After five, nearly six days of glorious wonderments and splendors lost were just created, God the supreme ruler, creator, and sustainer of all things, the most powerful and terrible king of all times and worlds created His crown jewel: man. Man was the most magnificent piece of His creation because Man bore His image. No other thing created could make such a boast; not even the angels. Everything else He had created was made with a word. Man was different. He spoke no word, but reached down to the freshly created earth and formed man. This was yet a corpse of dust until God leaned towards the figure. If the angels had known what a kiss was, perhaps they would have thought God had kissed this dust creature, but no; God breathed. God breathed the breath of life into man. No other creature, not even the angels could make that boast.
And so for a short while the man Adam walked upon the earth as the first and only image bearer of God. He was the flawless, glorious even. Truly the marvel of all Creation. Soon, God formed a suitable help-meet for Adam. An equal creature designed for a different role that perfectly complimented Adam’s work. Fit for man in every way. Adam saw this second crown jewel and called it woman, and named her Eve. Together for a short time they walked and played and worked together in perfect harmony as the crown jewels of Creation and image bearers of God Himself.
But this would not last.
One day a serpent came and spoke with Eve. It was assuredly a magnificent looking creature, but it spoke honeyed lies. Oh, much of what it said was truth, but it skewed the truth and caused Eve to doubt her Creator and do the one act forbidden to her. To make darker that blackened hour, Adam – the first and father of all mankind, did the same and from that bleak hour forth, man was a fallen race.
But even in that black hour, hope began to shine.
Hundreds upon Thousands of bloody and dark years passed. Much of mankind forgot its maker and took no thought for the other bearers of His image. Yet threads of hope and light continued to shine, calling out to all who would believe that salvation would come.
One day of no particular significance, an angel who was a messenger from the Sovereign King appeared to a very young lady who was barely more than a child. The messenger told her hope was coming and through her. This girl had found favor with her Maker and so she was chosen to be the conduit of salvation to her race. As the messenger said, so it came to pass. Nine months later a baby was born who would grow up to claim His whole purpose for His birth – to be the Redeemer and Champion for the human race. Upon His thirty-third year this Champion of Men’s souls paid the greatest ransom price to ever be paid in the war for men’s souls. He laid down His perfect self as a sacrifice. He bore a punishment so cruel that humans cannot imagine it and He did so without uttering one complaint.
Out of His great sacrifice of love the killing blow was dealt to the powers of darkness. No longer could the Prince of this World feign to claim victory. He was defeated. Any charge he could levy against any person that trusted in the sacrificial death of the Savior of Men’s souls would be futile. On the third day when the Savior rose from the dead, first and last to ever do so of His own power, death itself was defeated and life received the victory.
Many of those that had known the Champion had hoped He would establish the eternal kingdom prophesied since times ancient, but this was not the hour for that. The Champion therefore returned home to His Father, promising He would send one who would come and be better to have than He.
How could this be? What could be better than having their loving and beloved Champion with them? This they would learn. When the Champion departed, one came who had the capacity to live within them, and be with them always.
What could be more glorious? The Creator, the Champion, and the Comforter are all one, and now the Comforter was with them always. Never to leave. But what does this mean? What does it mean to have the Comforter who is and is one with the Creator and the Champion living inside all those who believe in the Champion and His ransoming work?
Let me ask you a different question: What was Adam’s relationship with God? Adam walked with God, spoke with God, and was laid bare to God in every conceivable way. He enjoyed perfect fellowship with his Creator and Father. Now let me ask you a second question: What is to be our relationship with God if we are saved? We are to walk with God, speak with God, and be laid bare to God in every conceivable way. We are to enjoy perfect fellowship with our Creator and Father.
Look similar? Let’s look a little closer. Adam’s relationship with God was on a physical level what ours is to be a on a spiritual level. Now as far as I can tell, Adam did not have God living inside of Him. We the redeemed do. What does this mean? Adam could talk to God as we would talk to a friend, that is to say, face to face. Now God is omnipresent, but I am convinced there is a difference between having God with you and having God living in you. I cannot prove this from experience, but it’s a hunch I am willing to stick with. If nothing else I think the Christian’s relationship with God is more intimate than Adam’s was, in a way, particularly after the Fall. We have full, unlimited access to our Creator at all times. His name is on our sins, His Spirit lives inside of us, and we do not even understand or begin to tap into the smallest corner of His resources, yet all of them are ours to use. Every last one!
Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden, then the Fall and man was hopelessly sundered from God. God set up the sacrifice system as a means of atoning for sins and provided priests to “access” God. This was a very hard and often unpleasant system, but it worked. Man was once again able to communicate with God and get back into favor with Him. But then Christ came. The most wretched, gory, horrific murder ever committed was that of Christ’s crucifixion. On that dark day the very people He had come to save mocked Him, tortured Him, nailed Him to a tree and murdered the only innocent person to ever live. And if the fact He was the only innocent person ever isn’t horrific enough, add to it He is the very God that gave them the breath and strength to do it. He knew more things about them than they could know and He loved them more than life itself, and still they killed Him. He is divine, He is God and they killed God for crimes He never committed so He could bear all of our sins Himself and take the holy wrath of the Father for us. But of course God cannot be killed. Man just likes to think he has that power. Three days after the darkest day in the history of the world, the brightest day dawns with Christ as Victor and very much alive. After He returns to His Father and sends His Spirit to live inside of us. This is the best thing that has happened yet to mankind. God inside Man.
Do you start to see the pattern? Adam had paradise, but then it was lost in the Fall. God created the sacrificial system to atone for sin, but it required perfect sacrifices. Still, better that than Hell. Then God sends Christ to die, which is the most perfect sacrifice of all, and those that accept that sacrifice get God. Everything in human history goes from bad to worse. Everything God does goes from good to glorious.
Where we are now is the most amazing position mankind has been in since the Fall. We have once again communication with God that need not be hindered by anything. We have God. What more can we ask for? And yet in Romans 8:23 Paul tells us this is but the first fruits of what is to come! We got the tiniest of glances what our human form shall be like with Christ after the Resurrection, and we have the book of Revelation to give our taste for heaven the smallest whet, and we right now have the Holy Spirit, God inside of us, just itching for us to access everything He wants to give us and this is just the beginning!
Do you understand this? Can you fathom what is being said here? This is not some quaint thing to say “Oh how nice, a-men.” to. This is the sort of thing you fall silent for in fear and humility, then you scream and shout for the overwhelming joy and excitement that it causes, then you fall silent again because you don’t know what else you can do, but you suddenly have the feeling you want to cry.
Just let this whole concept overwhelm you. Let yourself drown in it, let your imagination soar with the possibilities because I promise you, whatever you’re thinking is but the faintest scratch of the glories to come.
