god with us - the book

8/9/2019 God With Us - The Book

1/46

The Immanuel Project

The Immanuel Project: God with Us

Introduction - Sovereignty: Its all about you, Jesus

CENTRAL THEME

Many opinions abound concerning the central theme of the Bible and

the eternal question asked by mankind, Why am I here? Some touch

on mans relation to God; others delve into mans eternal destiny, and

the list goes on. However, I would submit that the central theme has

little to do with man and his visions of grandeur and much to do about

God.

Shelley Nirider sings a beautiful song on the Passion albums called Jesus, Lover of My Soul.

The most enlightening portion of this song lies in the subtitle, Its all About You. This song

portrays in a concise manner the very approach Christians must take concerning all things.

It's all about you, JesusAnd all this is for You

For Your glory and Your fameIt's not about me

As if You should do things my wayAnd You alone are God

And I surrender to Your waysThe book of Job runs headlong into an area that many in the Christian community are not

ready to face. An area that man, who has spent ages centering the universe around himself,

acknowledges but doesnt comprehend.

Teachings abound concerning the book of Job many focusing on Job, the man, by examining

why this righteous person was having so much evil poured out upon his life. Even the brief

observation into the heavenly realms does not provide the answer to the question proposed,

Why do the righteous suffer? Jobs friends didnt know, Job had no clue and interestingly

enough, God wasnt about to tell him. No one seems to realize that Job never gets an answer

to the question Why?

Elihu seemed to be the only individual that operated with an understanding of mans relation to

God. Who are we, and how can we compare our thinking with God?Page 1 of 46


2/46


The book in your hands presents the only valid view about mankind and his relationship with

God. The wakeup call centers on one key factor Gods purpose.

Page 2 of 46


3/46


Preface

Anyone that studies the Bible with any amount of vigor knows about the mystery of the Gospel

that Paul talks about so many times in his letters. But if quizzed, I wonder how many could

actually define the true depth of that mystery?

In writing this book, I dont claim to understand the full breath of the mystery of God. That

would be too presumptuous for any man. The mystery I propose to those reading this pertains

to the great mystery encompassing our salvation and the price God paid to be with us. Yes,

thats what I said, to be with us. You see, the focus of our salvation belongs to God, not

us. If you get nothing else out of this book, understand that your salvation belongs to God! He

planned it before man sinned; He manifested it when we did not know how badly we needed it;

He purchased it though there was nothing to gain except a bunch of unrighteous createdbeings; He provided it free of charge to any who accept it. He owns the ones Hes purchased.

He holds the bragging rights!

The question Why? should exist within every humble and repentant heart. Why should an

infinite (with no beginning or ending), omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing),

omnipresent (everywhere) and transcendent (dwelling outside our physical universe) God step

into time and space to alter the course of history for a degenerate society of clueless beings?

So, as you enter into your time of reading, you must set aside yourself and focus completely

on the Creator God. You must ask yourself Why? What I present in this book could

potentially lead you into a newer, fresher and deeper relationship with God than you ever

dreamed possible. I want to get you past the acquaintance level relationship with God and

even past the friendship level relationship that many attain to. I want to encourage you to

establish a relationship that leads you to know a knowable God in the intimate way that I

believe He designed. Moses, Abraham, Joseph, Enoch, Elijah and Daniel walked in it. Jesus

showed us how we could do it. Now grab your Bible, your love letter from God, and follow me

as we discover a God that wants nothing more than to be with you.

Page 3 of 46


4/46


Chapter 1: Confining the Infinite

One of the greatest tragedies in reading the Bible, which proclaims to be the Word of God, lies

in our human limitations. A finite being struggles with understanding the unfathomable. How

can man understand God? Or how can we understand even remotely some of His basiccharacteristics. We use simple terms like omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence and

believe we have defined some aspect of God in a human delineated fashion; however, even

though our limited vocabulary contains over two hundred thousand words it cant even scratch

the surface when it comes to describing an infinite God.

Simply put, mankind cannot understand the eternal nature of God. God exists in a realm that

does not computer to the human brain. He exists outside of our time dimension. He sees the

past and the future in totality. Nothing ever surprises Him, and no event ever happened thatHe forgets. God operates in infinite mode. I like to challenge people with the following thought

provoking illustration to demonstrate my point about conceptualizing the infinite.

Most Christians know John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in

Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life

The last part of that verse reads, will not perish but have everlasting life. Most believers

understand that the Christians destiny in Christ leads to eternal life living forever. What a

concept! Imagine for a moment that you will never cease to exist. You will breath, live, talk,

worship and exist FOREVER! It sort of blows the mind.

Now that you took that first step in understanding future aspects of infinity, let us delve a little

deeper. A problem exists in our understanding of a never ending future. Though you can

perhaps discern the notion of an unending future in some simple fashion, we have a limitation.

We use a beginning reference point to carry forward our understanding of eternal things. You

were born. You started. You can conceptualize endless things from the starting point. But

when you remove that reference point, what happens?

For just a moment, think about never being created never having a beginning. That concept

rubs us wrong. Everything began. This defies the law of cause and effect, which essentially

Page 4 of 46


5/46


states that every effect in the universe was caused by something else. Even with Christian

understanding, we hit roadblocks to grasping the concept of never beginning.

