I’m not seeing an issue discussed much in depth here. The issue of “nature”.
Most focus on “sin” as an action. But sinful actions are not the problem. Sinful actions are symptoms of the greater issue… a sinful nature. Adam was created in a perfect and holy fellowship with God. Adam’s nature reflected God’s purity and nature. Adam was placed in authority over all the earth. However, according to the Bible, Satan desired to usurp Adam’s authority and destroy God’s creation. Why? Satan wants glory and authority and cannot stand any authority above himself. Therefore Satan had to find a way to bring down man’s authority and take control of creation with the intent of twisting and marring it to hurt the tender heart of a Holy and Righteous God. Essentially realizing that he cannot kill God…Satan hatched a plan to kill God’s children by provoking God to kill them Himself.
Before Satan could do this, Satan had to sever man’s fellowship with God. Satan also had to take authority over the earth. Adam was appointed to “keep” the garden in Eden. That word means to “guard”. Adam was to guard himself and Eve, this implies that God must have warned Adam of potential danger just as He warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that Adam ate of that tree, he would surely die. As long as Adam was obedient, he had access to every tree of the garden including the tree of life…the source of life eternal. In this state… Adam would NEVER die.
Satan chose a subtle form…a serpent… and slithered into the garden and tempted Eve. Obviously Adam wasn’t guarding his home as he should have. Maybe Adam was napping, wood carving, hunting, fishing, or playing. Whatever Adam was doing…he wasn’t guarding. The serpent decided to slither up to Eve and tempt her with the fruit from the tree of the knowledge and lied to her, implying that God was holding out on her and that she could be like God. Feeling held out on, seeing that the fruit was appealing…she took it and ate of it. Why did Satan strike Eve first? He knew how to trap Adam…capture something Adam loves…Eve. What I find striking is that Adam didn’t take Eve to God immediately… but instead when Adam found out…he partook of the fruit with her. Perhaps Adam partook with a whimper. Perhaps Adam would rather sin with Eve and die with her than life without her. Satan used “love” as a weapon to sever mankind from God. Once Adam surrendered his will to Eve, who had surrendered her will to Satan, Satan claimed “spiritual authority”. Satan took Adam’s crown. Something in Adam’s nature changed as he was spiritually severed from God. Adam now had a “sin nature”. Adam and Eve instantly felt shame and nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame (man’s first religious and legalistic act). When Adam heard the Spirit of God moving in the cool of the day Adam hid himself. God asks, “Adam, where art thou?” Of course God knew where Adam was. God’s question was one designed to make Adam think. Adam came forward explained that he hid himself because he was naked. God asked who told Adam he was naked, and if he had taken from the tree of knowledge. Adam confessed but refused to take any responsibility. Adam… blamed God. “The woman THOU hast given to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat!” “God it’s all your fault! You made her. You gave her to me. It’s all your fault God!” God asks the woman about her role in this act of rebellion. Interestingly…Eve tells the truth. She admits that she was tricked by the serpent. For this reason God cursed the serpent. The serpent was cursed to eat the dust of the earth, and warned that the seed of a woman would one day crush his head, though he would strike the promised seed in effort to kill Him. God then moves on to curse Eve with a warning…with what God was about to do, her sorrow would multiply and she’d give birth to children in a broken and fallen world. And thou all she desires is her husband’s love and affection…she’d suffer abuse and domination. And as for Adam…he was reduced to a slave of his condition. Forced to work by the seat of his brow to provide for himself and his family. No more free ride in the garden. I’m certain that Adam, Eve, and Satan stood bewildered and confused…Adam and Eve were to DIE the very day they ate of the tree of knowledge. However, we read that God makes “coats of skins… and clothed them.” The implications of this verse no doubt rocked Satan’s world. Satan counted on God killing Adam and Eve. Instead, to make a coat of “skins” and clothe Adam and Eve… God had to slaughter an animal. This was the first sacrifice to clothe man’s sinful shame being made by the very hands of God Himself. Adam and Eve were supposed to die that day… but instead… an innocent beast lay slaughtered in their place. I can see them weeping as God places blood soaked cloaks over their shoulders. Then God does the MOST compassionate thing He had done up to that point…God casts them out of the garden of Eden, away from the tree of life. Why? So that they would not live forever in their fallen and wretched state. Cutting them off from the tree of life and allowing them to suffer sickness and death was indeed the most compassionate thing God could do. Imagine a world wherein every vile dictator and evil madman lived forever to inflict pain, domination, and torments. If Adam and Eve were permitted to live forever in their fallen state… earth would become a living Hell.
