Righteousness! Chapter
Three
"And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him,( the beast) whose names are not written in the book of life of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world."
Did God know before he formed man from the dust of the earth that Jesus would have to come and die for us? If so, then Why?
I use to ask the question that if God was a loving God then why would He create and put us in an atmosphere that was conducive for us to fail. Why did He put the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden? Why not just make us so we could not sin? Why was Satan allowed to be in the Garden?
Let me say at the very outset that God is all knowing and all wise and had a master plan before He begin His creation. He designed and implemented this plan and the events of history were set in motion when the fullness of time come to pass, just as He has designed. This being true, then what did He have in mind at the very beginning?
There have been some major individuals in God's master plan down through the ages. The three main individuals are Adam, Satan and Jesus. The body of Adam was formed out of the dust of the created earth and God breathed into him the breath of life which was Adam's spirit. This very act made God the Father of Adam. In other words, Adam had no fleshly father. He was the first man that God placed here on this earth and He gave him the authority to rule and reign over all the earth and everything thereon. Adam was given only one limit to his authority and that was to not partake of the Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was just one law and it had the consequence of death if he choose to disobey God. Did God know or foresee that Adam would disobey Him? According to the following verses it was a part of His master plan since He knew that He would send Jesus here to redeem mankind.
Peter said in 1 Pet. 1:18-20, (NIV)
"For you
know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you
were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your
forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish
or defect. He was
chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times
for your sake. "
John said in Rev. 13:8,
"All
inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been
written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."
From these two scriptures it is obvious that God knew
before He begin the creation of this world that Jesus, according to His master
plan, would be sacrificed for the salvation of all mankind.
But someone says, What about Satan? Where did He come from
and was God aware of him? Religion has taught us that Satan was a fallen angel.
However there is evidence that God created Satan and had a specific plan for
him. Isaiah 54:16 says, (NIV)
"See, it is I who created
the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its
work. And it is I who
have created the destroyer to work havoc!
I have
written an article called 'The Origin of Satan' and it is on my website at
www.rejoicinglifeministries.com. In this article I show the two main theories
about the origin of Satan. Was Satan a fallen angle as most of the Church seems
to believe or Did God create Satan for a purpose? You can read the two theories
and judge for your self. There is a lot of evidence that God created him. You
may say to me, "Why would God create such a person? Jesus said of Satan in
John 8:44, (NIV)
"You belong
to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he
is a liar and the father of lies."
If God would
have created us so we could never disobey Him, then He would have a whole
creation of people who could never choose to serve Him and all their words of
worship would have been meaningless because they had no choice but to serve
Him. They would have never had the opportunity to exercise their faith or to be
spiritually strengthen by obedience. Without opposition, how would we proved
our ability to be a leader and we would have had nothing to overcome. It would
have been like a General in peace time. He has no opportunity to prove himself
as a great leader. He may well be a great general but without leading in a war
we would never know.
When Jesus
was baptized of John the Baptist He was immediately led into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil. God did not lead Him there to be defeated but to
defeat the devil. John said in 1 John 3:8,
"He that commits sin is of the
devil; for the devil
sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son
of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
God is love
and love is only perfected if it is returned, not by force but by choice. This
is not to say that we have freedom of choice. If we had freedom of choice we
could say to God that we are going to do what pleases us and there would be
nothing He could do about it because He gave us the freedom to choose what we
want to do. He did give us a lot of latitude in our choices but in reality we
have the choice to either serve Him with the results of enjoying eternal life
or to go our own way with the result of being separated from Him and
death.
God, in
order to demonstrate to us just how much He loved us, formed a body for Adam
that could survive on this earth and placed Adam in that body and gave him the
authority to rule this earth. In order to give Adam a choice of whether to obey
God or to know the knowledge of good and evil, He place a tree in the midst of
the Garden whose fruit would give Adam the ability to know the knowledge
between that which was good and that which was evil. Knowing this, Adam could
then make his own decision and rule his own life. Even today most people, even
Christians, judge everything by the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam was
given the choice to have faith in God knowing only that God told him what would
happen if he ate of that fruit. If he ate of that fruit he would have the
knowledge of what was good and what was evil but as a result of being
disobedient to God's instruction not to eat of the fruit, he would die. Did God
know that Adam would choose to eat of the fruit? Yes, He knew that Adam's
curiosity would get the best of him and that the result would be that the
controlling power of sin would come upon all of Adam's descendents and would
require God, himself, to demonstrate to all of Adam's descendents His love for
them.
