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"IN HIS IMAGE"
In the beginnings {orig.Grk.} (time) God (source of force) created (action) heaven (spirit)) and earth (matter)..." Gen.1:1. Thus began the ongoing sovereign works of our Creator. The first man Adam was to be a unique and significant generation in the beginnings of God's heavenly (ie. spirit, soul , mind) creation, as well as His subsequent earthly (flesh body) creation - Gen. chptrs. 1 and 2. The planned formation of the human creation into the eventual spiritually perfected image and the likeness of their Creator (Gen.1:26), was originally conceived and initially brought forth by the Word of the Father (Jn.1:1,2), "the faithful and true witness, the beginning (architect, source, origin) of the (witnessed, manifested) creation of God." - Rev.3:14. God saw the beginnings of all His creation, mankind included, as being "very good." Gen.1:31. Yet, at that time, this was still far from the fulfillment of His dispensational plan wherein He purposed to ultimately perfect both spirit and matter, mind and body. His acts of creation were never designed to be instantaneous in their work (force), but were to involve a lengthy (time) processs (action) in reaching their desired divine objectives.
The very nature of God Himself is the Spirit of love. True godly love is not at all selfish and needs always to give of itself to others in order to be satisfied and fulfilled. In His congenital desire to project and express this image of love in order to wholly fulfill Himself, the Creator ordered loving companionship in the form of divinely produced progeny brought forth in the creating of a blessed spiritual family. God both arranged and foreordained in His unique creative plan, for this desired manifestation to eventually come, not only to need Him and to know Him, but to also come to reciprocally love and desire Him in a very intrinsic and personal way. This plan was designated to include at its conclusion, a much more intimate relationship than that even of the original human species. This counsel was not only for man to be able to communicate with God as could Adam, but was to be consummated as in the form of a perfect marriage, an absolutely mature and loving union. Included in our Creator's ultimate desire, was that His created family would come to know Him and be very much like Him in the sense of understanding, experiencing, and sharing in their whole being, the glorious nature of the pure and holy love that God's Being is - 1Jn.3:2,3; Col.3:4. Is not godly love a most important and all encompassing attribute of the image of our God? Without it we are nothing - 1 Cor. chptr. 13.
God is not at all behind schedule in His creative process. The first man Adam was only a rough image and facsimile of the second and last Adam to come. The first was similar to a creeping caterpillar that would one day be something much more beautiful. Since the day of Pentecost, the Lord has left some, a true ministry by the Holy Spirit (Jn.14:15-26; Eph.4:12) in order that the church---that new creation, which like unto the soaring butterfly that has come forth from the old--might grow to maturity in the full beauty and "knowledge of the Son of God." Eph.4:13. The Creator has purposed and ensured through His plan of crucifixion, that the original creation might one day be made perfect in oneness, gathered together unto a complete and glorious union (Eph.1:10; Eph.1:13-20), similar in likeness to the love relationship of Christ with His Father - Jn.17:21-26; Eph.4:12,13.
The Need For Divine Knowledge And Wisdom
As a part of His all encompassing plan of creation, God initially created man with an overall insufficiency of divine attributes, character, and virtues, but not without the capacity to eventually come to know, contain, and express these in cultivated and refined goodness, holiness, uprightness, integrity, justice, morality, love etc. In order for man to share in such godly attributes and be able come into the essential likeness of God Himself, it was first necessary that He come into not only human knowledge but also a godly knowledge of the existence, the intention, and the prospect of the essence of "evil". The Creator in His omniscient wisdom, purposely subjected him to not only mentally know of the existing potential of good and evil in his soul and spirit but also that his whole being literally know and experience these things through the realm of his body. In the ensuing process and as part of the plan, he was to learn to abhor, renounce, and forsake their resulting vanities (Ro.8:20; Eccl.1:13; 3:10) as He progressed into the revelational knowledge and sharing of a much higher form of spiritual glory namely that of the likeness and image of God. "We...beholding...the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 1Cor. 3:18.
There has been a remnant of faithful sons in every age which, through the grace of God, have been learning their lessons well. They have been learning and teaching the vast difference between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the profane - Ezk.44:23; Ezk.22:26; Mal.3:18. These spiritual priests of the sons of Zadock, shall be the first to stand manifestly perfect in their appointed times, no longer bearing the soulishness of the earthy but now wearing the full priestly garments of "the image of the heavenly." 1Cor.15:49. They shall be the first to be distinctly changed from the present spiritual order of the Levitical (earthy) priesthood into a glorious, new, and perfected unity of life after the order of Melchisedec - Heb. chptr. 7. In the soon coming advent of Christ, the Lord shall complete the change of their "vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." Phil. 3:21.
Man was initially created with the capacity for what we know as human knowledge. The mind of man was created to exist and operate in likeness to the understanding and knowledge of the mind of His Maker, but this was functioning on an extremely in-part basis in the first man Adam. The essential immaturity, inferiority, imperfection and unawareness of both man's mind and his body, is very evident in Genesis chapter 3. Even today, mankind in general, is still very much in the process of learning, that apart from impartation of divine wisdom and knowledge found only in Christ, he will never know how to be able to wisely use the knowledge which he has been allowed to acquire. Man not only needs to acquire godly knowledge, he also needs to obtain godly wisdom on how to use this knowledge if he is to come into the fulness of the likeness and image of Christ.
