Lesson 8 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

 Lesson 8

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

    IN OUR STUDY of the preceding lessons, we saw that after man died spiritually, his need of a Mediator, Righteousness and Eternal Life, could be met only by the Incarnation of God's Son.

    In our last lesson, we traced the working of the Grace of God from the time He gave to man the promise of the Incarnation, to the time of the flood, in His preserving a righteous line through which the Redeemer could come.

    We saw that Satan, in his effort to make the Incarnation an impossibility, corrupted humanity to the extent that the flood became imperative.

    Noah, who knew God, was spared with his family. He preserved the true faith in Jehovah, and handed it to his sons.

    We remember that there were two means Satan used to thwart the purpose of God in the Incarnation. They were: (1) his seeking to destroy the knowledge of God upon the earth, and (2) his seeking to destroy the righteous line.

The Tower of Babel

    From the time of the flood until the building of the tower of Babel, there was worship of God. Not that all men accepted it, for many wickedly rebelled against it; but the knowledge and revelation of the true God was too fresh in their minds for them to set up other gods.

We notice that in the ninth chapter of Genesis a command had been given to

replenish the earth. In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, we see that the whole earth was

of one language and one speech. The unity of the race was untouched. The ark in

which Noah and his family were preserved, had rested in Armenia. As men began to

multiply, this barren tableland no longer sufficed. Men must either separate and fill the

earth as God had told them to do, or a more fertile territory must be found if they are to

keep together. The latter course was resolved upon, so they passed down into the rich,

fertile lowlands in the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11:2).

 They resolved upon a permanent settlement there in order to build a city and tower,

that they might not be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth (Genesis 11:4).

    Jehovah came down and confounded their language, which caused their being scattered over the earth (Genesis 11:7-9). From there the streams of population poured forth to all parts of the world: northwest to Europe, west to Asia Minor, southwest to Egypt and Africa, south to Arabia, southeast to Persia and India, and east to China. Of course, this was not the work of a day. It took ages and ages for the more distant lands to be settled.

After men had been scattered, the worship and knowledge of Jehovah passed into the

worship of the powers of nature and then into idols. Sense knowledge took the place of

God's Revelation which had been given to spiritually dead man.

Lesson 7 THE PROMISED INCARNATION

 Lesson 7

THE PROMISED INCARNATION

    IN OUR PREVIOUS LESSONS, we saw the entrance of Spiritual Death into the life of man. In studying the problems that the Father-God faced in providing a Redemption from Spiritual Death for man, we saw that man's need of a Redeemer demanded the union of Deity and humanity in one individual. Man's need of Righteousness, Eternal Life, and a Mediator, could only be met by the Incarnation of God's Son.

    The Incarnation of Deity with humanity will provide a substitute of Deity and humanity united on such grounds that the Incarnate One can stand as man's mediator.

    Being equal with God on the one hand, and united with man on the other, He will be able to bring the two together.

    Again, being Deity and humanity united, He will be able to assume the obligations of human treason and satisfy the claims of justice, and thereby bridge the chasm between God and human.

God's First Promise of the Incarnation

   When man committed the crime of High Treason, he died spiritually. In his existence of spiritual death, his condition is described as "without hope and without God in the world."

    Immediately God's love began to work on man's behalf. The Father-God faced man's.condition squarely. He knew that man's needs could only be met on legal grounds by the Incarnation of His Son. His love counted no sacrifice too great that would bring human again into His fellowship.

    Mercy and truth were met together (Psalm 85:10) and the triumph of love gave to human a promise of a Redeemer.

    In His conversation with Satan, God gives to him the first promise of the Incarnation.

    Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

    Let us notice four remarkable statements in this promise:

     First, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman." That is, there will be enmity between Satan and woman. This is proved by woman's history. She has been bought and sold as common chattel. Only where Christianity has reached the hearts of a country has woman ever received any treatment that would lift her above the brute creation.

    In Christian countries she is the heir of our diseases and the victim of the divorce court. Doctors tell us that 95 percent of all the hospital cases are women.

    Second, "I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed." Satan's seed is the unregenerate human race, and woman's seed is Christ.

    Christ was hunted from His babyhood by Satan's seed, until finally they nailed Him to the cross; and from the Resurrection of Jesus until this day, the church has been the subject of the bitterest persecutions and enmity of the world. 

    Third, "The seed of the woman." Here is a prophecy that a woman shall give birth to a child independent of natural generation. A child is always called the "seed of man."

    Fourth, "And He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

    "He shall bruise thy head"-that is, the head of Satan. In all Oriental languages, the term, "bruise the head," means "breaking the lordship of the ruler."

    A man has given to Satan his dominion. Satan has just come into the dominion that God had given to man. He is going to exercise that dominion until the Seed of Woman comes. A man is going to break his lordship.

    "The heel" is the Church in its earth walk. The long ages of persecution of the Church by the seed of Satan are a matter of history.

    This is a remarkable prophecy, and how clearly it has been fulfilled. The Incarnate One has come and brought to nought him that had the authority of death, that is, the devil, and delivered all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14).

    This Scripture has also found its fulfillment in Jesus' bitter persecution, which finds its culmination in His death on the Cross; and then, in the persecution of the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and which carries out His Will upon the earth.

    Genesis 3:20, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living."

    The word "Eve" in Hebrew is "Havvah," which literally means the "living one," or "the life-giver."

    Here God tells man that his wife shall be the mother of the "life-giving One," our Christ.

Universal Man's Desire for the Incarnation

    The teaching of the Incarnation is not out of harmony with human desire or tradition. It has been believed in by all tribes of people in some form.

    Universal man has craved an Incarnation. His spirit hungers for union with Deity, because he was created in God's image with the ability to partake of God's life.

    This is proved by man's drinking the blood of human sacrifices, by the naming of his kings after the titles of his deities, and also making his emperor or king an incarnation of Deity.

