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@Runningman
What Jesus would do began in the Garden of Eden. (Gen 1-3)
God created everything that is. He created everything with a purpose and duty and sustained everything to fulfill its purpose. He is sovereign over all, and shows Himself to be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. He created Adam, then Eve from Adam's bone, and placed them as overseers over His creation in the Garden. They were not autonomous in their duties, but under Him, as their creator. They were made in His image and likeness and therefore were to conduct themselves in all their ways, in perfect righteousness as He is perfectly righteous. As the first man, Adam is the representative of all men.
In the garden among all the trees were two distinctive trees. One was the tree of life, which they could eat of, as well as the other trees. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which if they did eat of it, they would die.
Let's pause to see the details here. We have God declaring everything He made good, meaning perfect in all that it is meant to do. And man as very good. In biblical terms that is perfectly righteous. We must never lose sight of this, as righteous is the way we are created, what we are created to be, what we lose, what Jesus restores.We could stop right here, and say the gospel in short is, Jesus restores our righteousness that Adam destroyed.
Another thing we see in Eden is God dwelling with Adam and Eve. Right there with them. We see this relationship between God and mankind destroyed after they ate of the forbidden fruit and were cast out of the Garden with no access to the Tree of Life, and away from His personal presence. This too Jesus came to restore and did so. He came to dwell with us as Immanuel---God with us.
So, is that Tree of Life just a tree? Or is it representing life itself? And if it is representing life, what kind of life is it representing? If one tree gives life, and the other brings death, then the Tree of Life gives life without death---eternal life. And who is this life, and who gives it when we get to the NT and find this mystery and many others in the OT, revealed? It is none other than Jesus Himself. (John 14:6; John 3:16; Romans 6:23; John 11:25 etc.) We must partake of Jesus for eternal life.
None of what happened in Gen 3, with the temptation of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam, came as a surprise to God. If it had, there would be something the eternal all knowing, all seeing, ever present, all powerful, Creator of all things and in whom all things have existence and life, had to learn. And if the Tree of Life represents Jesus, and it does, or He could not say that He was the way, the truth, and the life, then the covenant of redemption did not begin with the disobedience of Adam. It began before creation. And if it began before creation, and Jesus came with the express purpose of restoring man to God, then He also existed before creation.
We see in the curses of Gen 3:14-19 that mankind through Adam, has been completely alienated from God. Mankind has now become a sinner---unrighteous.(1 Cor 15:22)
In those curses we also find a promise of grace. "The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;he shall bruise our head, and you shall bruise his heel." It is important to note here that it is not through the offspring of Adam but the offspring of the woman. It is in Adam that all became sinners, it is through woman that the Savior comes. This is not a comment on one is better than the other anymore than it was with God. It pertains directly to both the deity and humanity of Jesus. Adam was not His father, God is His father. Deity. A human woman, Mary, was His mother. Humanity.
A war begins here. One that rages on through the ages. But it is to the goal of that war that we turn our attention in discovering what it is that Jesus did on the cross.
As I stated briefly above, the goal is to reconcile the sinner to God by undoing what Adam did. And what he did was make sinners out of all mankind. The second goal, which is a result of the first goal being met, is for mankind, having been made perfectly righteous, for God to dwell with men as He did in Eden. This is partly accomplished now, as Christ dwells in the hearts of the believer and is active in their life. Yet a blessed hope still remains. That being, the death of death, and the restoration of ALL things, the very restoration of creation itself.
How is a sinner to be made righteous? And remember that it is not only our sins that make us sinners, but we are a sinful being in Adam. We cannot take ourselves out of Adam, therefore we cannot stop sinning. A creature cannot be created that becomes perfectly righteous and then becomes the new representative of all mankind, and at the same time deal with all the sins of all those in Adam. He would simply not be "big" enough. He could not represent all mankind because he himself would be a creature, and the problem of sin is bigger than that. A creature could no more change an unrighteous being into a righteous being, than the Mosaic Law could. Righteousness can only come fromt the Righteous One---who is God.