Human knowledge in itself, invariably leads to evil. It began with the disobedience of the first man Adam. We are still discovering that human, self desired, self learned knowledge and its accompanying wisdom (Gen.3:5-7) is for the most part, incomplete, immature, and foolish (1Cor.1:17-31), and is unable to righteously handle this evil without the true experience of godly knowledge and wisdom---a divine wisdom that comes only from above (Jas.1:5,17; 3:17) and is neither earthly, sensual nor devilish - Jas.3:15. Man must learn that true knowledge and wisdom is birthed in genuine obedience to God's Spirit and word. It is by continual and accurate obedience in the knowledge of the written word, that one does progressively take on the likeness and image of the life of Him who is the way to the fulness of the word of truth - Jn.14:6. "Then said Jesus....if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn.8:32. As disciples, we can learn much helpful truth by studying the nature and image of both the first and the last Adam - 1Cor.15:45,46. We will touch on some of these little known truths.
Adamic Imperfection Because Of Ignorance
God's divine plan from the beginning, was for mankind to not only acquire true and useful knowledge of earthy things in earthy ways, but through this earthly experience, be prepared to receive and enter into a greater way of life and a higher spiritual knowledge which contains true godly wisdom. Through this revelational discovery man now is able to know the source and purpose of his being, and begin to live eternally with, as well as in, the grace, knowledge and wisdom of his Creator. Understanding of this wisdom and its source has been purposely hidden from the eyes and holden from the ears of every living thing, and is according to the timing of God's will, gradually being revealed to His new creation - Prv.4:18. Only "the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Jb.32:8. Only the Spirit of God "understands the way thereof; and knoweth the place thereof." Jb.28:23. "Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?" Jb.28:12. The Lord declares this precious treasure of wisdom to be far beyond the natural thoughts and abilities of man who dwells within the God restricted boundaries of the land of the living - Jb.28:12,13; 1Cor. chptr. 2. Job rightly declared that the characteristic of a person who has a portion of this divine wisdom is reverent toward God. Sadly, we see so little of this wisdom and reverence in the church today.
Many characteristic traits of the Creator's flawless personality were obviously dormant or at least underdeveloped within Adam and Eve. Though they were basically created of God "in His own image" (Gen.1:27), they came well short of His complete likeness in some crucial characteristics. Inadvertently, through no fault of their own, they failed to discover, that growing within the center of the watered garden of their own spirit, along with the blemished fruit of the forbidden tree, was the perfect fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22) of the tree of life, hidden in the thick foliage of their own spiritual ignorance. This was the pure, righteous fruit (Jas.3:18; Eph.5:9) of the "pure" and godly "wisdom that is from above." Jas.1:17.
They did not first eat of the fruit (the characteristics) of the tree (way) of eternal life. Nor could they have. They were virtually ignorant of the attributes and virtues of their Maker's image. They were yet unprepared in knowledge and wisdom (Gen.3:5,6) to be able to partake of that holy fruit and live forever. In order for them to grow and develop in the image of God, they were "appointed" first to experience the evils in death and judgment (meaning a separation from God) - Heb.10:27. The Lord had created and placed the other way (tree) in their midst, and ordained that they must first acquire the knowledge and experience of other present things in creation which we now have come to know as "good and evil." Gen.3:22. Like unto Israel, the casting of the Adam creation out of the garden (Gen.3:23,24), provided the first divine impetus in God's plan to begin the actual reconciling of His creation into His full likeness and image - Ro.11:15.
The Knowledge Of The Image of Evil How could Adam and Eve (mankind) in the beginning, without the fear of the Lord or the beginning of His wisdom, actually resist partaking of that desirable yet forbidden tree? After all, they had no idea what death was, nor of the undesirable, negative, and dire consequences of it. How could they in their initial ignorance, even begin to have a true understanding and active life in the knowledge of the holy (Prv.9:10), much less remain obedient, without first acquiring the knowledge that the Father and Son possessed..."to know good and evil"? - Gen. 3:22. They could not know the purpose, much less the actual results of yielding to the very present temptation and reality, of that other than holy concept called "good and evil." How very real this image was! The Creator's foreknowledge of this evil, expressed in the symbol and form of a detrimental and forbidden tree (Gen.2:17) which He Himself had planted, unequivocally guaranteed that this image of evil was real and inevitable, and about to become manifest as an overpowering spiritual force in the natural creation. What's more, the original Adamic creation hadn't even come into the knowledge, much less the experience of mortality. Morality could not come forth except there be mortality. Godly life could not come forth except there first be death. How could this imperfect, vulnerable, unfinished creature called man, possibly begin to share in the morally perfect, invulnerable, immortal, incorruptible, eternal life and qualities of Christ's likeness and image---especially when most every created characteristic, quality, and attribute of his own life and image remained virtually undeveloped, untried, untested, and even unknown by him?
