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ROMANS AND FIRST ADAM

In the study of Romans we saw that one problem of mankind is that everyone was born into first Adam. The cross of Calvary must solve this problem of man. Nothing of first Adam is acceptable in the Kingdom of God or into Jesus Christ. All that is of the first Adam must be carried into death and burial. Only what is of the Second Man can be resurrected into Christ. The first Adam must be brought to a final conclusion. The church, which is His body, cannot participate in anything that is of first Adam. The concept that the first Adam must be reformed, changed and regenerated before he can participate in “the church” is a false theory. Jesus Christ cannot use anything of first Adam to build His church. Since this is a strange thought to much of the church, we need to explain why.

Most of us are familiar with facts of Adam’s creation but many of us have not expanded the details to understand why Adam is not acceptable into the Kingdom of God. It is not just a matter of sins committed or of the sin nature that he passed to all men. It has to do with the source of Adam’s life and the result of the life that is inborn of Adam. This we can conclude from Genesis 1 & 2.

Even though Adam was created in the image and likeness of God he was not all that God intended him to become. Adam had a spirit, soul and a physical body. He could think, reason, remember and exercise free will to chose his course and source of life. Adam was created neither holy or evil. He was not a saint or a sinner. He was neutral and stood as an innocent man. He was created with wonderful attributes but he had no previous experience.

Adam and Eve were created full grown and were capable of conceiving children. They had tremendous wisdom, perception and memory to name all the birds and animals and ability to cultivate and to keep the garden for God. Man could comprehend God’s instructions and he certainly had the ability to obey. Man could choose to obey or to disobey because man was created with free will.

GEN 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. GEN 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; GEN 2:17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. “

GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ “ God’s instructions were quite clear to both the man and the woman. This was not a matter of a confused doctrine or misunderstanding.

GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. GEN 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

GEN 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”-- GEN 3:23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. GEN 3:24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Some who read these scriptures may complain that God’s justice was too harsh for such a small sin. After all Adam never killed anyone or did gross crime. Any way didn’t God forgive Adam’s sin through the lamb that was killed to provide clothing for Adam and Eve? If we only see this story from the viewpoint of a sin committed we will come to the wrong application of truth. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not just a revelation of sin but it is the source of food and sustenance of life. There is more in view here than one man’s sin because death spread to all men even if they didn’t sin like Adam.

Adam didn’t eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but the fruit from that tree. Every tree in the garden bore fruit that was good for food for the body. The fruit from the Tree of Life was more that just food for the body, it was the very source of Life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil bore fruit that was also much more than food for the body. It also was the source of life. It had the ability to open ones eyes so that he became wise in himself and could know in himself that which was good and evil. The great problem is that even the greatest and highest knowledge cannot sustain life. For that reason death overtakes the man that takes knowledge as his source of life.

The first thing they “knew” with this new found knowledge was that they were naked and had to clothe themselves. That is a greater revelation than many have today but death still spread to all men. The main point is not that man sinned but that man chose independence from God and rejected total dependence upon God for “life”. By man’s new found “knowledge” he could discern within himself and by himself what was right from what was wrong. However, being able to discern what is good from that which is evil is irrelevant unless man has “the life” to actually do the good and shun the evil. If we look at our society today we will see that good and evil are so mixed that they have merged into a mess where there is no distinction. ISA 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Cain seemed to have little conviction that murder was evil.

I have an editorial from the local newspaper of Aug. 3, 1995 about an elite college (Williams) where the genders were removed from the rest rooms because “that would be exclusionary of one gender”. On campus it is often said that “the holocaust” didn’t happen. That knowledge is the extension of power, therefore, nothing is better or truer than anything else. Something is true that is “strongly felt”. If you think you were abused, you were because thinking makes it true. It is argued that dishonesty or indifference to truth is justified by ones commitment to a cause. In other words commitment is better than truth. The revisionists cry is that history is not a record of what happened but just a political, white male, story that must be replaced by other stories. In modern higher learning there is no objectivity or truth since everything is relative. In other words, there is no such thing as good or evil. Knowledge is therefore irrelevant.

We wonder how supposedly thinking people, who are intrusted to teach others, can be so confused. The fact is that their source of life is from such a low plane that they are incapable of even knowing what is good and what is evil. They even deny there is such a thing.

If these people are to be turned back to “TRUTH”, can their ignorance just be forgiven or do they have to die to the lie before they can be restored to truth? It is not just forgiveness they need but a totally new source of “LIFE”. Out of “LIFE” flows “TRUTH”. They must die to the old, be buried and be resurrected into the new.

This tree was also supposed to make one “wise”. It could provide no eternal wisdom but just made man wise is his own eyes. The colleges are shining examples of those who are only wise in their own eyes but incredibly stupid in relation to “TRUTH”. In their stupidity they declare there is no such thing as “TRUTH”, everything is relative.