In the very character and being of God is this "little" thing called just. Perfectly just is as much a part of the character and being of God, as is righteous. The two cannot be separated. His just pronouncement on sin is death. It is sin that must be defeated and it is death that must be defeated. Since no man can do either of those things, it requires a substitute. A substitute is what we see in the Mosaic covenant. The death of the animal substituting for the death of the sinner, taking death in his place. As the book of Hebrews tells us, it was but a temporary covering of sin, not an expulsion of sin. It did not defeat sin and it did not defeat death. It took no one out of Adam.
A different substitute was needed---one that was of the same kind as the ones being substituted for----mankind---but yet also had eternal life, inherent in him. Created humans are mortal. This substitute must live as we live, in the sinful and fallen world, as we do, and yet have intrinsically more value than those He stands in the place of. And He must do this without stain or blemish, perfectly righteous.
As one standing in the place of sinful mankind, the substitute must meet sins justice, the wrath of God against sin, and sin's penalty, death. That is what Jesus did on the cross. Since He was perfectly righteous, as one of us, and because, as also Son of God, He possessed eternal life within Himself, death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead, and returned to the Father where He intercedes for His people. Sin and death were defeated. And though they still exist for a time, they have no power over those who are in Christ. Sin cannot condemn them and though they will die, neither can death hold them. At the consummation of Christ's work, they too will have their bodies resurrected. At that time, will be the death of death and the removal of all sin in our world. We will be raised immortal and incorruptible. Adam and Eve were created mortal and corruptible.
How does one become one of His people through this work of Christ? Through faith in the person and work of Jesus. By faith we are justified before God. And what does that mean? It means that just as He bore our sins on the cross, having them imputed to Him, His perfect righteousness is counted as though it were our own. And if we are counted as perfectly righteous in Christ, then we are out of Adam, so to speak, and in Christ. I only say "so to speak" because until our death or the end of this age and Christ returns, we still have our sin nature. At the same time, it has been dealt with by the work of Christ and we are sealed in Him.
Christ undid what Adam did, and reconciled a people to God through faith.
(The Scripture supporting what has been said is mostly left out for the sake of space. It will be provided is asked for.)
What Jesus would do began in the Garden of Eden. (Gen 1-3)
God created everything that is. He created everything with a purpose and duty and sustained everything to fulfill its purpose. He is sovereign over all, and shows Himself to be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. He created Adam, then Eve from Adam's bone, and placed them as overseers over His creation in the Garden. They were not autonomous in their duties, but under Him, as their creator. They were made in His image and likeness and therefore were to conduct themselves in all their ways, in perfect righteousness as He is perfectly righteous. As the first man, Adam is the representative of all men.
In the garden among all the trees were two distinctive trees. One was the tree of life, which they could eat of, as well as the other trees. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which if they did eat of it, they would die.
Let's pause to see the details here. We have God declaring everything He made good, meaning perfect in all that it is meant to do. And man as very good. In biblical terms that is perfectly righteous. We must never lose sight of this, as righteous is the way we are created, what we are created to be, what we lose, what Jesus restores.We could stop right here, and say the gospel in short is, Jesus restores our righteousness that Adam destroyed.
Another thing we see in Eden is God dwelling with Adam and Eve. Right there with them. We see this relationship between God and mankind destroyed after they ate of the forbidden fruit and were cast out of the Garden with no access to the Tree of Life, and away from His personal presence. This too Jesus came to restore and did so. He came to dwell with us as Immanuel---God with us.
So, is that Tree of Life just a tree? Or is it representing life itself? And if it is representing life, what kind of life is it representing? If one tree gives life, and the other brings death, then the Tree of Life gives life without death---eternal life. And who is this life, and who gives it when we get to the NT and find this mystery and many others in the OT, revealed? It is none other than Jesus Himself. (John 14:6; John 3:16; Romans 6:23; John 11:25 etc.) We must partake of Jesus for eternal life.
None of what happened in Gen 3, with the temptation of Eve and the willful disobedience of Adam, came as a surprise to God. If it had, there would be something the eternal all knowing, all seeing, ever present, all powerful, Creator of all things and in whom all things have existence and life, had to learn. And if the Tree of Life represents Jesus, and it does, or He could not say that He was the way, the truth, and the life, then the covenant of redemption did not begin with the disobedience of Adam. It began before creation. And if it began before creation, and Jesus came with the express purpose of restoring man to God, then He also existed before creation.
