WE ARE NOT IN HEAVEN YET

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-13)

Devotion 19 of 37

THE EXAMPLE OF ADAM AND EVE

Men have long debated the stability of those professing faith. I say "professing faith," because there is never in question in Scripture about the condition of one possessing faith. Faith, however, is never to be taken for granted among men. Whether or not we have faith is currently in the process of being confirmed or demonstrated. While "the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His," men are addressed as those who are NOT omniscient in this matter. "And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity" (2 Tim 2:19).

One might reason that those who truly believe WILL depart from iniquity, or already have done so. The fact is, the Spirit admonishes those naming the name of Christ to DO so. In that process, they will discover their standing before God. In order to assist us to act decisively in this matter, the Spirit holds before us numerous examples of those who once resided in God's favor, but did not remain there. These range from angels that did not "keep their first estate," to the only nation on the face of this earth that God ever chose. Both of these examples are brought before "those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1,5,6). If men imagine fallen angels and rejected Israelites have nothing whatsoever to do with the consideration of our standing with God, they must take the matter up with the Holy Spirit and those through whom He spoke. Rest assured, those who are not able to receive these words now, will confront them in the world to come. There will be no misunderstanding of them then.

This brings us to the consideration of Adam and Eve, the "first man" and "the mother of all living" (1 Cor 15:45; Gen 3:20). We have an extended revelation of both their origin and their fall, of their original habitation and their expulsion from it. Adam is mentioned no less than thirty times in Word of God, seven of them in the New Testament Scriptures. Eve is mentioned four times, two in the Old Testament Scriptures and two in the New. In every case, they are pivotal personalities from which great lessons are to be learned. They are real people, not metaphors of speech as some blasphemously affirm.

"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the 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 Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:22-24).

The event that occasioned the driving of Adam and Eve from the ancient Garden was disobedience. Deception and transgression preceded their fall. Both of them were created on the sixth day of creation, representing the crowning work of God's first recorded "work." At the conclusion of their creation, "God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Gen 1:31). There was no flaw resident in any aspect of that creation. Neither sin nor death had yet entered into the world. The pair were created "in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created he them" (Gen 1:27). There was no cause for "shame" in them (3:25), and they had concourse with the Living God (3:9-10). God had personally placed Adam in the garden to dress and keep it (Gen 2:15). He was given right to eat of every tree of the garden but one (Gen 2:16-17).

Is it possible for such a couple to fall? God made them in His own image. He placed them in an abundant garden, and gave them the dominion over the works of His hands. They had not sinned, but were thoroughly innocent–morally perfect. Until confronted by the devil, their soul did not "cleave to the dust," their appetites were not corrupt, and no taint was upon them.

Is it probable they will ever be expelled from such a paradise? Some, unable to deny what happened to Adam and Eve, say they were created with a sinful nature–a nature prone to sin and deception. But the Word of God demands no such conclusion. If God created them in His own image, and they had a sinful nature, then will men affirm God has one? Would God declare His creation to be "very good" when a sinful nature was resident in His crowning work? Also, is it possible for the sinful nature to exist independent of death? The Holy Spirit nowhere suggests the possibility of such things. Sin and death are tied together, coming into the world at the same time (Rom 5:12).

There came a point in time when the nature of Adam and Eve changed. It was not a condition in which they were created, but one that had a specific beginning AFTER they were created. It is written, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." The knowledge was not good knowledge – they had EXPERIENCED what was evil, and it was for the very first time. Men may choose to believe Adam and Eve fell because it was inevitable. They may even elect to believe God made them with a sinful nature. But that is not the conclusion articulated by God, and it should not be ours either. Such thoughts are nothing more than the speculations of fallen beings.

The well known outcome of the event was that God drove the ones He created out of the garden into which He had placed them. Not even the imaginative powers of men can negate that.

All of this does have a great deal to do with us. The event is cited by Paul in an expression of his concern for believers in Corinth. "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor 11:3). The concern of the apostle is prefaced by an expression of his intention for the Corinthians. "For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (verse 2). He then declares a certain jeopardy that stood between the Corinthians and their presentation to Christ as a "chaste virgin." It was the beguiling work of the old tempter.

It is on the part of wisdom to take these words seriously, and not to imagine that, while you are in this world, you are impervious to the deception of the devil. You certainly are not to live in fear of him, for "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). That circumstance, however, does not remove the necessity of being sober and vigilant, recognizing the prowess of "your adversary the devil."

PRAYER POINT: Father, write this truth upon my heart, and, in Jesus' name, deliver me from any temptation to imagine it does not apply to me.

-- Tomorrow: THE EXAMPLE OF ISRAEL --