MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
May 17, 2023
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 19
Again, lest we forget where we began this discovery, the very first promise and first prophecy is given in Genesis 3:15. It immediately revealed to the fallen first couple in Eden, and thereby thereafter, to all the generations of fallen mankind, the fundamental twin “core” seeds of eternal import:
1) the nature of the controversy between Christ and Satan and their respective “seeds” and
2) the plan of redemption
Both would develop and reveal more of themselves over the course of time til they reach their startlingly stunning climax in the days ahead of our final generation—as revealed in the prophecies, Daniel and the Revelation in particular.
In that supreme combined historical and prophetic moment in Eden, where we are shown the Creator speaking to Satan, Adam, and Eve in a very different position than that which He is first revealed to mankind as the Creator and Maker of “the heavens and the earth in the beginning. At that pivotal moment, the Creator is revealed, in its earliest forms that would unfold in its predetermined aspects, roles, and timetables (both in timed prophecies as well as divine chronological order), as the mighty Deliverer, Savior, Advocate, Intercessor and Mediator, all first preceded by and prefigured in the first lamb that would be sacrificed and the first blood of redemption that ever flowed after the bloodless work of creation.
Here, at the quintessential “moment of moments” of earth time and place, before Adam and Eve were to be banished from their divinely-designed and built garden home, God spoke, not in creative fiat but redemptive language and tones, declaring and demonstrating the immutability of His law by immediately counteracting Satan’s first lie that deceived Eve into believing that the soul is immortal (“you shall not surely die”) through and by first lamb slaughtered in sacrifice—-the death of the first type all countless specified animals offered under ceremonial law of the Mosaic dispensation fill they reached their antitype in the “once and for all” sacrifice of the very “Lamb of God” at Calvary’s cross, four thousand years after the fall in Eden.
Thus immediately demonstrated and viscerally revealed by actual participation of Adam, the certainty that “the wages wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), for sin is but “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), manifested by and in disobedience to God’s command, and express will as revealed in His Word, “It is written” and “unto the law and testimony.”
Thus immediately revealed by visceral demonstration to the startled and wondering eyes of Adam, Eve, Satan and the fallen and good angels as well as the numberless beings in the unfallen worlds in the universe—through Adam’s actual participation as the first offeror of sacrifices—of the certainty that “the wages of sin is DEATH” (Rom.6:23) and that “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3: 4).
Apostle Paul reminds all professed Christians lest they be confused and deceived again like Eve. He wrote in 1 Cor. 15: 19-26:
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable [note that]
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept [died].
“For since by man [the first Adam] came DEATH, by man also [Christ the Son of man, the “second Adam”] also the RESURRECTION of the dead. For as in Adam ALL DIE [because of the non-immortality of the soul], even so in Christ [the second Adam, the Creator incarnate as God in the flesh] shall all be made ALIVE.
“But every man in his (this) ORDER: Christ the first fruits [the first or preeminent of the resurrectees[; AFTERWARD, they that are in Christ [when] AT HIS COMING.
“Then cometh the END, when Hs SHALL HAVE delivered up the kingdom of God, when He shall have PUT DOWN all rule and authority and power [‘against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against SPIRITUAL wickedness in high places” Eph. 6: 12].
“For He [the the first Adam] shall reign [first, as merciful High Priest, Advocate, Intercessor, Mediator, and righteous Judge of all the earth], TILL He hath put ALL ENEMIES under His feet.
“And the LAST ENEMY [as a part of the original enmity and its wages] that shall be DESTROYED is DEATH.” 1 Cor. 15: 19-26; see verses 1-18) These, and so very much more, was first intimated and comprehended in the declaration of Genesis 3:15! Follow the rule of First Mention when tracing From Cause to Effect, guided by the Holy Spirit who enables the earnest truth-seeker to discern spiritual things with a spiritual (not carnal or worldly) mind. Such will see that indeed Bible prophecy is but relevant history in advance and Bible history is but prophecy fulfilled! “There is nothing new under the sun.” What was will be but magnified and multiplied as taught in the type-antitype principle.
Only when we intellectually and spiritually invoke by faith, and harness the fullest dynamic powers of the ENMITY God first PUT BETWEEN Satan and his agencies versus His people on earth, will we learn to abhor and HATE SIN and its exceeding sinfulness. Only then can we victoriously, not vicariously “overcome” all the “sins that so easily beset us” even as Christ the second Adam.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all NMF.