<DIV>[Please read Parts 1 & 2 before reading this thread].</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We committed the original sin in the Garden of Eden. We can not even blame Adam, as if we would have done differently. We were in Adam, and we sinned. This is the <I>spiritual headship</I> of Adam. Through the entire lineage of mankind, the fathers spirits were imparted to their children. What this means is that every person who ever lived (except Christ), existed (spiritually) at the beginning, in the single man, Adam - not as a man with many spirits (like "Legion"), but as a simple man with one spirit, who imparted that one spirit to many descendants. All sinned in Adam, and (Praise God!) all are righteous, who are in Christ! Note that the Bible didnt say that sin entered the world through Adam <I>and Eve</I> (Romans 5:12), even though Eve sinned first. This coincides with the fact that Marys "sin nature" was not passed on to Christ. Seth was not begotten in the image of Eve, and Jesus was not begotten in the image of Mary. Both were begotten in the image of their father (see Gen.5:3). Note, however, that Jesus has always been in the Image of the Father, and exists eternally in the past with the Father, as the only begotten Son of God.
In passing down his fallen spirit to all of mankind, Adam passed along more than just a totally depraved, propensity for sin. He also passed down to us his sense of loss and hunger for restoration of a full, loving, communion with God. It is true that God designed us to have such communion with Him, but it is more than that. Our hunger for Him is magnified by the fact that we once had that communion! We all sinned in Adam... but before that terrible day, we all were in perfect communion with God - in Adam! That sense of hunger for lost communion with God has been passed down through all the generations of man, just as surely as our "sin nature" has! They are two sides of the same coin! We have no memory of that communion in the Garden, but the effect is still there; after all, we have no memory of sinning in the Garden, and yet, the effects of that are undeniable.
[See Ezekiel 28:10-15].
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were sinless children of God, much like we as believers, now, are children of God. After the Fall, mankind lost all right to claim that title, or any privilege that goes with it; but we were and are still the "offspring" of God. God does not see us as strangers, but as His own lost offspring who used to be His children! Perhaps that is why He loves us so much!
Look at the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). All three parables in this chapter are about salvation. They are not about "backsliding", as some think. Notice that the prodigal son began the story as the full-fledged son of his father. Usually, an inheritance is not given until the father dies, so this is symbolic of the death of the father-son relationship, and is punctuated by the sons departure, representing lost communion. Note also that it was the sons decision to end his relationship with his father and to leave his father. Apart from his father, he lost everything. He was no longer worthy to be called a son (v.19), but he was still the offspring of his father. Notice that the son did not find a kind old man who took him in (it is not the "Prodigal Orphan"). No, he <I>returned</I> to his <I>father.</I> Returning to his father, confessing his sin, and asking only to be made a servant, his father gave him far more grace than he had asked for or imagined, and fully restored him to being his son! He had not realized how much his father loved him. When we understand the origin of the human spirit, this parable becomes so much more alive with meaning! "Come home! Come home! Ye who are weary, come home! Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!" Come <I>back</I> home!
Not only for Adams sin, we also reap the results of Gods judgement for the sins sewn by our fathers and grandfathers, if we do not repent and turn to Jesus. Look at Exodus 20:5-6, "...For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." and Exodus 34:6-7, "...The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the childrens children to the third and the fourth generation.". Jeremiah 32:18 says, "You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them - the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts." (See also Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9). Do we call God unjust for that? No, indeed! Look at Cain. He was the first murderer. Who was the second murderer? It was Cains great-grandson, Lamech. Remember Gehazi, Elishas servant? Because of his greed, he and all his descendants were cursed with leprosy (2Kings 5:27). Adam and all his descendants were cursed with the fatal leprosy of sin. This is not one obscure verse. This truth is important enough for the Bible to repeat it five times in four different books. These verses about visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children speak directly of Paternal Traducianism, and refer only to those sins which were committed while the children were still "in the loins of" their father (grandfather, etc.), and not to those sins committed by the father after the child was conceived. Levi is credited with paying tithes to Melchizedek while "in the loins of" Abraham. Hebrews 7:9,10: "Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him."
The Pharisees tried to divorce themselves from the sin of their fathers, who had killed the prophets. Matt.23:29-32 says,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers guilt."
Why is being the<I> sons</I> of those who murdered the prophets a witness <I>against </I>the Pharisees<I>?</I> They were saying the equivalent of saying, "If we had been in the Garden of Eden, we would not have eaten the forbidden fruit." This reasoning is false - what our fathers have done, we have done in them.<I> </I>They could not divorce themselves from their fathers sin, and neither can we.
