"Where are you, Adam?"

When Adam was created, he was perfect. He was fully man, a human, created in the image of God. He had perfect communion with God, perfect knowledge of God, enjoyed perfect fellowship with God, was sinless, and lived on a perfect earth.
 Paradise, Lucas Cranach the Elder: 1536
I can imagine the conversations Adam had with God as they walked in the cool of the day. In his sinless state Adam probably sought God in addition to walking with Him. God always draws close to the righteous and the righteous seek God. (Matthew 6:33, Isaiah 58:2, James 4:8). Just imagine the fellowship and intimacy as Adam, in his clear, diamond-like intellectual, non-sin stained mind, sought knowledge of God and was able to receive it, fully! And the more He learned of God the more Adam loved Him and the more Adam loved Him the more Adam brought glory to God.

But then Adam sinned. Sin entered His mind. When sin enters we become blinded, lost, and darkened in mind (Ephesians 4:18). It is then impossible to seek righteousness, the spiritual become lost to him (1 Corinthians 2:14). (Sculpture, "Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise" by Auguste Rodin)

We see this after the Fall, when the first thing God said to Adam was "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). This was not a location question. God knows everything. He knew where Adam was. He was asking because Adam didn't know where he was. Adam was lost, blinded, and stumbling around in the spiritual dark.

This is evidenced by the fact that Adam's answer was, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." (Genesis 3:10). The natural man is in the flesh and Adam's answer was not a spiritual answer but a fleshly one. "I was naked." No more spiritual conversations with God in the cool of the day, no response like, "I am overwhelmed by Your glory and might and deemed it necessary to hide myself from you because I sinned." Rather a fleshly, child-like clumsy answer. This is because "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14).

As a matter of fact, the moment Adam heard God coming, he fled. Adam went the opposite direction and
hid from God. Indeed, that is what all sinners do, because they are afraid, naked, opened to God who sees all and so they hide in the dark to conceal their sins. Adam couldn't go to God and say, "Help me Father, I've sinned and I need to get back to right relationship with You!" This is because no man seeks after God. No one understands. (Romans 3:11). It's why Adam hid. ("Adam and Eve", George Frederick Watts c.1865)

You see that it was God who took the initiative to seek Adam. He covered Adam in garments, (Genesis 3:21), later to be turned into garments of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) after the work of Jesus on the cross (Revelation 3:5).

I praise God that he seeks us while we are still sinners, that He clothes us to cover our shame, and that He comforts us with His presence and friendship. Most of all He gives us His grace, Himself, and eternal life in righteous robes. We can finally answer Him, "Where am I? I am right here, with you, O Glorious God."



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