Sunday, July 20, 2014

War In Your Heart # 10

Defeat Through the First Man in Eden (continued)

God had something more in store for Adam than what he possessed even in the sinlessness of his perfect, human life. There was "a tree of life" in Eden of which God desired Adam to eat with unlimited freedom. There must have been further special blessing in the fruit of that tree, for we see in Revelation 2:7 that to the overcomer will be given the privilege of eating of "the tree of life," and in Revelation 22 we find in the new earth "the tree of life" bearing all manner of fruit.

God created Adam with a perfect, sinless human life with the capacity for sonship and heirship. God made Adam with the possibility of receiving the uncreated, unlimited life of God if Adam chose to receive it and if he used his power of choice to that end.

Adam Was Placed in a Perfect Environment

God had completed His task of creation and as He looked out over it all He pronounced it "very good." The very perfection of beauty, order, harmony, majesty, and glory must have prevailed in every detail of God's creation, to have satisfied God Himself so completely.

Genesis 2:8: And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

A garden of God's own planting - oh, what a garden it must have been! A paradise designed and executed by the Divine Gardener! The finest gardens in earth today must be like a veritable wilderness by comparison. That Eden garden must have been the earth in its highest possible perfection and productivity. But why such prodigality in this garden spot? Because it was made specially for man, the crown of all God's creation. So He made a place in which there was the satisfaction for man's every desire and the sufficiency for man's every need. Thus God made provision in Adam's environment for everything needful to foster his perfect obedience to the will of God.

God Himself worked (Genesis 2:2). He knew there was great blessedness as well as joy in the satisfaction of work well done (Genesis 1:31). Idleness was outlawed in God's universe. "If any would not work neither should he eat" (2 Thess. 3?10). It was an unwritten law that every man should be happily and usefully employed. So God made provision for pleasurable, profitable work for Adam. He was to dress, and keep the garden from whose products he lived (Genesis 2:15).

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 11)

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