Everything we see and know had a start. The car I drive started as iron ore that someone

refined into metal that someone else fashioned into parts that someone else put together. If

you believe in evolutionary theory, you believe that iron ore came from an explosion in spacebillions of years ago. The strange part is, I never met an evolutionist yet that explained how

matter came from nothing. All matter in the universe started somewhere, so what existed

before matter existed.

If you are a creationist, you can look at the Bible and read the story about Seth. He had a

beginning; the Bible says that he was born to Adam and Eve. His mother and fathers act

caused his existence, but what about Adam and Eve? Where did they come from?

Adam and Eve were caused or created by Gods hand. Adam was formed from dust and Eve

was formed from Adam. Both had a source a beginning. For Adam, it was dust, for Eve, it

was Adam. But where did God come from? Who caused him?

Even some Christians fall victim to the worlds evolutionary idea that it took 13.7 billion years

for the universe to evolve into its present form. But no matter how much time you add to the

creation of the universe, you have an infinite problem Where did anything come from?

According to the understanding of cause and effect, you get to a point where you no longerhave a starting point. You get to a point where what you exists with no cause because it

always existed. At this point, you reached God.

To rebel against that probability, some evolutionists state that the universe explodes, evolves,

implodes and then starts all over again. They call this the Big Bounce theory. The previous

universe collapsed in on itself and then blew up.1 But even it doesnt explain where that

universes matter came from. This looping theory will keep going and going with no beginning

in sight because everything exists because of something else causing it to come into being.

The well proven scientific law of cause and effect does not apply to God. Nothing caused

Him to exist; He has always been because He exists outside of our physical universe and time

domain. The Bible illustrates this in Gods introduction. In the beginning God2 Nothing

existed before him because He existed before time began.

Page 5 of 46


6/46


Einstein defined time itself as a property of our physical universe, and it can be altered by

gravitational forces according to his theory of general relativity. Look at all the physical

properties that God created in the first three verses of Genesis chapter one: time in the

beginning, space God created the heavens, matter and the earth and energy and He

said, let there be light. Do you realize that this same God that lives inside you and created the

world needed to create the space in which to place the entire universe? In the beginning, only

God existed. God created all the physical laws that govern our universe in the first three

verses of Genesis, but what happened for eternity before that? Where did God come from?

At first it seems to be a simple answer, but the more you investigate, you come to realize that

the understanding proves tougher to grasp.

He came from nowhere because He always existed.

When God reveals to Moses his name (another way of defining your very being) he uses the

most common subject and verb expression to denote all that He represents I am. In it God

says, I am not new; I have always been. 3

Now, just for a moment, try to imaging never experiencing a beginning no birthday, because

your birth never happened. It goes beyond our human comprehension. This stumbling block

befuddles man because it falls outside the framework of his understanding.

So, as a Christian, whether you want to go with the world and believe that it took billions ofyears, or you choose to believe God when he says that He did it in six days a few thousand

years ago, you must still wrestle with the infinite for those of you that believe God took

billions of years to evolve everything, where did the material come from that caused the big

bang? Every atom in the universe formed somewhere. And if you say that God created it,

how long did that take? Couldnt He just make it all good the first time? If God can create

time, He surely could create everything instantly with the appearance of time.

We see this in the creation account recorded in Genesis. God creates everything so that it has

the appearance of time. God did not create man as a fertilized egg. He created him as a full

grown man. In the same way, God created trees, shrubs, fish, dogs and cats. Since God

created time, He could easily create the appearance of time as seen in the earth and universe.

Page 6 of 46


7/46


Do you think the trees God created had rings? Did pine needles cover the ground? Did river

valleys exist, beach erosions decorate the landscape, and what about Adams teeth? Baby

or adult?

Faith begins where understanding ends. And yet, we grow in understanding as our faith

increases. God wants us to lean more on His understanding (which is our faith) and less onour own.4

I wager that most people give up trying to understand the concept of the infinite. Why?

Human limitations prevent us from grasping it. This fundamental understanding makes the

premise for the book you are reading even more mind-boggling. What possible motive drives

an infinite God to confine Himself in flesh and want to dwell among men?

The Bible reveals the good news that God decided to intervene in human history throughJesus Christ. He took an active role in creation, laying aside robes of deity for robes of

mortality.5

This event, known as the incarnation, broke history in two. God got involved with His creation.

He walked and talked with His created beings. He suffered at the hands of the very physical

laws that He created. He ate to stay alive, slept to maintain sanity, breathed so as to not faint.

At any time a runaway donkey pulling a cart could run him down while he crossed the street,

so He needed to look both ways before He crossed the street just like we teach our kids to dotoday.

Philippians 2 provides a little insight into the depth which God descended in order to reach out

to man. Verses 6-8 should confound even the wisest of us about Jesus role, who being in

very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made

himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being

found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even

death on a cross! (NIV)

Let us break this down a bit. Even though He existed in nature as God, he set aside the Godly

robes of his infinite existence to put on human robes of limitations. He set not aside his deity,

just his form. His function stayed the same; He could still forgive sins as only God could do6.

