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Life began very simply.
God formed man, as a potter shapes a vessel of clay, out of the elements
of that which he had already created and then breathed into the
inanimate form the breath of life. The vessel of flesh and blood,
lifeless in itself, became a breathing creature when quickened by the
breath of life, the Spirit of God. The listless structure of the human
body became a living, breathing entity because it had been energized by
the essence of all life--God. The flesh of created man and the Spirit of
Creator God met together in perfect union to constitute a living,
breathing creature.
Moreover, newly formed man lived his life in simplicity. As a child
experiences life with the warmth and safety of an earthly father, the
first of mankind experienced his life in the embrace of the love of his
heavenly Father. Experiencing the greatest possible expression of life,
the original man and the original woman encountered the days of their
lives in the providential care of God Himself. God provided all that was
needed to experience the glory of paradise.
It would not be long, however, until all would not be well in paradise.
Man desired not to live in the simplicity of the innocence of a child
enjoying the continual expression of God’s love. Using the God-given
freedom of his intellect, he began to think that it would be better for
him to be a god himself. He began to believe that he himself, making
God-like decisions, could direct the course of his life. With the
now-perceived ability of the freedom of choice, man would attempt to
control his own experiences. He now believed that the power of the times
and the seasons of life were within his jurisdiction.
Although man would now continually struggle to solve moral issues, he
unknowingly had created a greater impediment in his life. For the
perverted struggle of good and evil only became a problem when the
intricacies of the mind began to perceive it can produce the essence of
life by its own activity. The fruit of the forbidden "tree of the
knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:16–3:24) brought man into an
endless maze. Desperately searching, yet never able to fulfill his
dreams, aspirations, or longing for the unadulterated joy of living, man
became lost in his own thinking.
The curse of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil is that the mind can only attempt to live within its own thinking.
In turn, it will only be able to think on that which it has encountered.
It becomes trapped in its own limitations to get outside of itself. Man
simply cannot get to God from where he now resides, from within the
framework of his thinking.
It was the consumption of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil that brought Jesus Christ into the physical world. He said,
"For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not
might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the
Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are
we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no
sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John
9:39–41). Jesus came to undo the seeing of man, bringing man back to
the innocence of his mind.
When this deliverance occurs, when the misguided mind is conquered by
Jesus, man is restored to a state of innocence (freedom from guile or
cunning: simplicity). The grace of God flows in his life, producing the
greatest possible manifestation of the life of God in man. Living now of
the kingdom of God as opposed to living of the kingdom of men, man
experiences once again the free flow of the love of God. He experiences
the unadulterated manifestation of Jesus Christ in his life. |
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