What
happened when Adam listened to Satan and obeyed him? Paul said in Rom. 8:15-16,
(NIV)
"What then? Shall
we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you
offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one
whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or
to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Because
Adam represented all of his descendents, when he disobeyed God and obeyed
Satan, he sold us as slaves to Satan whom he obeyed. Paul said in Rom. 7:14,
(NIV)
"We know that the
law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin."
And
in Rom. 5:12-14 Paul said, (NIV)
"Therefore, just as sin entered the world
through one man, (Adam) and death through sin, and in this way death came to
all men, because all sinned—
for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into
account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of
Adam to the time of Moses, even
over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a
pattern of the one to come.
It is so
important for you to understand that sin entered the world by one man, Adam,
who was a type or pattern of the man to come, Jesus! He was a type of Jesus
because God was his Father! Adam did not have an earthly father. God breathed
into Adam his spirit and Adam became a living soul. This is why when Adam
disobeyed God, he sold all of his descendents to the slavery of sin and there
was not anything they could do to get out from under the control of sin.
Someone will say, "But John says that Jesus was God's only begotten Son!"
This is true, however, this is what is meant here! Jesus was the only begotten
Son of God. That is, the only person born of a woman, whose
human nature never came by the ordinary way of generation, from a man! The body
of Jesus was created in the womb of the virgin, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
which made Jesus the only begotten Son of God. Adam was God's son but he was
not conceived in the womb of a woman.
Adam
had no earthly mother or father, but God was his Father. Adam and Jesus were
the only two men that ever walked this earth whose earthly body of flesh was
generated by God. Jesus had an earthly mother which made Him the only begotten
Son of God. Mary is the only virgin that God begot a son through. This Son was
Jesus and became the only begotten Son of God. Heb. 1:5,
"Thou art my Son,
this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he
shall be to me a Son?"
God
is our father, however, we also have an earthly father that begot us.
Adam's
Father had designed a plan before He put Adam here on this earth. God, in order
to demonstrate His love for all of mankind, sent His only begotten son, Jesus,
born of a woman, as the second Adam, or the second man to walk this earth with
God as his spiritual Father, to redeem all of Adam's descendents from the
control of Satan and Sin. Paul said in Rom. 8:29,
"For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren."
John said in
1 John 3:8,
"He that commits sin is of the
devil; for the devil
sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son
of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the
devil."
Paul said in
Rom. 5:8, (NIV)
"You
see, at just the right
time, (or when God's time was right) when we were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous
man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
And
in Rom. 8:38-39, (NIV)
"For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
John said in 1 John 3:1,
"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him
not."
God wanted to demonstrate to all mankind just how much He
loves us. He loved us so much that He gave H is firstbgotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did
not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through Him. (Jn. 3:16)
Notice
that Paul said "at just the right time" indicating that God has a
time table that He is working out His plans. Paul said in Gal. 4:3-5, "Even so we, when we were
children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons." Paul talks about the plans of God in Eph. 1:11 where he
says, (NIV) "In him we were also
chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who
works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will... Heb. 11:10 says, "For he
was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." God is a master designer, planer
and architect. He did not just create the universe and place man on the earth
and sit back to see what man would do with His creation. He has a master plan
which is still in the process of being fulfilled. The events of Matt. 1:22, 2:15,
2:17, 2:23, 4:14, 5:18, 8:17, 12:17, 13:14, etc all happened for the purpose of
fulfilling prophecy or to bring about what the Lord had previously said would
happen. This should prove to us that the Lord watches over His word to bring it
to pass and there are still many prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. If you want to see evidence of
God bringing about His prophesies even in our time go to my website at
www.rejoicinglifeministries.com and click on the article called The Lost Tribes
of Israel and there you will follow the trail of Jeremiah which will lead you
to the two greatest nations the world has ever known. Great Britain and the
United States. In the meantime, Paul said
in 2 Cor. 1:22, (NIV) "He
(God) anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in
our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." And in 1 Cor. 2:9, "But as
it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love
him. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit:" The Lord continues to reveal to
us His plans and purposes as He sees fit. This is why Jesus was always saying
to His disciples, "To him that has an ear, let him listen! If you understand that it was
though one son of God that sin entered into the world then you can understand
what Jesus, who is the firstborn of God, the second Adam, was by His obedience,
able to once and for all deal with sin and deliver us out from under the control
of sin. Because of what Jesus was able to
accomplish for us we can
now have faith in His righteousness and by faith stand before our Father
as righteous, justified, innocent, without blame and sinless. Not because of
anything we have accomplished but because of what Jesus accomplished. Thank you
Jesus!!!!! Consider these things and we will
continue this subject in our next chapter.