Defeat Through the First Man in Eden
The seed plot of the entire Bible is the third chapter of Genesis. Unless one accepts Genesis three as God's truth, he will not accept in full John 3, Romans 3, Colossians 3, Philippians 3, Ephesians 3, Galatians 3, 2 Timothy 3, 1 John 3, or Revelation 3. The third chapter of Genesis is the most epochal chapter in the whole of Scripture. "There is no chapter that contains within itself the norm of so many great spiritual principles." Failure to understand what is here set forth, or unwillingness to accept it as exact truth, will result in complete blindness concerning God's eternal purpose in Christ and will lead to endless confusion.
God's First Man - In Eden
God's first man came directly from the mind and hand of God. He was the last of God's earthly creation and His master-piece, because he was created in the image of God with the special purpose of having fellowship with His Creator and living solely for His glory.
Let us state the clearly revealed facts regarding God's first man Adam, that we may have a scriptural background for his devastating defeat as recorded in Genesis 3.
"God created man." God belonged to eternity. He was "In the beginning," before there was a beginning. He always was. Man belongs to time. He came into being. God was the Creator; man was the created. God was the Life-giver; man was the life-receiver. God was Deity; man was human. So the plane of life of God and of man was totally different; one was as are above the other as heaven is above earth. One is the place of Deity; the other is the plane of humanity. Between what God is in His uncreated, essential Divine Being and what man is in his created, finite, human being there is an absolutely impassable gulf and immeasurable distance. Man can never become God.
"The Lord God Formed the Man"
The God who created is the Lord God who is the moral
Governor of His creation; who has the rightful authority to carry out in full His purpose in creation. So the position of God and of man was totally different. The Creator is the Sovereign; the created is the subject. Their positions are as far apart as the heaven, where God sits upon His throne in absolute Sovereignty, and the earth, His footstool, where man bows before Him in absolute submission.
Adam Was Created in the Image of God
God's first man was made after a pattern. God was the pattern. "The root idea of the Hebrew word translated "image" is that of a shadow." God's first man, then, was God's shadow. He was like God. But in what respect? Genesis 1:1-25 reveals personality. God is a Person who thinks, loves, and wills. In what sense then did the created man resemble the uncreated God? It was in personality: Adam was a person as God is a person.
God's first man was created in God's image in the sense of having a sinless personality patterned after God's in its power to think, to love, and to will. But with this difference: God thought, loved and willed on the plane of uncreated, eternal, divine life, whereas Adam thought, loved and willed on the plane of created, finite human life. The intellectual, emotional, volitional life of God's first man was perfect within a limited sphere. Above and beyond this was the perfection of God's personality within an unlimited sphere.
This resemblance which God's first man bore to his Creator established communion and fellowship between them. But the dissemblance between the plane on which each lived determined the basis of their relationship. Not arbitrarily but necessarily God was the Sovereign; Adam was the subject. Adam had unlimited liberty to think, love and will within a limited sphere, within the circle of God's will.
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 10)
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