7: Jesus, Saved by Grace, Part 1- Was Eve innocent?

Introduction

This post is a necessary prerequisite to understanding how the Bible describes Jesus' own salvation in 1 Timothy 2:13-15. As already shown, Jesus sinned as Adam, David, and Jesus. As already explained in section 1 part 12 of this blog, Jesus, as the great high priest, paid for his sin as Jesus and the sin of the world. However, as will be explained in detail in "Jesus, Saved by Grace, Part 2- Through Childbearing", Jesus did not pay for his sin as Adam and David on the cross. God had a different plan for that atonement, and this can only be fully understood by first answering the question of this post: was Eve innocent? These 2 posts also provide further evidence of God using reincarnation in the lives of Jesus and Eve.

Was Eve innocent?

Genesis 2:15-18, 22

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib[a] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”

God told Adam explicitly and directly to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told him he would die if he ate it. Eve was not alive when God told this to Adam.

Genesis 3:1-6, 13

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it…

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Eve added to God’s commandment to not eat the fruit by telling the serpent that they were commanded not to “touch it” or eat it. This demonstrates Eve was already confused, having made this up or heard this from Adam. 

How did the serpent trap her? What was the bait? He told her if you eat it, you will be like God – so, she decided to eat it. Is that a bad desire? Being like God? If her desire was not bad, but the action was – an action she was deceived about – is she guilty or innocent?

Adam was with her during the entire encounter with the snake (Genesis 3:6), and he was not deceived. Adam knowingly, intentionally sinned – did Eve, if she was deceived?

Genesis 3:9-13

9 “But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

After their sin, why does God only call to Adam initially? God asks using the singular form of “you”, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  Why doesn’t He address both of them?

Initially, God does not ask Eve if she had disobeyed.  God does not ask Adam if they had disobeyed. God asked only Adam if he had disobeyed.

God does not address Eve until Adam blames his sin on her, and even potentially on God, as he says to God, “The woman whom YOU gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree...”

Eve then says she was deceived, which God does not question or challenge, and is true, as is affirmed in other parts of Scripture (1 Timothy 2:14, 2 Corinthians 11:2).

Romans 5:12

12 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—"

1 Corinthians 15:21-22

“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

Why did sin and death only enter the world through Adam, even though both Adam and Eve ate the fruit? Why does God only hold Adam responsible for sin entering the world according to 1 Corinthians 15:21 and Romans 5:12? Why not both of them?

1 Timothy 2:13-14

“For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a transgressor.”

Adam intentionally sinned, as he was not deceived.

Given that Eve was deceived, did God view her becoming a transgressor differently?

1 Timothy 2:14 says literally in the Greek, “into transgression has come”. So, certainly Eve entered transgression. But why? Could she have been innocent? She was deceived by the serpent, and Adam was there the whole time and did nothing to intervene. Does God hold her guilty or innocent because of what happened?

Genesis 3:13-19

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock

  and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

 15 And I will put enmity

     between you and the woman,

     and between your offspring[a] and hers;

 he will crush[b] your head,

     and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

     with painful labor you will give birth to children.

 Your desire will be for your husband,

     and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

     through painful toil you will eat food from it

     all the days of your life.

 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

     and you will eat the plants of the field.

 19 By the sweat of your brow

     you will eat your food

 until you return to the ground,

     since from it you were taken;

 for dust you are

     and to dust you will return.”

God says to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you…”

God says to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you…cursed is the ground…”

Why does God only tell Adam he will die but not Eve? Why doesn’t God use the same language when He speaks to Eve, “Because you have done this…?” Are God’s Words to her not “because” she ate the fruit? Why would God give her pain if she was “innocent” in eating the fruit? Is it possible He is responding to her good desire behind eating the fruit – to be like God? How can that happen apart from suffering? Were God’s Words to Eve a punishment or a response to her wanting to be like God, which can only happen through discipline and suffering?

Hebrews 12:4-13 says,

4 "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,

     and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

     and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."

The reason for God’s discipline is so that we can be perfect – so we can be like Him. Could that be the purpose in God’s discipline for Eve? If His response to her was not “because you have done this”, could it be, “because you desired this [being like Me]”? Discipline from God on his child does not mean the child has done something wrong necessarily. Sometimes discipline is enacted not because someone has done something wrong but to make them better. For example, consider sports: discipline on a sport’s team is not because someone has done something wrong. Discipline is implemented to make them better and help them improve. Eve may not have sinned as she was innocently deceived, but she certainly had areas of growth.

