GETTING AN UNDERSTANDING #2 - As To Life In the Sons of Adam
/By Joseph L Watkins
We continue in our quest of getting and having a good working and profitable understanding of life, both that principle of life which we all have been blessed with in our first father, Adam, and that life which is ours in and through our maker, Elohim, Christ Jesus. Yes, we need to have a good understanding of both that which is to be overcome of death and that great life in Christ Jesus that has overcome this death. We all have this life that came in Adam, and we can all have that life which is in Christ Jesus; only believe and that "life" can be yours. Yes, only believe. Today our goal is to better understand what we have now in Adam. The life we now have in our earthly father Adam is under the divine judgment of death, and all men born of women are dying this death and are to die. This old creation must all die off and just be gone, no more to have life, they are made extinct - nonexistent, just like the beasts that perish (Ps. 49:20).
Now in John 1:3 & 4, we find these words: "all things were made by Him (the Him here being Christ Jesus), and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him (Christ Jesus) was life (and is the life), and the life was the light of men." Words could not be any clearer; the life principle that makes every man to live came from our Maker, Christ Jesus. See also Acts 17:24-29.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that "He" - Christ Jesus - is Lord, in Phil. 2:9-11 we read these words, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..." So, here we have "the name" which is above every name - Christ Jesus "Who is" the Lord. And in Acts 17:24, God, even Christ Jesus that made the world and all things therein seeing also that He giveth to all "men life and breath, and all things."
So, in truth and in fact, it can be said that all the human nature of man came to us in and through Jesus Christ. In this sense, we can say that all men without exception have the life of God in them, however, only those that are in Christ Jesus are to ever see that new life in resurrection.
Yes, all men born of woman are the seed of Adam's race, and as his seed are still under the divine judgment of death, for that old creation in Adam must give way to that new creation that is now available to all in Christ Jesus. Only believe and this new life can be yours.
Now, we need to fully understand that by having the life of God in us that has given us all, as John 1:4 has said, "the life" was and is the light of men. Also in John 1:9: "That was the true Light, Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Yes, at birth each and every man is given this light in the spirit of life. Romans 1:18,19 puts it this way, "The wrath (or judgment) of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ... that which may be known of God Is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them."
This true knowledge of God has been coming unto man in the nêshamah spirit that is life. Study the 16 appendixes of the Companion Bible. More on this later.
As man was created with the spirit of life, all men have the innate consciousness that tells him that above his own being God "is" and that we are subject unto Him.
Our loving Creator loves His man and has been working toward his salvation from the start of creation, and in His own life has always been flowing unto His man in man's life-giving spirit. As a man would see this light within and seek after that light, this man would be found of God, and such a one would be given life in the new creation in Christ Jesus. This work has always been going on. However, our loving Creator, being moved by His love of man, came to the man Abram and told him that he was to give birth to a new nation of people that would bring all of the other nations of people back unto Him. Yes, Israel was to be His way of bringing salvation to all men, however, this people as the people of God had to be cut off from being His people. They were to be placed under what the Bible calls in the book of Hosea 1:9, Lo-Ammi, "For ye are not my people." Under this judgment God still loves these people, but as a nation they are cut-off from being His people.
So the question we must try to answer is, just how and when did this come into view, and only after much study on this subject we will see that only Acts 28:26-28 holds the answer for us. This great pronouncement that Paul so being called upon to make, has a message in view, see verse 28: "...they will hear it." We have learned to call this the salvation-bringing message of God, and we have learned that the world of lost men, were also given the hearing necessary to hear and understand this message. We have also concluded that message to be what we have come to know as the Book of John the Beloved. This is the Good News of God concerning the gift of life that is found in Christ Jesus. Other messages found within God's Word may be said to be the "it" of Acts 28:28, but no other message in all of God's Word can be made to meet these demands that are being called for here. The message must:
(1) Be an official pronouncement upon the people and nation of Israel, (2) Be a message that has been divinely authorized to go out to all the nations of the world, as Israel had been given the salvation of God in all others to God, (3) Have been blessed of God so that it can be heard and understood by all men in Adam, the natural man (1Cor. 2:14), (4) Be concerning salvation of life and only unto life in Christ Jesus for that is the only message that a natural man can receive, (5) Be message only to be believed, for far too many men seek to add their own spin to this simple truth such as we find in Romans 10:9, "If thou shall confess with thy mouth," or in Acts 2:38, "Repent and be baptized every one of you, for the remission of sins."
Oh, how sad men would make it their way. God says only believe on Him.
