And the LORD God formed man of the

dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the

breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the

LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there

he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the

ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is

pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of

life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of

knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:7-9).

We are born in debt. We die in debt. This is fitting and proper.

The debt is to God. Our problems multiply when we indebt

ourselves to others besides God.

God created Adam out of the dust of the earth. He breathed life

into Adam through Adam's nostrils. Life is a gift from God. This

gift of God precedes all other gifts, both in the life of an

individual and in the life of mankind.

This gift has strings attached to it. All gifts of God have

strings attached to them. These are covenantal strings. Man is

dependent on God, and he is in debt to God from the moment of his

conception. The covenantal strings that are attached to all men

are first presented in the second chapter of Genesis. But they

are presented only after a description is presented of God's

gifts to mankind.

The first gift is life. The second gift was the garden of Eden.

Actually, the text says that it was east of Eden. This garden was

distinct from the general creation. God had already created trees

and animals before He created man. This second planting was a

special place: the garden.

This garden was man's first training area. In military terms, we

could call this a boot camp. It was also a place of testing.

There were assignments given by God to Adam. First, however, God

planted the trees of the garden.

The trees were pleasant to the sight, and they were good for

food. God has standards of beauty and taste. The original

creation reflected God's aesthetic standards. The garden was not

the product of random distribution. It was not the product of

random floating seeds or competing species. There was purpose in

the garden, and this purpose reflected God's aesthetic standards

and man's needs. The trees were also good for food. Adam was

blessed from the beginning with the delights of the eye and of

the delights of the tongue. God endowed Adam with aesthetic

standards analogous to God's aesthetic standards. Adam was made

in the image of God. He therefore possessed an analogous system

of standards and judgment.

The garden was designed by God to reflect his aesthetic

standards, and it was also designed to please Adam, who also

possessed analogous aesthetic standards. This means that Adam was

the recipient of God's grace in two ways: he possessed God's

aesthetic standards, and he was given a garden that reflected

these standards. This made it possible for Adam to appreciate

God's grace: by providing him with standards and also by placing

him in the midst of a garden in which he would gain great

enjoyment.

This passage also speaks of four rivers that began in the garden

and flowed outward. These rivers would serve as an easy means of

transportation in four directions. This meant that Adam's initial

assignment in the garden was not to be permanent. We have already

read that the general assignment to mankind is to subdue the

earth (Gen. 1:26-28). The four rivers would enable Adam and his

descendants to spread across the entire region at a low cost.

The water would also provide a way to replenish the earth. Water

is the basis of the preservation of life. It was never the origin

of life, but it is the basis of maintaining life once life is

created.

One of the rivers flowed to the land of Havilah. In Havilah there

was gold, and the gold was good. There were also other minerals.

They would therefore be reasons for Adam and his descendants to

choose the river Pison when it came time to explore new

territories in search of valuable assets. There would be an

economic reason for men to leave the garden and explore new

territories.

MAN'S FIRST ASSIGNMENT

The passage says that God took Adam and put him into the garden

of Eden to dress it and keep it. This was the first specific

assignment to mankind. Man was placed in a garden which he did

not create. In that garden, he began life within incomparable

blessings. All of this was grace to him.

Now, he was given an assignment. He was told by God that it was

his responsibility to dress the garden and keep it. This meant

that he was to improve it, and he was to defend it. In other

words, he was to serve as a guardian. But he was not just a

guardian; he was also a gardener. He was to develop the original

asset which had been given to him by God.

From an ethical standpoint, everything was perfect. God had said

at the end of each day that His work had been good. The goodness

of creation was basic to the first week of creation. The garden

was a good place to live in. But it was not a perfect place to

live in. It would need further attention from Adam. Adam received

something that was flawless, yet he was also to improve it. He

received something wonderful, and he was supposed to make it even

more wonderful. He was to take the aesthetic judgment that God

had given to him by grace, and he was to improve the environment

based on this aesthetic judgment and also based on work. He was

to apply the standards of beauty which God had given to him to

his immediate surroundings.

He operated under God's authority, and he was responsible to God

for the proper care of the asset which God had transferred to

him. Adam began as a steward of God's resources. But he would

also be the beneficiary of these resources, because they were

pleasing to look at and good to taste. So, acting as a steward,

he had responsibility upwards to God and downward toward the

creation. He was to give an account of himself to God, but he was

also to improve the garden. In other words, he was told to add

value to it.

What was true of Adam is true of each of us. Each of us is given

an assignment by God. Actually, we are given many assignments.

But there is one assignment for each of us that is central to his

or her life. In Adam's case, this was the development and care of

the garden. This was a specific assignment. This was not a

dominion in general; it was dominion specifically.

