“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Gn2:7 nasb)
Journal,
All life is a gift from God. Angels have life. Animals and plants have their life. Every order of creation has its own life.
And yet no other part of creation was given the measure of life as was given to Adam. Adam’s life was purposely enjoined to God Himself. Actually Adam is the only person in the Bible aside from Jesus Christ, who is called ‘the son of God.’
Yes, Adam shared a kinship with God that no other creature had. He carried with him the image and likeness of God. It is difficult to even imagine what Adam was like in the beginning.
Being made in the image and likeness of God meant something very special to the whole of creation. This is why it was a black day for all creation when Adam chose to act on Satan’s word rather than to live by the instructions that the Lord God gave him.
Adam’s fall would affect all of creation. Paul takes note of this –
“… the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.“ (Rom 8:19-21)
And so we have…
The Fallen Children
This is why it is so important to understand Adam’s original place in creation. It helps us realize why God loves the world so much. Even though the Adam race has been defiled by sin and darkness, God has never stopped loving humankind.
And so Jesus Christ came into our world. This is also why Jesus is called ‘the last Adam.’
Listen and learn:
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (Joh 3:17-18)
And again,
“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (1Co 15:45)
Jesus came into our fallen world to redeem and set free the fallen race of Adam, and to create a new race called, ‘Christian.’ A Biblical Christian has been anointed with the very life of Christ Himself.
This is why the apostle said –
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20)
Jesus the Last Adam
The mysterious gift of God speaks of the life that Adam lost, and even beyond. Out of the cross would come a new creation, and in this new creation would come the sons and daughters of God.
But there is something crucial we need to grasp. God did not provide the last Adam (Jesus) a body from the dust of the ground. Indeed not. The Father provided Jesus with a body that belonged to the original race of Adam. By overshadowing the Virgin, Jesus would enter our world both as the Son of God, and also the Son of Man.
In this way Jesus could become the source of eternal life to all the children of Adam. Out of the cross came a judicial verdict based on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The judicial verdict is simple. It says that anyone of the Adam race is given the right to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and become a member of God’s new race of Christians.
Listen to Peter on the day of Pentecost as he exacts God’s judicial verdict for the whole of the human race –
“‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'” (Act 2:21)
And thus with the apostle Paul –
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'” (Rom 10:12-13)
Calling on the name of the Lord means to confess and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; that the person realizes they cannot become good enough to be saved; that they recognize themselves as lost sinners, and a appealing to Jesus Christ as God’s provision for salvation. It is as simple as that.
The Mystery of Eternal Life
For all who call on the name of the Lord, these become the children of God, and as children of God they are given the very nature of Christ, the last Adam. Because we are given a godly nature, this is why sin hurts so much for a true believer. Yes, we can and do sin, but sin is contrary to our spiritual nature from above. Sinners sin by nature. Christians sin by temptation. There is a vast difference.
Concerning our new life, the apostle wrote –
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2Co 5:17-19)
The issue of eternal life is that eternal life cannot be forfeited, just as the natural man cannot lose his natural human life. We are what we are.
And the apostle John says that we are now the children of God. The apostle Paul also speaks to this.
Listen with your heart –
[John] “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
“And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1Jn 3:1-3)
[Paul] “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Rom 8:15-17)
Welcome home, all you children of God
And so the new race of Christians are actually…
The Children of the Throne
There is much to our future that we are not told about. We do know that all of creation, including the angels, anxiously await the crowning moment when all God’s children are fully restored to their rightful place in creation.
Yes, all the angels recognize each of God’s children. Every child carries in their heart a seal of redemption. In this seal is the very essence of, ‘I belong to heaven.’
In addition to the blood seal, every child of God has already been seated in Christ in the heavens. This is why we can be called ‘children of the throne’. What creation is waiting for now is the children’s full restoration to the glory of God.
Here it is in a nutshell:
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.” (Heb 2:10)
It would not do to leave off what the apostle Paul had to say about the children’s glory –
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?
“If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:29-31)
Touch one of my kids, you touch Me – Lion of Judah
Yes indeed, the life of God in the heart of a child of God is both wonderful and mysterious. It is no wonder that we sing so much about heaven. After all, we are just sojourners in this world. We are looking for the city whose builder and maker is God. But not only a city, the Bible says we also have a country that has been prepared for us.
It is kind of hard to find a stopping place, but stop I must. Just keep in mind that the apostle said that nothing would ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus. God’s love is eternal.
For your meditation here is a song about the Lion of Judah…
In Christ always,
Buddy
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