Did God know this would happen? Yes. Why did God allow it? No one really knows. However, I believe that God knew that the moment He created a being that could think freely (Lucifer and the Holy Angels), the principle of “rebellion” would be lurking in the background. This principle of “sin” would have to be dealt with in order to create a creation that was perfect, pure, holy, and free. God had to allow a circumstance wherein the mystery of iniquity would run its full course with all creation feeling the sting. So in that after sin is judged at the final judgment… those remaining would NEVER desire sin or rebellion again of their own free will.
Man’s very nature is one severed from any spiritual influence from God. By nature man chooses to sin. And it is this very nature that is antithesis to God’s holiness. Therefore all men are worthy of death predicated upon what we are… not predicated upon what we’ve done. A well disciplined man could begin to live without breaking a single Law of God. But that wouldn’t make that man holy. It would only make him religious and legalistic. That man could make up additional rules to be ever MORE disciplined. But again, he wouldn’t be holy. He’d just be a legalistic religionist. His nature would be the same. His efforts would be to please God… and thereby make “something” of himself. Even his highest aspirations would be to serve SELF and EGO under the “pretense” of godliness. If God vaporized the entire planet today… He’d be justified in doing so. But He doesn’t. Why? He is allowing the principle of sin to play itself out to end sin forever. And man therefore has this opportunity during what little time man has to repent and turn to God. Meanwhile… Satan seeks to alienate mankind from God and kill man slowly…painfully.
We are not worthy of death because of anything we are doing or have done. We are worthy of death because by nature we are wicked creatures. By NATURE we desire pleasures, power, and material things and not the things of God. Oh, we delude ourselves in thinking we desire the things of God…only so we can parade around and present our SELF as more righteous than those around us. Even our “desire of God” is tainted with our sinful nature, making our religion a STENCH in God’s nostrils. We are worthy of death because of what we are…not because of what we have done. What we have done is merely outward evidence of what we truly are…by nature.
That’s the beautiful thing about the New Birth. Once one receives the Holy Ghost they are one spirit with God.
“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (I Corinthians 6:17)
We are partakers of God’s own divine nature:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)
Our nature has changed because now God’s own divine and sinless nature flows through us freely, our sin atoned for and Christ having served as our propitiation. The “old man”, that old nature, was nailed to the cross. We are new creatures.
So then…who do we still sin? You’d think that by having a new and sinless nature we’d cease from all sin automatically. But we are still flesh. And our flesh still has a “carnal mind”. Our very minds only know how to please self and find pleasures. Now the battle ground is in our own minds. This is why we must study God’s Word and be led of the Spirit, thereby putting on the “mind of Christ”. When you sin… it’s because you failed to think in union with the Spirit of Christ within. Oh, you still have a sinless nature. You can tell that by how sin “feels” to you. If it makes you feel shameful, depressed, vile, dirty, slimy… it’s because it’s now against your true nature. Before being born of the Spirit, maybe you could do some things without feeling the least bit guilty about them. Now, your sin keeps you awake at night. You find yourself having to shower after sin just to try and feel “clean” again. Your actions aren’t in alignment with your new sinless nature in Christ Jesus. The conviction and shame is evidence that you are indeed still one with God. So when you feel it, repent quickly and align your actions with your true nature. In doing so, you will find true peace, joy, and happiness.
Warning: It’s when this shame and conviction begin to cease that you should be worried… because you’re being cut off and the old dead nature is rising up in you. When impurities rise to the surface and then resettle in silver… it becomes reprobate. So too does the human soul.
Having a new and sinless nature… we are promised eternal life, peace, and joy with Christ. We still must suffer sickness and death as all men. But now we have an eternal hope. One day we will be raised from the dead… every sickness healed and even death itself defeated.
Adam rebelled against God (all sin is rebellion) and sinned. God declared that the punishment for this was death (Gen 2:17, 3:19). It was because of our rebellion that Christ was crucified. As He died a wrongful death for us, we are now guilty of innocent blood. That is murder.
It is only because He has mercy that we can claim that blood for our pardon, and this is accomplished through baptism in His name.
__________________
I am an Apostolic Pentecostal. Apostolic in teaching, and Pentecostal in experience.
Adam rebelled against God (all sin is rebellion) and sinned. God declared that the punishment for this was death (Gen 2:17, 3:19).
In Adam we all rebelled and we all died, being separated from God, who is Life.
Quote:
It was because of our rebellion that Christ was crucified. As He died a wrongful death for us, we are now guilty of innocent blood. That is murder.
No... it was God's plan all along, from the foundations of the world to purify Creation through Christ's death on the cross. Christ's death in our place was an act of abundant love and mercy. We didn't kill Him... He gave His life for us.