These two trees represent two different levels and kinds of life. One is eternal while the other is temporal. One is spiritual while the other is natural. One is from heaven while the other is from earth. 1CO 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit. 1CO 15:46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 1CO 15:47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 1CO 15:48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

These two men are constituted differently. They have different sources of life. They originate from different dimensions. Those who have their being in first Adam are earthly while those who have their being in Christ are heavenly. Those in Adam are soulish while those in Christ receive the “life giving Spirit”. Both groups have physical bodies but are different in every other way. Therefore, those who are in Christ are new creations, the old things have passed away.

We all can easily see that man needs more than forgiveness. He needs to completely be removed from first Adam by death, be buried and be resurrected into Jesus Christ to enter into this new dimension of “life”.

Society judges men by totally different standards than God judges. Society may have judged Adam as a very fine specimen of man even after he took his life from the wrong tree. Society looks at “the man” and not at his source of life. God sees man either in Adam or in Christ and that is determined by the source of life. What Hollywood judges as a perfect man, God judges as dead meat. Dead meat can never fulfill the purpose of God or be “in Christ”.

This is why all who are in Adam are judged as sinners the same as Adam, himself. From this we can discern why Jesus Christ had to die, be buried and be resurrected. We participate in that by baptism but we enter into the reality of it by consecration. Since the life of Adam is a “self-life” that lives “of itself” and “by itself” and “for itself”, it cannot be accepted into the Kingdom of God. We therefore reckon “ourselves” to be dead to sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. This truth should expose the lie of reformation of the “old Adam life”. There is a false concept that says: “Let us join the church and start living by the standards and rules of that church” is not only futile but is anti-Christ.

A person who is in Adam “is also in the flesh”. Those who are “in the flesh cannot please God”. The church has accepted those who have had their sins forgiven but are still in Adam and therefore still in the flesh. A forgiven Adam is a far cry from a dead and buried Adam. The resurrected life is much, much more than Adam ever had. Adam was only “a son of God” in that he was created from the earth as a natural man by God. That cannot even be compared with “the sons of God” who have received His Life and been born of Him. Salvation must restore us to more than just “a new Genesis”. That just puts us back to where Adam was before he ate. Salvation means that we reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eat freely and constantly from the Tree of Life. Salvation must be defined by the source of life that is constantly supplying our life. Jesus Christ is our salvation because He is our Life. He is the Way and the Truth but when He is our Life, He is our salvation. ROM 5:10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. JOH 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. This whole issue of “RESURRECTION LIFE” is the foundation of Christianity and therefore the church.

Romans 7 then speaks of the one who is forgiven but now sets out to serve God in the flesh. ROM 7:14 For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. ROM 7:15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I {would} like to {do,} but I am doing the very thing I hate. ROM 7:16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish {to do}, I agree with the Law, {confessing} that it is good. ROM 7:17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. ROM 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not. ROM 7:19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. ROM 7:20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ROM 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

ROM 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. The theme now is serving God. Not in the “oldness” of the Adamic life which is flesh but in the “newness” of the Spirit. The purpose of God forgiving us is that we might serve Him. Not as part time help when it is convenient but as slaves of God. As soon as we set out to serve God we discover that the “flesh” makes it impossible to please God.

It should be obvious that this problem of “flesh” must be provided for at Calvary. Not in death, burial and resurrection but in ascending to the right hand of God. ACT 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. The exalted Lord Jesus Christ has poured forth the Holy Spirit to deal with this problem of the flesh. GAL 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. GAL 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The book of Galatians shows us clearly that Christians may walk after the flesh or after the Spirit. However, if Christians walk after the Spirit they will not carry out the desires of the flesh. The flesh is deactivated when we walk in the Spirit. The fact is that we may walk in the Spirit and in the next moment we may walk according to the flesh. The point is that the “flesh” is man’s ordinary way to walk. If he doesn’t strive to walk in the Spirit, he will walk in the flesh. Flesh is the default way to walk. Walking in the Spirit is God’s method of living the Christian life.

ROM 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 1TH 2:12 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. God’s eternal purpose is to restore us to Adam’s original glory but then to God’s own Kingdom and His glory. Adam never experienced anything like that. HEB 2:9 But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, {namely,} Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. HEB 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. God has perfected one Son unto His own Glory but now God’s purpose is to bring many sons into that same glory.

This is much more than forgiveness of sins. This requires perfection through suffering. ROM 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ROM 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with {Him} in order that we may also be glorified with {Him.} 1PE 4:14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. God does a subjective work in us through suffering so that we might share His glory. Forgiveness of sins is our starting point and sharing His glory is our goal. In between these two points man requires all the provision of Calvary to cast off the results of the fall and the legacy of Adam.