    The gods of the Greeks and Romans were supposed to have been divine and human, showing man's hunger for a union with Deity.

    The Incarnation is no more difficult to believe than the creation of the first man.

    Adam was created by an act of Divine Power: the rest of the human race was generated by natural processes; but this Redeemer, Who is to be born of the woman, is to be formed by a special act of Divine Power. He is God Almighty, and the Incarnation is a possibility with Him.

Satan's Attempts to Thwart God's Plan

     We do not know how clearly Satan realized the plan of God for man's Redemption that was given in the promised Redeemer. We know that he did not fully understand it, or he would not have crucified Christ (I Corinthians 2:8).

     He thought that crucifixion was the destruction of Christ's life, not knowing that it was the means of man's Redemption.

     Nevertheless, Satan must have realized the fact that a Redeemer was coming through humanity who would break his dominion over man.

     He, therefore, seeks to destroy the plan of the Father-God.

     The working of Satan to thwart the purpose of God follows two lines:

    He seeks (1) to destroy the knowledge of God on the earth, and (2) to destroy a Righteous line in humanity.

     Through these two he will make it impossible for a Redeemer to ever come through humanity. He desires to separate man from all fellowship with God.

    Satan's first attempt to pursue his purpose was in the murder of Abel by Cain (Genesis 4:1-15).

    Abel had had witness borne to him that he was righteous by offering a sacrifice in faith according to the revelation that God had given to him.

    Genesis 4:4, "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and Jehovah had respect unto his offering."

    Hebrews 11:4, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous. God bearing witness in respect to his gifts, and through it he being dead still speaketh."

    Satan did not know but what Abel would be man's Redeemer, therefore he destroyed his life. In doing this he destroyed the righteous line then existing.

    Genesis 4:25, Seth was born to Adam and Eve. Eve seemed to realize that a righteous line had been destroyed and that Seth had been given to fulfill Abel's place.

    She named him Seth, which means "substitute," and said, "God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, for Cain slew him."

The Seed of the Woman

    As generations pass, Spiritual Death is at work within the life of man, causing him to walk alienated from God, with his mind blinded (Ephesians 4:17-18).

     Satan is attempting to make the seed of the woman so utterly estranged from God that He will never be able to send a Redeemer through humanity.

     The only promise so far given in reference to the Incarnation had been very general.

    Therefore, Satan's bitter war against the seed of the woman is general.

    Later on, God makes the promise of the Redeemer more specific and marked; and as we study we shall see a specific working of Satan to the destruction of the righteous line named by God.

    Genesis 3:15, the Incarnate One is called the seed of the woman, a general term.

    Genesis 12:3, it becomes more marked, and the Incarnate One is specified as being "the seed of Abraham."

    Psalm 89:3-4, He is termed the "seed of David." He shall come from the family of David. A family is marked.

    And Isaiah 7:14 makes it still more specific when he says, "Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call His Name Immanuel." He says, "the virgin," just as though He had marked her out. An individual is marked.

   As we study the history of Israel, we shall see the efforts of Satan directed toward the seed of Abraham, and then the seed of David, and then his bitter hatred and persecution of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin.

Genesis 5

    Genesis 5 gives to us the genealogy of Noah. As Satan works to destroy a righteous line, God is preserving a line through which the Redeemer shall come. He is working toward the Incarnation.

    It is well for you to read chapters four and five, that two things may be noticed.

     After Cain is brought conspicuously before us by the murder of his brother, his issue is traced for just a little way, and ends in Lamech, also a murderer (Gen. 4:18-23).

    The Holy Spirit seeks to interest us in another man altogether, the third son born to Adam and Eve, named "Seth" (Genesis 4:24-26.).

    In this line came Noah, Shem, Abraham, Jacob, and then later on, Jesus Himself-the seed of the woman who bruised the serpent's head. In order to fix our attention on Seth, the righteous line, the Divine Author reiterates at the beginning of chapter five the original account of creating man, tracing the history of Adam briefly, and then giving in detail the line of Seth.

    This shows us His dealings are now with this line.

Genesis 6

    Genesis 6:1-3, "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all they chose."

    We notice here the marked distinction between the Cainites and the Sethites, the Righteous line. The Cainites built cities, invented art and devised amusements to palliate the curse of sin (Genesis 4:21-22).

    The Sethites walked with God (Genesis 4:26).

    In Genesis 4:25 the word "LORD" in capitals indicates that in the original it is Jehovah, the Covenant name of God. They who believed and had hope in His promise knew and loved that name. It is well to note that the seventh from Adam through the line of Cain, Lamech, was a polygamist, murderer, and worshipper of the god of forces (Genesis 4:16-24) ; while the seventh in the line of Seth was Enoch, a man who had this testimony, that he pleased God (Hebrews 11:5), and was translated (Genesis 5:21-24).

    In the sixth chapter of Genesis we see again the working of Satan to thwart the purpose of God. He causes the intermarriage of the line of Cain with the righteous line.

    This corrupts the line through which the Redeemer shall come to such an extent that only Noah is left in the worship of the Covenant God. 

    Genesis 6:5, "And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the heart was evil continually."

    Satan had destroyed the knowledge of God in the heart of man. The thought of every man's heart was evil continually. Only Noah knew and walked with the true God (Genesis 6:8-9).

    If humanity were left in that condition, after Noah's death, the knowledge of God would have been completely lost. The Righteous line would have been destroyed, and the Incarnation would have been an impossibility.

    Seemingly, Satan had triumphed in his efforts, but God Almighty's purpose was not to be thwarted.

    It was a small matter for Him to bring an end to humanity in its corrupt condition (Genesis 6:11-13).

    If a righteous line were preserved, and the knowledge of Himself kept upon the earth, God must destroy humanity and continue the line through which the Redeemer would come-through Noah.

    In the past, if we have not understood the working of the Father-God toward the Incarnation, perhaps the destruction of humanity by the flood has been hard for us to understand.