We see in the curses of Gen 3:14-19 that mankind through Adam, has been completely alienated from God. Mankind has now become a sinner---unrighteous.(1 Cor 15:22)
In those curses we also find a promise of grace. "The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;he shall bruise our head, and you shall bruise his heel." It is important to note here that it is not through the offspring of Adam but the offspring of the woman. It is in Adam that all became sinners, it is through woman that the Savior comes. This is not a comment on one is better than the other anymore than it was with God. It pertains directly to both the deity and humanity of Jesus. Adam was not His father, God is His father. Deity. A human woman, Mary, was His mother. Humanity.
A war begins here. One that rages on through the ages. But it is to the goal of that war that we turn our attention in discovering what it is that Jesus did on the cross.
As I stated briefly above, the goal is to reconcile the sinner to God by undoing what Adam did. And what he did was make sinners out of all mankind. The second goal, which is a result of the first goal being met, is for mankind, having been made perfectly righteous, for God to dwell with men as He did in Eden. This is partly accomplished now, as Christ dwells in the hearts of the believer and is active in their life. Yet a blessed hope still remains. That being, the death of death, and the restoration of ALL things, the very restoration of creation itself.
How is a sinner to be made righteous? And remember that it is not only our sins that make us sinners, but we are a sinful being in Adam. We cannot take ourselves out of Adam, therefore we cannot stop sinning. A creature cannot be created that becomes perfectly righteous and then becomes the new representative of all mankind, and at the same time deal with all the sins of all those in Adam. He would simply not be "big" enough. He could not represent all mankind because he himself would be a creature, and the problem of sin is bigger than that. A creature could no more change an unrighteous being into a righteous being, than the Mosaic Law could. Righteousness can only come fromt the Righteous One---who is God.
In the very character and being of God is this "little" thing called just. Perfectly just is as much a part of the character and being of God, as is righteous. The two cannot be separated. His just pronouncement on sin is death. It is sin that must be defeated and it is death that must be defeated. Since no man can do either of those things, it requires a substitute. A substitute is what we see in the Mosaic covenant. The death of the animal substituting for the death of the sinner, taking death in his place. As the book of Hebrews tells us, it was but a temporary covering of sin, not an expulsion of sin. It did not defeat sin and it did not defeat death. It took no one out of Adam.
A different substitute was needed---one that was of the same kind as the ones being substituted for----mankind---but yet also had eternal life, inherent in him. Created humans are mortal. This substitute must live as we live, in the sinful and fallen world, as we do, and yet have intrinsically more value than those He stands in the place of. And He must do this without stain or blemish, perfectly righteous.
As one standing in the place of sinful mankind, the substitute must meet sins justice, the wrath of God against sin, and sin's penalty, death. That is what Jesus did on the cross. Since He was perfectly righteous, as one of us, and because, as also Son of God, He possessed eternal life within Himself, death could not hold Him. He rose from the dead, and returned to the Father where He intercedes for His people. Sin and death were defeated. And though they still exist for a time, they have no power over those who are in Christ. Sin cannot condemn them and though they will die, neither can death hold them. At the consummation of Christ's work, they too will have their bodies resurrected. At that time, will be the death of death and the removal of all sin in our world. We will be raised immortal and incorruptible. Adam and Eve were created mortal and corruptible.
How does one become one of His people through this work of Christ? Through faith in the person and work of Jesus. By faith we are justified before God. And what does that mean? It means that just as He bore our sins on the cross, having them imputed to Him, His perfect righteousness is counted as though it were our own. And if we are counted as perfectly righteous in Christ, then we are out of Adam, so to speak, and in Christ. I only say "so to speak" because until our death or the end of this age and Christ returns, we still have our sin nature. At the same time, it has been dealt with by the work of Christ and we are sealed in Him.
Christ undid what Adam did, and reconciled a people to God through faith.
(The Scripture supporting what has been said is mostly left out for the sake of space. It will be provided is asked for.)
