God made man upright, and put him in the garden where was everything that was pleasant and good. Everything was to be subject to man, and he was to have dominion over all. And God brought the cattle and fowls to Adam, and he named them. Man was the head, center, and ruler over all, put in the place of perfect earthly blessing. But all this could only be held and enjoyed in dependence on God. Alas! how soon all was let go. The work of the enemy, the wretched distrust of God in man's heart, in spite of all the blessings that surrounded him, the working of lust and pride, followed so quickly by that dreadful act of disobedience, had a direct consequence. Man became a coward, and could not stand before the conscience he had acquired; he fled from God, his kind gracious benefactor.
But God is love, and it was love that put man there in that garden of delight at the first; and He is the unchanged and unchanging One: "The same yesterday, and today, and forever." The man, changed and terrified, fled from God; God in the energy of divine love pursued, seeking the lost. But "God is light," and everything must be brought to the surface—no keeping back, and why should there be the holding back? for He knows all, and with Him is the remedy.
Adam's heart condemned him, but God saw further into the depth of the ruin than Adam and, blessed be His name, He saw the remedy too—the source of all the evil judged and crushed under the heel of the "woman's seed."
"Where art thou?" Man must come out from his hiding place; as the fig leaves could not satisfy the conscience, so now the tree cannot hide man from God. And how many trees there are that men are hiding behind today. Men are hiding, and in restless activity are seeking to stifle the conscience which condemns and says, "not fit for God." It is God that asks, "Where art thou?" And He furnishes the answer, both for the sinner and the believer. The former is in his sins—that awful, lifeless condition, "in the flesh" (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)), and thus unable to do anything to please God. In the far country where the famine is, without Christ, without hope, without God, in the world, unclean, an enemy—the sword of judgment hangs over his head.
But believer, "Where art thou?" And God's Word again furnishes the reply; and what mind, however great, could have given birth to such a thought—it would have been blasphemy to have expressed it—but God has spoken, and shall we not hear? The believer is not in the first man where all is ruin, but in the second Man where there is naught but blessing in Christ Jesus, where there is no condemnation. He, blessed be His name, bore it all on that tree, and now it can never touch the one in Christ. "Accepted in the beloved" (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)), not merely in Christ, though that is true—but "in the beloved," the One so dear to the heart of God. His place now is in the Father's house, seated at His table, having on the best robe, which is surely none other than Christ.
"Now we see in Christ's acceptance
But the measure of our own;
Him who lay beneath our sentence,
Seated high upon the throne.
"Quickened, raised, and in Him seated,
We a full deliverance know;
Every foe has been defeated,
Every enemy laid low.
"Soon, O Lord, in brightest glory,
All its vastness we'll explore;
Soon we'll cast our crowns before Thee,
While we worship and adore."