He still called Himself the I Am7, but His form was forever altered.

Page 7 of 46


8/46


It reminds me of the story of the prince and the pauper. You remember it from Disney, staring

Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse. Both the prince and the pauper looked alike, and so, one

day they switched places. The prince put on peasants clothes while the pauper donned royal

splendor. However, try as he might, the prince could not escape that that royal blood and

coursed through his veins making him the heir to the throne, though he became subject to

some of the rules of the villagers. He still took take back his kingdom.

Jesus, in similar fashion, donned mortality disrobing immorality. He stepped into mans finite

shoes setting aside the infinite. Jesus himself says this in so many words when he promises

the gift of the Holy Spirit. He told His disciples that His leaving allowed Him to send comforter,

the Holy Spirit. Why? In his present human form, Jesus only existed in one place at a time.

The Holy Spirit, in His form, exists in everyone at one time.8

He also subjected himself to death. What does this mean? To understand what Paul saud,

you must first understand the different meanings for death in the Bible. The first, physical

death means that the flesh fails and everyones fate end the same; we physically stop

breathing and die. Second, spiritual death9 results from human sin. When we come into this

world as a baby, we are actually born spiritually dead. Our eternal destiny lies in hell right out

of the gate. It takes salvation found in Jesus to breathe the breath of life into our dead spirits

so that we might live.

The third death experience occurs to those cast into the lake of fire (ghenna) at the end of all

things. Ghenna represents the second death10 (as John calls it). What makes this death so

bad rests not in the lake itself, though you would think that would be enough. The worst part of

hell lies in the fact that God does not exist in hell. Gods omnipresence stops at the gates of

ghenna.

Even Hades, the place Jesus described in His story of Lazarus and the rich man11, contained

godly people within earshot. The rich man suffering in torment saw and spoke with Abraham

across the great canyon that divided them. What torture that must have been. The rich man

agonized so much that of all the things to ask for, he asked for one drop of water to cool his

tongue.

Hades tortured people because they always crave but satisfaction never came. Torment came

in ways man cant even dream up. Ever wanted something so bad that you would do anything

Page 8 of 46


9/46


to get it, but you cant? It just burns you up inside. You crave it, but you it lies outside your

reach. Hades exhibits that a trillion times over. When you die without Christ, you go to Hades

until the end after Christ rules and reigns for 1000 years. At that time, Jesus casts Hades

occupants into a place known as ghenna or the Lake of Fire. .

In ghenna or Hell, Abraham no longer lies within earshot. Light eludes you. And mostimportantly, Gods exists elsewhere and no hint of Him ensures. The totality of the second

death and complete separation from God for eternity in a lake of fire with the antichrist, Satan,

unrepentant humans, demons and fallen angels suffering follows you always.12 Paradise does

not exist across the way; saintly conversations fade from the background. The only sounds

emanating from ghenna come from the endless wailing and gnashing of teeth of those

suffering.13

Jesus experienced this second death briefly while hanging on the cross. God turned His back

on Him because of the sin of the world that he was bearing. The only complaint Jesus utters

on the cross is My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? 14 He experienced something

that for eternity had not taken place. He felt Gods presence leave him while He took on the

sin of the world. God the Father, for the first time, took His loving eyes off his One and Only

Son. Dont think this was any small matter. Jesus experienced the second death in our stead

when His Father forsook Him on the Cross.

We must understand that the wages of our sin is death total separation from God. The price

must be paid by everyone. No exemptions or immunity exists from the price tag.

Unfortunately, when you purchase something that cost you your life, you wont get the

opportunity to enjoy it. The reason lies in the fact that your death does not purchase eternal

life; your death repays a debt.

God created mankind with eternal life before Adam sinned. The sin committed caused man to

drop below perfection. We dont have enough in our lifes bank account to repay that debt

even with our whole life. Therefore, we need to have someone with a bigger checkbook, so to

speak, in order to pay the price we cant pay to obtain eternal life.

The price tag for our sin only takes into consideration our debt to sin, not our eternal life. Only

God could pay both the debt to sin and give us to ability to regain the eternal life that was lost.

That part required Gods forgiveness.

Page 9 of 46


10/46


Let me summarize that point this way. The payment for sin is your death (separation from

God.) Everyone is required to pay that debt. However, repayment of the debt does not allow

us to regain what we lost. It only repays a debt leaving us with nothing.

Gods grace and forgiveness makes us regain our lost lives. Millions upon countless millions

will one day repay the debt to sin; even Satan is paying that debt. But it doesnt regaincitizenship. God returns citizenship to us through receiving something we dont deserve. God

calls this grace. We receive grace only by accepting grace. The gift of grace makes it truly

unique. It cant be bought, borrowed, stolen or earned. Only grace freely given matters, and

only grace freely received by faith works. Paul said it this way, You are saved by grace

through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God so that no one can boast.15

This fundamental concept provides greater understanding concerning the true depth of despair

you and I existed in and the true blessing of grace that we received if we accepted life through

Jesus Christ. God knew you as aliens and foreigners, now He welcomes you as citizens.16 If

you accept the work of Jesus, you have both a cleared debt to sin and a name written down in

the citizenship records of heaven.

