When he asked that glorious question, God already knew where Adam and Eve were. He also knew where he was going to take them. As they fearfully hid from God, Adam and Eve knew God was holy. But after he pursued them, they learned of his grace and of his justice. They never could have imagined that those three words that stirred up terror in them, “Where are you,” were going to bring them into a righteousness even greater than they originally possessed.

 
This is the question that God asks Adam after he partook of the forbidden fruit. We are going through Genesis in my Bible study now, and we have come to the Fall. Today these words from God really shocked me. They are so gracious! I can’t imagine the fear overtaking Adam and Eve as they hear God approaching them. Again I am shocked. God is approaching, pursuing Adam and Eve after their act of treason. They are running and hiding, knowing the evil of what they had done. The first married couple knew how very holy God is. He had blessed them unimaginably and given them a mandate as rulers in his kingdom. They did not dare think of approaching God in their sin. He already told them the consequences.

But God approaches them. Why? Why doesn’t he just banish them and let them waste away in their now dying bodies, contaminated by their sin? Why not just give them over to Satan? Or why not wipe them off the earth and create a new, pure couple? Because just as God knew the answer to his pursuing question, he also knew that Adam and Eve were going to fall. We learn from Ephesians that God “chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:4-6, NKJ).

God already had a plan to offer grace before the Fall. The three Persons of the Trinity had already made a covenant together, in which the Father gave a people to Christ to redeem for the Father’s glory, and the Holy Spirit would apply his work. Isn’t this amazing?

And so when the first blessed couple transgressed against their Creator, he pursues them with a convicting question that is full of grace, “Where are you?” Although they were still in the garden hiding behind some trees, Adam and Eve were very far from God. They were now in the state of sin. One small turn from following what God proclaims good, and they are dead men walking, pathetically covered up with their own leaf-blend.

But the holy God pursues, engages, and provides. He seeks the sinners out, asks them a question to draw out their confession, announces a Savior in the midst of meting out a punishment, and then clothed them with skin, pointing to Christ’s atonement that cloths us in his righteousness. Adam and Eve knew that they were going to die as a consequence of their sin. They had already begun to see the depravity of their minds and hearts as they hid from God and played the blame game when it came time for confession. But God had already made the arrangements for their provision. He was ready to offer them grace before they sinned. And he further provides them with the faith to trust in his promises. As a sign of this faith, Adam names his wife that had previously been deceived into taking the first life-ending bite, Eve, meaning “life-giver.”

When he asked that glorious question, God already knew where Adam and Eve were. He also knew where he was going to take them. As they fearfully hid from God, Adam and Eve knew God was holy. But after he pursued them, they learned of his grace and of his justice. They never could have imagined that those three words that stirred up terror in them, “Where are you,” were going to bring them into a righteousness even greater than they originally possessed.

Aimee Byrd is a housewife and mother who attends Pilgrim Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Martinsburg, WV. She and her husband, Matt, have 3 children. She blogs at Housewife Theologian where this article first appeared; it is used with her permission.