Were Adam and Eve Saved?

Bible scholars believe that Adam and Eve may have been saved, but others argue they were not. Does the Bible give us any indication?

The Fall

At one time, there was everything Adam and Eve could have wanted. All Adam had to do was to tend the garden, but when Eve was deceived by the Serpent, the innocence of mankind was lost forever, and it would be thousands of years later when the curse would be reversed by Jesus Christ Who redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13). The fall would not be permanent…at least for those who repented and trusted in Christ. What had been eternal life was now a sentence of death. It was not immediate of course, but in time, even Adam and Eve would die. But were they saved? Will we see them in the kingdom?

The Covering

Adam sinned too because when Eve had eaten from the forbidden tree, he was right there with her and also ate (Gen 3:6-7), so they were now sinners…sinners who were separated by God like we were at one time by our sins (Isaiah 59:2). After Adam and Eve sinned, Scripture says, “the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). The Hebrew word used for garments is “kĕthoneth” and means “a covering” and comes from an unused root meaning “to cover,” and so it might sound like Adam and Eve were covered by God’s grace since sin required a blood sacrifice, and the animals blood had to be shed in order for God to make covering or clothing for them, however, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4). The word for atonement and covering are very close in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word for atonement means “to cover, purge, or make reconciliation,” and the word for cover is “to cover” or “to have a covering,” but this is still not sufficient evidence that Adam and Eve were saved.

Eve’s Expectations

Perhaps one clue might be that Eve expected a child from the Lord, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord” (Gen 4:1), perhaps meaning that she thought their salvation could come from the Lord by means of the child, but as it turns out, Cain murdered his brother Abel, but Abel was certainly a believer as “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering” (Gen 4:4). At the least, Eve trusted the promise of God, and God accepted Abel’s sacrifice since he was in a right relationship with God, but there’s no word on Adam and Eve ever sacrificing. Maybe Abel was a shepherd because he offered sacrifices for himself and his family (including his parents), but this is no ironclad argument that Adam and Eve were saved by Abel’s sacrifice or God’s covering them with animal skins, however, since Abel had such a close relationship with God, it might seem logical to assume Eve did too, because she and Adam must have taught their boys about God. Even so, we cannot be dogmatic about that from these passages alone. We read about the so-called “heroes of the faith” in Hebrews 11, and Abel is mentioned, but there is no mention of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve do appear in the lineage of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:38),

Adam and Eve

After Cain murdered Abel, “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him” (Gen 4:25), so once again we read of Eve trusting in the Lord who “appointed for [her] another offspring,” so she must have known the child was from God and by saying that, she must have trusted the sovereignty of God, but the Apostle Paul writes in a less-than-flattering way about Adam, writing, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” (Rom 5:14), so Adam was the forerunner but failed to be the proper federal head of mankind. Was the contrast between man making their own coverings, where were temporary and an attempt to save themselves by works, and God Himself making them covering by shedding the blood on innocent animals, saying either; they were saved by God’s covering them or they weren’t saved because they tried to cover their own sins and there is no Scriptural evidence that they ask for God’s forgiveness and repented. Bible scholars see God’s sacrificing the animals for Adam and Eve’s sake as evidence that God covered them by His grace after the shedding of the animal’s blood, which foreshadowed the coming work of Christ on Calvary, shedding His blood for the removal of our sins. Sins are no longer covered…they are taken away, and by a supreme sacrifice which was necessary only once. The author of Hebrews writes that “every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:11-12).

Conclusion

Paul writes, “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1st Cor 15:22), so does this mean Adam died without faith in God along with his wife Eve? No, this passage applies to every person ever born of a father, and Jesus alone is the exception, not having a human father and inheriting the sin nature of mankind. Incidentally, we were all dead in our sins and it was only by the Spirit of God that were we made alive by God (Eph 2:1-2), so whether we see Adam and Eve in the kingdom is not as important as if you will be…or your relatives, your friends, or your co-workers. You’ll never know if Adam and Eve were saved if you’re not saved yourself. Settle that today… while it is still today (2nd Cor 6:2).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is host of Spiritual Fitness and also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.