Specifically, she greatly needed to grow in discernment as Genesis 3 reveals she was fairly easily deceived by Satan. Moreover, Eve may not have sinned, but she certainly was not perfect yet. While part of being perfect is sinlessness, as explained in the previous article on Jesus becoming sinless, sinlessness is not all that perfect means. Sinlessness is part of being perfect, but wisdom is also part of being perfect, “lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). Eve needed to grow in wisdom and learn to not be deceived by Satan’s lies. 

Also, it is notable that God never cursed Adam and Eve. He only cursed the serpent.

 Genesis 3:22-24

“And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[a] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Why does God only say that the man, singular, has become like “one of us” knowing good and evil? Why isn’t Eve mentioned?

Why did God drive Adam out from the garden of Eden to work the ground because he did not want him to reach out and take from the tree of life without mentioning Eve?  If God drove Eve out of the garden of Eden and barred her from the tree of life, why doesn’t this passage say so?

Why didn’t God send Eve from His presence? If in His eyes she was guilty, why did He not bar her both from His presence and the tree of life? Is there any option than before God she was innocent? Why did He allow her access to the tree of life if she was not?

Genesis 4:1

“Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”

Genesis 4:25

25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

Eve gave God the credit for giving birth to a man (Cain). Eve said Seth was a child from God as a gift because Abel was killed by Cain. Doesn’t this show that Eve had a relationship with God marked by gratitude and worship, as she sees good things coming from the Lord? While she “fell into transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14), what do her words say about her heart posture towards God?

Leviticus 4:13-35

13 “‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt 14 and the sin they committed becomes known, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the tent of meeting. 

22 “‘When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, when he realizes his guilt 23 and the sin he has committed becomes known, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect.

27 “‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, when they realize their guilt 28 and the sin they have committed becomes known, they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed a female goat without defect.” 

Leviticus 5:17

17 “If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.”

Was Eve eating of the fruit unintentional sin? The Bible is clear, at least, that Eve did not sin intentionally. The Bible makes clear that unintentional sin still requires atonement and offering for forgiveness, and the person who committed the unintentional sin is guilty.

Unintentional means not done on purpose, while deceived means causing someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage. Isn’t Satan attacking and deceiving Eve such that she eats the fruit different than someone sinning without realizing it? In Eve’s case, she was targeted and attacked by the evilest being in the universe. Was her response unintentional sin or manipulation? In God’s eyes, did He see Eve manipulated by the serpent or her making a mistake that needed atonement?

If her motivation was to be like God, wasn’t her motive pure and her action wrong? If 1) manipulation by the devil is involved, and 2) a pure heart on the part of the person is involved, isn’t this situation different than one of unintentional sin?

Finally, if it was a case of unintentional sin, again, why didn’t God drive her out of the garden? Isn’t atonement needed, like in all the cases of unintentional sin, for the individual or community to be made right with God again?

And yet God does nothing to drive Eve out of His presence. Again, why did God only tell Adam he would die, and not mention that in His words to Eve? Maybe she had done nothing deserving of death? The Bible is clear that sin leads to death in every case (Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23). Could this be evidence that Eve did not sin? God only punished Adam with death, not Eve. This is good evidence that Eve did not sin as sin leads to death.

Luke 12:47-48

47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

In Eve’s situation, was God’s response to her eating the fruit beating her “with few blows”? Or a life of suffering that is for God’s glory, to be more like Him, which can only happen through suffering? Perhaps God’s response to Eve was the loving discipline of a Father who wants her to be like Him, not a consequence for sin. Eve certainly needed to grow in wisdom. Perhaps the only way for her to be like God, which is a good desire, was for her to go through suffering to become wise and loving like God - which is the destiny, of course, for all Christians.

Conclusion: Was Eve innocent?

God only accused the serpent and Adam in His words of, “Because you have done this…” But again, He did not use those words for Eve.  That is not a coincidence. Eve must have been innocent.  No guilty person can stay in the presence of God and eat of the tree of life, and God never drove Eve from His presence or barred her from eating the tree of life. He only did that for Adam, who twice in the New Testament is charged with bringing sin into the world – never Eve, though Eve ate the fruit first.

So, Eve sinlessly gave up eternal life for Adam. She did not have to follow him out of the garden, but she did because she loved him and chose to spend a mortal life with him instead of an immortal life with God apart from him. Before Jesus (Adam) died without sin for the world, a woman without sin gave up her life for him.