Paul Adefarasin: What the garden of Eden stands for

Senior Pastor of House on the Rock, Pastor Paul Adefarasin has given an insight into what the Biblical Garden of Eden stands for.

He also talked about the redemptive work of Christ and how the law is only meant to show us our weakness.

Adefarasin gave this insight in his message on Sunday, April 18 at the church’s Lekki headquarters.

The House on the Rock pastor whose message also dwelt on how to deal with condemnation said most of what is said about the Garden of Eden are symbolic.

He pointed out that he does not believe what Adam ate was physical fruit.

He said, “Most of what you see in the Garden of Eden is symbolic. Adam and Eve sinned. I believe the fruit they ate was iniquity.”

Adefarasin also explained that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a picture of the law.

He added that the law was given to man to expose the weakness of man and not for man to obey it.

He said, “The secular law reveals your crime but the Mosaic laws reveal your sin. God did not give us the law to live by it. He gave us the law to show us our sin nature. You get to a point that you realise that you can’t keep all the laws and they can’t save you. Don’t use the law as a code for performance.”

The cleric explains further that the law is only good to the point that it reveals sin. “It is like a mirror that helps you see the spots on your face. But the mirror can’t remove those spots. The purpose of the law is to show us the need for a saviour.”

While dwelling on the theme of condemnation, Adefarasin said Jesus came to save and not to condemn. “Jesus came to save us and not to condemn us. But Satan, which means prosecutor at law, accuser; is the one who condemns”

The cleric believes the believer’s weapon of war is not obedience to the law but faith in Christ. He pointed out, quoting from the book of Romans that those who are in Christ are not condemned. “God has offered us a life of no condemnation,” he said.

He however said that condemnation has its place for a new believer. “When I was a sinner, there was no conflict in my soul because I was enjoying the pleasure of sin. But when I came to know the Lord, my conscience becomes alive and I find it difficult to do what I used to do before. My spirit no longer agrees with what I was used to. So, at that point, condemnation is a sign that your spirit is alive again.”

But he explained that such experience should stop at the baby level of a believer adding a better understanding of Christ shows to us that we are no longer under condemnation when in Christ.

Adefarasin said no man can keep the law by his own power. “But at the point of conversion, you grow in Christ. At that point, the law becomes your nature, not a code. It is installed in you and it grows in you.”

Being righteous according to him does not mean one can’t fall, but that when one falls, one should get up from the fallen state.

Earlier in the message, he said Eden was a finished work. “Adam was planted in the garden and was meant to enjoy all that had already been created by God. He was not meant to live a life full of stress.”