This salvation we have directly results from the very involved process that God went through to

restore relationship with man. God stepped out of time and eternity to encounter man. He

went from infinite to limited. The robes of deity that he took off were robes of infinite. The

robes of man that He put on were robes of limitations. Think about the potential impact. God

Almighty, maker of heaven and earth would need to learn how to speak, eat, sit up, crawl and

walk. He wet his diapers, got hungry, cried, skinned his knees, smashed his finger with a

hammer and went to school like the rest of us. He grew up both physically, emotionally,

mentally and relationally while he walked with man as the Son of God. Truly, God desperately

sought a relationship with His creation.

Page 10 of 46


11/46


Chapter 2: The Immanuel Project God with us

So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a

virgin will get pregnant. Shell bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us).17

What a strange way for God to interface with our universe. He chose to start from the

beginning. He chose to come as a baby. He chose to be born as a man. He could have come

in like Adam fully formed with good looks, the breath of God poured into him and no belly

button. But He decided to come in low and quiet, and if it werent for a crowd of noisy angels

in the heavens that couldnt contain themselves any longer, no one would have noticed.

Well there were those Magi following a star. You know, people have tried to identify that star

for years, but that star might not have been a real star. It might have been the twinkle in Gods

eye. The wise men saw the twinkle because they were looking for it. Wise men still seek

Him.

However, as important as this event, the incarnation is not where the Immanuel project began.

The projects plan began in Genesis 1:26 when God said to Himself Let us make man in our

own image. (Just a side note; God set the precedent on talking to ones own self, so dont

think it strange when I do it. Im just imitating my creator.)

The most inspiring component to the passage above lies in what God doesnt say. He never

mentions anything else created in His image like the baboon, the tree, the squirrel or the

whale. He only says it about man.

He set, as it were, a mark on man His own image. So that man would always see in Himself

a reflection the fingerprint of God. By making us in His image, God signs His creation with all

the joy and pride that only God could have.

If you will pardon my simple illustration, it is like an artist that signs a painting in the lower right-

hand corner. He, in essence, puts his stamp on it that says, This is my work. The signature

then becomes part of the art work. I especially like one painting in the Gettysburg battlefield

museum. The painter painted a huge cyclorama of the Picketts Charge. In the middle of the

painting, he painted himself leaning up against a tree smoking a pipe. Like the Gettysburg

Page 11 of 46


12/46


painting, God put His image in us, not just His signature. God may not be smoking a pipe

against the hardwood in your life, but He did put His image in you.

However, God didnt stop with a signature. He took the painting home. The first time we see

man, we see God. God placed him in the garden. God brought to man all of the animals

searching for a help-mate. When none could be found that would adequately meet that need,God performed the first surgery on man taking everything that he needed from him to make

woman.

I know people think God took a rib from Adam and made woman. Actually, the phrase there

could be translated out of the side.18 When Adam awakens in a couple verses, he notices

that he changed because he says, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. God

took something from Adam physically and emotionally and placed it in the woman. This is the

driving force behind marriage. When man and woman come together in the marriage act, the

two pieces God separated come together and become one flesh.

Let me pose a question for you to ponder. What did God look like to Adam? I mean, was God

just a voice from the sky, and impression in his heart, a noise in the trees? Or, dare I say it,

did Godphysicallypresent himself to Adam and just simply talk face to face with him?

Its hard to put a dramatic pause in a book, but if I could, I would place it right about here. That

is because the bible does tell us how God presented Himself to Adam.

We dont see it until after Adam and Eve sinned, but we can only assume that God did it daily.

The picture is priceless and tells quite a bit about Gods character, love and passion.

I must call your attention to Genesis 3:8, probably one of the most incredible scenes in the

bible. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the

day

Where else in mans history do you find the creator of the universe in His entire splendor

walking in a garden? And what is he doing there?

I am sure that this was not the first time that God strolled through His creation. Ill even go so

far as to say that I believe God probably habitually walked in that garden. And I am sure many

of the walks He experienced with Adam and Eve. In this moment, we find Gods basic desire.

He was there because He desiredto be with man. He created man to be with man.

Page 12 of 46


13/46


Indulge me while I lay down the scenario in my paraphrased manner. Six oclock PM and

Adam and Eve just defiantly ate a late afternoon snack at the bidding of a soon-to-be legless

reptile. Failing to look at his Blackberry, Adam forgot his appointment with his Creator to

meet him in the garden for their late day stroll. Every day, Adam had looked forward to this

time. He loved to walk side-by-side with His first love. Nothing stood between them and they

could, and probably did, talk about anything.

But now darkness encompassed Adams soul. He had forsaken his first love for a new path

one that led him to death and total separation. How could he face his maker now? He had

failed. Now this dark cold penetrated so deep. The shame felt so overpowering, that he sought

anything to cover his body, his soul, his heart. He frantically ripped leaves from a tree and hid

himself in the bush.

God, knowing what just happed, walked nearby to ask Adam, Where are you?

This isnt because God was unaware of Adams location. God said this because Adam lost his

way and became unaware of his location when he sinned against his creator and friend.