Mankind is coming to know good and evil and eventually every attribute of Christ's impeccable holiness in exactly the way that the Creator had planned - Eph.1:11. Ironically, Adam was destined to grow and learn much through his disobedience and his predestined decline into sin. So also is natural Israel (Ro.11:11), and so are we. In the Almighty's plan of omniscient wisdom, He chose even before the advent of creation, to divinely impart of His spiritual wisdom to the minds of all mankind; not all at one time, but gradually through hard stages and ages of learning and preparation. Both good and evil have been instruments of the Lord used in our instruction and our introduction unto the image of holiness. We are all in various grades in the school of divinity, learning that the "fear of the Lord" comes through "the instruction of wisdom, and before honour is humility. The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Prv.15:33; 16:1. If one can acknowledge the omniscience, the omnipotence, and the omnipresence of God in His foreordained plan of creation, redemption and restitution of all things, then it is easy to believe that the "fall" of mankind was not an unforeseen nor unexpected event. It was certainly not an accident, neither did it involve any element of random chance at all. It may have been unseen and seemingly preventable by man in carnal theory, but it was sovereignly foreknown, purposed, planned, prepared for, and divinely determined in the scheme of God's creative plan. It is God who basically brings forth, controls, and carries out "ALL THINGS by the word of His power." Heb.1:3. Who else but the Master Designer, Creator, and Source of all original things had the divine foreknowledge of the tree (way of death) with its spreading branches containing the infectious fruit of both good and evil? Ro.11:36. Who else but the Lord God Himself brought forth and planted all the trees of the garden and made them to grow from out of the lower realm of the ground? - Gen.2:8,9. Who else but the Lord God purposely placed the Adam creation in the immediate presence of this good and evil tree stating, "that in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen.2:17. Who else but the Lord God designed and implemented the basic laws and principles of life and death (Jn.12:24; 1Cor.15:36-38), commanding the earth to bring forth "the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind." Gen.1:11,12. These laws apply to both the natural and the spiritual creations, for man is both a natural and spiritual creature. The Deadly Law In short, these governing laws are all part of either "the law of sin and death" or "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." Ro.8:2. Adam, like Christ, was destined to die in God's ordained fiat of....first the natural and then the spiritual - Cor.15:36-49. This God-dictated working law, applied in a natural as well as spiritual sense to the living soul of the first man Adam. It also is applicable after the same manner, to the second creation man ---the finished product of Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ. It therefore also applies in a way to us (1Cor.15:31), even until the Lord comes - 1Cor.15:51-57; 1Ths.4:14-17.
We see basically the same principle carried on in Deut. 30:19 "I have set before you...death...and cursing: therefore choose life." God's chosen, throughout the Old Testament were themselves unable to do so for long, unless there was the divine intervention of God Himself. Through Christ and His word, and through His indwelling Spirit of Life that is manifest in His chosen, we are now given the divine knowledge and understanding of things which are in true life and things which are not; and in the power of faith we are graciously enabled to choose life over death. The original Adam man was purposely not so blessed.
Adam's situation in the garden was in close type to Paul's understanding of the law. The first recorded holy law (Gen.2:17) was designed specifically of God to give knowledge of the presence of an other than godly evil thing called sin & death - Ro.7:7. Without the presence of law "sin was dead", lifeless, non-existent - Ro.7:8. Yet, some believe angelic sin and rebellion was before Adam. Adam was once in a virgin form of life apart from the consequences of any law, but when that first commandment was made "Thou shalt not", the reality of the existence of sin and death came to light. The law that was dead became a deadly law. Adam in his pristine weakness and innate inability to resist temptation became a sinner, and consequently was lowered into that realm wherein abode both sin and death - Ro.7:9. Sin, taking opportunity or occasion by the commandment, beguiled and deceived Adam, causing his partaking of death - Ro.7:11. To will was present with Adam; but how to perform that which was continually good, he could not find. Neither can our own personal Adam nature. Evil was in the original man's presence and remaineth in ours - Ro.7:18-21. The first law and the first Adam portrayed humanity's short-comings. Adam, even before his fall came short of the glory of God, for he was extremely ignorant and naive. How could he be other than what God purposed?
The newly created first man Adam had not yet the quality of life that God planned for Him in the future. Neither had he the quantity of the likeness and image that he was created to receive. But the last man Adam, the son of God and son of man, was the epitome, the archetype, the forerunner of all that God yet has for his new creation sons. Jesus was the fully expressed image of God in humanity - Heb.1:3; Jn.14:9-11. "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (Jn.3:34) for the qualitative fulness of the Spirit of God dwelt in His body - Col.2:9.
Like unto Jesus, Adam was not "saved" as some would suggest. In their first state, neither sin nor death which one needs to be saved from, had manifest in their lives. Although eternal life was present within Adam's reach, and Adam in his infancy appeared to have the ability to choose of himself to first eat of the tree of life, the Lord's will was sovereign and clandestinely influential in directing Adam's choice so that it could not be. This is in likeness now to the operation of man's initial salvation experience, whereby it appears to man that he has the ability and absolute power of choice to at any time choose of himself to partake of this same tree of life which contains his salvation. Not so! The completion of our salvation is not designed to be instantaneous and neither was Adam's. For a much more detailed scriptural explanation of the sovereign and absolute free will of God and the extremely restricted free will of man, we have several other booklets available upon request!