STRINGS ATTACHED

We are told that God planted the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil. There was a reason for this. This became Adam's testing

ground. God told him that he should not eat of it. He told him

also that in the day that he did eat of it he would surely die.

This placed a "No Trespassing" sign around this tree. This was

God's exclusive property. Any invasion of this property by Adam

would constitute theft. In this case, theft was a capital crime.

God would kill them.

When I previously said that grace comes with strings attached, I

had in mind both the work that God assigned to Adam and the test

that God presented to Adam. Adam would not be allowed to continue

his work in the garden if he violated God's property. Adam could

touch anything else, eat anything else, improve anything else, or

cut down anything else. But there was one restriction: he was not

allowed to eat the fruit of a specific tree.

In everyone's life, there are general rules and regulations.

These begin with what we call the Ten Commandments. There are

other laws given by God that are associated with one or another

of the Ten Commandments. These laws constitute the equivalent of

the law against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and

evil.

We are under far more laws than Adam was. There is grace shown to

us in every area of our lives, but there are restrictions

associated with the legal use of these blessings. Grace precedes

law. Grace never comes apart from law.

If this were not the case, then the atonement of Jesus Christ at

Calvary was a case of God the Father's overkill. If law is not

associated with grace, then the grace of Jesus Christ that is

extended to His people is unnecessary. Sin is rebellion against

the law, but it is even more a rebellion against God's grace.

This is why Paul wrote this. "For sin shall not have dominion

over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What

then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under

grace? God forbid"(Romans 6:14--15).

God later showed grace to Adam and Eve, despite their rebellion,

by not executing them on the day they ate, and by clothing them

with animal skins. I will discuss this issue later in this

commentary. I mention it here only to remind you that grace comes

at a price. When God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins, He

had to kill the animals. Similarly, when God clothed us with the

grace of Jesus Christ, He had to kill Jesus Christ. Grace comes

at a price. That is because grace is always associated with law.

Jesus Christ had to die on Calvary in order to atone for the sins

of His people, because His people constantly break the law. As

surely as Adam broke the law in his perfection, the sons of Adam

break lots of laws in their imperfection. Adam had only one thing

that was prohibited, and he immediately, or close to immediately,

violated the law. In our imperfection, we have many laws that we

must obey, and we constantly break them.

LAWS OF FINANCE

All of this leads to a point: there are laws of financial

responsibility. We find that the sons of Adam constantly

violate these laws. They pay a heavy price for the violation of

these laws.

We find also that those who are the adopted sons of God, by means

of the grace shown to them through Jesus Christ, violate the same

financial laws that the sons of Adam violate. They find

themselves in similar positions of weakness and desperation. The

fact that they are the recipients of God's grace does not change

the fact that they are supposed to obey the laws of finance. When

they disobey the laws of finance, they find themselves under the

same negative sanctions that the sons of Adam must bear for

violating the same laws of finance.

This is why it is silly to say that we are under grace and not

law. Of course we are under grace. The fact that we are under

grace is what places us under law. Adam was the recipient of

enormous grace, but he was immediately placed under law. God

warned him that he would suffer the consequences for violating

this law.

Similarly we are given enormous grace by God, both as the sons of

Adam and is the sons of God through adoption by Jesus Christ. But

we, just like Adam, are under law. Grace precedes law. It

is not that we are originally under law, and are the recipients

of grace only after we are under the law. We are under grace from

the beginning, but grace is always accompanied by law. It is when

we find that we are under the burden of law that it points us

back to grace. The fact that we are under the curses of the law

is supposed to point us to faith in Jesus Christ as our only

means of deliverance.

So, it is ridiculous to say that you can do anything you want

with your finances, and God is somehow obligated out of grace to

bless whatever you do. He is under no obligation to bless

whatever you do, when what you do includes the violation of many

of God's laws of finance. Not only is God not under any

obligation to bless you, He is under an explicit obligation to

curse your efforts, just as He was obligated to curse Adam's

efforts (Gen. 3:17-19). This is how He reminds you to trust in

Jesus Christ and His deliverance. If He did not do this, you

would not have come to Christ in the first place. When you were

saved by grace, you were saved from the inevitable consequences

of your sin. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the

law: for sin is the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4).

So, with respect to the laws of finance, you are under law

precisely because you were under grace even before you were

placed under law. Everything that you have received from God is

by grace. You did not earn any of it. You did not deserve any of

it. So, all of the blessings which you have received at the hand

of God should remind you that you are under the laws of God. This

is why you had better understand the laws of finance, and once

you understand them, you had better obey them.