& Man Fell

Ever wondered why God regards all men who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as sinners? Whatever did you do to God that makes you classified as a sinner even before you did anything wrong? Well, let me show you the most interesting story, to unveil your mind to deeds that happened long ago but which still reverberate up till today! This is an interesting study, so please don’t read in a hurry, rather take your time and brace your minds!

How Adam Functioned After Creation?

We have previously spoken of how man was created and we started showing in Man’s Adversary how man was tempted not by a serpent but by fallen Lucifer. It is essential we all understand what happened to Adam. He was made as the first creature to be in God’s image! Not that he had a nose, face and mouth like God, No! Rather, Adam was made a spirit in the class of God! Explaining further, Gen1:27-29 show how God made man in His own image, then gave man authority over all other creatures; the only creature God gave authority to rule, dominate and subdue was man. In addition, God gave the ownership of the earth to man (vs.29). While angels were made ministering spirits (Heb.1:14), man was made a spirit in God’s class (a spirit that can rule, own and possess). 

Gen.2:19-20 explains how Adam functioned after he was made; you see Adam did not just give names casually! Gen.1 explains how that everything God made was good. When Adam named the animals, the names stuck with those animals only because they were the very names God wanted! If God himself named those animals, it would have been the same names that Adam named them. Jesus expatiates in Mark 10:18 that anything good can only be good (before God) when God is the source! To see more, look at what happened when Adam met the woman; Adam woke from deep sleep saw the woman and knew that the woman had been formed from him. He knew without been told and said the woman was from his bones and flesh (vs. 22-23). 

Adam functioned by inspiration! He spoke words that apply directly to Christ and the church! (Eph5: 30: the church is the body of Christ, out of His flesh & bones!). Adam and the woman did not function on the basis of normal human consciousness that we are so used to today; they were both without clothes and they were not conscious of it. For Adam to have named the animals rightly (with no further addition / interference from God), means he saw things the way God saw things. Moses explains how God saw man, in Psalm 90 vs 1 and 2; God was man’s dwelling place. This points out what Adam and the woman must have been conscious of: dwelling in God, and not the consciousness of the physical world their bodies lived in.

 

The Garden of Eden

Gen.2:15-17 told us of what man did after he came to possess a body; man was placed in the Garden of Eden to work in it and to protect it. Before Eden, we see God blessing the man, speaking to him and showing him what to eat (Gen.1:27-28). In Eden, we see the first instruction man was given; it had to do with food! Adam had been given the authority to eat plants (Gen.1:29) and in Eden, God reiterated the same (Gen.2:16). The sustenance for the body of the man was from the plants – the trees in the garden. However, there were also two trees in the garden, which were not just for sustenance of the body: the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Let us explore the latter first: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was not the type that solely gave food to man, no, this was a tree that imbued knowledge. Gen.3:22a speaks of what this tree does; it gives the consciousness of good and evil. It makes one aware of the existence of good and evil. Adam as we said earlier was conscious of God. God’s plan is that we get our consciousness of good and evil from His (God’s) stand-point! Heb.5:14 explains God’s plan: it is via the continuous use of the strong meat of God’s Word that our senses (consciousness / perception) become trained to distinguish good from evil. So God’s plan was two-fold: one, man was to be conscious of good and evil from his position in God and not independently and two, man was to acquire the perception of good and evil via training and practice in God’s word and not via a sudden immediate download.

Concerning the tree of life! The tree of life was not just to be a source of food, the tree of the life is a life giver. God says in Gen.3:22b that the tree of life gives immortality; it imbues one with the ability to live forever. You see, dear friend, immortality in truth is unique to only one person: God. Only God is immortal as enumerated in 2Tim.6:16 and only God gives immortality. In fact, life and immortality are unveiled via the gospel (2Tim.1:10)! In Eden, the tree of life was the life and immortality-giver, today, the gospel shines the light upon and reveals life and immortality. Understand that immortality is given via receiving eternal life – God’s own life (Rom.2:7) which is given by Jesus Christ (John17:2). Eternal life also has to do with knowledge, as it involves knowing who God actually is and understanding who Jesus is (John17:3).