    Now, in the light of the fact that man's need could only be met by the Incarnation, we can see that the flood was imperative.

Questions

Q1. Explain the four statements made in Genesis 3:15.

Q2. Why does universal man crave union with Deity?

Q3. How does history reveal the fact that universal man craves an Incarnation?

Q4. What were the two means Satan used to thwart God's plan of the Incarnation?

Q5. Give Satan's first attempt to destroy the righteous line.

Q6. Tell the distinction between the Cainites and the Sethites.

Q7. Tell what you can of Adam's descendants through Cain.

Q8. Why is special attention given in Chapter 5 to the line of Seth?

Q9. What was the purpose in Satan's causing the intermarriage of Cainites and Sethites as recorded in Genesis 6:1-3?

Q10. Why was the flood necessary?

Lesson 6 MAN'S NEED OF A MEDIATOR

 Lesson 6

MAN'S NEED OF A MEDIATOR

     IN OUR LAST TWO lessons we studied the problems that God faced in providing a Redemption for human. (Lesson 5, here) (Lesson 4, here) .

     After human had died spiritually, his first need was that of receiving Eternal Life, the nature of God. We saw, however, that God could not impart to human His own nature except on grounds of righteousness, which is the second need of human.

     The third need of human was that of a Mediator, some one who could approach God on human's behalf.

     We remember that after his sin of High Treason, Adam was cast from the presence of God. He had lost his fellowship with the Father-God. Human  stood in the unrighteousness of Satan (John 16:11). He had no standing with Deity nor right to approach Him.

     The universal man in his condition of Spiritual Death, recognized that he had no standing with his Creator. The temples, altars and priesthoods of all nations eloquently confess man's consciousness of sin, his fear of death and judgment, and his inability to approach Deity in his own righteousness.

     India, with its millions of priests struggling in absolute hopelessness, leading their soul-hungry people still deeper into darkness, is an illustration of man's conscious need of a Mediator.

Man's Condition Before God

     We have seen in the previous lessons that man's sin united him with Satan.

     Man now stands before God, not only as a subject of Satan politically (Colossians 1:13a), but also as one in vital union with him (Ephesians 2:2 and I John 3:10).

     This identification of man with Satan caused the judgment and unrighteousness of Satan to become his (John 16:11).

     Man became alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18). His mind and understanding became darkened by the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:4).

     Romans 3:9-18 gives fourteen charges against the human race in its condition of Spiritual Death.

     The declaration from the Throne of Deity is that there is none righteous (Romans 3:10), and there is none that understand and seek after God (Romans 3:11).

     Ephesians 2:12 describes the condition of spiritually dead man. He has no covenant claims upon God; he had forfeited every right God had conferred upon him.

     In his creation by the hand of God, man had stood in righteousness with legal grounds of approach and communion with Deity. Adam forfeited these by his treason, and his condition is described as without hope and without God.

     Adam, who had rejoiced in his fellowship with the Father-God, felt immediately after the entrance of Spiritual Death his inability to stand before God. This is shown in Genesis 3:8.

     Man then had need of a mediator, one who could stand before God in righteousness and at the same time represent humanity, and approach God on his behalf.

     Hopeless, and Godless in a world where Satan holds the authority of death, man's condition is certainly desperate. As far as human efforts are concerned, man's condition is hopeless. He has no grounds for prayer; if God hears his prayer, it is upon grounds of Grace alone.

     The Father-God in His love and desire for fellowship with man, immediately made a means of approach unto Himself for man.

     To Adam and his children God gave a medium of approach (Genesis 3:21 and 4:4).

     Israel's approach to God was through tabernacles, priesthoods and offerings.

     Outside of God's appointed way, man had, or has today, no approach to the Father-God.

     From the time of man's alienation from God at the fall, to the time that Christ sat down at the Father's right hand, no man has had a right to approach God except through a Divinely appointed priesthood, over a bleeding sacrifice, dreams, visions, or angelic visitations.

Man's Inability to Approach God

     In the life of Israel we have illustrations of man's attempting to force himself into the presence of God before Eternal Life came through Jesus Christ and justification on the grounds of His Finished Work.

      There are many acts of Divine Justice in the Old Testament which are hard to understand except in the light of man's need of a Mediator.

     Leviticus 10:1-3 is a recorded incident of one of the lessons that was necessary to cause Israel to know its spiritual condition before Deity.

    What a calamitous closing of the dedication of the priesthood. Aaron and his family that morning had been aspiring to the highest point of Divine favor: the tabernacle had been reared; the Shekinah presence had filled it with glory; the majesty of Jehovah was resting upon Israel.

    Behind them lay a series of Divine Miracles that had marked them as God's chosen people, and now Aaron's firstborn heir to the priesthood with his brother is suddenly smitten with death before the whole congregation. What had occasioned it?

     These two sons, lingering near the tent of meeting at noon, in a spirit of bravado or curiosity, took up censers with live coals, poured incense upon them, and entered the Holy of Holies, contrary to God's appointed way. No one but the High Priest could go there, and he could go only once a year.

    Suddenly, the young men stagger, stumble, and fall dead.

     As Aaron stands horrified, shocked and stunned in the presence of the dead, Moses cries to him, "Aaron, this is it that Jehovah spake, saying, I shall be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." And Aaron held his peace. Israel had learned that man could not approach God uninvited and in his own way. 

We have another sample of man's attempt to approach Jehovah unauthorized in

Numbers 16. It is the story of Korah and his rebellion.

Korah and a company of the leaders of Israel are jealous of Moses and Aaron, and

insist that they have as much right to approach Jehovah as have God's appointed High

Priests.

Moses puts the issue to the test in the presence of the whole congregation.

 He invited Korah and his followers to appear before Jehovah with their censers,

ready for worship.

As soon as they came, Moses warned the people to get up from the tents of these

wicked men who dared to approach God uninvited and in their own way.

