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ADAM’S RACE
Gen 1:26-28
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in
His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He
created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful
and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that
moves on the earth." NKJV
Let’s inspect
these some of words in detail- “OUR IMAGE” and ‘OUR LIKENESS” – the
same root Hebrew word stated twice and translated as two different
words in English -resemblance, representative figure, from an unused root meaning to shade.
So man is made to resemble God, to be God’s representative. This is
repeated for emphasis. Let’s not miss the point. We are created to
resemble God. When everything false is taken away, that is who we are.
“DOMINION” – to subjugate, to come to have dominion, to prevail against, to rule over, to take.
We are to be in charge of every other living thing, we are equipped to
handle the responsibility for the governance of all life on earth. Wow!
“IN HIS OWN IMAGE” and “THE IMAGE OF GOD” –
Yes, these are the SAME two words as at the beginning of these verses.
Repeated twice and repeated twice more. We really need to get this. Man
is made to resemble God, to be God’s representative on earth, we are to
rule over every other thing. Life on earth is our responsibility. We
are in charge, God told us.
“BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, FILL THE EARTH FRUITFUL - bear, bring forth (fruit), (be, cause to be, make) fruitful, grow, increase.
MULTIPLY - to increase in whatever respect. Bring in abundance, bring up, grow up, and heap.
FILL THE EARTH - to fill or be full of (literally or figuratively), satisfy, take wholly, replenish.
We are the ones that cause the earth to produce what the earth is
designed to produce. We are to do this until everything is complete in
every way - until there is satisfaction - until the earth is full of
fruit.
“DOMINION” – It’s the same word as
before, another repeat for emphasis. We are in charge, we are to take
this thing and rule. God has given it to us to do. He’s delegated His
own authority to us, by design, on purpose. Apparently the earth cannot
just go along on its’ own and produce the “fruit” God intents. He has
told us to take it. There is giving from God here, and there is
receiving and accepting the job responsibility on our part. It is not
just a done deal. God repeats the instructions – “This is the way you
are built – take this – be in charge- bring this thing to fulfillment –
till all my plans are satisfied. “
The Bible
tells us that God is Love. As His representatives, we are to be
displaying His nature and character until the whole earth is filled
with His glory. Good enough.
1 John 4:16 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. NIV.
Further. The bible gives many descriptions of what Love look like.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps
no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails. NIV
So,
God’s plan is for us to be in the overseers of things on earth, and
everything will grow and prosper until such a time that everything
displays Love, and there is no more left to do. We say, “ Thanks God
for all the great stuff, we’ll take over, just like you said, and it
will all work out.” But it doesn’t work out, it a big mess, there’s
murder, starvation, wars, pestilence, storms, earthquakes, atrocity
after atrocity, and on and on. We blame God for all this because it was
His idea in the first place, and we think that maybe God isn’t as good
and powerful as He claims to be. Maybe this whole thing was a little
more than what God can really manage and He’s lost control! We think
that we had better just look out for ourselves, after all we are only
human and the best we can hope for is a little happiness. What’s so
wrong with that? We begin to think that God doesn’t care if I am
satisfied.
We begin to think that God is
just looking for our failures so he can keep us out of heaven, whatever
that is; maybe we are supposed to make our own idea of heaven. What’s
the difference, what’s the big deal?
After all I am just trying to survive….
What went wrong?.......... Adam did not obey God.
He
chose to believe some information from another source and he put the
very thing inside of him that the Lord warned him would kill him. The
story is found in Genesis 3, and it is often called “the Fall”. I will
paraphrase the account here, but you can read it for yourself in the
Bible any time. The Lord told Adam, along with his other instructions
that he could eat of ANY tree in the garden EXCEPT the “Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil”. The warning was that on the day he ate
that fruit, he would die. Now, death is separation from God because God
is life. Gen. 2 talks about how Adam and the Lord would walk in the
cool of the day and talk. There was a personal and intimate
relationship going on here. This goes against our natural thinking, we
think of God as being far away, judgmental, ready to strike us at any
moment for an error or blunder. We are afraid of God. But that is not
how it was at the beginning, remember Adam was specifically built to be
like God – in God’s class – in His image – representing and doing His
work.
We must understand also that
everything on the earth was not functioning in the will and purpose of
the Lord. The serpent was already in the garden when Adam was placed
there. Adam’s work was to “dress it and keep it” which means to bring
it under control and keep it fenced in. The serpent was a created
being; Adam was commissioned to rule over all life as the Lord’s
appointed man. The serpent challenged God’s character- “Hath God said…”
and the serpent lied about what God said – “… you must not eat of ANY
tree in the garden?” And then the serpent spoke as if his word had
authority over the warning God gave concerning death. ‘Surely, you
shall not die…”
But Adam did die.
Adam
had an opportunity to exercise his God-given authority right there.
Here was this created being that Adam was to over-see, correct, and
bring under the control of the Lord, but he chose instead to believe
the lie and reject God. Furthermore, that fruit he ate was poisonous.