The absolute Sovereignty Of God's Will And Works The Lord in his predestined planning has first chosen us. God, through the design of His faultless plan, insured that Adam could not choose first to partake of the tree of eternal life. The plan of creation and redemption was so designed that the power of sin and death had to be included in the plot of God's plan or there would have been no need for salvation, no need for Christ, and no need for morality and free will at all. But it was God's plan that man be created basically in his own image. This image primarily included a functioning brain and mind which had an ability to reason and to choose of oneself, and which also contained a moral conscience. Our Almighty Creator wanted these foremost abilities and attributes of His own being to be prevalent in His creation of man. So in the likeness of God we were given a portion of the power of His free will. But it was not to be without restraint for God knew how easily it could be misused. In order for the will to operate in a moral sense, there had to be knowledge of evil as well as good. So God determined to instigate and execute His plan of creation according to His own absolute sovereign will and who could resist it - Eph.1:11; Ro.9:19. Adam certainly couldn't resist the potentate will and workings of God and neither can we. Believe it or not, it was the Creator Himself that arranged and then proceeded to sovereignly allow and even cause the circumstances surrounding man's fall into depravity. This is of a basic and sound scriptural truth as we shall further see. After all, has not our Lord, the Creator of all existing spiritual principles and laws, the legal right to do what He will with his own creation? Ro. chptr. 9; Matt.20:15. He did as He willed in Adam's day regardless of Adam, and is He doing and shall continue to do so in ours - Dan.4:35; Psa.135:6; Jb.23:13 etc. "Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump (humanity) to make one vessel (the second Adam) unto honour, and another (the first Adam...now unregenerate man) unto dishonour?" Ro.9:21. This truth applies collectively to all humanity as well as individually. Is not God still molding his vessels in the way that he purposes (Psa.115:3; Jb.8:3; Jer.18:4; Eph.1:11 etc.) regardless of what man wills? The carnal mind often wrestles with the spiritual mind in both of these scriptural concepts. But we declare that human responsibility and divine sovereignty is not irreconcilable truth. Only in traditional doctrine it is!
In accordance with the divine precepts of His own chosen principles, laws, and works, and as a part of God's on-going creative process and will, the Creator deemed it necessary that man and the rest of creation be for a time, put into subjection to a transient, depraved, yet profitable vanity - Ro.8:20,21. "To EVERYTHING (in life, death, salvation and total restoration) THERE IS A SEASON AND A TIME (appointed of God) TO EVERY PURPOSE (in God's creation plan) UNDER HEAVEN. A time to be born (both naturally and spiritually), and a time to die (again, both naturally and spiritually)....a time to break down and a time to build up....a time to rend and a time to build up.." Eccl.3:1-9. This is just as applicable to God's time and work as to man's. Solomon in His God given wisdom says, "I have seen THE TRAVAIL WHICH GOD HATH GIVEN TO THE SONS OF MEN to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also HE HATH SET THE WORLD (ages, time periods) in their heart, so that no man can find out THE WORK THAT GOD MAKETH (has secretly done) from the beginning to the end." Eccl.3:10,11; Isa.46:10,11. The ages of time for creation were ever in God's plan. The passage of time as we experience it, is and always was, in God's will and in His purpose.
According to plan, these are "HIS APPOINTED TIMES." Gal.4:2-4; Isa.14:31; Ac.17:26; 1:7. The first Adam who spiritually died at his appointed time (Heb.9:27) was a forerunner, a figure of Him that was to come (Ro.5:14) "at the time appointed of the Father." Gal.4:2. When the fullness of the time is come for the manifestation (Ro.8:19) of mature new creation sons (Gal.4:1-7), they too shall receive of the completed glories of not only His spiritual image but also the likeness of His immortal, incorruptible glorified body - Phil.3:21. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1Cor.15:49. Beloved, Satan didn't appoint any of these times, Men didn't appoint them. Only God did! And men, apart from God's working, cannot change them.
Yes, it is God alone, who in the omniscient wisdom of His own creative planning, turned man to destruction (Psa.90:3) and in so doing, "appointed unto men once to die" since the foundation of the world -Heb.9:26,27. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men.." Ro.5:12. It was the Lord's purpose from before His creation, and not at all the result of an after thought nor an accident, nor a contingency plan....whereby according to design, He "hath concluded them all in (a temporary prison of sin death and) unbelief, that (through the carrying out of His divine plan of salvation unto perfection) He might (justly and ultimately) have mercy upon all." Ro.11:32;Lam.3:22. Because the fall of all mankind was foreknown, predestinated, predetermined and primarily instigated by God (Ro.8:20) through one man, so also is the redemption of all mankind foreknown, predestinated, predetermined and initially activated by God through one man, even our Lord Jesus Christ - Ro.5:12-21. "For whom he did foreknow, He also did predestinate TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON.....them He also called...them He also justified...them He also glorified." Ro.8:29:30. There is much valuable wisdom to be discovered in the light of the true operation of God's sovereignty wherein we read, "the Lord killeth and maketh alive." 1Sam.2:6; Deut.32:39. But justly and mercifully, this is a planned process wherein mercy and new creation life shall be restored to "every man in His own order (rank, group, order of resurrection)." 1Cor.15:23. This is being done graciously and sovereignly according to God's own divine order through the greatness of His own power - Psa.66:3. Our Father foreordained the Lamb to be slain for all mankind "before the foundation of the world." (1Ptr.1:22), even before Gen.1:9,10. It was most certainly not after Adam's transgression as some suggest. Man in his own disobedient choice did not dictate nor necessitate a change in God's plans. He inadvertently and unknowingly carried them out. Everything that was to happen in the garden and later, was according to choice; but it really was the predetermined choice and counsel of the great Designer's will - Dan.4:35; Eph.1:11.
