EDEN AGAIN--1
What if Adam had not sinned?  What would his life have been like?

  If there had been no sin, possibly the world would have been a kingdom of God for God, by God.  When Jesus came preaching in Matthew 4.17, He says the kingdom of God is at hand.  The expression 'at hand' is symbolic but it also conveys a daily living, practical touch concerning an exalted subject.

  Now that the kingdom of heaven was at hand for those who saw Jesus, was there an episode of what it would have been like had Adam not sinned?  We may have such an episode in Luke 18.35-43.  It is a short scene, and a glowing one.  Jesus is well outside of Jerusalem, north toward Jericho.  This city was ancient, having been captured and destroyed by Joshua centuries before.
  The city is over 100 miles northeast of Jerusalem, over a ridge that leads down into the river Jordan in Galilee.  Originally the city was int he midst of a huge grove of palm trees with fragrances everywhere.  Over time, so near the Jordan River, it became the main city of the valley, eventually being fortified.  It was these fortified walls that came down in Joshua 5.6.

  Here, as Jesus comes down the hillside to Jericho, a blind man sits on the roadside, begging.  A crowd is with Jesus, in front of him.  When the blind man hears the multitude of thumping, dust-curled footsteps, one on top of another, he asks who is coming.  Several who hurry by say it is Jesus.

  The blind man calls out--Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

  He calls this out several times as the footsteps come trooping down on him.  Somehow the blind man knows Jesus is the Son of David.  Had this kneeling man heard of the prophecy of a Son of David to come?  Had he heard this from someone in Jericho?  Word of Jesus could have spread.  After all, Jesus had said to the disciples of John that the proof of His ministry was that--the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, Matt. 11.5.  Miracles get around.

  Had the Holy Spirit told the blind man?  In John 9 a blind man witnesses to his own healing from Jesus.  The Pharisees cannot accept that a blind man was ever healed, John 9.32.  Jesus says they who see are blind to the kingdom of God and--those who do not see may see.  Had God given this blind man the insight that Jesus was the Son of David?  Maybe so.

  Those who led the procession of Jesus into Jericho tried to shut the blind man up but the man would not shut up.  He kept up his calling out to Jesus.  Now Jesus was close enough to hear over the clamor of voices and stomping of feet the blind man's cry.  Jesus stopped.  Everyone else did, too.  Jesus commanded that the crowd bring the blind man to Him.

  The man's faith is evident in his refusal to be quiet.  He will not let Jesus go on by.  So Jesus asks--What do you want Me to do for you?
  The man only asks for his sight.
  Jesus says--Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.

  The blind man did not ask for power, he did not ask to be with Jesus, he did not ask for money or privilege or luxury.  He asked for his sight.
  What happens next?

  This now might bear on Adam's sin in the garden.  The blind man stood and followed Jesus.  He could have run into Jericho proclaiming his miracle, saying he has some special gift.  In Luke 17 twelve lepers call Jesus saying--Have mercy on us.  When Jesus healed all of them, only one glorified God with a loud voice, Luke 17.15.  The rest scattered.  But the blind man outside Jericho does not go off, he follows Jesus glorifying Him.  When the people saw this they began to praise God who had done this through Jesus.

  Now if Adam had depended on God's word to refrain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, could he have then followed Jesus out of the garden, glorifying Him and praising God for this world and his wife?

  Could it be that the inner work which makes a man an evangelist is to glorify God and praise Him forever?