Quote:
It is only because He has mercy that we can claim that blood for our pardon, and this is accomplished through baptism in His name.
If we killed Him... we cannot claim His blood for pardon, because that implies that He didn't come to give His life and that He didn't freely lay it down for us.
Just because He allowed us to kill him does not mean that it was correct to do so. We are still implicit in His death. It was by His own power that He rose again and did not remain dead.
__________________
I am an Apostolic Pentecostal. Apostolic in teaching, and Pentecostal in experience.
I’m not seeing an issue discussed much in depth here. The issue of “nature”.
Most focus on “sin” as an action. But sinful actions are not the problem. Sinful actions are symptoms of the greater issue… a sinful nature. Adam was created in a perfect and holy fellowship with God. Adam’s nature reflected God’s purity and nature. Adam was placed in authority over all the earth. However, according to the Bible, Satan desired to usurp Adam’s authority and destroy God’s creation. Why? Satan wants glory and authority and cannot stand any authority above himself. Therefore Satan had to find a way to bring down man’s authority and take control of creation with the intent of twisting and marring it to hurt the tender heart of a Holy and Righteous God. Essentially realizing that he cannot kill God…Satan hatched a plan to kill God’s children by provoking God to kill them Himself.
Before Satan could do this, Satan had to sever man’s fellowship with God. Satan also had to take authority over the earth. Adam was appointed to “keep” the garden in Eden. That word means to “guard”. Adam was to guard himself and Eve, this implies that God must have warned Adam of potential danger just as He warned Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that Adam ate of that tree, he would surely die. As long as Adam was obedient, he had access to every tree of the garden including the tree of life…the source of life eternal. In this state… Adam would NEVER die.
Satan chose a subtle form…a serpent… and slithered into the garden and tempted Eve. Obviously Adam wasn’t guarding his home as he should have. Maybe Adam was napping, wood carving, hunting, fishing, or playing. Whatever Adam was doing…he wasn’t guarding. The serpent decided to slither up to Eve and tempt her with the fruit from the tree of the knowledge and lied to her, implying that God was holding out on her and that she could be like God. Feeling held out on, seeing that the fruit was appealing…she took it and ate of it. Why did Satan strike Eve first? He knew how to trap Adam…capture something Adam loves…Eve. What I find striking is that Adam didn’t take Eve to God immediately… but instead when Adam found out…he partook of the fruit with her. Perhaps Adam partook with a whimper. Perhaps Adam would rather sin with Eve and die with her than life without her. Satan used “love” as a weapon to sever mankind from God. Once Adam surrendered his will to Eve, who had surrendered her will to Satan, Satan claimed “spiritual authority”. Satan took Adam’s crown. Something in Adam’s nature changed as he was spiritually severed from God. Adam now had a “sin nature”. Adam and Eve instantly felt shame and nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame (man’s first religious and legalistic act). When Adam heard the Spirit of God moving in the cool of the day Adam hid himself. God asks, “Adam, where art thou?” Of course God knew where Adam was. God’s question was one designed to make Adam think. Adam came forward explained that he hid himself because he was naked. God asked who told Adam he was naked, and if he had taken from the tree of knowledge. Adam confessed but refused to take any responsibility. Adam… blamed God. “The woman THOU hast given to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat!” “God it’s all your fault! You made her. You gave her to me. It’s all your fault God!” God asks the woman about her role in this act of rebellion. Interestingly…Eve tells the truth. She admits that she was tricked by the serpent. For this reason God cursed the serpent. The serpent was cursed to eat the dust of the earth, and warned that the seed of a woman would one day crush his head, though he would strike the promised seed in effort to kill Him. God then moves on to curse Eve with a warning…with what God was about to do, her sorrow would multiply and she’d give birth to children in a broken and fallen world. And thou all she desires is her husband’s love and affection…she’d suffer abuse and domination. And as for Adam…he was reduced to a slave of his condition. Forced to work by the seat of his brow to provide for himself and his family. No more free ride in the garden. I’m certain that Adam, Eve, and Satan stood bewildered and confused…Adam and Eve were to DIE the very day they ate of the tree of knowledge. However, we read that God makes “coats of skins… and clothed them.” The implications of this verse no doubt rocked Satan’s world. Satan counted on God killing Adam and Eve. Instead, to make a coat of “skins” and clothe Adam and Eve… God had to slaughter an animal. This was the first sacrifice to clothe man’s sinful shame being made by the very hands of God Himself. Adam and Eve were supposed to die that day… but instead… an innocent beast lay slaughtered in their place. I can see them weeping as God places blood soaked cloaks over their shoulders. Then God does the MOST compassionate thing He had done up to that point…God casts them out of the garden of Eden, away from the tree of life. Why? So that they would not live forever in their fallen and wretched state. Cutting them off from the tree of life and allowing them to suffer sickness and death was indeed the most compassionate thing God could do. Imagine a world wherein every vile dictator and evil madman lived forever to inflict pain, domination, and torments. If Adam and Eve were permitted to live forever in their fallen state… earth would become a living Hell.
