Chapter Four

The Principal of the Cross

God’s master plan of salvation involved the death of the one through whom sin and death came into this world. In 1 Cor 15:45 Paul says, “The first man ADAM was made a Living Soul, the last ADAM was made a Life Giving Spirit.” In verse 47 he continues saying, “The first MAN is of the EARTH, earthy, the second MAN is the Lord from heaven.” So we have TWO ADAMS, the first one lived in the Garden of Eden and was a living soul. This ADAM, Paul says was “A Figure” or a pattern of the one that was to come, and that was Jesus Christ. Rom 5:14.

It is interesting that theology has only majored on the question of SIN in reference to Adam and never explored his true status in God’s economy. In Gen 2: 18 we are told that, “The Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him.” Then the Lord God formed all the beasts and the fowl of the air and brought them to Adam for him to name them. Names in the Bible speak of the nature of the person or animal. So the man formed of the dust was given the task of declaring the nature of all the animals. The “animals” here, speak of the emotions and desires in man, all of which were given their nature by Adam. Thus in the Garden of Eden the lion could lay down with the lamb and there was never any problem. However outside the Garden the animals were not restrained and death was the result. But in all that was made there was no help meet for Adam. The only suitable companion for Adam would have to come out from within him. Of course the same applies to the bride in our day, who also must come out of the bridegroom. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and He took from him a rib and closed up the flesh. The idea of the “rib” represented Rabinical folk law, suggesting that the “rib” coming from his side would make the woman equal with the man. But it was the whole female aspect of man that was taken from him, because he was created male and female. Gen 1:27. So in this divine parable of truth we see the woman now as a separate entity from Adam, functioning in her own right.

When Adam saw her he said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and he called her woman.” The old English word is “WOMB MAN” or the Man with the womb. Now I want you to hear this for it is very important. “Adam called her name EVE, BECAUSE SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING.” Gen 3:20. From that time every person born on the earth has come out of a woman.

Now let us look closely to the unfolding of truth in Gen 3. Here we are introduced to the serpent that becomes a dragon in the book of Revelation. Modern Theology says this is the devil and Lucifer because in the Hebrew it is called the “Shining one.” The name Lucifer was used first used in the translation of the Bible from the Latin, where the word really should be “DAY STAR” or “LIGHT BEARER.” Light in the Bible always represents, understanding and the knowledge of God. How foolish to consider that the “devil” had such illumination. But that foolishness is compounded when we try to explain this “Devil’s” origin as a fallen angel. Isaiah speaks of the “King of Babylon.” Isa 14:4. Babylon was an actual city and had a literal king who overcame Israel and also Judah carrying, them away into captivity. Babylon simply means, “confusion caused by mixture.”

The Truth is that Adam is the “Light bearer.” In Isaiah 14:12 the Prophet says,

“How you have fallen from heaven,

O morning star, son of the dawn!

You have been cast down to the earth,

you who once laid low the nations!”

It was Adam that brought sin and death upon all men, and not some fallen angel. The boasting in verse 13 runs parallel to Gen 3: 4-5. Notice verse 16 asking the question, “IS THIS THE MAN?” The answer is “YES” Adam is the man that made the earth to tremble and shook kingdoms. The description in Ezek 28:13 fits Adam who walked in perfect fellowship with God during the time he was in the Garden. Verse 18 is God’s judgement upon him would be “A fire that would be generated WITHIN HIM to devour all that is not God leaving him again clean and pure.” There is much more that could be said about those prophesies but this is not the main thrust of this study.

Now let us look at the setting for Genesis 3. We discover that Eve represents the soul of man that is the womb in which we birth what we perceive ourselves to be. If we feel rejected or unloved, or have no self-image, then we will birth that very person in our soul and actually become what we have birthed. How does an insecure person know how to behave as an insecure person? Because that person is birthed within us. A lack of love will result in a life size manifestation of that lack expressed as you. Of course it works in the positive just as effectively.

The “soul” consists of three things, the mind, emotions and the will. On its own, the soul has no access to the knowledge of God, for it has no ability to know God. 1 Cor 2:14. So we find Eve out there in the Garden activating her mind over God’s prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She considers perhaps the reason for not allowing them to eat of that tree is because they may discover a knowledge that would make them as Gods. The mind is likened to a shining one or a bearer of the light and therefore wisdom and understanding. However we are told that the shining one is more subtle that all the beasts of the field. The word “subtle” means crafty, shrewd, sly and is also translated as prudent. But Eve convinces herself that she would not die but would gain great benefit by eating of the fruit of that tree. So she reaches out and takes of the fruit and eats. Now it is important to note that Adam, who represents Spirit, was not involved at all in what Eve was doing. The whole incident was conducted by Eve alone. However now she has actually partaken of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, she returns to Adam and offers the fruit to him also.