All God's created sons including Adam, as well as those chosen of natural and now spiritual Israel, along with all those in the ages to come, were chosen "in Him before the foundation of the world - Eph.1:4. Chosen to live individually as a new creation, "a new creature" "in Christ" (2Cor.5:17), becoming part of the image of the "one new (corporate) man." Eph.2:15. God drew up the unerasable blueprints of His plan, and in His chosen sacrificial sons it was to be perfected and finished. The first Adam was in a sense sacrificed by God unto a temporary death. The last Adam was a sacrifice of God unto eternal life. Both were according to the redemptive will of God. The Lord God put this plan into the unalterable motion of omnipotent power from the beginning of the ages (Ac.15:18; Heb.4:3), commencing from the first recorded periods of time - Gen.1:5. Even so now, in our new creation by salvation, "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil.1:6.
The Image Of Free Will Maybe you have heard the following question asked, or maybe you've asked it yourself? Could the original man Adam really have perpetually resisted the original temptation of evil influence which entered in through the newly planted garden of His mind. Could He actually have chosen to forever remain in obedience to God's first law? In the grace of Christ, we have that power available now, but did Adam have the power then? After all, he was created with a free will in the image of God. The shallow depths of the reasoning of our natural mind may answer in the affirmative. But let's dig a little deeper into the garden of paradise with our spiritual shovel and see if this was possible. There is much spiritual treasure yet to be found under the watered surface of God's beautiful garden.
It seems Adam certainly had a free self will. But, remember, He had no further knowledge or understanding of God's will for his life other than what he had heard Him speak in the elemental, uncomplicated, undisturbed paradise of his virgin mind. In the beginning, neither do we. In the image of His maker, Adam had a legal, God given, God created, God allowed, authorized right in independent freedom of choice and expression, at least so it seemed. So it seems also to us. In truth, we have a certain degree of voluntary freedom, workable within the limits which God has purposely set and operating in a balanced harmony with His own absolute, sovereign, omnipotent will and with His personally established and controlled universal laws.
Our will operates within a limited scope of function and effects. It operates randomly, depending upon whim and circumstance. Often, depending upon its limitations, it has no choice at all. The agencies of God's will operate in an unhindered freedom and determination, always in an orderly and systematic fashion. Unlike man's, its operation is totally absolute and never subject to outside influence. In reality, man's so called free will is totally relative, and is subject to the unhindered will which God Himself possesses and activates. The Lord has no problem bringing anything to an ultimate conclusion in whatever way He wills.
Surely Adam had a legal right of choice in either keeping the law or breaking the law of Gen.2:17. But as we touched on already and shall show in more detail later, Adam actually was divinely limited in volition at that time through certain God willed facets of his own creative makeup. And now we ourselves are vastly limited in expressing God's perfect will through His particular design of this fallen creation.
It is obvious that Adam's mind was very limited in the knowledge and wisdom necessary to be able to always make only lawful choices. Jesus on the other hand, by the grace of His Father, had a God given will power and ability in the power of the holy Spirit to do only the will of God. Because the law was made weak through sinful flesh, it was God's predestined will for Jesus alone to condemn sin in the flesh (Ro.8:3), and to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil whilst clothed in the form of humanity - Act.2:23,24. Adam, whilst clothed in his natural state could not remain sinless. Neither can we. It was reserved for Jesus. Without Him we can do nothing. It is imperative that man be empowered from on high. Adam lacked the personal power and quality necessary for true holiness. Jesus lacked the power and aptitude to be a sinner. Despite some objections which on the surface may point to the contrary, Adam could no more have remained innocent than Jesus could have become a sinner. Ask for our booklet, "The Sinless Son" which affirms this in great detail. It was not possible for Adam to be holden in his original created life any more than it was for Jesus to be holden of death - Ac.2:24. The will of God, not man, remains prevalent in every event necessary in order to fulfill God's creative will.
The legal right Adam had, became illegal when he transgressed the law whereby he was judged as guilty. Like unto our court system today, he was legally innocent until he was tried and judged to be in need of correction. This was according to the established law of the great Lawmaker and Judge of creation. The sentence of this judgment passed upon all Adamic men, manifesting in the form of a much greater degree of both natural and spiritual separation from God. The Bible likens man's sinful state to being in a prison house (Psa.102:20; Isa.61:1) of death - Ro.5:12-15. Any man that is yet apart from the saving grace which contains a pardon and a release for his spirit from that prison, remains condemned and sentenced to the unholy self will of his own adamic nature. His will by nature is a confined prisoner of the spiritual law of sin and death . But now, through a higher court of law in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, there is no more condemnation to them who are walking and living in the Spirit of God - Ro.8:1-4. Because of the established quality of life in this lower estate, unbelieving man continues in sin, missing the mark of righteousness because his deeds as judged in the light and revealed truth of God's word...are evil - 1Jn.3:19.
This was not as some think, a penalty that the devil imposed upon men. No. It was master-minded, ordained, and instituted by Almighty God - Gen.3:14-24. Adam in his first stage, was found to be short in the likeness of God's glory as measured against God's own glorious standards of righteousness and holiness....and so are we - Ro.3:10,. But thanks be to God, the present corrupt nature that men possess as a result of their unsolicited imperfection, is under a condemning, yet constructive judgment - Jn.3:17; Psa. 90:3. God is not unjust - Psa.96:13; 98:9. His work of salvation and reconciliation is really no less than a divine apology to mankind. In actuality, He had justly planned and provided for the forgiveness of our sin and for the reconciliation of all sinful things, including our sinful nature, having compensated by making peace with man through the blood of His cross to reconcile all things unto Himself (Col.1:20) even before His creation was made manifest. The result of His compensating ransom in the form of an all inclusive sacrificial atonement providing man's essential personal salvation, is according to plan, being perceptively made evident to each individual in the designated timing and appointment of our Saviour God - 1Tim.2:6; Tit.1:1-3; 2Tim.1:9,10; 1Cor.15:22-28.