The question God utters, Adam, where are you? opens a small portal into the nature of God.

In it, we see God reaching out first. God always makes the first move, especially when we are

frozen solid in our fear, guilt and shame. Paul tells us later, While we were still sinners, Christ

died for us.19

Real love doesnt respond to situations, but proactively pursues people in their situations. Its

easy to feel empathy when someone hurts, but Gods love differs. He wants to be with man so

bad that He chases after him. Mans sin caused a barrier that would cost God dearly to

overcome. That cost was completely paid by Him, not us. We think of ourselves to highly

when we say things like, I found Jesus. We dont find Jesus, He finds us. We hide off in the

woods with poorly assembled leaves for garments. God must find us because of our lostness.

Adam didnt get up from his sinful spot and chase after God, God here I am! I ate the fruit like

an idiot! I am so sorry! He did what we all still do when we sin. He hid.

Second thing I notice in the question God asks is that God is asking a question. Yes, I know

that is obvious and somewhat redundant, but think about this. The all-knowing God asks a

Page 13 of 46


14/46


question. Why would God ask the question for which He already knows the answer? Is he

testing Adam? Is He ignoring the problem?

It reveals God uses love as the weapon of choice. He could have come at Adam in His

holiness and blasted him off the face of the earth. But God chose to come at Adam in love

knowing full well that His holiness would still need to be satisfied. God did this for Adamssake. Adam discovered Gods love in the way God approached Him after the sin. This made

Adam want to build His relationship with his creator.

Who wants to serve and angry God? I know that there are religions out there that preach the

anger of God before the love of God. But Gods love existed first. This component protects us

from the fury of His wrath and allows us to return to Him. God gave Adam a choice to obey at

the tree. He gave Adam the freedom to receive and return Gods love after He sinned. What

an amazing God!

In addition to all of this, we get a sense that God asked the question more than once. When

Adam finally responds, he tells God that he heard His voice and hid. That means that Adam

heard God walking around probably in some manner that indicated that He didnt really know

Adams location. God probably looked around the big tree in the corner and then went to the

big rock in the middle. He did this until either he found Adam or Adam couldnt take it anymore

and came out of hiding.

You are probably saying right now, This writer has gone loco. I would agree with you

normally, but I believe God made a habit of doing this, and that it happened more than once.

Im going to call Gods approach the self-discovery technique. It is a highly effective way of

getting someone to recognize their own demise.

One example that immediately comes to mind is the picture in Revelation 3:20, Behold I stand

at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and

will sup with him and he with me. (KJV)

This verse is actually Jesus talking. He says that He is knocking, but to listen to His voice.

Have you ever had someone come up to your door and just start knocking incessantly? In

fact, they not only relentlessly knock, but they yell out Hey Jeff, you home! Answer the

door!

Page 14 of 46


15/46


Usually if someone knocks, I get up slowly and take my time answering the door. If they knock

repeatedly, I say something like, Yeah, yeah, Im coming, hold your horses. But if they knock

repeatedly and yell through the door, I almost run to the door. They tend to get my attention.

In this verse, Jesus is ceaselessly knocking at the door hoping desperately that someone will

answer it. He wants to come in and dine with the person at home. One of the reasons that Heis so passionate is because the door He refers to is the door of the church, His body, and not

the door of the world. Jesus could barge in, but He leaves it up to the home owner to let Him

in.

Thats the self-discovery technique I see God using in the garden. Hes lifting bushes,

searching around trees, looking under rocks its like He somehow knows that something is

wrong with Adam, and He needs to find him quickly. And like the Revelation door-knocking

episode, God is chasing after someone that was saved and has now sinned.

God is always chasing after sinners. If this were a movie, it would be sad. The hero in this

movie is a rescuer that can save the lives of millions of drowning people. His technique is to

dive into the water with a life preserver and swim up to the victim and ask them to put on the

vest. The struggling victim says that they can make it on their own despite the fact that they

are hundreds of miles from land.

Looking back to Adam and Eve, the same sad tragedy plays out after their fall as the discoursebetween them and God leads to blame, avoidance, curses, punishment and banishment.

Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent, the serpent is cursed as is the lowly couple where

they are finally banished from the garden prepared by God for them.

However, encoded in this unfortunate event we find a single sentence that sets in motion

events that would take 4000 years to come to fulfillment.

God says, I will put hostility between you (the serpent, a.k.a Satan) and the woman, between

your seed and her seed (offspring) and he shall break your head and you will break his heel.20

If we look beneath the prophecy in this verse that shows the Messiah would one day destroy

Satan, we see God leading the charge. The sentence starts off I will put. God is going to get

back that which was stolen. God is going to redeem where no one else can. God is going to

Page 15 of 46


16/46


win where there seems to be no hope. God is going to vanquish the universe of sin no matter

the price, no matter the time, no matter the depravity of man.

My favorite portion of the Bible is the first 10 chapters of Genesis. In it you will find everything

you need to live a victorious Christian life and you will find all the teachings of the New

Testament veiled within its verses. This story of the fall of man is no exception and shows usthe roots of several biblical themes sin, pride, selfishness, evil, lying, corruption, etc. But

there is a greater purpose to the events that took place that fateful day. This is the story of

Love.

