Adam and Eve
One important thing to consider when looking at the beginning of things, as far as creation goes, was the pinnacle of creation: man. So when we look at Adam and Eve at the beginning, we see the representatives of all of mankind.
What's important to know about them, before sin, is while they were made in the image of God, their makeup wasn't in the proper order yet. One thing had to be done before that would be accomplished.
Before we get into that, let's look at Adam and Eve first. At this point of their existence, they're unique to human history, there never will be two human beings like them again; but neither was there ever meant to be.
Adam and Eve were sinless, but incomplete. They were innocent, but not harmless. They had a future, but that future hadn't yet been decided yet. In other words, even though they were sinless, they hadn't taken action yet that would perpetuate that sinlessness and enter into intimate fellowship with God.
They had fellowship with Him, but it wasn't anywhere near to the closeness they could have; it was only an outward fellowship, even though they saw Him with their natural eyes and talked with Him.
Another thing to consider is they not only saw God, but they saw the heavenly realms themselves, as Eden was a place where Heaven and Earth met. They saw the angelic hosts, as well as everything that heaven was.
The problem for Adam and Eve was they hadn't internalized God yet, their spirits hadn't been made alive, and so at this point their soul was predominant, even though there was no sin in the world or in them. God had meant that our spirits would be the predominant feature of our makeup, with our souls submitted and listening to Christ within, while our bodies then responded to the practical outworking of that fellowship.
At this time Adam and Eve were sinless, but the proper order within man hadn't been established. Until that happened, they wouldn't be able to successfully respond to the things God had required or expected of them.
Why did God create mankind this way? Why didn't He create them with His life in them from the beginning? The answer is that the life they were to internalize wasn't created life, so creation was separate from it, and man had to willingly partake of that life and internalize it.
That life was eternal and had existed forever; with no beginning or end. It couldn't be part of creation because it was uncreated, had always been, and was eternal. That life was God Himself.
So while man was created originally in the image of God, the order of God could only happen when man participated in the inner life of God by internalizing that life. To do that, Adam and Eve had to eat of the tree of life. They never took that step. They chose another life instead.
Next post we'll get more into what it was they chose and why.
Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
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Sunday, May 4, 2008
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I have been doing a report on original sin and of course that cannot be done without addressing the Tree of Knowledge and of Life. So much comes into view once you begin to look at the Tree of Life. Only Jesus can give us eternal life. Then when we look at Deuteronomy 30:19 we see that God says Choose life. When we go back to the Garden we see basically the same setting, Adam and Eve had both life or evil to choose and they chose evil. We know that from Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar is referred the tree to be cut down, and yet the stump and the roots to be left. Jesus is referred to as Jesse's seed, Paul teaches us about being grafted into Gods family in comparison the gentiles who are grafted and Israel who are the natural branches. In Revelation we again find the Tree of Life and referred to as rendering eternal life, something only Jesus can do. It seems one would have a difficult time denying Jesus as the Tree of Life.
ReplyDeleteThese are just a few quick thoughts, there is much more support for this theory. Does it matter? Yes, it is import in better understanding that the sin of Adam was the same type of Decisions that man would continue to make throughout time. The seed was planted
thank you much
ReplyDeleteOk. So I have a question. If god is the only one who can create, then he obviously created Satan and his Angels who eventually became the source of sin and death to the earth. But why did god allow that tree of death basically to exist in the first place if his ultimate plan was for everyone who existed to live off the tree of life?? And if he is all
ReplyDeleteKnowing, he would've known that by allowing Satan to exist his creation, many of them would suffer.