Now Adam is forced to make a decision as to what he should do. First of all he could have said to Eve, “You have really been very foolish and you will have to bear the consequences yourself but I am not touching the fruit at all.” But consider for a moment what would have been the result. Because these two, the spirit and the soul, the male and the female, are inseparably connected, if Adam refuses to join her in her disobedience, she (the soul) would have been eternally separated from God and mankind could never have been redeemed and so fulfil the divine purposes of God. Adam realises that there is really only one path for him to follow, if there was ever to be reconciliation, and that was to deliberately and with his eyes wide-open share in her disobedience by eating the same fruit. This is amazing Grace and unbounded love, declared in the darkest hour of man’s history.

Let us be sure about this for Paul says to Timothy, “Adam was first formed and then Eve, and ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” 1Tim 2:14

How few have ever considered these facts concerning the sin in the Garden of Eden. Remember that God did not call them “Adam and Eve.” God CALLED THEM ADAM, because they were one. I believe it is important for us to see the picture clearly concerning the way in which sin entered into the world. Now, having seen the reason for Adam deliberately eating of the forbidden tree, we call to mind the fact that Paul says Adam was a type or figure of Christ who was to come.

John on the Isle of Patmos was commanded to write concerning Christ, “I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA the beginning and the ending saith the Lord, which IS and which WAS and IS TO COME the ALMIGHTY.” “I heard behind me a great voice saying I am the FIRST and the LAST. Rev 1:8-11 The Prophet Isaiah said, “In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them, in His love and pity He redeemed them, and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old. Isa 63:9.

Paul makes an interesting statement in 2 Cor 5:21. “For God has made Him, Jesus Christ to be SIN for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” God did not make him to sin, but to be SIN for us!! Remember Adam did not sin, but willingly embraced the consequences of sin for us, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Heb. 2:14 speaking of Jesus says, “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that has the power of death, that is the devil.” Surely beloved we ought to bow before such love and grace that has been bestowed upon us, that He would stoop low enough to become identified with mortal man, lifting us again to become the Sons of God.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, now any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Gen 2:24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be ONE FLESH.” I do not think this verse is simply for wedding ceremonies. If we are to move out of our duality and see the soul united and made one again with the Spirit, we must LEAVE our natural parentage, and understand our true origin is in Jesus Christ. Then the soul like the woman in the Song of Solomon sets out to find her lover. She says I am black but beautiful as she makes herself ready. She runs through the town seeking her lover, asking the city fathers if they had seen him. They wanted to know what her beloved had more than any other! But at last she found the one her soul loved, (the Spirit – Christ) and He took her into the conception chamber and there they made love. The separation was over and what God had joined together in the beginning no man can put asunder.

“For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ, and now there is no more Jew or Greek, neither bond or free, and neither is there MALE OR FEMALE, for you are ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.” Gal 3:27-29.

So the long journey is over and the soul and Spirit have been united in love, that there may be birthed within us, the Incorruptible seed which is Christ. Hallelujah!!

But we must now explore the CROSS in the light of what Father is revealing to us today. We know that Jesus Christ was NOT a Sin Offering, for it would have been impossible for Him to be killed. But Jesus himself throws some light on the subject for us, in John 3:14. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in exactly the same way (even so) must the Son of Man be lifted up.” So to understand what this means we need to go to Num. 21 and discover what happened there with the children of Israel. The people were becoming weary of the journey and discontent began to rise amongst them. They spoke against God and Moses saying, “ Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread (like we were used to) and we are sick of this manna.” Remember they could have gone into the Promised Land three weeks after leaving Egypt but they refused to go in at Kadesh Barnea.

God sends amongst them, fiery serpents, which bit the people and many died. Now our imagination brings up hundreds of poisonous snakes which our God of Love sends among the people so that many die. But wait a minute and think this through clearly as the Spirit gives us understanding and revelation. What are these “snakes” or flying serpents?” The Hebrew word translated “Fiery” is “Seraph,” and the plural is Seraphim, that are found in the Temple of God.

Isaiah saw them in Chapter 6 above the throne of the Lord in the Temple. They are described as having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he could fly. The sight of the Lord lifted up in glory in the temple so affected Isaiah that he cried, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.” This brought a response from one of the Seraphim who flew to the altar and brought a live coal in his hand and laid it on my lips saying, “Lo this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.” So this would indicate that the seraphim are associated with purifying the saints, and guardians of God’s glory.