Now look at Romans, chapter 5. The entire chapter applies here, but I will just quote a couple verses. Verse 12,"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" verse 18,"Therefore, as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." and verse 19,"For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
We must also consider Ezekiel, chapter eighteen. The theme of this chapter is summed up in verse 20: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Each one of us has an equal opportunity to leave behind the sins of our fathers and turn to righteousness. God gives each new baby his own individuality and his own fresh start at life. Romans 2 clearly says that every man will be judged the deeds of his own life. [This is why children who die before reaching the age of accountability are not condemned: because they have no sinful deeds for which to be judged]. Each person is responsible for his own decisions and his own sins; and yet, no one can blame God for the fact that he was born a sinner, and born into a world full of pain, misery and evil. God didnt make us sinful - we did it to ourselves. We invited sin, death and suffering into the world and we only have ourselves to blame.
Adam was the first man whose spirit came directly from God, instead of from an earthly father - Christ was the next. This is why Christ is called "the Last Adam". <I>Strictly humanly speaking,</I> Adam was the firstborn of God. All we who are of the line of Adam are of the firstborn. Had Adam not sinned and none of his descendants sinned, then Gods inheritance would have been given to us through Adam. There would have been no sin, no death, and no misery. All of mankind would have been born "saved", and would have enjoyed a close relationship with God as His children. Why would this have been? Because we have the spirit of Adam in us and that alone would have entitled us to Gods inheritance.
Ishmael and Isaac represent Adam and Christ. Ishmael, like Adam, was the firstborn who was not able to be an heir and partake of his fathers inheritance (Gen.21:10). Gods covenant did not come through his line. In fact, Ishmael was cast out from his home and cut off from his father - just like Adam, cast out of the Garden. Gods covenant came through Isaac, the promised child for whom Abraham waited in faith for twenty-five years. Isaacs birth was miraculous, born to a woman who could not possibly conceive. Jesus was also a promised child, miraculously born to a woman who could not possibly conceive. As a further picture of Christ, Isaac was taken up a mountain, placed on an altar, and nearly sacrificed by his father. One more thought: arent we all "wild donkeys of men", when compared to Jesus?
Lets look at another example of Adam and Christ: Esau and Jacob (Gen.25-27). Esau, the firstborn, sold his birthright for some stew. Adam sold his spiritual birthright for a piece of fruit. Jacob had to put on the hairy-skinned flesh of a goat to take on the likeness of Esau so that he could obtain his fathers blessing. Christ had to put on the corruptible flesh of Adam to take on the likeness of the firstborn so that He could obtain the Fathers blessing for us. In Gen.27:22, Isaac said, "The voice is Jacobs voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." It could be said of Christ, <I>"The voice is Gods voice, but the hands are the hands of a man!" </I>This is such a vivid, beautiful picture of the incarnation of Christ!
Ken</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We committed the original sin in the Garden of Eden. We can not even blame Adam, as if we would have done differently. We were in Adam, and we sinned. This is the <I>spiritual headship</I> of Adam. Through the entire lineage of mankind, the fathers spirits were imparted to their children. What this means is that every person who ever lived (except Christ), existed (spiritually) at the beginning, in the single man, Adam - not as a man with many spirits (like "Legion"), but as a simple man with one spirit, who imparted that one spirit to many descendants. All sinned in Adam, and (Praise God!) all are righteous, who are in Christ! Note that the Bible didnt say that sin entered the world through Adam <I>and Eve</I> (Romans 5:12), even though Eve sinned first. This coincides with the fact that Marys "sin nature" was not passed on to Christ. Seth was not begotten in the image of Eve, and Jesus was not begotten in the image of Mary. Both were begotten in the image of their father (see Gen.5:3). Note, however, that Jesus has always been in the Image of the Father, and exists eternally in the past with the Father, as the only begotten Son of God.
In passing down his fallen spirit to all of mankind, Adam passed along more than just a totally depraved, propensity for sin. He also passed down to us his sense of loss and hunger for restoration of a full, loving, communion with God. It is true that God designed us to have such communion with Him, but it is more than that. Our hunger for Him is magnified by the fact that we once had that communion! We all sinned in Adam... but before that terrible day, we all were in perfect communion with God - in Adam! That sense of hunger for lost communion with God has been passed down through all the generations of man, just as surely as our "sin nature" has! They are two sides of the same coin! We have no memory of that communion in the Garden, but the effect is still there; after all, we have no memory of sinning in the Garden, and yet, the effects of that are undeniable.
[See Ezekiel 28:10-15].
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were sinless children of God, much like we as believers, now, are children of God. After the Fall, mankind lost all right to claim that title, or any privilege that goes with it; but we were and are still the "offspring" of God. God does not see us as strangers, but as His own lost offspring who used to be His children! Perhaps that is why He loves us so much!
