Why did God command Adam?

Genesis 2 v 16-17, “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.”

We need to study these two verses in order to draw lessons from them that will help us understand who God is and why He is the person that He is. The essence of the question that is the title of this nugget seeks to understand what lessons we can draw from this conversation God had with Adam. Set forth below are the reasons God commanded Adam.

God commanded Adam in order to:-
To teach Adam that God is His Master and has authority over him.

To teach Adam that man is obligated to obey God and thus is accountable to God

To teach Adam the severity of disobedience in that its consequence is death

To teach Adam that man is responsible for his actions

To teach Adam that he has the ability to choose

To teach Adam the difference between right and wrong

To teach Adam to trust God i.e. to have faith in God

We are going to further elaborate how we have deducted these lessons from the two verses and what we learn from them.

To teach Adam that God is His Master and has authority over him
In God commanding Adam, we learn that God has authority over man for he who commands another, is exercising authority over that person. God commanded Adam in order to teach him that he was under His authority. This verse teaches us that God has authority over us and not only over us but over everything. Since God gave dominion to us over the whole earth but yet He is still able to command us to obey, it shows that He is the ultimate authority. Commands, orders, laws, decrees etc always flow from the Master to the servant, from the King to his subjects, from those in authority to their subordinates and so forth. Never ever do commandments flow from the subordinates to those in authority. This verse teaches us that God, by virtue of being God, has the divine right and power to command man as we read that the verse says, “And the LORD God commanded the man…” If God did not have the right or the power, He would not command, but since He does He therefore commands. Therefore we learn that we are under God’s authority and are therefore His subjects.

To teach Adam that man is obligated to obey God and thus is accountable to God
Commands require obedience. In the army, when a commanding officer issues an order he expects it to be carried out in full. That way of doings things is a pattern that was set forth by God when He commanded Adam. God commanded Adam expecting nothing but total obedience to His command and therefore in God commanding Adam we learn that man has an obligation to obey God. Obedience is not a choice but an obligation. God’s commandment was not a suggestion or a piece of advice. God’s commandment was an order that He expected to be fully obeyed. Therefore we learn that man is obligated to obey God which shows us that man is accountable to God. In God commanding us to obey we automatically are expected to answer for our actions therefore man is not only obligated to obey but is also accountable to God.

To teach Adam the severity of disobedience in that its consequence is death
In verse 17 God says, “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” God teaches Adam how severe disobedience is by telling him that the consequence of disobedience is death. God also shows us that there is no partiality in His judgement. What do I mean? Even if Adam had spent 200 years without eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that he would eat of that tree, he would die. This means that his track record for obedience would count for nothing because God required him to fully obey Him. Whether he ate from it one day after God had given this command or 100 years later he was going to die, all the same, if he ate from that tree thereby showing us that God is impartial in judgement and that disobedience is absolutely severe, so severe that it severs our connection to God who is our source of life and therefore we die. This also teaches us that God requires perfect obedience i.e. not a single deviation from His command is tolerated and any such deviation is considered total disobedience.

To teach Adam that man is responsible for his actions
God in commanding Adam teaches him that he is responsible for his actions. We have just learnt that God has authority over Adam and requires Adam to obey him and thus Adam is accountable to God, in that accountability lies man’s responsibility for his actions. In commanding Adam, God has decreed the way of life that man should follow. Because man had been taught how God expects him to live, man can now be held responsible for his actions. What I mean by man being responsible for his actions is that no one other than man can benefit from obedience or suffer the consequences of disobedience. When we obey God, He will reward us for obedience and when we disobey He will punish us for disobedience. Rewards for obedience and judgement for disobedience can only be given to the responsible person. This principle is contained in verse 17, “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Why would God reward someone else for your obedience or punish someone else for your disobedience? You are responsible for your actions and that is why you are rewarded according to what you have done. Once again God’s impartiality in judgement is shown.