The word translated “serpents” is the Hebrew word, “Nachash” and is used a number of times in the Old Testament. It is used of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, also used to indicate Dan’s future would be like a serpent that would bite the heels of the horses causing the riders to fall. Horses in the Bible generally refer to the anointing or spirituality, so the serpent would affect the anointing in a person causing them to “fall.”

I want you to understand, this word is not simply used to refer just to snakes, for we see the same word used of Aaron’s rod, that became a serpent when he threw it on the ground in Ex 4:3. On the ground and unrestrained it was a serpent but in Moses hand, brought under control it was a “ROD.” The word “Rod” is used to represent a TRIBE as the “branch of a nation. It is also used for the branch of a vine.

How important it is to search out a matter before we defame the character of our God by considering He would kill people because in their ignorance they spoke against Him. What could be better for Israel in their state of uncleanness before the Lord than to have the seraphs there doing their job of purifying them. However, even the “branch” of the vine, exploring its earthiness will become a serpent that will rob us of the life of God. So God said to Moses, make out of brass, one of those things that are biting the people and put it on a pole in the midst of Israel, and any who have been bitten will not die if they LOOK at the serpent on the pole. Salvation is presented here for us as “LOOK AND LIVE.” Now, to be able to look at something we need Light, or we will never see it if it is in the dark. So Light, or spiritual understanding is necessary for salvation. In God’s wisdom He has put the light of Christ in every man allowing us to “SEE” those things that are invisible to the natural mind.

The question is, what does the serpent on the pole represent? It is a type of the one who died on the cross. This means that the one who died on the cross must be the one that had been poisoning us, robbing us of life and bringing us into death. Many of God’s people in their ignorance would consider that one to be the “devil,” meaning in effect that there is some external power that is to blame for all our problems! This is the result of the subtlety of the serpent that functions like a magician, who directs our eyes away from what he wants to do on to something else, leaving him free to deceive us. The real truth is that within the human heart, is all the energy and desire to create every evil known to man.

Here are the Words of Jesus himself,

“It is not that which goes INTO a man that defiles a man, but those things that proceed out of the mouth and come forth from the heart, they defile the man! For out of the HEART proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness and blasphemies.”

So no external “devil” is required to commit adultery or murder, for all evil is already resident in the human heart. How can this be? It was through Adam that Sin entered into the world and DEATH by sin, so death was passed upon all men. This is because the Adamic consciousness is passed on to us through our natural birth, because EVE is the mother of all living. To escape its destructive effect we must be “Born from Above.”

It is therefore evident that responsibility for our mortality and consequently our sins, all belong to Adam. For this reason the serpents in the wilderness are a “type” of Adam, because both brought death to the people. In answer to the cry of Israel for mercy, God told Moses to make a BRASS REPLICA, of whatever it was that was biting and killing the people, and put it on a pole in the midst of the people. Salvation would be available to all those who LOOKED at the serpent of the pole, by cancelling death and giving them life.

Remember we are seeking to discover whom it was that died on the cross. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:45 that, “The First man Adam was made a living soul, but the Last Adam was a life-giving spirit. Both men are called ADAM, but the LAST ADAM had the power to give life. But Paul says of this “Last Adam” that God made him to be “Sin” for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in HIM. How was Jesus Christ made to be SIN?

We know He was not a Sin Offering because scripture state clearly that God did not want any more sacrifices and offerings. So we must look carefully to discover the answer to this important question. In Matt 26:36-45 we find the veil lifted for us on a world-changing event in the life of Christ. He returns to a “Garden” where once a man (Adam) lost paradise and gained a wilderness. Now we see unfolding before us an event that would restore to all mankind their union and oneness with God that originally was ours.

Jesus told the disciples to sit and wait for Him as He went on further with just three of them. Then again He stopped and told the three to watch with Him the events that would unfold. He began to be sorrowful and very heavy. The intensity of His sorrow brought Him close to death. Then he prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.”

What was this “cup” that caused Him so much sorrow and heartache? The Mother of James and John had previously asked the Lord to allow her two sons to sit one at his right hand and the other on his left when he came into his kingdom. He asked them then if they would be able to drink of the “cup” that He would be asked to drink, and they replied, Yes. Jesus told them they would indeed drink of the same cup and be baptised with the same baptism.

