In the beginning… God created the first human being. God brought human life into existence. God formed man from the dust of the ground, the very ground God created. God took from the ground He created and formed from that dust a human being. Every part of our body decays back to dust over time, nothing remains. From that first created human being all other human beings descend. We might get nitpicky and demand to know how that is possible, that from two people came all other people, wouldn't that mean brothers and sisters marrying etc? I'm going to be the first here to say, I don't comprehend how it all unfolded. Adam was the first created man, Eve the first created woman from Adam's rib. There were only Adam and Eve and for how long we don't know, but we do know they sinned and after they sinned we are told that Eve conceived a child. Did she havethe ability to conceive a child prior to sinning? Yes,
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Be fruitful and multiply…
Before they even started the multiplying process, they sinned.
Once they sinned and were banned from the Garden of Eden, their entire state of immortality and eternal-ness was altered to one of degradation. None of their internal structures had been originally created with things that could break down over time, become infected, diseased, cause pain of any sort - we do not know what our eternal, immortal selves possessed in the original created form. We do know that since sin entered, a woman giving birth would experience great pain- obviously something the eternal, immortal, created Eve would ever have experienced as she was fruitful and multiplying. Undeniably we were changed by sin's death sentence.
As our sin-filled original parents began to multiply the children born to them were born with sin corrupted flesh, death loomed for each one born. We know from a young age, as soon as we mature with the ability to comprehend- that death is a part of our existence. We inherited that death sentence from our original parents- it started with them.
Without knowing the hows and whys in detail, we know it is true. We can make speculations on things such as-- did God create more human beings from the dust (sinful ones) after Adam was created and sinned, in order to multiply humanity? Just because Adam was the first created, doesn't mean others weren't, does it- you know, created somehow like Eve was from Adam? See, I don't know. There could be something in God's word that say there was no way that could have happened, but my knowledge is sadly limited.
Adam- we all get our human existence from his existence. Christ Jesus our Savior gives us all death to our sinful selves, and the chance to live sinless in Him, through Him.
Sin from Adam.
Life from Jesus.
Adam failed his test.
We are each given a test- the same opportunity in a different form.
We may inherit death, a sinful nature and the like - which puts us at a seeming disadvantage to Adam, but God is a God of righteousness, and while we may believe we have a disadvantage it's ultimately not true- underneath all the twists and turns of sin's ways for wanting us to cite unfairness, it is justified completely- because simply- IT CAN NOT BE OTHERWISE, it's impossible.
Our test at its very root is the same as Adam's- obedience, loyalty, faith in God our Creator, faith in all that comes from Him. Faith in our Redeemer. Faith in our Comforter. We choose self or God- just as Adam and Eve had to choose. Don't let Satan beguile you with his evil, deceiving ways by filling your head with lies telling you that Adam and Eve had it so much easier, things are harder for us, it's not fair. Those are Satanic lies! They had it different from us, but all in all the advantage was not stacked in the favor of one over another. Satan will use anything he can to incite the smallest of doubts into our spiritual lives, all he needs is a tiny bit of leaven for that whole large loaf of your life. He'll destroy more people with the tiny lies, doubts, deceptions than the outright horrendous evils.
We are crucified with Christ, yet we live…
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(Excerpt)
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
It may not be amiss to emphasize what this scripture does say, by noting what it does not say.
It does not say, I want to be crucified with Christ. It does not say, I wish I were crucified with Christ, that He might live in me. It does say, "I am crucified with Christ."
Again, it does not say, Paul was crucified with Christ; Christ lived in Paul, and the Son of God loved Paul and gave Himself for Paul. All that is true, but that is not what the scripture says nor is that what it means, for it means just what it says. And it does say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Thus this verse is a beautiful and solid foundation of Christian faith for every soul in the world. Thus it is made possible for every soul to say, in full assurance of Christian faith, "He loved me." "He gave himself for me." "I am crucified with Christ." "Christ liveth in me." Read also 1 John 4:15.
1Jn 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
For any soul to say, "I am crucified with Christ," is not speaking at a venture. It is not believing something on a guess. It is not saying a thing of which there is no certainty. Every soul in this world can say in all truth and all sincerity, "I am crucified with Christ." It is but the acceptance of a fact, the acceptance of a thing that is already done, for this word is the statement of a fact.
It is a fact that Jesus Christ was crucified. And when He was crucified we also were crucified, for He was one of us. His name is Immanuel, which is "God with us"--not God with Him, but "God with us." When His name is not God with Him, but "God with us," then who was He but "us"? He had to be "us" in order that God with Him could be not God with Him but "God with us." And when He was crucified, then who was it but "us" that was crucified?
This is the mighty truth announced in this text. Jesus Christ was "us."
He was of the same flesh and blood with us.
He was of our very nature.
He was in all points like us.
It behooved him to be made in all points like unto his brethren." He emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men. He was "the last Adam." and precisely as the first Adam was ourselves, so Christ, the last Adam, was ourselves. When the first Adam died, we, being involved in him, died with him. And when the last Adam died, we, being involved in Him, died with Him. And when the last Adam was crucified, He being ourselves and we being involved in Him, we were crucified with Him.
As the first Adam was in himself the whole human race, so the last Adam was in himself the whole human race, and so when the last Adam was crucified, the whole human race--the old, sinful human nature--was crucified with Him.
And so it is written, "Knowing this, that our old man IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."
Thus every soul in this world can truly say, in the perfect triumph of Christian faith, "I am crucified with Christ"; my old sinful human nature is crucified with Him that this body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth I should not serve sin. Rom. 6:6. Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.
Always bearing about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus--the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, for I am crucified with Him--that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in my body. For I who live am always delivered unto death, for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in my mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10, 11.
And therefore the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
In this blessed fact of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, which was accomplished for every human soul, there is not only laid the foundation of faith for every soul, but in it there is given the gift of faith to every soul. And thus the cross of Christ is not only the wisdom of God displayed from God to us, but it is the very power of God manifested to deliver us from all sin and bring us to God.
O sinner, brother, sister, believe it. Oh, receive it. Surrender to this mighty truth. Say it; say it in full assurance of faith and say it forever.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Say it, for it is the truth, the very truth and wisdom and power of God, which saves the soul from all sin.
Excerpt A.T. Jones 1899
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