No sooner had Moses ceased speaking than the earth opened its mouth, and the men

with their families dropped down alive into Sheol.

Israel ran away from the scene, frightened, filled with awe and reverence for such a

holy God.

Another illustration is given to us in I Samuel 6:19. The Ark of the Covenant had

been captured because of Eli's great sin. It had been taken down into Gath by the

Philistines; and after a series of judgments that had fallen upon the heathen cities

because of their desecration of the Ark, they put it on a cart and sent it back to Beth-

shamesh.

The cattle that were drawing the cart turned off the road into the fields. When some

of the people laboring in the field saw the Ark, the news spread rapidly over the hillsides

until thousands of people gathered from the country round about, reverent and curious.

Then a bolder spirit than the others drew near and threw off the heavy covering from

the Ark of the Covenant, and the people for the first time saw that Holy Receptacle of the

Ten Commandments.

Suddenly, a plague struck them, and fifty thousand men fell dead upon the ground.

Awful fear and consternation fell upon the people; beating their breasts, they turned

back to their homes.

It has been shown again that no one can approach God but through a High Priest or

over a bleeding sacrifice. Man, because of his Satanic nature, cannot come into God's

presence uninvited. He needs a Mediator.

Man's Cry for a Mediator

Job voiced man's cry for a Mediator. The theme of his poetry could be called the

question of the ages: "How can man stand right with God?"

The book of Job is the oldest of all the books of the Bible. It was evidently written by

Jobab, a cousin of Abraham, about the time that Jacob went to Egypt. Portions of this

book show how vital a problem was man's need of a Mediator in Job's day.

Read Job 4:12-17. We have a picture of a man asleep in his tent at night. In a

vision he heard a voice saying, "Shall mortal man be just before God? Shall a man be pure before his maker?"(marginal rendering). This is the old and the eternal problemthat has confronted the thinking man of all ages. Can mortal man be justified or acquitted before God? Shall fallen man be pure before his Maker? Note the word

"mortal." The word "mortal'! applies only to the physical body; it means "death-

doomed...... frail"; in other words, a subject of the devil.

    Man became mortal when he passed under the dominion of the devil. The problem is - shall a mortal man, or a death-doomed, or a Satan-ruled man stand uncondemned in the presence of God? Read Job 9:25-35.

    In the ninth chapteohr Job speaks out the deepest soul agony of universal man. He lies in his tent surrounded by those whom he loves. He opens his heart with perfect freedom, speaking the fear that grips his soul in the death struggle. He gives figures of speech that describe the rapidity with which life passes to the aged.

    He continues, "If I say I will forget my calamity, I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer, I am afraid of my sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent; I shall be condemned."

    Every false hope has fled; he is alone with his guilt and despair.

     He says, "What is the use in trying to brighten up and put off my sad countenance; I am afraid of my sorrows."

    It is the frankness of despair. It is the hopelessness of full-orbed knowledge. "I shall be condemned."

    He cries, "Why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow-water and make my hands never so clean; yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me."

    What a picture: "Mine own clothes (or self-righteousness) shall abhor me: for he is not a man, as I am that we should come together in judgment."

    Job knows that he cannot face God, for God is not mortal. He is not under the bondage and guilt of sin as is Job. Then Job utters the saddest words that ever fell from the lips of a human being.

    "There is no umpire betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both."

    In other words, there is no Mediator between us who has a legal standing with God, and at the same time can sympathize and understand as well as represent humanity.

    This is Job's cry for a Mediator; it is not the cry of Job alone, but Job has gathered up the cry of the ages and breathed it forth into one hopeless sob.

    How bitterly he says, "Let him take His rod away from me, and let not His terror make me afraid: then I would speak, and not fear Him; for I am not so in myself."

     Job 25:4-6, "How then can man be just before God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold, even the moon hath no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm, and the son of man, that is a worm!"

     "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" The writer here has the fall of human through Eve before his mind.

     When he tells us that the stars are not pure in the sight of God, he is referring us to Adam's treason when he turned creation into the hands of the devil. Satan has defiled it so that God cannot look with joy upon it.

    In speaking of human as a worm, he shows the depths into which man has fallen. The worm has reference to Satan and the Old Serpent, and man who is termed a worm is spiritually a child of the devil, utterly hopeless and without approach to God.

    Job has voiced clearly man's need of a Mediator.

    Jeremiah recognized that human had need of a Mediator.

    Jeremiah 30:21, "And their Prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is he that hath had boldness to approach unto me? saith Jehovah." The margin reads, "Who hath been surety for his heart that he might approach Me."

   Jeremiah realized that no human had a right to stand in God's presence, nor power to do it, and he tells us that there is one being who will be able to draw near, standing uncondenmed in God's presence. He foretells of the Mediator whom God will provide for human.

Requirements of a Mediator

    We saw that man's need of Eternal Life and righteousness could be met only by the Incarnation of God's Son.

    Again the Incarnation is the only answer to man's need of a Mediator.

    No human being born of natural generation could approach God on man's behalf because of the universality of Spiritual Death.

    The requirements of a Mediator for man are the following:

1. He must be a human, for he must represent humanity.

2. He must possess the capacity to understand and to sympathize with the temptations of human.

3. He must also possess a standing of righteousness with Deity.

4. He must not be a subject of Satan; he must be free from all Satanic authority.

These requirements could be met only by the union of God and man in one individual.

Questions

Q1. What in human history reveals that universal man recognizes that he has no

standing with Deity?

Q2. Give a description of man's standing before God after his sin. Give Scripture.

Q3. Why did man need a Mediator?

Q4. What were the means of approach unto God that were given to Adam and his family?

Q5. What did the incident in Leviticus 10:1-3 reveal to Israel ?

Q6. Explain the two other incidents in the life of Israel that show man's need of a Mediator?

Q7. How did Job voice man's need of a Mediator?

Q8. Explain and give the Scripture in Jeremiah that showed man's need of a Mediator.