The Immature Seed Image
Both Adam and Jesus' earthly creations were void of the natural involvement of man. Their creations were virgin in nature. Both were the seed of future generations. Jesus brought with Him the maturity and perfection He had in God before He took on the likeness of flesh and was planted in the earth. In contrast, Adam brought with him the immaturity and imperfection he had in the spirit when he was planted in Eden. Just as Jesus was not brought forth into natural life in a true state of mortality, it is also evident that Adam did not originally manifest the nature of a "mortal man", for the destructive power of death had not yet tainted his virgin self life. However, he was purposely created in spirit and body with a genetic predisposal, prone to corruption and mortality. In the beginnings of His creative work on man, God first gave Adam a mind and body "as it hath pleased Him" (1Cor.15:38) to serve its purpose in Eden and later in the remainder of the ages. At the Edenic stage, it was "very good" with respect to God's whole creation plan, but it was immature, undeveloped and far from perfect. It is now in this age that justified men are closer to being made perfect, firstly in becoming a living soul and now in becoming a quickening spirit - 1Cor.15:45.
As a testimony of his Creator's existence, the first man Adam was created in the likeness and image of God, but only in part. He may originally have had the full glory of an earthly man (Ezk.28:12) but he lacked in the expression of God's perfect glory. The Creator had chosen out of His sovereign right, to originally express only a firstfuit portion of His own life and being through this created offspring (Jn.1:4) called Adam. He had also chosen to bring forth a portion of this first creation, renewing it after the likeness and fulness of His own firstfruit Image--the Lord Jesus Christ - 1Cor.15:20. Adam was created of God in the likeness of a single spirit seed of His own heavenly substance which He ordained to multiply. The outer portion of this seed represented the humanity destined to come. The Lord planted this dormant spirit with a less than perfect body and nature, in the lower elements of earth. Through bringing law into effect, He subjected a portion of the seed to die. The inner portion of the seed (the spirit) of the first Adam was created in a measure of God's heavenly image, but at the same time the outer portion of man's makeup was created in the image of the earthy - 1Cor.15:47,49; Gen.2:7. This temporal portion of the image (corruptible soul and body) is, like a natural seed, destined to die and pass away as the new creation growth matures taking on the eternal splendor of its intended glory - Rev.21:4,5. Ultimately, the Creator's alpha sons shall come forth as mature, perfected omega sons in the glorious image of Him "which is, and which was, and is to come." Rev.1:4, 8, 17. These seed sons are coming forth as glorious mature "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." Isa.61:3.
The Lord had programmed and built into the first Adam man, the potential to be a separate creature, a unique individual, the first of a multitude of glorious creatures called man. This was to be a creation of "gods" (Psa.82:6; Isa.41:23; Jn.10:34) of His own choosing which were destined to multiply and take root, eventually blossoming as full grown flowers in the perfected beauty of "the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys"(S.S.2:1); a sweet and fragrant smelling bouquet bound together in inseparable unity in the likeness and image of our Lord Jesus Christ - 1Cor.3:18. In much the same sense that the woman was originally brought forth from Adam to become one individual, yet a slightly different species than the male, so was Adam brought forth from God. And as it was in God's heart to create man out of Himself for His pleasure (Rev.4:11) and for His close fellowship (Gen.1:26; Col.1:16), so the woman was created out of man and for the man - Gen.2:18. And again in like type, He brought forth from the seed of His last Adam Son, a woman, His church. Her spiritual offspring will eventually involve the remainder of humanity coming forth as seed after His spiritual likeness and kind - Gen.1:12. Together, mankind will ultimately contain the totality and completeness of the image of God (1Cor.15:28) and His former dominion (Gen.1:28) will become an everlasting dominion (Dan.7:14), and God's new kingdom an everlasting, eternal kingdom, wherein all other dominions shall serve and obey Him - Dan.7:27.
God's Overall Image "God created man in His own image...male and female created He them." Gen.1:27; 9:6. What it mean to be created in God's "image" involves many facets of natural and revelational truth, some of which we have touched on already. We will continue further in some of these truths. First of all, a name in scripture reflects authority as well as other true characteristics of the one it describes. For instance, the likeness of male and female is found in the names of our most High God. Elohim and El Shaddai reflect both of these images. "El" has the meaning of dominant power, strength--denoting masculine character. "Oh" denotes the faithfulness, loving female, mother quality. "Im" has the meaning of a plural unit, a family vine. "Shaddai" means "breasted", "pourer forth or provider of life", fed with milk of the word - Isa.28:9. "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them...and called their (family) name Adam in the day when they were created." Gen.5:1,2 There is both a heavenly and earthly family (Eph.3:15) in the similitude of the family of God (Father and Son).
