Why could God ask Adam 'Where are you?' only after sin separated them?
God asked “Where are you?” not because He lacked knowledge of Adam’s location, but to show that sin had separated Adam and Eve from Him and broken their daily fellowship. Before sin, they were His and fellowshiped with Him; after sin, He could not fellowship with them in their sin, so the question exposed their lost condition.
Les explains that redemption is not a Pauline invention; it goes back to the Garden of Eden. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden, where they were His and fellowshiped with Him every day. But sin came in, and He lost them because He could not fellowship with them in their sin. Therefore God went into the Garden—not because He did not know where they were—to show that they were now so separated from Him. The first question, “Where art thou?” had never been necessary before. Only after sin separated them and He had lost them could He ask, “Where are you?” Adam should have answered, “We’re lost.”