Love? you ask. How in the world can the most dreadful day in human history be a story about

love?

You have to understand what love is to truly grasp the power of this moment. Love is not afeeling, thought, emotion or any of the butterflies that flutter in the tummy. Love comes from

one individual to another through some act that reveals the love element. To do this, one must

make a conscious effort to show love. Love requires a choice not to love in order to be love.

Until the day God planted the tree in the midst of the garden and set the rule that said, Do not

eat,21 there was no opportunity for Adam to demonstrate his love for God. He could not

compare the options to love God or not love God unless he had an option to choose not to love

God.

Every time love is demonstrated, a choice is made. Husbands, you chose to love your wife

every time you do the dishes. The alternative would be to avoid the dishes at all cost. But

when you fight your desire to please yourself by sitting in front of the boob-tube and decide to

bless your wife instead, you have shown love.

Wives, in the same way, when you show interest in the things your husband enjoys, not

because you especially like NASCAR, golf or cars, but because you want to be with him no

matter where he is just because he is the one you love, you show love.

Hold on. I hear you say, I cant do those things, I dont like them. They dont interest me.

That is precisely why you should do them. Wives wouldnt you be surprised if one day your

husband told you, Honey, heres $500. Go shopping. Ill clean the house top to bottom for

you.

Page 16 of 46


17/46


Husbands, wouldnt you love for your wife to call you at work one day and say those three

magic words we all want to hear, Lets go golfing!

The number one rule in making friends is showing interest in the other person. Why do we

have such a hard time when it comes to the person we said I do to

For Adam the rules were simple. All he had to do was stay away from the tree. I look back on

that day and say (in my best Monday morning quarterback voice), If I had been Adam, Id

have taken the sharpest rock, tied it to a stick and started chopping that tree down. But he

didnt.

What I find really interesting about this story lies in where God placed the Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and Evil. God planted it smack in the middle of the garden.

In our human reasoning, we would expect that if God really loved Adam and, He should place

the tree somewhere where it would be easy to avoid. Why couldnt he put it in the corner of

the garden next to the persimmon tree? Adam surely would have never gone over to the

persimmon tree yuck!

But God never asked a rational humans opinion, so He placed that tree right where Adam

was going to be every day, right in the middle of the garden next to the Tree of Life. That tree

was the one the tree Adam and Eve had to eat from of every day. 22 In this we see plainly the

test for Adam. God says, If you love me, you will obey me. 23

Have you ever noticed sometimes that the things we need to avoid exist right next to the things

that we need.

Let me tell you a little about myself now that youve been with me for a chapter and a half. I

pastor a church and I work for a large pharmaceutical company as a computer systems

specialist. I spend a lot of time on computers. Much of what I do for both the church and work

require me to browse the World Wide Web (a.k.a the internet). I need many of the resources

that exist on the internet Music, studies, system information, training, application code, etc.

But I am constantly on guard because I know that if I type in the wrong search words, I could

be pummeled with porn or my computer could be destroyed by viruses. I must avoid that tree

of the knowledge of good and evil every day.

Page 17 of 46


18/46


You could say the same about anything TV, billboards, magazines, movies, the Super Bowl.

Nothing seems to be safe. The temptations are everywhere. The question is, do we have

enough love for God to avoid that which displeases Him, or do we rationalize our wayward

moments like Adam and Eve thinking that God is holding back from us and doesnt want us to

have fun.

God wants our love to be freely given by us to Him. He sets rules and boundaries for two

reasons: 1) Our own good so that we are protected and safe. 2) to allow us to demonstrate

how much we truly love him.

But dont think for a moment that God puts all the responsibility on us. Love works both ways,

and Gods love always flows first. Gods love is proved in that He loved man enough to give

man a choice to love Him back. In so doing, God opened Himself up to rejection. True love

takes risks. God laid it all on the line knowing the end from the beginning. Yet, even though

He knew the outcome, He didnt falter on demonstrating his love to us.

First, He showed love by giving us a choice to love Him in return. Second, He showed love

through reaching out to us after we rejected His first offer to love Him willingly. This second

form of love shows the relentless nature of Gods passion for man.

If we knew that someone was going to betray us, could we go out of our way to show love to

them knowing full well that they would soon hurt us?

God only got to experience love from man in its purest form for a few days, maybe weeks

before man blew the whole thing. Once this happened, man could never again walk with God

in the garden. If man simply looked upon God, it would cause instant death to the onlooker.

God had to drive Adam and Eve from the garden, and worst, from His physical presence.

From that day on, only prayers, offerings, worship and other forms of long distance messages

could be sent to God. No longer could he walk side-by-side with God physically speaking.

Man wasnt satisfied to be made in Gods likeness; he desired to be like24 God by his own

means and that trumped Gods ability to be with man. However, man could do nothing that

would trump Gods passionate desire to be with man. Nevertheless, the Immanuel factor

(God-With-Us) had to be placed on hold, but it would never go away.