To teach Adam that he has the ability to choose
In God commanding Adam, He teaches Adam that he has the ability to obey or disobey thus presenting him with a choice. Though man is free to disobey, he is still obligated to obey. In fact man is free to obey but commanded not to disobey. If Adam had been programmed to obey God then it would have been illogical to command him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he would not have done so whether he knew the command or not and therefore he would not have been accountable and responsible for his actions. Therefore in God giving that command and telling Adam the consequence of disobedience, He taught Adam that he had the ability to choose obedience or disobedience. Each day Adam would see that tree, he knew not to eat from it and he knew what would happen if he did and therefore each time he did not pick its fruit, he had made a personal choice not to do so. This shows us that Adam had the ability to choose obedience over disobedience. Remember the command was given before Eve had been given to Adam for a wife.

To teach Adam the difference between right and wrong
God did not present Adam with an alternative lifestyle, but He taught Adam that to obey Him was His required perfect standard for man to live by in order to be in good standing with Him. God was calling Adam to excellence. In God commanding Adam, He was teaching him what was right and what was wrong. He taught Adam that obedience is the way of righteousness and disobedience was unrighteousness. If the consequence for disobedience was death then surely disobedience must be wrong and on the flipside the consequence for obedience is life and therefore obedience is right. So Adam was taught the difference between right and wrong and God told him the consequence of doing the wrong thing should he do it. Therefore Adam knew what was right and what wrong, he knew that he had the ability to choose either, he knew that he was responsible for his choice, he knew that death was the consequence for doing the wrong thing and he knew that God commanded him to do the right thing and required him to obey his command because He has authority over him.

To teach Adam to trust God i.e. to have faith in God
God revealed to Adam His plan. His plan was that He required man to live in total obedience to Him with Him as their God and with those who obey Him as His people. In God commanding Adam we learn that God taught Adam what was right and what was wrong and the consequence of doing the wrong thing. For Adam to obey God, he had to believe that what God had told him was true and therefore in commanding Adam, God was teaching Adam to have faith in Him. God taught Adam that in order to obey Him, he had to have faith in him; to trust Him. Adam would have never fully obeyed God unless he fully trusted that what God had commanded him, was just and true. If any doubt entered his mind as to the validity of God’s command, Adam would be able to disobey. This was shown by his eventual disobedience in chapter 3. The serpent was able to deceive both Adam and Eve by putting them in a place of doubt and that opened the door for disobedience. If Adam and Eve’s faith had been genuine, deception would not have prevailed over them because they would have held onto their faith in God and refused to disobey. Therefore God taught Adam to trust and have faith in Him by giving Him that command in order to enable him to fully obey God and therefore we see that the ability to fully obey God was available to Adam and all he had to do was believe God. Remember God said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat…” In obedience there is freedom. God also showed Adam that he was free in obedience to Him but would be bound and enslaved by his disobedience. Therefore God was calling Adam to faith by which he would live in freedom under the authority of God. This is not to say that Adam was a sinner but that Adam was a subject of God and was required to live in total obedience to God and therefore to enable him to do so God commanded him not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If God had not commanded him, Adam would have sinned unwittingly and died without having been warned that what he had done was wrong and therefore God warned him in order to remove any excuses that man might have had for their disobedience but not only that, but also to enable man to believe and obey.

Relevance to us
Now that we have learnt why God commanded Adam and that Adam was fully responsible for his actions, what does this mean for us? Since we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God and since none of us are good and we are not seeking God, the consequence for our disobedience is still the same for us as it was for Adam. Romans 6 v 23 says, “For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” As a result of this and because we cannot even live in obedience to God, God has provided for salvation from sin and death by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place so that the consequence of our disobedience is atoned for in Jesus Christ. After having provided that salvation, God just like he did Adam commands all mankind to repent and believe the gospel. Acts 17 v 30 says, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent” Note the verse says commands. God is not suggesting that we repent and He is surely not recommending repentance to us but He is commanding us to repent. The same lessons that applied to Adam apply to us. In God commanding us to repent, we learn that God has authority over us and we are accountable to Him, we are obligated to obey, He has shown us the consequences of disobedience, He has also shown us that we are responsible for our actions, He has taught us that we have the ability to choose right otherwise why would He command us to repent, He has taught us the difference between right and wrong and He has given us the ability to believe and calls us to have faith in Him. Therefore in the gospel being preached to us we are commanded to repent and believe the gospel and now we fully know what the consequences of obedience and disobedience are, therefore let us have faith in God and repent and believe the gospel. God bless you.