The Fall – the Covenant Broken but Not Destroyed

Adam and Eve broke the covenantal relationship of love with God.  However, the broken covenant did not mean that God stopped loving us.  From the very beginning of the Fall God’s love is revealed as mercy.  For example, it is a plausible understanding of the Genesis story that God gave Adam and Eve the chance to repent of their sin.  For example, a close examination of the questions that God asks Adam and Eve after the Fall reveal that God is offering them a chance for repentance. Unnecessary questions from the all-knowing God are significant in biblical literature.  Why would God ask, “Where are you, Adam?” when an omniscient God would obviously know where Adam was hiding?  God is not waiting for Adam to reveal his hiding place.  He is waiting for Adam to admit to his sin and seek forgiveness.  Again, God asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” he already knows the answer.  Here, the opportunity for reconciliation is even more obvious.  Instead of confessing, Adam and Eve instead pass the buck.  Adam blames Eve (and even perhaps God – the woman that you put here with me), Eve blames the serpent and neither confesses personal responsibility for the sin.  Yet, God still shows mercy. 

By turning their back on the Author of Life, Adam and Eve justly deserved death.  However, God does not destroy them.  In view of justice, the punishments he lays on Adam and Eve are merciful.  More than that, they are nothing more than the natural consequences of their sin. 

One way to see the effect the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil had on Adam and Eve is to think of it as electricity.  Satan did not completely lie when he told them that the fruit offered them power to be like Gods.  However, the fruit offered the power to human nature the same way electricity offers power.  I can receive power from electricity by touching a live wire.  However, my body is not meant for such power.  The power would mess me up.  That is exactly what the power of the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil did to human nature – it messed us up.  All of the punishments God gave to Adam and Eve – suffering, toil, strive – can be seen as natural consequences of damaged human nature. 

Furthermore, God shows mercy to Adam and Eve by making them clothing to protect them against the now-hostile Creation.  Even keeping Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life is a sign of mercy.  He did not want them to live forever on a fallen state.  Instead, he allows Adam and Eve to experience death, through which they will eventually be washed clean.

God’s mercy has continued throughout history.  The Old Testament is largely a testament to God’s merciful love working out in salvation history through various covenants.

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