Look at the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). All three parables in this chapter are about salvation. They are not about "backsliding", as some think. Notice that the prodigal son began the story as the full-fledged son of his father. Usually, an inheritance is not given until the father dies, so this is symbolic of the death of the father-son relationship, and is punctuated by the sons departure, representing lost communion. Note also that it was the sons decision to end his relationship with his father and to leave his father. Apart from his father, he lost everything. He was no longer worthy to be called a son (v.19), but he was still the offspring of his father. Notice that the son did not find a kind old man who took him in (it is not the "Prodigal Orphan"). No, he <I>returned</I> to his <I>father.</I> Returning to his father, confessing his sin, and asking only to be made a servant, his father gave him far more grace than he had asked for or imagined, and fully restored him to being his son! He had not realized how much his father loved him. When we understand the origin of the human spirit, this parable becomes so much more alive with meaning! "Come home! Come home! Ye who are weary, come home! Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home!" Come <I>back</I> home!
Not only for Adams sin, we also reap the results of Gods judgement for the sins sewn by our fathers and grandfathers, if we do not repent and turn to Jesus. Look at Exodus 20:5-6, "...For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." and Exodus 34:6-7, "...The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the childrens children to the third and the fourth generation.". Jeremiah 32:18 says, "You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them - the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts." (See also Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 5:9). Do we call God unjust for that? No, indeed! Look at Cain. He was the first murderer. Who was the second murderer? It was Cains great-grandson, Lamech. Remember Gehazi, Elishas servant? Because of his greed, he and all his descendants were cursed with leprosy (2Kings 5:27). Adam and all his descendants were cursed with the fatal leprosy of sin. This is not one obscure verse. This truth is important enough for the Bible to repeat it five times in four different books. These verses about visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children speak directly of Paternal Traducianism, and refer only to those sins which were committed while the children were still "in the loins of" their father (grandfather, etc.), and not to those sins committed by the father after the child was conceived. Levi is credited with paying tithes to Melchizedek while "in the loins of" Abraham. Hebrews 7:9,10: "Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him."
The Pharisees tried to divorce themselves from the sin of their fathers, who had killed the prophets. Matt.23:29-32 says,
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers guilt."
Why is being the<I> sons</I> of those who murdered the prophets a witness <I>against </I>the Pharisees<I>?</I> They were saying the equivalent of saying, "If we had been in the Garden of Eden, we would not have eaten the forbidden fruit." This reasoning is false - what our fathers have done, we have done in them.<I> </I>They could not divorce themselves from their fathers sin, and neither can we.
Now look at Romans, chapter 5. The entire chapter applies here, but I will just quote a couple verses. Verse 12,"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" verse 18,"Therefore, as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." and verse 19,"For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
We must also consider Ezekiel, chapter eighteen. The theme of this chapter is summed up in verse 20: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." Each one of us has an equal opportunity to leave behind the sins of our fathers and turn to righteousness. God gives each new baby his own individuality and his own fresh start at life. Romans 2 clearly says that every man will be judged the deeds of his own life. [This is why children who die before reaching the age of accountability are not condemned: because they have no sinful deeds for which to be judged]. Each person is responsible for his own decisions and his own sins; and yet, no one can blame God for the fact that he was born a sinner, and born into a world full of pain, misery and evil. God didnt make us sinful - we did it to ourselves. We invited sin, death and suffering into the world and we only have ourselves to blame.
Adam was the first man whose spirit came directly from God, instead of from an earthly father - Christ was the next. This is why Christ is called "the Last Adam". <I>Strictly humanly speaking,</I> Adam was the firstborn of God. All we who are of the line of Adam are of the firstborn. Had Adam not sinned and none of his descendants sinned, then Gods inheritance would have been given to us through Adam. There would have been no sin, no death, and no misery. All of mankind would have been born "saved", and would have enjoyed a close relationship with God as His children. Why would this have been? Because we have the spirit of Adam in us and that alone would have entitled us to Gods inheritance.
Ishmael and Isaac represent Adam and Christ. Ishmael, like Adam, was the firstborn who was not able to be an heir and partake of his fathers inheritance (Gen.21:10). Gods covenant did not come through his line. In fact, Ishmael was cast out from his home and cut off from his father - just like Adam, cast out of the Garden. Gods covenant came through Isaac, the promised child for whom Abraham waited in faith for twenty-five years. Isaacs birth was miraculous, born to a woman who could not possibly conceive. Jesus was also a promised child, miraculously born to a woman who could not possibly conceive. As a further picture of Christ, Isaac was taken up a mountain, placed on an altar, and nearly sacrificed by his father. One more thought: arent we all "wild donkeys of men", when compared to Jesus?
Lets look at another example of Adam and Christ: Esau and Jacob (Gen.25-27). Esau, the firstborn, sold his birthright for some stew. Adam sold his spiritual birthright for a piece of fruit. Jacob had to put on the hairy-skinned flesh of a goat to take on the likeness of Esau so that he could obtain his fathers blessing. Christ had to put on the corruptible flesh of Adam to take on the likeness of the firstborn so that He could obtain the Fathers blessing for us. In Gen.27:22, Isaac said, "The voice is Jacobs voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." It could be said of Christ, <I>"The voice is Gods voice, but the hands are the hands of a man!" </I>This is such a vivid, beautiful picture of the incarnation of Christ!
Ken</DIV>