Page 18 of 46


19/46


Chapter 3: The Ultimate Sacrifice Challenging what you thought you

knew

The concept of the previous chapter proves challenging for me to understand completely. I

find myself revisiting it and discovering a little more each time. In the midst of one of thosevisits, I stumbled upon something that shocked me. And when I saw it, my heart clung to God

all the more knowing that His sacrifice held more significance and value than I could ever

imagine.

Quick quiz what was the sacrifice God made for our sin? If you answered Jesus death on

the cross you would be agreeing with every true believer. Our payment was made when the

Messiah/Savior died. His death fulfilled so many prophecies and types and has been

venerated throughout scripture. But one day I asked some tough questions that I have never

heard asked, If Jesus died, rose and went back to heaven, where is the sacrifice? What is the

cost? What did He lose if everything is as it was before He came to earth in the manger? Isnt

a sacrifice supposed to cost something?

Every sacrifice that you read about in the Bible meant that the one sacrificing would not regain

the sacrificed object. It was lost forever. It could have been burnt up with fire or in the belly of

some priest that just ate it, but it was gone. Sacrifice by definition means you lose it.

With that in mind, how do you explain Jesus sacrifice? If you think that Jesus set aside robes

of deity, put on robes of man, walked the earth 33 years, died, rose again and went back to

heaven as he was before He came, then the sacrifice was more of a rental than a purchase.

No harm, no foul as they would say. But I ask, Is that what happened?

To put Jesus sacrifice in perspective, one must first understand what Jesus was sacrificing.

We already know that God cant die. So how did Jesus die if He cant die? I know that the

simple response is, He died physically but spiritually he didnt die. That may be a nice,

simple answer, but then I go back to my initial question, Where is the sacrifice? That human

body was only temporary. Death was only for a moment. How did Gods sacrifice cost Him?

It was while pondering this that I felt the Lord illuminate some scripture for me. It comes from a

little passage in 1 John 3:2, We shall be like Him. Ive read that scripture many times, but

Page 19 of 46


20/46


never really understood it until that day. This scripture opens up a huge mystery what is his

present condition that defines how we shall be like Him? In order to find out what we will be

like, we need to know what He is like.

If you say that Jesus is as He was before the incarnation, then you can translate this to mean

we will be gods, spirit beings. But I believe scripture argues against that point. In fact, theBible actually describes for us what he is like right now; we just have to put the pieces

together.

After the resurrection, Jesus describes Himself like this, See My hands and My feet, that it is I

Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. 25

Jesus tells us after His resurrection that he wasnt spirit but that He was flesh and bone.

Remember Thomas? When Jesus appeared before him, He held out his hands and showedhim His side to show Thomas the scars.26 Years later John the apostle, while writing about his

Revelation of Jesus, describes seeing Jesus in heaven and that He looked like a lamb that

had been slaughtered.27

I believe the Bible is showing us that Jesus is still bearing the scars that He took on the cross

for our sins. If He existed in the same form He was in before the incarnation, then Jesus would

not be bearing any scars. He would be Spirit better known as the Word.28 Somehow,

Jesus actual form altered so that physical traits from this world passed on to His spiritual body.

Gods form as a whole was altered when Jesus came to earth. Until that point, Jesus was so

much a part of the Godhead that there was virtually no way to distinguish the Son from the

Father because in order to be the Son Jesus had to be born. To illustrate this further,

Matthew tells us that when Mary asks how she is going to have a child because she was a

virgin, the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most

High would overshadow her29. In essence, the Holy Spirit and the Father are present for the

inception of Jesus into the womb, yet only the Father is called Father. My point is that it is

impossible to tell where the Father stops and the Holy Spirit begins. Prior to Jesus

incarnation, we could never tell where either of them started or stopped. God said that He is

one God. That singular nature seemingly conflicts with our understanding of plural reality of

God. Yet we must understand Him as being one God.

Page 20 of 46


21/46


We know from the first chapter of John that Jesus has always been. John uses an interesting

name for Jesus prior to the incarnation The Word.30 I have always been fascinated by this

name. What does it mean, and why does John use it?

I must preface my explanation by saying that we only know about God through what He wrote

about Himself. Because the Bible only has a few thousand pages and doesnt spend all of itstime describing God, we know very little. I believe, as John did, that if you were to begin

writing down everything about God, the whole earth couldnt contain the pages that would be

needed.31

Genesis 1:1-3 show the three person Godhead functioning as a unit. In the beginning, God

created This shows that God is creator Yet we discover from Johns gospel that Jesus

created everything. How can this be? And where was the Father and Spirit?

Not every mentioning of God in the Old Testament was referring only to the Father nor only

to the Son. Sometimes it was a combined mentioning. In fact, one of the most used words for

God in the Hebrew is Elohim which is a plural form of God.

I remember when in Israel a few years back, we traveled to the shrine of the Dead Sea scrolls.

The Book of Isaiah is sprawled out across the wall in that building. We had our Jewish guide

translate Isaiah from the scroll out loud. He would actually say, Gods when he came to the

word Elohim. What I find most interesting about this phenomenon is that the key verse in theBible for the Jew is Deuteronomy 6:4; it is known as the shema, and it states, Hear O Israel,

the Lord our God is one Lord.