Secondly, we see that God is a living Spirit (Jn.4:24), and He has created man in the shared substance of this spirit which manifests this existence. In conjunction with this, the Creator has imparted to man many goodly fundamental qualities, characteristics, attributes, virtues etc. of His existing spiritual nature. Man has a personal nature which contains consciousness of a self image as well as a God image - Rom.2:15. "There is a spirit in man" (Jb.32:8), an individual portion of eternal God substance, which when clothed upon with a body of flesh substance and given a breath of divine life, "man became a living soul." Gen.2:7. He became a combination of spiritual and natural substances subject to all spiritual as well as natural laws of God. He became a living human being; a conscious, intelligent creation, endowed with a mind as well as abilities similar to his Creator. In likeness to God man is able to rest, to work, to be productive, act, behave, think, sense, imagine, reason, study, understand, believe, remember etc. He was able to exist in two realms simultaneously; the natural earthy realm and the heavenly spiritual realm. Through the body realm, he was able for the first time to function in other likenesses of His Creator in things such as sight, speech, hearing, taste and touch and smell. Each man's soul (the personification of his mind, will, and emotions) was to characterize his unique individual spirit as well as reveal the existence of a Creator.
Adam, like his Creator, was a being capable of moral conscience but in his original created infancy, was naturally incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong. He lacked any mental or experiential understanding of good or bad, right or wrong as well as any knowledge or understanding of His Creator's own personal fundamental standards. The application and operation of God's laws were inauguraly designed to ultimately bring man this full knowledge of "the image of Him that created him." Col.3:10. Today we have many laws recorded for us in the written book of life, whereby true holiness is being supernaturally transferred through the Spirit of the word and being written upon the tables of men's hearts. Because of the first Adam's moral immaturity and imperfection, and because he had not known death, his soul and body lacked the basic godly quality of immortality. Because he had no knowledge of evil and sin, he had no concept nor means of attaining the godly quality of incorruption. And most important of all, he had no way at that time to experience a relationship of quality with His Maker, called "life eternal." Jn.17:3. We find that the Spirit of God always contains the highest quality as well as an unending duration of His life, whereas the spirit of man was first created in a lower parallel realm of temporary eonian existence. However, man was created to live in and experience much more than temporary or even eternal existence. He was created for God's good pleasure to forever share in the likeness and existence of God's eternal life.
God also is revealed through His word as One God....a triune being. Namely, the Father and the Son who share the same holy Spirit. In like pattern to His image, man is also a singular three part being....one creation consisting of body, soul, and spirit - 2 Ths.5:17. One visible God substance (like unto Jesus), and two invisible. In somewhat the same manner, visible light has three parts, the invisible two being ultra-violet and infra-red. Just as God's Spirit was able to function independently (ie. the Father and the Son) so was man created to have an independent spirit. Just as God existed as "Himself", man was created to be "himself" also.
As we have previously stated, man was created in the image of God with a personal will to do as he pleased (Gen.2:19; 3:6) within the law of God - Gen.2:17. Although the functioning of a personal will was a necessary operation given in the likeness of his Creator who originally had the only power of choice, it was lacking in wisdom and the mature perfection of God's own incorruptible will. Adam's own personal will and psyche was originally uncorrupted but obviously not incorruptible. He remained perfect in his ways until iniquity, a perverse and unlawful self will was found to be in him - Ezk.28:15. Adam's creation in this imperfect state of humanity contributed to the weakness of his own human will. Thanks be to God, there is One now whose greater power is working within us both to will and to do of all His good pleasure - Phil. 2:13; 1Jn.4:4. The Creator and Redeemer is now tabernacling within earthen vessels, "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us (2 Cor.4:7; Eph.3:16-20) lest any man should boast of the power of his own self will and works.
The image and likeness of God is present also in the projection of His power of holiness, righteousness, mercy, justice, liberty, wisdom, knowledge understanding etc. On the other hand, the image of God is seen in His divine yet righteous anger, wrath, vengeance, judgment, hate etc., opposing every form of sin and iniquity. Man is destined to also reflect this perfected image of His nature. Any similar nature arising from the unregenerate first man Adam, is yet imperfect in varying degrees. Adam, in his original state of creation, was untried and untested, and therefore had immature and imperfect personal characteristics. These characteristics were unable to develop unto God--likeness in major attributes such as godly fear, godly anger, godly sorrow and godly love. It was ordained that they must first fall into degeneration and death upon Adam's transgression. Science says man continues to evolve or ascend from lower life forms. The Bible says unregenerate man is a descendant of Adam who was originally created in a higher life form. If the first Adam were not ordained to vanity as he was, and was created perfect in the sense of Christ-likeness, he would never have yielded to temptation. There would have been no need for Christ, the second Adam, who fulfilling His Father's will, yielded not. Nor was the first Adam created with the quality of incorruptibility, for he was easily corrupted. The second Adam was not. It therefore follows, that the first Adam was brought into this world, as immature in the emotional make-up and faculties of his soul and spirit as that of a very young infant. Like as to a baby, he was brought forth in the flesh in a state of innocence and was along with many other things, ignorant of true moral values. He was brought forth in a comparatively weak, undeveloped condition of spirit, mind and body. In man's spiritual rebirth, we can also find a parallel of this original truth - 1Cor.3:1; Heb.5:12-14.