So we might say that while the tree of knowledge was to give the knowledge to know good and evil independent of God, the tree of life was to make one know God more. But then the question arises: ‘why did God ever allow / place these trees in the garden?’

The Reason for the Trees

Well there are many answers to glean from the Bible. The most obvious is that like all other trees, they looked good and they were for food (Gen.2:9a). Yet the other potent reason is that the trees were placed in the garden because man was made in God’s image; meaning that man had the power of choice. God said to man: ‘of every tree in the garden, you MAY FREELY eat except …’ notice the words may and freely! It was man’s choice what to eat, it was never a must. Choosing of the tree of life was a choice as the man was told to eat of all trees except one. The same choice Adam had, we have today! We can choose eternal life in Christ (Rom.2:6-7) or not. You see it is man’s choice whether to accept as truth the gospel or to scorn it. Choice!!! 

In addition, the instruction carried the first words on death. In eating of the tree which imbues the awareness of good and evil was death. Actually vs. 17 mentions death twice, saying: ‘… in the day you eat of the tree, you shall die die (Hebrew: mûth mûth)’ Young’s literal translation explains it properly by saying: ‘… dying thou dost die’. Why two deaths? We will answer this when we look at what happened when man fell.

Man’s fall

Gen.3 shows the way man fell, the how and the why. There are lots of key things to note and consider in the fall of man. We won’t be looking in details at the devil’s (serpent’s) role today because we already did in Man’s Adversary (we recommend you read this previous discuss). It is important to know that entirely different things happened to Adam and the woman when they fell. You see the woman was deceived (2Cor.11:3)! Fallen Lucifer used his corrupted wisdom to deceive the woman. God said: ‘in eating the fruit, you will surely die’. Satan came and said: ‘in eating the fruit, you (a creature already in God’s image) will now finally become like God’. By his subtlety, the devil got the woman to pay attention to the beauty of the tree of knowledge; the woman’s attention was taken away from what God said, to the aesthetic nature of the tree. In brief, 1John2:16 came about and pulled the rug from underneath the woman’s feet.

We must here point out that the man was not deceived as the woman was. While the woman’s eyes were veiled from the truth by the words of the serpent, Adam made a choice to eat what God had told him not to eat. Paul expatiates: ‘…Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived…’ (1Tim.2:14). You see for Adam it was a case of disobedience as Romans 5 vs 19 points out. Adam was not cunningly deceived rather with the truth of God’s instruction in mind he chose to eat of the tree. So as Satan suggested, did the man and woman become like God after they ate of the tree of knowledge? Of course yes, as God said afterwards: ‘… the man is now become like one of us…’ (Gen.3:22a). However, this was not the way God wanted it to be. Why? God already made the man in His own image! He was already like God. God also desired that the man distinguish between good and evil using God’s perspective and not an independent perspective. To God, the way & process of getting a desired result matters as much as the result itself! 

Let us here follow the sequence of events in Gen.3:6-7. Note that after the woman was deceived and ate of the tree, nothing happened. She gave to Adam, he ate, and afterwards something happened. As the devil had promised them in vs.5, their eyes opened. Notice that the woman’s eyes only opened after the man disobeyed! This shows the sort of unity that existed between the man and the woman. The woman already sinned and she was alright, after Adam sinned then they both fell! The custodian of the instruction from God was Adam, he was the one meant to guard and keep the garden. Until Adam sinned nothing happened because Adam was the source (i.e. first) of humanity; he was the first to be made (1Tim.2:13). To exemplify let us use a tree with a diseased branch; if just one branch is infected with a disease then the whole tree can still be salvaged from the disease, but if the tree itself – stem and root – are diseased, then even the healthy yet-to-be-diseased branches are as good as dead. Same thing with Adam, until Adam fell, the whole of humanity did not fall. You have to understand this as it helps to start the explanation for why all men born into the world today are born into sin irrespective of any good or bad deed they might have done or not done.

