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made of flesh and blood, but the
statue, made in his image, was of
iron.
Almighty God is made of spirit,
but the man who was made in his
image was made of the dust of the
ground- he was made flesh and
blood. God Almighty is not flesh
and blood, God Almighty is spirit.
J esus Christ said, " That which is
born of the flesh is flesh"- plain
Aesh and blood of the dust of the
ground- "that which is born of the
Spirit," he said, "is spi rit. " He said
also that man can be born of the
Spirit, he shall become spi ri t and
then he will be spirit, but he is not
spirit now.
J esus was explaining to N icode–
mus (see J ohn 3) that man is mor–
tal - man is Aesh-but that he may
be born again, and he must be born
of God before he can become
immortal. Eterna! life is the gift of
God.
How can man be in the image of
God and sti ll not be of God's com–
position? Turn back to l Corin–
thians 15:45: "And so it is written,
The first man Adam was made a
living soul"-that's a living
ne–
phesh,
which means material, mor–
tal life- "the last Adam"- who
was Christ-"was made a quicken–
ing spirit"-that's an energizing or
an immortal spi r it. Verse 47, "The
first man is of the earth, earthy"–
that's the first Adam, made of the
earth. It 's the man, not the garment
he wore, not the house he was in,
not the body he was inside of. The
" man is of tbe earth, earthy: the
second man"-Christ- " is the
Lord from heaven ."
Now in verse 49: "And as we
have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly." Here it's taJkjng about
composition- here it's talking
about one man being made of the
dust of the ground , another being
of spirit. And, we have only borne
the image of the du s t of the
ground, but we shall bear the image
of thc heavenly. We are only in the
form and shape of God now, but
not of the radiant composition, not
of the same character. We're mere–
ly the clay model and God Almigh–
ty is the Master Potter. He made us
of matter so that he, the Master
Potter, could reform and shape
us in to the final image that it was
January
1984
his purpose originally to make us.
The "faJI" of man wasn't what
you have been supposing. Satan
was never more powerful than
God-he never frustrated God's
purpose, and he never will.
Why
Man Sins
There are five senses, the senses of
seeing, of hearing, tasting, smelling
and feeling. When God created
Adam, he put in Adam the same five
senses that are in you! Let's examine
these senses and see their role in
Adam's sin-or, Jet's take Eve,
because the account of her sin is
described in detail rather than
Adam's.
After the devi l had tempted the
woman, "when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes"- here
are her five senses at work- "and a
tree to be desired to make one
wise"-there is vani ty- "she took
of the fruit thereof, and did eat"–
that was stealing- "and she gave
also unto her husband with her; and
he did eat" (Gen. 3:6). There is the
first human sin.
Do you comprehend?
The woman could see, she had the
sense of sight- she saw that the for–
bidden tree was pleasant to the eyes.
Now, she had the sense of taste. She
realized that the tree tasted good–
but God had forbad it. God said it is
not good for her. lt may look good, it
might even taste good, but to eat it
involved an act that was spi ritual poi–
son to her. But the woman saw other–
wise. She thought otherwise in her
ca rnal mind- her appetite was
aroused-she craved the taste of it.
T hen, vanity was aroused in her-it
was, so she believed, desired to make
her wise.
And al l of these desires that break
the tenth commandment caused her
to break the commandment against
stealing, and to take the fruit that
did not belong to her and that had
been forbidden to her and her hus–
band. In so doing, she obeyed
Satan-she had another god before
the true God, and she dishonored her
only parent, so she broke the first
and the fifth commandments.
Yes, sin is the transgression of the
law (1 John 3:4)- and God's Jaw was
broken in four distinct places in that
first sin in the garden of Eden. Adam
and Eve were originally created with
the same five senses, with the same
desires and appet ites that you and 1
have today.
Now when the first man and
woman yielded to those appetites
and desires- that God had origi–
nally created in them-and trans–
gressed God's Iaw, committing the
first sin, then what happened? Did
they then fall from immortaJity and
become mortal aJI of a sudden?
That is ridiculous!
Notice what happened. Genesis
3:16-17: "Unto the woman he said,
1 will greatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception.... and unto
Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of
which l commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is
the ground for thy sake; in sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of
thy life"- there was a curse on the
ground, but not any change in the
physicaJ composition of the man.
Notice, "And the Lord God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of
us"- like God- "to know good and
evil: and now, Jest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever"-lest he
gain eterna! Iife, an immortal life
that was offered as God's gift in the
garden of Eden-"therefore the
Lord God sent him forth from tbe
garden of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken. So he
drove out the man; and he placed at
the east of the garden of Eden Cher–
ubims, and a flaming sword which
turned every way, to keep the way of
the tree of life"-lest man go back
and become immortal.
No, the man was not immortal.
He had the opportunity of becom–
ing immortal but he spurned it- he
turned it down.
A Resurrection for All!
Notice 1 Corinthians 15:22: "For as
in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made aJ ive"-the same
"all" that die in Adam. Why? Sim–
ply because Adam was originally
made mortal-made of the dust,
composed of flesh and blood-of
matter, not of spi rit. Does this say
that because
Adamfell
all die? No,
most certainly not. But, as in Adam
all die- that's speaking of this first
death-so after that, a resurrection.
The wages of sin is not just this
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