But there was a pretty long period between Adam and Jesus. What was going on in between?
How are you accountable for the sin of Adam and Eve?
How can the bible not encourage you to save yourself? I don't understand. God created us sinful so he could test who was the best of us in terms of bettering and growing your soul by doing right
What about Moses, Abraham, lot etc why are these men disregarded they were also great men? Did Jesus only die for those that came after him?
Confusion!
Abraham and Moses are said to have favor with God. Saying someone has favor is the same thing as saying someone has been shown grace for their sins.
David explains the favor given to the Patriarchs in Psalm 103:3
"Yahweh, if You considered sins, Lord, who could stand?"
Another way to look at this is with the law for unintentional sin. The law of unintentional sin is kind of like God's way of acknowledging that we will sin, but not on purpose. It is a way to show grace without whitewashing sin or saying that it doesn't exist. (Numbers 15:22-31).
Therefore, many of the same principles applied before Christ came, which demonstrate how He fulfilled the law and the prophets. The concept of grace is not new. However, grace does not mean there is no sin. Grace teaches us that sin was never part of God's plan and that there is no way to restore creation without grace because we inherit sin because of what happened in the Garden of Eden.
God did not reject Adam and Eve, but that doesn't mean they didn't sin and that we don't inherit this condition because of them. In the same way, God does not reject us if we sin and that is the message of the Gospel. He wants to restore His creation.
Complete restoration of the creation cannot come through our works but through His grace. Although, we should strive to be Holy as He is Holy because we know that this is where the presence of sin came from.
It is like the story of the Garden of Eden is a stop sign if you will. For example, if you were going to go to the store and really wanted to take this shirt because you thought it would look really cute and match these earrings you have. Knowing that sin resulted in the Garden of Eden should be enough to say, "No, that is a sin. I want to sin because this is inherited in the Garden. God showed Adam and Eve grace so I know He won't reject me for being tempted to sin, but because this is not the way He wanted things to be, I know I don't have to do this and that the temptation to sin is not something God wanted to burden mankind with."
So I realize that this is a cheezy example, but the point is that knowing sin comes from the Garden of Eden is a sign of grace for our souls. Knowing that God wanted more than this for us is a sign of grace. This grace is why we can repent. This grace is why Abraham and Moses were shown favor. Not the absence of sin.