Now you might wonder: ‘what was so special about food that man fell just by eating a bunch of fruits?’ First! As we pointed out earlier the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were not just for food, they were also given to allow man express choice and will. The trees were also ability-giving trees, one gives life (and hence immortality & the knowledge of God), the other gave the auto-consciousness of good and evil. In addition, Jesus, Peter and Paul explained that who we choose to obey is who we indicate to be our master (John8:34; 2Peter2:19 and Rom.6:16)! By Adam obeying fallen Lucifer, fallen Lucifer became the master and lord of the man. The bad news about this: prior to Adam’s subjection to the devil, Adam was already a lord. God had placed him as the lord of the earth (Gen1:28; Psalm115:16). By obeying the devil, Adam became a subject, relinquishing his lordship and as Matt.12:29 explains, all the possession, properties and domains of the man became subject to the devil. This is why Jesus labelled the devil the prince of this world (John14:30), because the devil had usurped the ownership of the earth from the man via the man’s allegiance to the devil’s words. 

So understand that when man fell, it wasn’t God who left man, it was man who left God. God didn’t push man away. Man walked away from where God placed him; God didn’t change His position of love and relationship with man, rather man lost the ‘coordinates’ where God had placed him. Many more things happened as a result of the fall and we will be dissecting these next week. However, today let us all rejoice that in Christ man is rightly positioned once again in God.

Man is a Spirit. He Has a Soul. He Lives in a Body – Part II

THE BODY & THE FLESH

Unlike the spirit and the soul, it is no confusion what the body is, because we see it every day. Generally, everyone knows what the body is. We know that it is a means of connecting to the physical world. Many of us love and pay great attention to our bodies. We dress it up, make it up, replace parts of it, and some spend exorbitant amount of money maintaining it, because it can be seen – we define ourselves by how it looks. I’ve heard statements like, “Why should a girl that pretty be a prostitute?” Or “Why should a man that handsome be a murderer?” Or “Such a beautiful child should not live in poverty”, etc. We make such statements because we define who we are by how we physically look. But if you read the recent previous post (Part I), you should have that cleared out by now. We established in that post that you are not your body. You are actually the spirit in the body you live in and you have a soul. 

You are NOT your body! Please, get that crystal clear. Believers should not get into the error of the teaching that you are your body and that man was created the way animals were created. It is clearly stated in the first chapter of Genesis the distinction in man’s creation versus that of animals. Man was created in the very image of God (Genesis 1:26-27); and God is a Spirit, therefore, man is a spirit and must worship Him in spirit (John 4:24). It is a spirit man that can worship a Spirit God.

We are definitely not our bodies. We learn from scripture that our bodies are a casing. Casing for what? Our spirits. (Read Second Corinthians 5:1-10. NLT, for simpler explanation).

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? – Job 4:19

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  2nd Corinthians 5:1

If we are our bodies, then those of us who are saved should be able to live forever in these mortal bodies. But as we can see in the above passage, these mortal bodies are an earthly house – perishable and momentary. We will receive new bodies (2^nd Corinthians 5:10). We shall be all be changed (1^st Corinthians 15:51-54) into bodies that are eternal in the heavens. Alleluia!!! So even if not everyone will be physically dead when the trumpet sounds, EVERY BELIEVER will be changed into glorious bodies; because these mortal bodies end in this mortal world. If we were our bodies, and not spirits, we should be able to be glorified in this body made from dust (Genesis 2:7; Ecclesiastes 12:7).

We see in First Corinthians 9:27a Paul referring to his body outside of who he is. Here Brother Paul tells his audience something “he” has to do with “his” body. “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” If he was the body, the question will be who is doing the “bringing into…” to his body? But No, he is not his body. He (that is, spirit) will bring his body (what he lives in) into subjection. If you notice, he uses the pronoun, “it” to refer to his body. 