Did God know this would happen? Yes. Why did God allow it? No one really knows. However, I believe that God knew that the moment He created a being that could think freely (Lucifer and the Holy Angels), the principle of “rebellion” would be lurking in the background. This principle of “sin” would have to be dealt with in order to create a creation that was perfect, pure, holy, and free. God had to allow a circumstance wherein the mystery of iniquity would run its full course with all creation feeling the sting. So in that after sin is judged at the final judgment… those remaining would NEVER desire sin or rebellion again of their own free will.
Man’s very nature is one severed from any spiritual influence from God. By nature man chooses to sin. And it is this very nature that is antithesis to God’s holiness. Therefore all men are worthy of death predicated upon what we are… not predicated upon what we’ve done. A well disciplined man could begin to live without breaking a single Law of God. But that wouldn’t make that man holy. It would only make him religious and legalistic. That man could make up additional rules to be ever MORE disciplined. But again, he wouldn’t be holy. He’d just be a legalistic religionist. His nature would be the same. His efforts would be to please God… and thereby make “something” of himself. Even his highest aspirations would be to serve SELF and EGO under the “pretense” of godliness. If God vaporized the entire planet today… He’d be justified in doing so. But He doesn’t. Why? He is allowing the principle of sin to play itself out to end sin forever. And man therefore has this opportunity during what little time man has to repent and turn to God. Meanwhile… Satan seeks to alienate mankind from God and kill man slowly…painfully.
We are not worthy of death because of anything we are doing or have done. We are worthy of death because by nature we are wicked creatures. By NATURE we desire pleasures, power, and material things and not the things of God. Oh, we delude ourselves in thinking we desire the things of God…only so we can parade around and present our SELF as more righteous than those around us. Even our “desire of God” is tainted with our sinful nature, making our religion a STENCH in God’s nostrils. We are worthy of death because of what we are…not because of what we have done. What we have done is merely outward evidence of what we truly are…by nature.
That’s the beautiful thing about the New Birth. Once one receives the Holy Ghost they are one spirit with God.
“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (I Corinthians 6:17)
We are partakers of God’s own divine nature:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4)
Our nature has changed because now God’s own divine and sinless nature flows through us freely, our sin atoned for and Christ having served as our propitiation. The “old man”, that old nature, was nailed to the cross. We are new creatures.
So then…who do we still sin? You’d think that by having a new and sinless nature we’d cease from all sin automatically. But we are still flesh. And our flesh still has a “carnal mind”. Our very minds only know how to please self and find pleasures. Now the battle ground is in our own minds. This is why we must study God’s Word and be led of the Spirit, thereby putting on the “mind of Christ”. When you sin… it’s because you failed to think in union with the Spirit of Christ within. Oh, you still have a sinless nature. You can tell that by how sin “feels” to you. If it makes you feel shameful, depressed, vile, dirty, slimy… it’s because it’s now against your true nature. Before being born of the Spirit, maybe you could do some things without feeling the least bit guilty about them. Now, your sin keeps you awake at night. You find yourself having to shower after sin just to try and feel “clean” again. Your actions aren’t in alignment with your new sinless nature in Christ Jesus. The conviction and shame is evidence that you are indeed still one with God. So when you feel it, repent quickly and align your actions with your true nature. In doing so, you will find true peace, joy, and happiness.
Warning: It’s when this shame and conviction begin to cease that you should be worried… because you’re being cut off and the old dead nature is rising up in you. When impurities rise to the surface and then resettle in silver… it becomes reprobate. So too does the human soul.
Having a new and sinless nature… we are promised eternal life, peace, and joy with Christ. We still must suffer sickness and death as all men. But now we have an eternal hope. One day we will be raised from the dead… every sickness healed and even death itself defeated.
Adam rebelled against God (all sin is rebellion) and sinned. God declared that the punishment for this was death (Gen 2:17, 3:19). It was because of our rebellion that Christ was crucified. As He died a wrongful death for us, we are now guilty of innocent blood. That is murder.
No it isn't.
Quote:
It is only because He has mercy that we can claim that blood for our pardon, and this is accomplished through baptism in His name.
__________________
Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
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