Why weren't Adam and Eve given a second chance?
Categories: Bible Questions and AnswersThe Israelites were given repentance many times when they sinned against God and God himself even asked them to return to him. My question is this, why weren’t Adam and Eve given another chance when they sinned against him in the Garden of Eden? Weren’t they the first children created by him with his own hands and his breath given to them?
Adam and Eve were given a direct prohibition by God and then warned of the consequences should they violate that prohibition. Genesis 2:16, 17 states, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” God keeps his promises, both promises of reward and promises of punishment. Adam and Eve also had a unique relationship with God in that God walked and spoke with them in a very personal level (Genesis 3:8). But Adam and Eve both ate of the tree and sinned, so they had to be separated from their fellowship with God and ultimately suffer physical death.
But that’s not the end of the story. While God punished Adam and Eve by casting them out of the garden, God didn’t forsake their souls to a Devil’s hell. God made it possible for Adam and Eve along with all others in this world who have sinned to be forgiven by sending His Son Jesus to live a perfect life and die for the sins of mankind on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Yes, God kept his promise, but God also provided a way of escape from eternal damnation. Having done this, God can be both just and the justifier (Romans 3:26).
One must also remember that Israel was a nation, not two individuals. God dealt with Adam and Eve based upon the salvation of individuals; God dealt with the nation of Israel based upon salvation of a nation as a whole. Individual members of that nation lived and died and were judged as individuals, while God was longsuffering with the nation as a whole. So it’s not entirely comparing apples to apples when you compare God’s longsuffering with the nation of Israel to God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden.
So to answer your question, Adam and Eve *were* given a “second chance,” so to speak, in that they were not immediately killed for their error. They died spiritually that day, but in Christ, had the opportunity to be spiritually made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).