It is highly limiting to your spiritual walk and growth to think that all you are is “body” walking around with wind or breath inside of you so that you can live; and when you die, you are gone and forgotten. The body connects to the physical. You cannot live to the fullness of who God has designed you as man to live through the physical. Second Corinthians 4:18 tells us that the things which we see are temporal (fleeting, ephemeral), but the things which are not seen are eternal (forever lasting). You see, as Christians, we are to live in the spirit so as to live victorious Christian lives. There are several things we do in and through the spirit. (Please, read Romans 8).

We live in our bodies, but we do not own our bodies.

As established as this truth is that we are not our bodies, we should not make the mistake of thinking it can be treated as we like. Never think that your body is yours to do as you like. It’s pitiful to hear people make statements such as, “It is my body and I can do whatsoever I want with it.” That’s incorrect! It is not your body. First Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that it actually belongs to God.

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

So even though we know that we are not the body and we should not idolize it by prioritizing it over our spirit (the inner man) and soul , it is still very important that we care for it. It is not ours, so we cannot do with it as we like.

As Christians, we already know that sexual immorality defiles our body. Not only that. Also, overfeeding or underfeeding your body or feeding it with garbage is an abuse to it. Not exercising your body doesn’t glorify God. Overworking your body is also dishonorable to God. Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of Christians use their bodies excessively claiming that they’re “working for God.” All Christians should know that God doesn’t work on earth through a dead body, so we should give it the rest that it requires at the right time, so that we can be fully used of God here on earth – as vessels unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use (2^nd Timothy 2:21).

Besides, and very importantly, as seen in 1^st Corinthians 6:19 above, your body is God’s temple (dwelling place). He delights in dwelling in us (John 14:23).

That settled, if you are faithful enough to study Romans 8 as I asked you to earlier, you will realize that the spirit is contrasted with the flesh there a number of times, and it is so in several other passages in the Bible. It can honestly be confusing the difference between the Body and the Flesh. Ok. So let me explain. 

The Body & the Flesh Contrasted

There are two Greek words that are used to refer to the body in the Bible. One is soma which refers to the physical body or being, heavenly bodies, or an entity in general. The other is sarx, which refers to a covering – or the flesh.  While “body” in the English Bible is “soma” or sometimes, “sarx” in Greek; the flesh is interpreted from just “sarx”. Sarx doesn’t always connote something evil in the Bible. However, spiritually speaking, the flesh (sarx) refers to the carnal nature in man – that is, man’s nature that works outside of faith and lives for itself; according to Ephesians 4:22, the old man. The flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8), and as long as we live in this physical body, the flesh will always contend with our spirit’s desire to please God. 

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” – Galatians 5:17.

When we were sinners and in the world, we lived to gratify our flesh – we gave our flesh all that it asked for (Romans 8:5,8; Galatians 5:16-25) because we really couldn’t do contrary to that. We did not have the ability to. But now, as believers, we have the power to subdue our flesh and satisfy our spiritual needs (1^st Corinthians 9:27; Ephesians 4:22-24). Praise God! 

I’ll end with Paul’s popular distress cry in Romans 7. I call it “popular” because a lot of people use that passage to justify their inability to subdue the flesh. You hear them say, “Even Paul, as great as he was, could not stop sinning.” They say that because they somehow failed to read up to the very last verse of that passage. Yes, Paul mentioned that he did the things that he did not want to do, and did not the things he wanted to do. But he tells us why this is so. 

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. – Romans 7:22-25

Just as Paul, we see that we too have the ability to live to please God alone through our spirits because Jesus Christ has delivered us from the bondage of the flesh. Glory!!!

Next time we will learn about how we got to this fallen state of having a carnal nature in the first place – The Fall of Man.