 Q9. What were the requirements of a Mediator for man?

Q10. How could man's need of a Mediator be met?

Lesson 5 MAN'S NEED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

       Lesson 5

MAN'S NEED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

    MAN HAS ever accused God of injustice in regard to His dealings with the human race. Man declares that He is not a God of Love or Justice, because He created man in the face of the fact that He knew he would fall.

    Man questions God's right to send one man to Hell and another to Heaven.

    Can God justify Himself in the face of these age-old accusations ?

    The Father-God had a right to create man just as a good man and a good woman have a right to give life to a child.

    Adam was the master of himself. He did not have to yield to Satan unless he chose to do so. He was no "missing link," but he was instead the crown of God's creation, standing in the full light of perfect knowledge.

    We have seen that man was created for joy and peace; and that sin, sickness, sorrow or death had no place in God's original plan. These present conditions of society and the world are not normal.

    God has vindicated Himself and stands acquitted before the human race because He did not leave man in this condition, but provided a Redemption which man could enjoy through faith in Jesus Christ, that would answer man's every need.

A Three-Fold Problem

    Man's need can only be met by his receiving Eternal Life, the Nature of God. God, however, cannot impart to man His very nature and give him the privilege of sonship, until He can do so on legal grounds.

    Therefore, as the Father-God undertakes the redemption of man, independent of man's own works, the first problem He faces is man's need of Righteousness.

    The Book of Romans, which gives us the legal side of our Redemption in Christ, voices this need in the 26th verse of the third chapter. The footnotes of the American Standard Version read: "That He might be righteous and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus."

    This was the problem. Man must be given righteousness. God must have a legal right to declare spiritually dead man, a child of Satan, righteous.

    Man's need of righteousness involved a threefold problem.

    First, God must be righteous in His dealings with man. His transgression must not be overlooked, and the penalty must be paid.

    Second, God must act towards Satan on grounds of absolute justice. God must redeem man from his authority on legal grounds.

    Third, He must not only be just to man and to Satan, but His actions must also be according to His own righteousness. Righteousness is the very foundation of His throne, and the standard must not be lowered. There must be legal grounds on which God can justly judge the human race and compel them to pay the penalty of sin if they reject His Sin-Substitute.

The Penalty of Man's Sin

    When Justice made her demand that man pay the penalty of his crime, man was unable to pay even the interest. There was no mitigation for the crime that man had committed. It was High Treason, an unpardonable sin.

    The penalty of man's sin was Hell!

    Knowing the nature of man's sin, we can understand the reason for Hell. Man is eternal. Angels are eternal. When men and angels become criminals, they become eternal criminals.

    Man is a spirit, and there must be an eternal spirit home for man.

    When man became a spirit criminal, it was necessary that after death he be taken to jail, to await the White Throne Judgment. After judgment, at which time he receives his sentence, he must then be committed to the federal prison.

    Hell was not prepared for man (Matthew 25:41). Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

    God intended originally that man should live on the earth eternally. The earth was made for this purpose, and man possessed an eternal human body: but when he sinned and became mortal, it was necessary for Hell to be fitted for his confinement.

    Being an eternal criminal, there must be a place of eternal restraint for him. There must be a prison; the criminals must be segregated. If they were permitted to roam indiscriminately through eternity, they would demoralize the new heaven and earth.

    We have jails, state prisons, and federal prisons for the criminals who break the laws of man, with life imprisonment for habitual criminals.

    Who can raise a protest against God if He has a prison in which are incarcerated the men who violate the laws of Heaven, and who are eternal criminals?

    The universal human believes in some kind of Hell or place of confinement for punishment after death, and this testimony is not easily ruled out of court. There is no type of testimony so convincing to a jury and judge as the testimony of universal human consciousness.

God's Justice Toward Satan

    God, in restoring righteousness to man, must not take advantage of Satan. Adam's sin of High Treason gave Satan a legal right to rule creation, and made man his legal subject and slave. God, in His omnipotence, is stronger than Satan, but He must strip him of his authority in such a way that he is dealt with justly. The plan that is to be enacted must be upon unquestionably legal grounds.

God's Justice Toward Man

    In dealing with man on the grounds of justice, God must recognize the transgression and see that the penalty is paid. Man's redemption must be legitimate, thus allowing the redeemed man to maintain his self-respect, knowing that he was justified on legal grounds.

    When man sinned, he became a partaker of Satan's nature; and, as a result of his transgression, he must be incarcerated in Hell. Someone must go there and pay his penalty so that man can be given Eternal Life and a standing before God as though he had never sinned.

    This redemption will free man from the penalty of going to Hell. If he refuses it, and persists in his union with Satan, then he must share the fate of such a one.

 What the Redemption Must Include

    The penalty of Adam's transgression must be adequately paid, so that man can be delivered from Satanic dominion. There must also be placed into the hands of man a weapon of defense and offense. Man must be given authority by which he can meet Satan and conquer him in honorable combat.

    A resurrection of man's physical body and Immortality must be granted, because human at the beginning had a perfect human body. Man must now be given an immortal body over which death can have no dominion or authority.

    Again, there must be a restoration of the earth to the Edenic glory and beauty; it must be on such a basis that there can never again be a recurrence of Satanic dominion.

    Man's redemption must include a New Creation, receiving God's Life or Nature, a perfect righteousness, and a perfect reconciliation of fellowship, so that man will feel at home with God once more.

     God must be able to give him a son's place in His heart, as well as in Creation, so that righteousness, Sonship privileges, and the fullest fellowship will be man's eternal rights. No redemption that does not give these three great blessings will reach man's needs. God, Himself, Must Provide a Redeemer

    This redemption for man that will restore righteousness to him, must emanate from God. No man himself could meet the demands of Justice on behalf of the human race; for every man born of natural generation is a broken, helpless slave, in the hands of an enemy who rules him, and who has the authority to cast him into Hell. No man can stand before God for himself, for the whole human race is under indictment. Therefore, there is not a man who can represent the human race before God.