The message of forgiveness of sins is proper for the evangelist and the message of the Kingdom and glory of God is the proper message to the church. To preach that forgiveness of sins is the goal for the church is gross ignorance of the Kingdom and the Glory of God. To preach forgiveness of sins and not command believers to be delivered from Adam is also gross ignorance. Death, burial, resurrection, law, sin factory, LIFE, consecration and enslavement to God, flesh and Spirit are all the provision of Calvary to bring us to the glory of God and to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. There is the “good news” of forgiveness of sins and there is the “good news” of the Kingdom and glory of God. These are not conflicting gospels but complementary gospels and define the different ministries God has set in the church.

Some ministries seem to try to set themselves against the flesh in the church. Since there is much flesh demonstrated in the church they have a busy schedule. However, flesh requires a subjective work by the Holy Spirit just to identify the flesh to the person. The flesh has an objective manifestation but it appears that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the source to the believer. I believe that is the meaning of GAL 5:17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The flesh is only visible in those who do their best to serve God and be used of God in public ministries. As long as a person sits in the pew and says nothing and does nothing he may project the impression of being spiritual.

As soon as we get a clear revelation of Jesus Christ the King and sovereign ruler of all the works of God’s hands and of His ownership over us, we want to consecrate ourselves as slaves of God. This may or may not come early in our Christian experience. The length of time we have been forgiven is not a measure of maturity. We may be consecrated but still walk in the flesh and attempt to serve God in the flesh. Somehow we get the idea that if we fully consecrate ourselves the flesh will be instantly overcome and now we will just walk in the Spirit.

The shock, discouragement and embarrassment overcomes us the first time we recognize we were just in the flesh and made a big mess of ministry. We instantly want to quit and promise ourselves we will never minister again. It is surprising that many can minister regularly in the flesh and not know it. We each need to begin with the revelation that the normal state of man is flesh. The natural ministry of man will be in the flesh. Therefore, everybody who begins to minister will start in the flesh. We must learn to walk and talk and minister in the Spirit. Not just an intellectual learning where one man can teach another. This must be a learning by being taught by the Holy Spirit. It should be obvious that nobody starts out 100% in the Spirit. Maybe not 100% in the flesh either but in some measure of mixture. Mature ministers may point out that you were in the flesh but they cannot deliver you from the flesh. There is some confusion about being born of the Spirit is the same thing as walking in the Spirit. Being born of the Spirit is our primary experience. Walking in the Spirit is only a reality when we don’t walk in the flesh. For this reason God sets the Spirit against the flesh and this is a conflict that is progressive. Sometimes the Spirit wins and sometimes the flesh wins. Hopefully, eventually the Spirit will prevail. If we get discouraged the first time the reality of flesh is seen we will not be able to complete our course.

Listen to Paul’s explanation of his discovery. ROM 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good {is} not. ROM 7:19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. ROM 7:20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ROM 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. If you sit your whole Christian life in a pew and do nothing you will not come to this conclusion. The problem is manifested as soon as you set out to do good.

Consecration to serve God as bond servants will result in this same revelation. No one in the flesh cannot please God. I want to do good but I make a mess of everything I touch. If you manifest “flesh” on your job no one will notice because that is the normal state of man. For that reason God has given us an assembly where the flesh can be demonstrated and recognized. This gives us a place to practice and for those who listen, it gives us a chance to love them anyway. Israel had no other choice under the law but to serve God in the flesh because the Holy Spirit was not yet given.

Now the New Covenant believer can be liberated from serving God in the flesh and walking in the flesh. ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ROM 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God {did:} sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and { as an offering} for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Fulfilling the “requirements of the law”, which is the Christian life, requires that we walk not in the flesh but in the Spirit.

The conflict is between flesh and Spirit. On one side it is flesh and the Holy Spirit and on the other side it is the flesh and the evil spirit. The question is which one will win? The first Adam and Eve was deceived by the evil spirit and became just flesh. The church will be made up of those who walk in the Spirit and become spiritual.

When we first realize that we are much more in the flesh than we are in the Spirit we feel that there is no escape. The harder we try the more flesh is manifested. We can easily feel that we are obligated to follow the flesh. ROM 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- ROM 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ROM 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. If we surrender to the flesh and give up, we will not qualify as “sons of God”.

God’s provision to deal with the flesh is by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works in us to help us put to death the deeds of the body. The word of God assures us that we are not obligated to walk in the flesh. All the provision is made to walk in the Spirit but it will be those who strive to overcome the flesh by being taught by the Holy Spirit that will succeed in walking in the Spirit. These are identified as the “sons of God”. This is a most important issue.