That cup represented the “death” that Adam entered into in that first garden, through his disobedience. Everything that resulted from eating the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil was incorporated into that Cup that was now placed in the hands of Jesus Christ. To drink that cup He had to become what Adam became in the Garden of Eden. So Paul says, “God made Him (Jesus Christ) to BECOME SIN for us!”

At that moment in Eden’s garden Adam became mortal and subject to death so that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. So Jesus Christ the Last Adam also had to enter into a state of mortality in order to embrace death and so destroy its power. He found Himself separated from God believing His Father had forsaken Him. That is why on the cross He cried, “ My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” At the same time his eyes were opened to see another, alien world. Every effect of Adam’s disobedience formed part of the “Cup” He was now asked to drink, and nothing could be excluded that He might be the Saviour of the world.

In the torment of that moment He sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. The one who was clothed with the glory of the Father now has been stripped naked, as was Adam. Beloved we need to take off our shoes to view this scene, He made himself of NO REPUTATION being willing to drink that cup which was rightfully ours, but He drank it to the last dregs, becoming at that moment A LIVING SACRIFICE and the burnt offering that is wholly acceptable unto the Lord. Rom 12:1

Three times He looked to see if the disciples could at least witness His hour of sorrow but they were asleep, so He suffered alone. But the moment had come when the son of man would become subject to His tormentors, and they found no resistance at this time. For they were not now dealing with the Son of God but the “LAST ADAM.” So they could mock Him and put a purple robe on Him and spit in His face, but there was no retaliation, for He had become the serpent on the pole.

Adam had permeated the whole human race with His “death” as well as His consciousness that knowing good and evil had made Him to be as God, thus displacing the one whose right it is to be Lord within us. Now as the LAST Adam, He was taking all of the suffering, pain and death, that disobedience had brought upon mankind to its final conclusion. Such was the bitterness of that “cup” that He drank for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

The one that was lifted up on the cross was not the Lamb as a sin offering but the LAST ADAM. God had made Jesus Christ TO BE SIN FOR US, who knew no sin that WE might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. But the CROSS that seemed like a total tragedy from man’s point of view was a total victory for every one who would LOOK AND LIVE. Now for every man that has been infected by ADAM, and as a result is facing a life of sin and death because of the mortality that has been passed on to us, if we LOOK at the one on the pole WE WILL NOT DIE.

How does the cross really work for us? Well, as we look at the cross we see the very one dying there that has caused us to be bound by the law of sin and death, and subject to sickness pain and sorrow. As I LOOK I see that very one dying right there, so he can no longer affect my life. Seeing him DEAD means I AM FREE from that law of sin and death and I do not have to die. To me, that sounds like the best news anyone could give me.

ADAM IS DEAD.

But this is not all that is involved in the cross! For as I look at the one dying there I see myself personified in Adam, for this natural man has been the willing tool of the Adamic consciousness for many years, but now in that LAST ADAM I DIED ALSO. As I look and see my “Old Man” crucified there I find myself free to serve the Lord instead of the law of sin. Now I do not have to sin anymore for the one that bound me by sin, is DEAD.

It is for this reason that Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth into Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The truth is, that the real sacrifice that redeems us was not a DEAD SACRIFICE as all of the sacrifices were that Israel offered, but a LIVING SACRIFICE.

Was the cross therefore necessary? Absolutely, for Salvation to be available to all, the death of the Last Adam had to be a public spectacle held high enough that all men would be able to LOOK AND LIVE. Then when something dies it must be buried so the Body that had been the instrument of sin could return to the ground. This is the final end of that part of us that served sin. So Paul says, “When we were baptised into Jesus Christ we were baptised into his DEATH.”

If there is no death then there is no release from Adam, and his life will continue to function through us. “But if we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this that our OLD MAN (ADAM) is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is DEAD is freed from SIN.”

So now we can discover how reconciliation can become a reality within us personally. Good and evil was a part of the Adamic life which we now discover DIED at the cross, so these opposites can no longer exist. In fact all the opposites only exist in the realm of flesh, and as we have found the flesh came to an end on the cross, having died in Him who became the Last Adam. Being the LAST means there is no more ADAM, so that whole realm in which all the conflict functions is now dead, so I am free.

What a wonderful Gospel we have to share with all men. The cross has brought reconciliation to us, putting an end to the constant conflict that has been considered a normal part of the Christian life. Paul tells us that we no longer are bound to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness. Sin has no power over us for the part of us that was under law is DEAD, and now we live under Grace.

“Being made free from sin, we have become the servants of righteousness. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son, in the LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”