The Requirements of the Redeemer

    This Redeemer must be a man. This man, however, must not be born of natural generation. He must be conceived in such a manner that He will not be a subject of Satan. He must not possess within His spirit nature, spiritual death.

     He must stand before God as the first Adam stood . . . in righteousness, possessing the same dominion and authority.

    He must walk on this earth as a man, perfectly pleasing to the Father. He must meet Satan in temptation, as the first man and woman had met him, but He must not yield to Satan's will.

    This man must then act as man's substitute. Man's sin, spiritual death itself, must be laid upon this man. Then the judgment of Satan must fall upon Him. He must meet the demands of Justice. In order to do this, He must go to Hell. He must remain there, under judgment, until every legal requirement of Justice has been fully satisfied against the human race. He must stay there and suffer until God can legally acquit every human being who takes Him as Savior, and every human being who trusted in the Blood Covenant from the beginning.

    Not only must this Redeemer be free from Satanic dominion in His earth-walk, but He must be a being greater than Satan . . . One who, after the penalty has been paid, will be able to conquer Satan, taking from him his lordship and legal dominion over man. He must conquer death, bringing life and immortality to the broken, bondaged human.

    No angel can act as man's redeemer, for an angel could not meet the demands of justice. No man could fulfill the requirements of Justice for a Redeemer, because of his union with and subjection to Satan.

    Only God is greater than Satan; therefore, God and man must be united in one individual. The Incarnation is the only answer to man's need of righteousness. Only the union of God and man will provide a Redeemer Who will walk in righteousness as a man, with the ability to pay man's penalty and conquer Satan.

    Deity must suffer for man. God had created a man in the face of the fact that He knew he would fall. The responsibility of such a creation rested on the Father-God. He must provide a Redemption. The only way for humanity to be given Righteousness is the  Incarnation of God's own Son.

    God's beloved Son must come out of the Father's bosom, lay aside His Glory and Majesty that He had enjoyed with the Father. He must come to earth, taking upon Himself the physical body of a human.

    He must walk as a son, pleasing the Father, and conquering Satan in His earth-walk as a man.

    Then God must take man's sin-nature, that hideous, monstrous thing, spiritual death, and lay it upon the spirit of His Holy Eternal Son. The Son must go under judgment, and the wrath and indignation of Eternal Justice must be meted out toward Him.

    When He has paid the penalty for man, He shall be made righteous, and that righteousness will become man's.

    It was through one man that judgment had come; therefore, one man without sin shall be able, on legal grounds, to pay that penalty, so the human race shall be declared free from guilt and unrighteousness if they confess the Lordship of the Incarnate One.

    The conclusion of our lesson is this . . . man's need of Eternal Life demands first, righteousness, and man's need of righteousness demands the Incarnation.

A Study in the Scriptures Covered in the Lesson Scriptures revealing the unrighteousness of man:

Romans 1:18, "The wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man."

Romans 3:9-10, "All under sin: none righteous, no not one."

Romans 5:16-18, "Of one unto condemnation."

Romans 5:19, "The many were made sinners."

Scriptures revealing that judgment rested upon man:

Romans 5:16-18, "Through one trespass the judgment came unto all men."

John 16:8, "Convicted of judgment."

John 16:11, "Of judgment because the prince of this world hath been judged." Satan's judgment became man's.

John 3:36, "The wrath of God abideth on him."

Scriptures Showing Hell as the Place of Confinement

Psalm 9:17, "The wicked turned unto Sheol."

Revelation 20:13-15, if any was not found written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.

 II Peter 2:4, "But cast them down to Hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved unto judgment."

Scriptures showing the inability of man to redeem himself:

Ephesians 2:12, "No hope, and without God."

Isaiah 59:15-16, God saw there was no righteousness, no man to act on man's behalf: therefore His own arm brought salvation and righteousness to him.

Romans 3:20, by the works of the law shall no flesh be accounted righteous (footnotes of the American Standard Version).

I John 3:10, "Children of Satan."

John 8:34, he that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin.

Ephesians 2:2-3, walking according to Satan.

Colossians 1:13, man in the authority of Satan.

Hebrews 2:14-15, Satan holds the dominion of the realm of spiritual death, and man in bondage to him.

Scriptures revealing that Christ, the Incarnate One, did meet the requirements of Justice as man's Redeemer:

In His earth-walk: John 8:29, "For I do always the things that are pleasing to Him."

As man's Sin-Substitute: 11 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:4-6; and Romans 4:25.

As the Conqueror of Satan: 

Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15; Philippians 2:9-10; and Revelation 1:18.

Questions

Q1. How has God vindicated Himself of the charge of injustice ?

Q2. Why was the penalty of man's transgression Hell?

Q3. What was involved within the problem of God's justice toward man?

Q4. What did God's justice toward Satan demand?

Q5. Why was no man able to redeem humanity?

Q6. (a) Name the requirements that a Redeemer must meet

(b) What is His work on man's behalf to be?

Q7. What must man's Redemption include?

Q8. Describe the fellowship between the new man in Christ and God.

Q9. Give a Scripture showing:

(a) Man's unrighteousness.

(b) The judgment that rested on man.

(c) Man's inability to make himself righteous.

Q10. Did you study each Scripture?

Lesson 4 THE REIGN OF SPIRITUAL DEATH

 Lesson 4

THE REIGN OF SPIRITUAL DEATH

    IN OUR LAST LESSON ( click  here ) , we saw the entrance of spiritual death into the life of man.

    This explains the dominance and persistence of sin in its kingly sway over humanity.

    Human has become a partaker of Satanic Nature, spiritual death. The reign of spiritual death heads up in Satan.

    Ephesians 2:1-5 reveals human's condition of spiritual death, a child of wrath, his life ordered by Satan who has become the prince of the powers of the air.

