Did Adam need to have faith for his salvation?

Did Adam need to have faith for his salvation?

The short answer is yes.

Without both faith and hope that God would eventually forgive both Adam and Eve, they both would have fallen into terminal despair. Adam lived 930 years and that was plenty of time for the first father of all mankind to repent of his original sin. If he had not kept faith in God then hope and future forgiveness makes no sense.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. - Hebrews 11:6

After creating the world and everything in it, God created man in His image and likeness. God enjoyed a personal relationship with Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden until they succumbed to Satan’s temptation and disobeyed the one commandment God had given to them – not to eat of the fruit of a particular tree in the Garden.

Because of God’s perfect holiness, Adam and Eve’s sin caused a separation from God both physically and spiritually. However, God’s great love for Adam and Eve and their descendants, immediately set in motion a plan to restore the broken relationship between man and God. In Genesis 3:15 God made the first promise concerning the one who would redeem man from Satan’s power.

It was clear to both Adam and Eve that God’s promise to them in Genesis 3:15 was the first promise of the Savior. This promise kept their faith and hope alive throughout their lives on earth.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” - Genesis 3: 8-15

Adam and Eve heard and believed these words, otherwise who would have passed on this original hope of a future Savior.

Both Jewish and Christian faith hold Adam as a holy Patriarch, thus Adam obviously maintained faith in the Lord and hope in a future redemption.

Adam's grave: Golgotha replaces Solomon's Temple

The Apocalypse of Moses, a Jewish writing containing material probably originating from the first century CE, places both Adam's place of creation and his burial at the altar of the Temple of Solomon, seen as the centre of the world and the gateway to the Garden of Eden. The early Christian community adapted this to their own legend of Golgotha, replacing the altar with the place of Jesus's crucifixion. According to this Christian legend, current in the time of Origen (early 3rd century CE), the holy blood of Christ trickled down and restored to life the father of the human race, who then led the saints who appeared to many in Jerusalem on that day as described in Scripture.

Many Christian denominations hold Adam as saint and is celebrated as such on December 24th in some denominations. So yes, Adam had to have maintained faith in the Lord his God otherwise he would have despaired because of his sins.

But God would not allow sin and the Devil to win. As the Catholic Exsultet states quite eloquently:

O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

Just accepting that God is, is not faith. James makes this clear in his epistle :

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. [James 2:19 KJV]

But it is clear that Adam did have faith. After God promises a seed that will bruise the head of the serpent (from above, and therefore a seed that ascends above) Adam names his wife 'the mother of all living' : Eve.

There is more to this than a mere epithet regarding progeny. It is a response to God's words regarding a living seed that will accomplish what the first humanity (Adam himself and his own seed) has failed to do.

Adam had failed to properly keep the word of God (regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) and had failed to rise to life (by partaking of the tree of life).

But by faith he responds to the promise of God regarding a seed of woman (but not of man).

And when Cain transgresses he 'goes out from the presence of the Lord'. But this is after the banishment of the first humanity from Eden. Yet, for Cain to leave Adam's household, not willing to take responsibility for Abel's death (my 'punishment' - avon - is greater than I can bear) he is said to 'go out from the presence of the Lord'.

So, even after Adam transgresses and even after banishment from Eden, yet, now as a fallen man, he believes the promise of God and responds by faith and acknowledges the promise in the naming of his wife.

Thus, the presence of the Lord was with Adam and his household. It was an household of faith. Faith in the promise of a coming seed that would be of woman and that would rise above the serpent's dominion and bruise the serpent's head from above,

So, yes, Adam needed faith - true faith, not just intellectual acceptance - and Adam did have such a faith in the Lord, after the Lord made a promise.

This is the same kind of faith as Abraham. After God made promise (of the world to come) to Abraham it is written that 'Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him unto righteousness'.

So also did Adam believe.