“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, the LORD, the LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Exodus 34:5-7. The moment Adam transgressed, the law declared its verdict, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:20. Yet Adam lived. Why was he not instantly destroyed? Indeed, how is it that mankind itself still exists? Was his sin somehow excused? Was it overlooked? Could justice be suspended in midair, or set aside, even for a moment? “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” Habakkuk 1:13. God never overlooks sin! Every transgression must either be borne by the guilty or answered in the appointed surety. Romans 3:25-26. This was no suspension of justice, but the very essence of the gospel. The sentence that should have consumed Adam was accounted to Christ. Isaiah 53:6. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” II Corinthians 5:21. God hath made Christ to be sin for us, and Adam’s transgression was no exception.
God’s forbearance in delaying judgment was never leniency apart from justice, but was always grounded in Christ, looking to the work He would accomplish in His death and resurrection. Romans 3:25. The second half of that verse from II Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Adam was spared, not because God overlooked sin, but because righteousness already stood for him in Christ. In a gospel sense, Adam’s continued existence was grounded in this, the righteousness of Christ secured life for him, just as it does for every saint across all ages. Christ’s work reaches backward and forward. The cross looks both directions. Romans 3:25 makes this explicit, that God set forth Christ, “to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” That includes Adam, Abel, Abraham, and all the saints before the cross. They were spared and accepted because Christ’s atonement, though accomplished in time, was reckoned from eternity. In other words, Adam lived because Christ was “made sin” for him, and Adam was accepted because Christ is “the righteousness of God” for him. Christ was no afterthought, but “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8. Adam lived because Christ stood.
Justice was not delayed but always secured in Christ until revealed at the cross. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:25-26. From what I can ‘see’ this passage shows why Adam and others were spared before the cross, not because justice was suspended, but because Christ was the appointed propitiation. II Timothy 1:9. There, delayed justice met its appointed hour, when all the sins of all God’s elect, from Adam onward, were executed upon Christ. Isaiah 53:11. God’s mind toward His people did not change at the cross; it was there revealed what had always been true, grace given in Christ Jesus before the world began. Titus 1:2. .
Alongside these considerations, let me add this thought, which is that the testimony of scripture consistently shows that those that belong to Christ, (“and ye are Christ’s,” I Cor. 3:23,) have never been considered apart from Christ, and that justice on their behalf has always rested in Him. Ephesians 5:32. In a gospel sense justice never regarded them outside of Christ’s righteousness. “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” Ephesians 1:4. Thus, every sparing of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and all the saints before Christ’s death was not “justice on hold,” but justice already reckoned as satisfied in their representative surety. Hebrews 9:26. When Christ laid down His life, it was the representative death of all the elect in HIM. “I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:15. What was settled in eternity was unveiled at Calvary. II Samuel 23:5. In that moment, that “which was kept secret since the world began,” Romans 16:25, was now “made manifest.” Daniel 9:24. Besides, if the elect had ever been regarded apart from Christ, their end would have been Adam’s end, perishing under the curse. But they were never seen outside of Him. From eternity they were chosen “in Him,” Ephesians 1:4, and in time they are called, justified, and glorified in Him. Romans 8:30. His people have always been seen in Christ, never apart from Him. “I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6. No sin is ever excused or overlooked; every transgression is either laid on Christ, or the sinner perishes under its full weight apart from Him. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23. This shows both sides, that sin always receives its due wages, death; and that life is only found in Christ. Thus salvation is not a story of God setting aside justice for grace, but of justice and grace embracing in Christ. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Psalm 85:10. MPJ