    There is no logical reason for man's response to intelligently organized sin, unless man's nature and will are in fellowship with it.

    The Father-God had made known His will to man. His will was for man to eat of the Tree of Life, to partake of His Nature.

    There are three wills in the world: God's will, Satan's will, and human's will. Just as human is dependent upon God or Satan for his spiritual life, his will must be in harmony with God's will or Satan's.

    Matthew 6:24 gives the New Testament explanation. A man cannot serve two masters at once. He will love one or the other. He will serve God or Satan.

    Man in the Garden refused God's will. He sought his own will. However, in seeking his will in freedom from God's, that will became in bondage to Satan's will.

    We now turn to study the reign of Spiritual Death in the life of man who was created in God's image, and to find the only answer to the spiritually-dead man's need.

The Reign of Spiritual Death Begins

    The Dominion of Satan's will over Adam's began the moment Adam obeyed his voice.

    What a horrible awakening it is to man . . . Satan's nature breathed into his spirit.

    Ephesians 2:4. He is now, by nature, a child of wrath.

    Genesis 3:8-13. He no longer responds to the call of God. Their fellowship has been broken. Man responds to the call of his new master, Satan.

    Genesis 3:22,24. He is an outlaw, an outcast from the garden, with no legal ground of approach to God.

    Genesis 3:24, "So He drove out the man, and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of a sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life." (Study here) We have not realized the significance of this act on the part of God.

    It would have been an unthinkable crime for the Nature of God and the nature of Satan to have been united in one individual, so Adam must not have access now to the Tree of Life. We cannot imagine the kind of being which would have resulted from this union. It is enough to know that it would have made Redemption an impossibility.

    Genesis 4:8. Spiritual Death now becomes a hideous reality to Adam. His first 'son', Cain,  murders his second, Abel, and lying about it afterwards. The two characteristics of Satan are manifested in the life of human. He is a murderer and a liar. 

    Adam is made to feel with keenness the effect of his treason. He has not only sinned against God, but also against the human race yet unborn.

   Genesis 4:26. A little grandchild is born into the family and Adam names him "Enosh." "Enosh" means mortal, frail, death-doomed, or Satan-ruled. He names the first grandchild in memory's bitter regret of his sin.

   Genesis 3:17-19. At the rising of each sun, perfect beauty had gladdened man's eyes; now he lifts them to devastation manifested everywhere. Worms, briars and thorns abound.

    The Iron Will of Spiritual Death has breathed hatred into the nature of the animal kingdom. To the ears of Adam come discordant cries of malice and suffering; while before his eyes the carcasses of animals and insects lie rotting in the sun.

    Adam himself grovels under the Iron Will of Satan. He finds that his nature is no longer in fellowship with God. He has lost love; his rest, joy and peace are gone.

Spiritual Death and the Birth of Reason

    Spiritual Death caused man to cease walking in the realm of his spirit. Hitherto man had walked in the Spirit realm with his Creator. His spirit had dominated and ruled. It had been the Faith Realm, the realm of Omnipotent power where faith spoke words into being and substance.

    Romans 4:17. It was the realm of Him who called the things that are not, as though they were.

    Adam had walked as the under-ruler of the One who had framed the worlds out of the things which are not, by faith in His Word (Hebrews 11:3).

    Now that man's union with God is severed, man's ability is severed from God's ability. Man's word is severed from God's Word.

    Man has fallen from the realm of God's ability into the realm of human ability. In this realm he is dependent upon his own resources. The resources of man are limited to his mind and his body. The mind can derive its knowledge only through the senses of man's physical body. The five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell become the doors and windows of his mind.

    Man forms his conception of the world and himself by means of these senses. He orders his life by what he sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells. The senses bring the material to the mind, and reason draws its own conclusions from the material of sensation. Faith has died, the supernatural is lost, and Reason is born.

    Romans 8:1-11 gives an exposition of the natural man in his walk and life ordered by the senses of his physical body.

    Romans 8:6, "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God." The mind of the flesh is composed of the deductions made from the material of sensation which the mind receives from the physical senses.

    In other words, Reason, the product of man's senses, has always been enmity toward the knowledge of God, Faith, or any act that is above the realm of human ability.

    Civilization becomes a cultivation of the arts which please the senses. Regardless of hhow high human's aims may be, he cannot rise above the level of his senses.

    The walk in the spirit is lost. The cry of the spirit remains unanswered. At the dawn of human history, reason gains the supremacy.

 Spiritual Death and Civilization

    The history of the human race has been a revelation of I John 5:19, "The whole world lieth in the embrace of the evil one" (literal translation).

    Sin has ruled as a king in the realm of spiritual death, where man lives under the cruel Emperor, Satan.

    Every effort of man has failed to eradicate the power of sin. Education has failed.

    History confesses that every rise in civilization has been accompanied by a decline in morals.

    War has dominated in every period of the life of every nation, destroying the youth and strength of humanity. It has brought untold suffering to man. Its cruelty is but a manifestation of Satanic Dominion at work in its destruction of man.

    Man has been unable to strike at the root and the cause of sin, sickness and death.

    The law of disease has fastened itself upon the human body, blighting and scourging humanity. Death is the supreme problem that all men at all periods have faced. It casts its shadow upon every happiness born in the senses of human.

    Mankind, lying in the embrace of Satan, cries in agony against this vain struggle which only ends in a hopeless death and doom. Despite the blighting curse, creation teems with marks of beauty and harmony. The marks and design of an intelligent Creator are yet made manifest. Yet man can see no reason for his short span of life between birth and hopeless death. He is born to die; he brings no joy to himself nor his Creator. His spirit hungers for God, but he cannot find Him.

    His reason concludes that his Creator is not a God of Love; therefore, he rejects the revelation of a Father-God.

    A scientist, expressing the sentiment of the age, in contemplating on the life of man, said, "The God of the Christians is not a God of Love; the Sisters of Charity are kinder than He."