So we see, Adam in type to mankind, could not help but harbor weak, immature, imperfect characteristics and faculties of selfishness and self will, because he had not yet partaken of the perfect, complete, and mature knowledge of evil. This state he found himself in was ordered of God as the first stage of development towards the full likeness and image of His Creator. Adam neither had the maturity nor the ability, nor the responsibility at that time to be able to partake of the way of the tree of life. However, we have all this made available today through the completed perfect man, Christ Jesus our Lord. Like unto a child, man had to first come to know good and evil (Gen.3:22) by tasting the bad fruit. How is a child to know the difference between hot and cold unless he touches or somehow partakes of these realities? Only upon tasting the bad fruit and becoming critical of it, could man truly understand and appreciate the value and the deliciousness of perfect unblemished fruit when it was finally revealed and given unto him to taste. Sadly, it seems a lot of God's children have not yet quite had their fill of the evil fruit, namely the works of the flesh - Gal.5:19-21.
In the unguarded garden of his mind, the deceptive and subtly, enticing serpent (even the iniquity) of man's lust, slithered silently out of the darkness and attacked Adam's limited intellect. First Eve ( the soul), and consequently Adam (the spirit), in a moment of weakness, reached out in seemingly innocent curiosity, disobediently touching the tree (way) that was to bring not only the knowledge, but also the experience of deaths' many evils. As a result, rather than ascending further into glory as did Christ when He touched upon death, Adam descended, falling into a state of even lesser glory where he now must depend upon life touching him. Brethren, let us be very careful of what we touch, for there is a way which seemeth right unto man but the end thereof are the ways of death - Prv.14:10.
Both the first and second man Adam had no spiritual form of evil or death operating in them, although the first Adam was purposely made much more susceptible to latent iniquity. It appears Adam's body was more subject to releasing and manifesting this evil from within. Christ's body in His humanity was more subject to the temptation of evil from without. Both were sent of God to carry out the will of the Father in furtherance of the divine creative plan. Adam was the prototype of the inferior race of all humans, who through divine design, became dependent on themselves. Jesus was the prototype of a new and superior race who also through design, shall become wholly dependent upon God. Both really had no other choices to make than those that they did. Overpowering iniquity in his human makeup empowered and compelled the first Adam unto sin, while the omnipotent holy Spirit in Christ empowered and compelled Him without sin, to carry out the will of His Father as the last Adam. At this particular time, our own natural mortal bodies of death still may be subject to both inward and outward adamic evils, but if Christ be in you, greater is He in you who has now given you the power in your spirit to become totally subject to Him.
God's Image Perfected In Man
Back in the garden, it was not in God's perfect will nor timing, and therefore not in the designed plan of creation, to quickly mature or miraculously perfect Adam in his infant stage of immaturity - Gen.3:22. This is not at all how he had designated maturity to take place, neither in the natural nor in the spiritual plane of existence. Nor is there any such thing as instant maturity in Christianity today. As with Job, the Lord had taken away Adam's protecting hedge - Jb.1:7-12. If you are an servant of the Lord who aspires to go on unto perfection (Heb.7:1), do not be surprised if there seems to no longer be a hedge around your life either. There are many parallels to be found between Job and Adam.
Adam became as it were, the first prodigal son. Only through the Spirit of the Lord in much tribulation is mankind ordained to be able to return unto taking his rightful place of inheritance and dominion in the earthly kingdom of God. The Lord's stated purpose of creation was, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...and let them have dominion...over all the earth." Gen.3:26. Dominion in the coming kingdom however, is not reserved for the "teknon" developing sons of God, nor shall the kingdom be left to any other people but is reserved only for "huios" fully mature sons of God - Ro.8:17; Dan.3:44.
What a lot of people fail to understand is that the Lord sovereignly ordained that it would take ages for His full likeness to be perfected in man. Christ Jesus was the first evidence of the finished product of God's perfect likeness and image (2Cor.4:4; Col.1:15; Heb.1:3), learning obedience and maturity through the things that he suffered - Heb.5:8. He has become the manifested forerunner of the new and perfected Adamic race in bringing many sons unto the manifested glory of His own image and likeness - Heb.2:10; Ro.8:29,30. The "born again" (Jn.3:7) and first maturing children of God, a type and species of the "firstfruits of His creatures" (Jas.1:18), are born of the spirit to be amongst the first of the whole Adamic creation to express the likeness and image of Christ their saviour. These shall have "gotten the victory over the beast and over his image" (Rev.15:2), "being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." Rev.14:4.
Some other important major likenesses which are a reflection of God's image in man, are found in the created capacities to be able to partake of the fruitfulness of His Spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance: against which there is no law - Gal.5:22,23. Beloved, are you allowing His fruit to ripen? Will your fruit be ripe when He calls upon His firstfruit company (Rev.14:4) to begin to feed the multitudes of needy ones at the end of this age?
Finally, we find the Lord's image also reflected in man's God given ability to progressively multiply, not only in natural creative reproduction, but in spiritual reproduction as well. We are also now well able to increase in godly stature and authority in order to fill the earth, subdue it, and have responsible dominion over every living thing - Gen.1:28. The first man Adam was not ready for this. Are you who are the partakers of the second Adam nature, faithfully preparing for this? Are you part of the church "that hath made herself ready"? Rev.19:7; Matt.25:10.
Adam may have lacked the full glory of God's image to a lesser degree than that of mankind today. But within you who are going on unto maturity and perfection, is an everlasting well of the full hope of this glory - Col.1:27. Drink deeply of it while you are yet able. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Ro.13:12. The full glory of the Lord is about to rise and shine, heralding the dawning of a new age, a new kingdom government, and a perfected new creation man - Dan.7:27. E-mail Light Of His Glory Ministries
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