve, no sin has entered the universe, for no sin is imputed separately from Adam’s authority. Meanwhile, the depths of Adam’s heart continue to call him to the tree of life and to the Lamb within that tree.
Suddenly Adam understands. The answer to his dilemma is one thing only, he must climb the tree of life, he must eat of the Lord Jesus Christ, he must lay down his own life for Eve’s sake. At no point before this moment does Adam’s heart ring with all the reverberations of sharing heart with God as it does now. – Adam does not follow his heart.
Other People. To eat of life, Adam must embrace the weakness God made him to be as the image and likeness of God. By that choice, the Lord Jesus would enter into him, to live inside his heart as every Word God speaks, and by life laid-down and love poured-out, he would set Eve and the serpent free from not knowing God along with all of creation. Jesus would be Adam’s life; rivers of life would flow out of him.
Then Adam considers the other image and the other option. And remember that the question of this “OTHER PERSON in my life” continues to dominate Adam’s consciousness much more than the great issues set in place by God. Whenever you are faced with the press of “other people,” which choice do you make?
Word as Control. The serpent, all high heavenly light and perfections, has already pressed itself against Adam’s consciousness as far more desirable then the quiet weakness of a Man who can do nothing of Himself (John 5:19 & 30). And unthankfulness – “I don’t think I like the way you made me, God,” – has already begun to shadow Adam’s heart. So yes, Adam wants to appear SUPERIOR to the woman.
But the arrogance already working inside of Adam, although suddenly desperately important to him, is not most important. In his rapid search of the answer to his dilemma of how he should react to this “other person” in his life, Adam looks past the image of heavenly glory to the word God speaks in outward form, word as mental knowledge under human control.
The Power to Dominate. To understand what happens in that moment inside of Adam, we must enter, so to speak, into his bubble. We can do that, because we know ourselves, for we face the same issues every moment.
Adam has two centers of energeia inside of his consciousness, the larger center of his heart and the smaller center of his mental perception. His heart is connected directly to his mouth, whereas his mind is connected directly to his eyes. As Adam failed to give his heart to the Lord Jesus, that Jesus might be utterly responsible for him, so his heart, made fierce to contain all that God’s heart is and means, made a powerful connection God never intended. Adam connected his heart, meant for Jesus, directly with his forehead and with it the POWER to dominate.
The Forehead. Adam was led by his forehead as psycho-sexual force. Adam chose CONTROL as the answer to his false judgment concerning Eve. The forehead, of course, is the hardening of the mind as it seizes knowledge for itself, knowledge as the source of human power, rather than the Word God speaks as life inside the heart.
Consider the horns of a goat or of a ram. Those horns, coming out of its forehead, are the horns of its power to dominate. In the sight of Adam’s eyes, the superiority of the heavenly serpent appeals to his mind far more than the weakness of the earthly Lamb. Yet word under Adam’s own control would allow him to spin his own story of self, to be his own source, to be his own “god.” In that moment, Adam, out from the fierceness God had given to his heart chose the will to dominate.
A Demonic Choice. Adam cannot spin his own illusory story of self, however, he cannot be his own source, his own “god,” without word as knowledge under his own control. Since Eve is, in his now false perception, entirely out of control, Adam must dominate her by power, that is by the force of his own mind.
To get life, Adam must give to Jesus what Jesus wants, that is, Adam’s heart as His dwelling place. To get control, Adam must give to the serpent what the serpent wants, that is the title of being the image of God, that is, “what God looks like” in the minds of all humans.
Adam’s heart hardens around the demonic choice he is making.
A Contract of Trade. Adam is symmorphic. He is created to be filled with other persons. Adam has no identity inside of himself. His identity, the story of self that he spins inside his own bubble, must come from outside his own person.
God created Adam to be the incarnation of the Father Himself inside of His creation, that God might be seen and known by all through Adam’s relationship with the people in his life. Man, by definition, is God revealed.
In that moment, Adam and the serpent enter into a contract of trade with one another (Ezekiel 28:16). Adam surrenders to the serpent his birthright as the image and likeness of God, from now on, all humans will see arrogant superiority as “what God looks like.” And the serpent grants to Adam the power to strut and pose, to pretend and mimic, to spin his own illusory story of arrogance and contempt by which he imagines himself in CONTROL of all these stupid people he despises.
Theft, Death, and Murder. The fact that he is making the same mistake Eve made means nothing to his hard forehead.
Adam eats of knowledge and dies, and death flows out to all. Adam has murdered everyone. And the trade they had hoped to make vanishes from them, for they have sold their birthrights for drivel. Yet the serpent, now unclean, and the man, now hardened against God, are bound together by contract. The serpent spins the story of human arrogance and contempt, and Adam wears the masks (Ephesians 2:2).
“God, I HATE the way You made me. I will not be like You, but like this better super-“Christ.”
Yet hope remains. – By man death, by man the resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:21). – By man death, by man life. –