    Man, blinded by his spiritual father, Satan, does not know that at the dawn of human history, Satan, the enemy of God, became the ruler of this world. He does not know that by the trespass of the one, death seized the Sovereignty.

    Spiritual Death, the nature of Satan, is the soil out of which has grown sin, sickness, physical death, and every sorrow that has darkened the life of God's man.

Man's Need of Eternal Life

    Ephesians 4:17-18 gives a picture of humanity as a result of the entrance of Spiritual Death into the life of Adam. See also Romans 5:12.

Man is alienated from the life of God. He is walking in the Realm of Reason, in the

vanity of his mind, and that mind is darkened and blinded by indwelling spiritual death

(11 Corinthians 4:4).

Man is utterly helpless to redeem himself by his own efforts from his condition. After

Adam had obeyed Satan, bringing himself and his authority under Satanic subjection,

he had no authority to free himself from that condition. As far as human efforts were

concerned, one man had sealed the fate of the human race (I Corinthians 15:22).

No man could ever redeem humanity, for every man would be under Satanic

dominion. If man were ever to be Redeemed, someone greater than Satan must

undertake on man's behalf. God, Himself, must redeem humanity.

   This Redemption demands more than that God merely forgive the sins of man.

    Although God should forgive the sin of Adam and of all men, man's Redemption would not be touched. The power and authority of sin over the life of man would still remain.

    It would be necessary for man to be continually granted forgiveness for his sins.

    Such was the condition of Israel.

   Hebrews 10:11. Every high priest stood daily ministering and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices for the sins of Israel. God's Covenant people were still spiritually dead, and needed continual forgiveness for sins which were the outgrowth of that condition.

    Hebrews 10:3. There was continual remembrance in the mind of God of Israel's condition of spiritual death.

    Forgiveness of sins alone would not break the relationship that existed between man and his spiritual father, Satan. It would not grant fellowship between God and man, or the Father-God's making His home with man.

    Redemption must be more than forgiveness.

    Redemption must be the giving of a New Nature, a New Life to man.

    Redemption meant a New Creation in the spirit of man. Man's need can only be met by his receiving the Nature of God within his spirit.

    First, spiritual death must be absolutely destroyed in the life of man. The nature of

     Satan must be completely eradicated from man's nature, so that he can stand as free from Satanic authority as though he had never died spiritually.

    Romans 6:6. The body of sin, spiritual death, must be done away.

    Colossians 1:13. Man must be delivered from the authority of Satan.

    Hebrews 2:14. Satan, who reigns in the realm of death, must be dethroned from his position as Lord of man.

    Hebrews 2:15. Man must be delivered from even any fear of his old master who had held him in bondage. Then man will be free to receive the Life of God.

    Genesis 3:24. We remember that God had driven man from the Garden of Eden, so that man would have no access to the Tree of Life while he was spiritually dead.

    Man's need is Life, the Nature of God, but God cannot impart His own Nature to man until He first makes it legally possible for man to be freed from the Nature of Satan.

    We see that forgiveness on the part of God, and reformation or education on the part of man, would not strike at the root of sin, spiritual death.

    Just as Adam had been born again of Satanic nature when he sinned, man who is by nature a child of wrath, must be born again, born of the life of God (John 3:7).

    This will make him a son of God. Read John 1:12 and I John 5:1.

    This Life of God within the spirit of man will set him free from the law of sin (Romans 8:2).

     1 John 2:6. The Nature of God will give to man the ability to walk with the Father as Christ walked with Him.

    Jesus Christ, although tempted by Satan, was able to walk absolutely in the Father's will, pleasing Him. See Luke 3:22 and John 5:30.

    This was due to the fact that He did riot belong to the realm of spiritual death, but possessed the Life of God. Eternal Life within the spirit of man today, makes him an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17). The man who has been born   again stands before the Father as Christ stood in His earth-walk, and has the same freedom from Satanic dominion, and ability to please the Father, as Christ had. Read John 17:14-18; John 17:22-23 and I Corinthians 1:30.

    Eternal Life will set man free from the law of disease (1 Peter 2:24).

    Romans 8:11 is Dot referring to the Resurrection.   The word "mortal" means "death-doomed." Therefore, the word ,'mortal" cannot refer to the condition of our bodies after death, for they are then no longer death-doomed, but destroyed by death, and await immortality at the second coming of Christ. Eternal Life dwelling within these bodies will give Life and healing to them now.

   Romans 8:11 states that if the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you, then God will also give life to your mortal body through that same Spirit. This verse emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit to bring life and transformation to believers.

    Man's receiving of Eternal Life will make it possible for him to receive the spirit of God and for God to dwell in him. Read 2 Corinthians 6:16 and Ephesians 3:14-21. [What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."~ 2 Corinthians 6:16] [Ephesians 3:14-21, Apostle Paul Prayer for the Ephesians;¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.]

    This brings man again into the realm of God's ability, the realm where all things are possible (Matthew 17:20).

    Man will be able to walk again in the realm of his spirit -the faith-realm-where he lives by the Word of God (Luke 4:4).

    Eternal Life will meet the need of man, and the heart cry of the Father for fellowship; but before Eternal Life can be given to man, he must be declared righteous, and God must have a legal right to take man from the family of Satan into His family.

Questions

Q1. Name the three wills that are in the world.

Q2. Explain Matthew 6:24.

Q3. Why was man driven from the Garden of Eden after he died spiritually?

Q4. What incident reveals the working of spiritual death within the sons of Adam?

Q5. Why did reason gain the supremacy over Faith?

Q6. How does civilization reveal the fact that spiritual death dwells within the spirit of

man?

Q7. Explain why forgiveness for sins alone will not meet the need of lost man.

Q8. Why must God undertake for man's Redemption?

Q9. Why and how will Eternal Life meet man's needs?

Q10. Explain Romans 8:11.

(Be sure to look up and study carefully all Scripture references.)