Post details: Was God shocked that Adam wasn't so "perfect" after all?

05/16/06

Permalink 10:16:54 pm, Categories: Announcements [A]
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Was God shocked that Adam wasn't so "perfect" after all?

How does a "perfect" person sin the first chance that he gets?
What is so "perfect" about a plane that crashes during take-off or a boat soaks up water like a sponge?
If Adam is perfect, then don't we need to re-define "perfection" as a big mess?

Did God expect Adam to resist temptation, or did God expect Adam to sin?

These are good questions worthy of asking, and with deep implications. If something can happen that God never expected to happen, then what kind of God is that?
Can God be surprised or disappointed and still claim to be all knowing?

The answer is that God is incapable of unrealistic expectations. He cannot be surprised, nor disappointed. God did not expect Adam to do anything but sin, and God's expectations were true. However, Adam's sin was a disappointment, and a bitter pill to swallow, but for only for US. Humanity still wants Adam to be pure and innocent and holy ... but Adam reveals us all to be utterly weak, sinful, dead, and in dire need of help ... even to follow basic commands. Man is "very good," but only God is godly.

Imagine that I have written a list and cut out each entry on a separate little piece of paper. The list is for you to decide which item belongs in the bin labelled "Godly" and which item belongs in a bin named "Ungodly." There is no neutral category, only those two: Godly and Ungodly.

How many of those items do you think should rightfully belong in the GODLY category?
What did Adam reveal in his sin - Godly or Ungodly?
Does anything Godly immediately ...

[More:]

...Does anything Godly immediately sin, the first chance given?
Adam belongs in the other bin. Adam proved that he was not like God. Adam was Ungodly.

What about "The Fruit Of The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil" (TFOTTOKOGAE)? Which bin would you put it?
God made it. God placed it in the garden. On what basis do we put it in the Ungodly bin?
Well, TFOTTOKOGAE is not Godly. I know that for certain. Let me explain ... even though God created it and placed it in the garden, it is not Godly. God is not created. God is not placed anywhere. Therefore, that which is created by God and placed somewhere by God is NOT LIKE GOD by the mere application of those two distinctions.

If we can't put TFOTTOKOGAE in the Godly bin, wouldn't that apply to everything else that is created based on the same logic? Yes. The only conclusion is that the cosmos is not Godly. Or let me put it this way ... God's perfect holiness is beyond anything that is in creation. Nothing is like Him, nor can anything be made that is 100% like Him, because God is not made by anything. God is God, and that is that.

Even Genesis declares this. God is beyond the cosmos, moving upon it but not intermingling with it, (as New Agers suggest).

Genesis 1:2
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering OVER the waters.

God has no beginning, and therefore whatever has a beginning is not Godly. And it is written that what is not God ... will return to dust, and what has a beginning has an end.

Psalm 90:2-4
2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.

The fruit that Adam ate of did not cause Adam to die, it revealed to Adam that Adam was as good as dead, that Adam was not like God. Adam has no perfect holiness, and is in dire need of something Eternal, and Living ... or the weight of decay (the "fall") will surly reveal that there is no life in Adam.

John 6:53
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."

There we have the solution, now guarded by the flaming sword of Truth ... there is a fruit of which we can take and eat and live, really live ... and cross over from death to LIFE. We need what Adam needs ... godliness. We need the Spirit of the Lord. We need imparted holiness, or we remain in the firm grasp of death ... even as Adam needed the fruit of the tree of LIFE.

John 5:24
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."

John 3:36
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

And what does it mean to "have no life," and to "not see life" and to have "the wrath of God remaining upon us?" It means that the alternative to Eternal Life is to perish.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

You might as well torch everything in the Ungodly bin. Set it afire, and let it roast.

In the Godly bin, we put Jesus. We put the Holy Spirit. We put the Father. But the gospel is that we also put the CHURCH in the Godly bin. The miracle of the infusion of The Holy Spirit into the innermost being of man makes the Church godly. And you are invited to be a part of God's body here in creation ... and to take and eat of LIFE.

I am speaking of salvation ... the imparting of LIFE to the dead.

John 10:28
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The word "know" is not mere mental ascent. Often the Bible uses that word to describe the act of intercourse ... as in 'Joseph did not "know" Mary'. And in the case of knowing God, there is a coming inside and an implanting of a substance that is fruitful for Life .. Salvation is the implanting of God's Spirit, and it can make a man truly "PERFECT" (unlike Adam.)

Hebrews 10:14
... because by one sacrifice he has made PERFECT forever those who are being made holy.

If Adam was so "perfect" then what was he lacking that God would present him with the fruit of the tree of Life? Could it be that we have available through Jesus that perfection, that Adam lacked?

What I am saying is this. Come alive by the Lord Jesus or die in your sins. Choose! Choose wisely.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20a
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you LIFE and DEATH, blessings and curses. Now CHOOSE LIFE, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD *IS* your LIFE, ...

And in choosing the Lord as your Life, you will have a perfection that a man like Adam would never be able to dream about. A rare perfection.

Matthew 7:13-14
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to LIFE, and only a few find it."

Provided you ask Him for LIFE, You have His word ... He will deliver His own Life to you.

Provided that you have already asked Him, then you have reason to be thankful, and one day we will celebrate together for I am your brother, and we are His offspring - Children of God.

Comments:

Comment from: Pam [Member]
Hey Trent,

When all is said and done, the lion and the lamb will lie down together for good and evil will no longer be necessary, they will be at rest. I can't imagine that day but I can through faith believe.:0)

Pam
Permalink 05/16/06 @ 23:21
Comment from: pam [Visitor]
Hey Trent,

I enjoyed re-reading this and I can't help but notice that I notice things that I didn't notice the first time.:0/ Did that make sense?...Anyway, I know when I go back and read some of the things I've written, I sometimes have forgotten that I thought that way and have moved such a great distance down the path of life that I hardly recognize the way I thought before. Reading this has made me wonder the same about you. Do you still agree with yourself?lol! How far from perfect we are but you know, I'm not so sure that God wants us to be like God, I think that was Eve's idea. I think God just wants us to walk and talk with Him and depend on Him and be who He created us to be. I am not God and I am glad. I used to want to control all my days but now I enjoy waiting to see what God has appointed to me each new day and giving up my imagined control a little more every day, becoming more child-like and much, much happier.

It's in God's hands and all of it is going to be fine.

Pam
Permalink 01/16/08 @ 20:56

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