What came to be known as Newton’s Third Law Of Motion – “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” should have blown back on Adam when he ate the poisoned fruit.
Instead, because Adam had chosen to be in God’s covenant relationship, according to the terms of the covenant God supports Adam.
#1 – “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast…which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not… cursed is the ground for thy sake;:”
God transferred the negative effects of the immutable law of motion / force maintaining the material universe from humans to nature.
And not for the only time. We see this happening over and over in the history of God’s dealings with his people.
- “if ye…break my covenant: I also will do this unto you… I will bring the land into desolation.” (Leviticus 26:14-32)
“Bringing the land into desolation” is a phrase that encapsulates the immutable consequences of breaking natural laws built into universal stability, not only during a natural disaster, or loss of social order during a catastrophe, but also in the spiritual dimension.
#2 – “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21). Obviously removing the skin of an animal involves the death of the animal.
Ultimately God transferred the immutable effects of entropy – AKA sin – onto one human champion, and transferred energy – AKA life – in the reverse direction.
This champion is the only one who can transfer his life into other humans – without ending his own – because he is perfectly in union with the Infinite Singularity.
- I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…
- My sheep hear my voice…and they follow me [my instructions!!]: And I give unto them eternal life…
- [because] I and my Father [the infinite Singularity] are one.” (John 10)
Our mistake is in thinking of God’s gift of eternal life as a greater quantity that we experience in the resurrection of the body, but that is not what it is. Eternal existence, i.e. immortality, is a different quality.
It is a hyper dimensional energy / spiritual state of being. That spiritual quality begins upon merging identity with the One Who Always Was, and continues beyond, the quantity of time the believer lives out his or her physical life.
That spiritual quality is the transformation of a human’s power capacity upon acceptance of God’s offer to be connected to his Spirit.
AKA birthed into the spiritual domain.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a human be born of water / material substance AND of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.“ (John 3:3-6)
“Because the carnal / fleshly / material mind / driver is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they [essential personhood, the soul] that are in [driven by] the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.“ (Romans 8:7-9)
“For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for
- the end of those things is death [not only to ourselves, but, most horribly, to whose we love more than ourselves].
- But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit [what is produced, your actions and their consequences] unto holiness, and the end [with resurrected body] everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death [think separation from society with HIV and finally end of life with AIDS]; but the gift of God is eternal life [a quality of life in the here and now as well as after physical death] through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23)
Salvation is most definitely a free gift of God that empowers those who accept it to escape all the effects of sin, not just eternity separated from God in hell.
Biblical salvation from sin’s rule and authority and power and enmity begins in this life, manifested in freedom from bondage to sin, AKA addictions not just to drugs but all uncontrollable personally destructive attitudes and behaviors. Resurrection to new life begins now in the reconnection of the Spirit of God to the soul and body and victory over sin’s effects of
- disconnection from God’s Spirit without access to transcendent life and power
- destruction of the body through uncontrollable behaviors like gluttony and addictions
- destruction of essential relationships most apparent in effects like broken families, homelessness, unjust societies and war.
And once again as the corollary to death, this life-restoring energizing growth and development is also a process that occurs throughout one’s lifespan.
Throughout life, every mortal being, like the Adams, is faced with circumstances demanding choices to respond either
- in faith according to God’s instructions despite apparent immediate loss,
- or in false hope according to the Adversary’s lie of personal gratification.
Our responses to circumstances – good and bad – transforms who we are becoming throughout our lifetime, until the point of death in which we are locked into our eternal destiny as having transformed into God’s likeness – his character, mindset, personality, and way of relating to others – or into the Adversary’s likeness by self-indulgence and self-exaltation.
“…put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof…For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink [think the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist or any religious practice or prohibition]; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God…” (Romans 14:17-18)
However moral or immoral, good or evil we have become at the end of this mortal life, is what we are when we face God’s judgment.
“Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” (II Corinthians 5:9-11)
Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) was an American psychologist best known for creating a theory of psychological health known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Maslow’s secular psychology of the interconnectedness of the body with the soul mirrors the Hebrew concept of the “soul,” nephesh / self / the whole person…body and soul together.
This is just common sense. The person we become is developed by
- what the body experiences through interpersonal interactions, education, traumas, culture,
- choices made emotionally and cognitively to act through the body for good or evil,
- and stored permanently in the brain as memories, values, reflexive attitudes, morals.
Maslow amended his model near the end of his life…he argued that there is a higher level of development [than self-actualization], what he called self-transcendence. We achieve this level by focusing on things beyond the self like altruism, spiritual awakening, liberation from egocentricity, and the unity of being…
Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos. (The Farther Reaches of Human Nature
Notice that placing self-transcendence above self-actualization results in a radically different model from fulfilling your own potential to achieving awareness of ultimate truth and the unity of all things.
That secular conclusion matches the spiritual.
“The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women…And they committed whoredoms…in their youth…they took both one way [clearly meaning, how they behaved],
for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner / likeness of the Babylonians of Chaldea…[this can only be described as “imperious”] she doted upon them…And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them…then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.” (Ezekiel 23:1-18)
Cultural historian Warren Susman researched the rise and fall of the concept of character, tracing its prevalence in literature and the self-improvement manuals and guides popular in different eras…During the 1800s, “character was a key word in the vocabulary of Englishmen and Americans,”…Young people were…told that character was the most priceless thing they could ever attain. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century, however, Susman found that the ideal of character began to be replaced by that of personality…
The rise of psychology, the introduction of mass-produced consumer goods, and the expansion of leisure time offered people new ways of forming their identity and presenting it to the world. In place of defining themselves through the cultivation of virtue, people’s hobbies, dress, and material possessions became the new means of defining and expressing the self… “The vision of self-sacrifice began to yield to that of self-realization,”…While advice manuals of the 19th century (and some of the early 20th as well), emphasized what a man really was and did, the new advice manuals concentrated on what others thought he was and did…A great example of this is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People from 1936. It focused on how to get people to like you and how to get others to perceive you well versus trying to improve your actual inner moral compass…
The etymology of character is quite telling. The word comes from the Greek kharakter for “engraved mark,”…Anciently, a character was the stamp or marking impressed into wax and clay, and as Henry Clay Trumbull explains in 1894’s Character-Shaping and Character-Showing, it served as:
“… trade-mark, of the potter, the painter, the sculptor, the writer, or any other artist or artisan, or inventor, as indicative of the personality of the maker…”
“Character is nature and nurture. It is nature cultured and disciplined, so that natural tendencies are brought under the sway of the moral motive…
Above all, [character] includes a choice, a settled habit or bent of will, so that it can be seen in its outcome in conduct…
The one quality most associated with character in the nineteenth century was self-mastery – the dominion of an individual over his impulses and desires, so that he was in control of them, and not the other way around. A man of self-mastery embodies the kingship of self-control and can direct his will and make his own choices, rather than being a slave to his base impulses.
Why don’t we see more self-control exhibited in Sons of God?
It’s a thoroughly uncomfortable way of life, full of rejection by people who are made uncomfortable by righteousness, self-sacrifice, and out-and-out suffering.
“all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (II Timothy 3:12)
“for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…I have suffered the loss of all things,” (Philippians 3:8)
Kingdom Come 