Series: CREED Title: Article Three; The Human Condition While the video is pre-recorded, the word of God is fresh and so are the bagels and coffee you re about to enjoy :) As we continue in our Series entitled; Creed, we re going to consider man s biggest dilemma and God s greatest solution! We ll examine WHY things are so messed up in the world around us and what God has done to rescue mankind from its actions! Let s unpack our third article in the statement of faith: We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed. In the first article we recognized God as Creator of all things! Genesis records for us the progression of God s created order Day One: Light Day Two: Waters, Sea and the heavens (separated from one another) Day Three: The Land and Vegetation The first three days, God shaped the creation, the second three days God populated the creation! Day Four: Sun, Moon and Stars (to mark the seasons, days and years) Day Five: Fish and Birds Day Six: Land Creatures and Man The uniqueness of man s creation in contrast to the rest is that God touched this creation! *** The design for man was that we would walk with God, to be in fellowship with Him and enjoy all that God created! Man was a steward of the garden, not the owner! He was to care for the garden, as God instructed. And to ensure that man understood he was a steward of the garden and not the owner of it, God placed a restriction Genesis 2:15 17 (ESV) 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. And then that dreadful day happened, when Satan, who was an angel in heaven that led worship around the throne until that day that pride filled his heart and he desired to ascend to the throne of God himself basically, he wanted more than God gave him, so God threw him out of the heavens 1 of 5
and we see this same satan appear in the garden and tempt Adam and Eve with the same sin that he was guilty of a desire to have more than God had granted We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. Genesis 3:1 13 (ESV) 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? 2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 4 But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? 10 And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. 11 He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? 12 The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that you have done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. This disobedience toward God resulted in the very consequence God had told them would happen death not just physical death, which would soon visit them but spiritual death! Even then, in God s mercy, God responds in love by removing them from the garden so they don t eat of the tree of life and remain in that sinful state forever God did this, because God had a plan to redeem this creation that disobeyed him in the garden! But here s the point that we must wrap our arms around Adam and Eve were our representatives in the garden! When they sinned, we sinned! When they fell, we fell! When they were separated from God, we were separated from God because we are of the Adamic Race all of our linage traces back to Adam and Eve interestingly all this talk about DNA testing and trying to learn where we came from it doesn t go back far enough we all trace back to a garden and share the same parents Adam and Eve! And so as our statement continues: 2 of 5
In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Psalm 51:5 (ESV) 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Romans 3:10 12 (ESV) 10 as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Romans 5:12 13 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Ephesians 2:1 3 (ESV) 2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. So we are sinners by nature we see this in the disobedience of our little children and because its our nature, it s certainly our choice, our default setting man, when left to himself will alway place himself at the center of his universe! And that sin nature that every man and woman is born in, results in being alienated from God, spiritually dead and under His wrath! John 3:36 (ESV) 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. And so the situation for mankind, apart from Jesus is as bad, as dark, as hopeless as can be! This truth is very hard for people to see! Man doesn t want to see himself as a fallen creation under the wrath of God it doesn t sound nice or dignified and yet, man s actions prove it to be so time and time and time again! It s seen in one s lifestyle, actions and thought life in the same what that an ounce of poison taints 50 gallons of pure water, so too does sin impact every area of one s life! 3 of 5
BUT John 3:16 18 (ESV) 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Ephesians 2:3 6 (ESV) 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, The first Adam, blew it in the garden! 1 Corinthians 15:45 49 (ESV) 45 Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being ; the last Adam became a lifegiving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Romans 5:19 (ESV) 19 For as by the one man s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man s obedience the many will be made righteous. And so this article concludes: Only through God s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed. You see, he is our second Adam! He is our redeemer! He now is our representative that replaces the first Adam in the garden! In the garden of Eden Adam said No In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said YES! And so for all who identify with the first Adam, they remain under the wrath of God, for those who identify with the second Adam and embrace Him, there is rescue, there is reconciliation and there is renewal! We are rescued: 1 Thessalonians 1:10b (ESV) 10 Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 4 of 5
Colossians 1:13 (ESV) 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, Galatians 1:4 (ESV) 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, We are Reconciled: Romans 5:1 (ESV) 5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:20 (ESV) 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. We are Renewed: 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Ephesians 4:24 (ESV) 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Philippians 3:20 21 (ESV) 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. 1 John 3:2 3 (ESV) 2 Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 5 of 5