Where do wars
and fights
come from
among you?
Do they not
come from your
desires for pleasure
that war in your
members?....
Or do you think that
the Scriptures say
in vain,
"The Spirit who
dwells in us
yearns jealously?
James 4:1,5
It is the Sovereignty of God who in all His Providence does control all events but is not the first cause of all those events, only as First Cause is He the empowerment of all things that exist. Man was created in the image of God and by means of that image is able to do all that God would require of him. Man was given the ability to choose good over evil. This was well demonstrated in the Garden of Eden where created man and woman were give instructions not to eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16,17). Further, after they did eat of that tree by their own decision to do so even though influence by Satan, the serpent fell from the grace of God. They were then removed from the garden and kept from another tree, the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24). Man by his own choice fell from the innocence that they had and became as God does, they now know good and evil. Man still can choose either way, but, only when God empowers them by means of the free gift of grace can he choose to follow God; God then draws and enables them to choose Him. Since man by his own will could turn either way, God secured this grace that He had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things, namely, a law and a place. God set them in a place, the Garden of Eden, and laid upon them this single prohibition and if they guarded and retained this loveliness of their original innocence, then the life of paradise should be theirs, without sorrow, pain, or care, and after it the assurance of immortality in heaven. This condition has not changed for God does not change, He is the Same, Yesterday, Today, and Forever (Hebrews 13:8). But, if man would go astray and became corrupted they would have thrown away their birthright of beauty, and would come under the natural law of death and live no longer in paradise, they would die outside of it and continue in death and corruption. This proclamation by God to man resides in the lives of man today and before man is the sentence of death due to our federal head, Adam, who sinned and passed on to his progeny the inheritance of death, man is corrupted and the corruption has only gotten worse over time, man dies.
Why are we discussing the origin of Man when the subject at hand is that the Word of God became Man. Because the former discussion is relevant to the latter for this reason: It was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out His love for us. It is we who were the cause of His taking human form, and for our salvation that in His great love He was both born and manifested in a human body. Did not God create man in His image? Yes! God made man thusly; that man as an embodied spirit was willed that he should remain in incorruption. This was not a will of God that God should override man's free agency, rather it is the Will of God that man should remain in incorruption and free from the stain of death. God's will shall come into existence and be effective when His Son comes again to earth to collect His bride, true Christians, called of God, enabled by God to choose Him. God does usurp man's free agency, but man will not overcome and override the will of God. Therefore having sinned and falling under the law of death they remain in that state and became corrupted and continued in the downward spiral of corruption. Man was unable to correct the disease of the law of death. Death has completely become the dominion of man. Point of fact: Cain in his anger killed his brother Abel by becoming jealous and angry Cain dismissed what God told him: "So the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you if you do not well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Genesis 4:6,7). Nothing has changed, God still tells us the same thing, that if we would do well, that is choose right from wrong, and if we do not allow our anger and our jealously overtake us but rule over it. Notice, God does not change our attitude, we do! We are the cause of second events, not God, yet God in His mercy towards Cain did not kill him immediately, but Cain died, the Law of Death ruled over him, and it does rule over us. Cain was left alive until his death but no longer was allowed to be in the presence of the LORD (Genesis 4:16). We cannot earn God's favor for everlasting life: "...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:5,6); in other words there is no work we can do to earn everlasting life: but we can live according to what God has set before us in His word. This we do by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and directing us, and we can listen and do as request or not, but either way, if God has chosen you, you will live, but this life will be controlled by your desires and sin will be crouching at your door ready to keep you from the presence of the Lord.
We have not answered some questions in regards to God sending forth the Word, the creator, His Son, the Wisdom of God to become a man. Furthermore, from the early days of the Church a heretical form of the belief of Jesus Christ, that of Arianism, found its way in a large measure, affecting both the common people and kings, emperors, and needed to be confronted. This heresy exists today and can be found in such groups as Jehovah Witnesses. This heresy that teaches that Jesus Christ was just an angel, a created being, and not God must be confronted, answered and that by the Scriptures. So why did God send His Son? Why do true Christians believe that the Son of God was God and it was God who became incarnate to save man? We need clear answers so that we can defend our faith, further, that our faith would deepen and our assurance satisfied. This is the goal of these blogs and I hope it is your goal as well.
Today, if you will
hear His voice,
do not harden your
hearts as in the
rebellion.
Hebrews 3:15b
Put Your Trust In Him
Richard L. Crumb
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