Mission Populaire Libre

Jésus-Christ est le même hier, aujourd'hui et éternellement" (Hèbreux 13:8)

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Before us unfolds God’s mysterious Plan of Salvation. In Genesis 1: 27 God created man in His image in a spiritual body. In chapter 2: 7 the Lord God made man from the earth in the body of flesh. In verse 18 God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help fit for him.” Then the Lord God made all living creatures, always a pair, out of the ground and Adam gave them all their names. After that the Lord looked around to see if He could find a suitable helpmate among all of them for Adam, but found none (v. 20). Finally, the Lord God took Eve out from Adam and presented her to him. She was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone (vv. 21-24). Here lies a great mystery in view of Christ and the Church (Eph. 5: 30-32). As Eve was taken out from Adam and presented to him, so the Church was in Christ and came forth from Him to eventually meet Him as a chaste virgin (2 Cor. 11: 2; Eph. 5: 27). HE is the Word-Bridegroom and she is the Word-Bride, He is the head and she is the body (Col. 1: 18 a. o.).

At the beginning, Heaven and Earth existed in harmony, bliss and happiness, the extent of which we are unable to imagine. The heavenly hosts worshipped God on the throne. The Lord visited the first couple in the cool of the evening in Paradise and had fellowship with them. There was no trace of sorrow, sickness or death. Lucifer also had access, as we were mysteriously told in Ezekiel 28, “... Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God ... Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ...” (vv. 12-15). He was the first anointed one and became the adversary of God. That is of great significance for our subject about the anointed ones in the end time.

The high ranking angel was not satisfied with becoming an adversary and bringing about the terrible catastrophic situation in heaven. He saw that God cared for His son Adam, whom He had placed over all that was created on Earth and was displeased with it. Adam and Eve were residing as the sovereigns on Earth. The opponent who had fallen from the heavenly order pulled the first couple on earth out of their divine order into his fall. As a spiritual being he took charge of the most excellent and cunning species of the animal world (Gen. 3: 1), which undoubtedly was closest to man, namely the serpent which walked upright and could speak.

The conversation the serpent had with Eve is well recorded. Only after he was cursed (v. 14) did he lose his shape and became a reptile. From then on, right until the book of Revelation, the enemy of God is addressed with titles like “devil, Satan, dragon and the old serpent”.

What happened on earth was even more terrible than that in heaven. However, cherubim and seraphim, all heavenly beings, which were not influenced by Lucifer, remained in their divine order, in their designated place of responsibility. On Earth the whole human race was totally subdued under the rulership of Satan. He was successful in influencing the first couple to doubt what God had said: not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and not to transgress the holy commandment of God, which would result in the death penalty. He promised that their eyes would be opened and that they would be like God. The enemy said, “You will not surely die ...” It was the exact opposite of what God had said. At first Satan brought the whole animal world under his power, indwelling the serpent. After that he caused Eve to submit to his influence. He put a question mark behind God’s Word and turned the command, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat ...” into the precise opposite, “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” (One has to compare chapter 2: 16 with chapter 3: 1.) The alteration of one word was enough to cause death. The enemy always speaks about biblical subjects, but never remains in the original Truth. He does not deny the Word, he just twists it and thereby gives a different meaning to what actually was said. He entangles even believers in endless arguments and undermines the credibility of God’s Word.

It was not just eating a fruit; that was only the way it started. It was the lust of the eye, which even now leads to the lust of the flesh. He did not only entangle Eve into arguments, he actually beguiled her, and that happened before the natural multiplication took place, as the Lord intended when He said, “Be fruitful, and multiply ...” It is commonly known what it means if a woman is enticed. Everyone is also aware of what the phrase implies: “He fell in sin”. The Scripture says, “And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her ...” (Ex. 22: 16). After the serpent had beguiled Eve, she gave herself to Adam who had not known her before. The serpent left behind his seed — which means posterity. Cain was his natural product, as Abel was the natural product of Adam. After it actually happened in chapter 3, we read in chapter 4: 1-2, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain ... And she again bore his brother, Abel.” Two totally different sons were born. The last part of chapter 3 and the first part of chapter 4 have to be read like they belong together. The division into verses and chapters was not part of the original scrolls.

It is hard for us to comprehend that it happened on the same day, before the Lord came to visit them in the cool of the evening. Then they hid themselves and God was calling, “Adam, where art thou?” Right after they had made themselves aprons of fig leaves to cover their shame. God directly referred to what had happened by putting the punishment unto the correct place. There it still lies today. HE said to Eve, “... in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children ...” No woman has ever given birth to a child because of eating a fruit, not even the first one. It was not without reason, that God gave this strict order in His law, “Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.” (Lev. 18: 23). HE even said, “Cursed be he who lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.” (Dt. 27: 21).

Because Adam had submitted to the influence of Eve, the transgression and the fall happened. Accusing him, the Lord said to Adam, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife ...” (Gen. 3: 17). The main guilt was with Adam, because he transgressed the commandment God had given unto him, and therefore it is written, “... as in Adam all die ...” (1 Cor. 15: 22). From that moment humanity was separated from God and lost. The first couple had to leave Paradise. Right then God predicted Salvation through the seed of the woman (Gen. 3: 15).

When God made a covenant with Abraham, He demanded the circumcision of the foreskin of every man, as a reminder how the “Word-commandment” was broken in the fall. “This is my covenant , which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man child among you shall be circumcised.” (Gen. 17: 10). God declared the circumcision of the flesh to be the covenant sign, “He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.” (Gen. 17: 13-14). The circumcision was so important to God that He wanted to kill Moses, because he had not circumcised his son (Ex. 4: 24-26). Under Joshua God ordered the circumcision for all the sons which were born after the exodus (chapter 5). The Saviour was also circumcised on the eighth day and submitted thereby to the divine demand (Lk. 2: 21-24). In the Holy Scriptures every commandment and order has its significance and place.

Paul, who was taught by God to be an apostle and teacher, wrote in reference to Abraham and to the circumcision, “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also ...” (Rom. 4: 11).

In the New Covenant, following the restitution for the fall, we have no commandment for the bodily circumcision. Now our hearts must be circumcised. Christ died for the circumcised and the uncircumcised. And now applies what Paul writes, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.” (Gal. 5: 6). “... in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ ; buried with him in baptism, in which also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” (Col. 2: 11-12).

The tree of life stood in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge was standing right next to it. Obedience and disobedience, life and death are very close, but they exclude one another. The absence of life is death, the absence of light is darkness, the absence of faith is unbelief and the absence of obedience is disobedience.

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