Man was not designed for this particular knowledge, that is “the
knowledge of good and evil,” he was designed to run things on earth, to
keep and to dress… Man was designed to eat of the tree of life. This
tree was available to Adam right up until the time he took of the other
tree. It was only after the poisoning that the tree of life was
separated from man. Genesis 3:22 says, “ the man has now become like
one of us” (meaning Elohim, the three-in one God). By this willful act
of rebellion and mistrust, man became more like God and less like man
was designed to be. Because this fruit went into him, it polluted his
whole nature. Man became defiled, while God was holy. Adam’s body was
alive, his soul was alive, he could think and act and have children,
but his spirit was no longer connected with the Spirit of God. His
spirit was dead. On that day his spirit died. Adam lived 930 years, and
then he died. (Genesis 5:5). Think of that!
Adam
was like the branch of a tree that is cut off from the trunk, but there
was so much residual power and life in his body and mind that it took
930 years for his body to finally give out. But here is the bigger
problem, the same pollution and mixture that killed Adam was passed on
to his sons and daughters. Sin had now entered the world through the
very being created to guard, control, and protect it. We might look at
this as a “genetic” disorder, but it is more accurately described as a
“nature” disorder. While the defiled nature of man prevented him from
fulfilling his purpose, the commission and plan of God did not change.
God is love. Love never fails. In the presence of His enemies God
prepares a table and covenant of reconciliation between man and God,
and man WILL fulfill his original purpose.
We need to understand this principle: We are not viewed, as sinners by God because we do things that are sinful.
We sin because we are born with the sin nature (the poisoning of Adam) already in us.
In John 3, Jesus tells a Pharisee named Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
(NIV) Some translations read “born from above”. What He is saying here
is that we have no ability to perceive and understand what God’s rule
is, how it operates, what its purpose is, or any thing until a new form
of life is birthed in us. "God is spirit, and his worshipers must
worship in spirit and in truth." NIV If your Spirit is not alive, you
have nothing that can perceive things in the realm of God.
John 3:5-8."I
tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is
born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the
Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying,
'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear
its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is
going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit NI
So
this is the marvelous plan of God, the solution to this seemingly
insurmountable problem that Adam introduced into the world. We have all
people being born alive in the flesh, but still born (that is dead or
separated) in the Spirit. What is needed is ANOTHER birth process that
can be made available to everyone whereby their spirits can be brought
to Life. That is the same as saying “brought to God”, because God is
Life. God is Spirit. The Life is in the Spirit (God). When we are WITH
God, walking and talking with Him, we can learn how He wants this
ruling and reigning over the earth to work out.
First we must be “Born again” and then we see.
This is important –Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV
We
can get into this thinking that, well Adam did this thing, and we have
inherited this “problem” from him so it is not MY fault that I am
spiritually separated from God, and if God really loves me and wants to
have relationship with me, why doesn’t HE just fix things and it’ll be
OK? I do nothing, and God takes care of this sin thing. Well guess
what, that is exactly What He has done. God has opened the door of
reconciliation, and new birth: “nature exchange” if YOU WILL. The
provision is here, but YOU are the one who must make the move to access
this provision. There is only one way, no choice, but the way is always
open.
You can read about it in Romans!
Rom 5:6-19
When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape, Christ came at
just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him. 7
Even if we were good, we really wouldn't expect anyone to die for us,
though, of course, that might be barely possible. 8 But God showed his
great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still
sinners. 9 And since by his blood he did all this for us as sinners,
how much more will he do for us now that he has declared us not guilty?
Now he will save us from all of God's wrath to come. 10 And since, when
we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of his
Son, what blessings he must have for us now that we are his friends and
he is living within us! 11 Now we rejoice in our wonderful new
relationship with God-all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has
done in dying for our sins-making us friends of God. 12 When Adam
sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death
throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for
all sinned. 13[We know that it was Adam's sin that caused this] because
although, of course, people were sinning from the time of Adam until
Moses, God did not in those days judge them guilty of death for
breaking his laws-because he had not yet given his laws to them nor
told them what he wanted them to do. 14 So when their bodies died it
was not for their own sins since they themselves had never disobeyed
God's special law against eating the forbidden fruit, as Adam had. What
a contrast between Adam and Christ who was yet to come! 15 And what a
difference between man's sin and God's forgiveness! For this one man,
Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this one man, Jesus
Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God's mercy. 16 Adam's one
sin brought the penalty of death to many, while Christ freely takes
away many sins and gives glorious life instead. 17 The sin of this one
man, Adam, caused death to be king over all, but all who will take
God's gift of forgiveness and acquittal are kings of life because of
this one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Yes, Adam's sin brought punishment to
all, but Christ's righteousness makes men right with God, so that they
can live. 19 Adam caused many to be sinners because he disobeyed God,
and Christ caused many to be made acceptable to God because he obeyed. TLB
1
Cor 15:45 45 The Scriptures tell us that the first man, Adam, was given
a natural, human body but Christ is more than that, for he was
life-giving Spirit. TLB
I’ll repeat that- Christ is MORE than Adam (Adamic nature); He is a LIFE giving SPIRIT (God is Spirit).
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