This scripture is called the shema and is the central passage for the Jew, and in reality, all of

us. But the question remains, why does God say He is one in this passage and still He uses

a plural when referring to his own self elsewhere?

Even Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God is plural. It could rightly be translated, In thebeginning Gods

Maybe a better way of translating the shema is the way in which many Hebrew teachers have

translated it. Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God The Lord alone. This is perhaps a more

literal translation and would explain better to us that it is more important that there is no other

Page 21 of 46


22/46


god than that God is one in the literal sense that would confine Him to human understanding

of one body, one spirit, one personality, one persona, etc.

Jesus states in one of His dissertations, I and the Father are one32 Based on Deuteronomy

6:4, you really have two ways to go from this scripture, either Jesus and the Father are the

same literally, or they are one in spirit, deity, purpose, unity, but separate in form.

There are honest Christians out there that teach the Jesus is the Father. I can understand the

difficulty in reconciling in our minds a concept of oneness and separateness in the same

person. Our culture actually sees that trait as a flaw. We give medicine to people with split

personalities that show these same characteristics.

There are many issues you have to overcome in scripture though if you want to hold to the

belief that Jesus is the Father and there is no other. First, and most blatant, He prayed toHimself all the time.33

Second, there are scenes in the Bible where you see more than one of the God head in one

place at a time. At Jesus baptism, Jesus is in the water, the Father speaks from heaven and

the Spirit descends upon him.34

There are many more, but I found one that takes the cake. When God gets ready to create

man, He has, what can only be described as, a conversation with Himself. He says, Let Us

make man in Our image. Who is Us and Our? Is it God and the angels?

I hope not. Heavenly angels are described in almost terrifying terms. Some have four faces,

four arms and four wings, others have six wings. We see angels on earth looking like man

because they took on a messenger form. I suppose this was done so as not to frighten man.

But when we see them described in their heavenly form, it isnt anything like man.

I submit that God is talking about His plural unity. We have labeled this with another word not

found in Scripture Trinity. But the result is the same.

By the time God fashions man from the dirt, He has already revealed himself using the plural

term Gods found in the Hebrew word Elohim and that God created everything by speaking it

into existence. That word He utters later becomes Jesus the man as described in John 1 as

the Word becoming flesh. In addition to all of that, we see the Spirit of God hovering over the

water.35 So in the end we see Father, Son and Spirit all present, all working in the creation.

Page 22 of 46


23/46


For God to say, Us and Our, He is just continuing the revelation that there is more to God

than man can understand. He is plural, and He is singular. But one thing is for sure; there is

no other God like Him. So you can definitely say, He is the Lord alone.

I said all that to say this, God does not change in essence. However, there is substantial

evidence to suggest that though He is immutable, He did transform His likeness for manssake.

This transformation began as a promise. There are many prophetic utterances in the

Scriptures indicating that a savior would come from God, some elude more to the concept than

the method such as the one in Genesis 3 where God promises to Eve and warns Satan that

though Satan would strike at Eves seeds heal, Eves Seed would crush Satans head. This

would be an instance where the concept is present, but how God intends to do it is a mystery.

However, there are some very poignant prophetic moments that reveal the method in which

God will fulfill His promise to man. It is in these scriptures, that we find some incredible

revelations concerning the depths God is willing to go to in order to save man.

We too often think of the price paid for our sins as being our sacrifice. I understand how this

can be somewhat confusing, but the sacrifice was not ours, it was Gods. The sacrifice was

made in our place because we couldnt provide the adequate sacrifice to make the necessary

payment for our sin.

The price that was paid by Jesus dying on the cross was the price of our sin. That event was

the atoning payment for our sin. By definition, a payment costs someone something; however,

the payment did not cost us anything. So I ask; who paid the price? Of course the answer is

Jesus. But I return to my original question. If Jesus price was to come to earth, live as a man,

die, return to heaven, where is the sacrifice?

Isaiah reveals to us the key element that truly defines the immensity of Jesus sacrifice. Thevirgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (this word means

God with Us)36

There is a fancy word we use to describe this event, The Incarnation. Literally this word

means in flesh. God placed the fullness of the deity of the Word into human flesh.37 This act

Page 23 of 46


24/46


translated God from spirit form to flesh form. He took off robes of immortality, omnipresence

and even, for a time, omniscience and became a full participant in His creation.

Jesus went through everything we go through in life wet diapers, potty training, skinned

knees, crawling, learning to walk, the list goes on. The bible says that he grew in wisdom and

stature and in favor with God and men.38

Jesus experienced everything in life that weexperience. This happened because he was fully man and totally susceptible to the laws of

this world. He had to eat, sleep and drink. At any moment a runaway cart could run Him over

and he would be dead (if it were His time) because he was 100% physical in nature.

He totally gave up his divine form for a form that limited him. In fact, at one point he tells the

disciples that if He doesnt leave, He cant send the Holy Spirit could dwell in each one of

them.39 In His earthly form, he could only be in one spot at a time, in the Spirit form, God could

be in each of them.

So what could the sacrifice possibly be? Is it that God changed clothes? It is that Jesus died?

To being, just the thought of God dying causes a stirring of impossible thoughts in me. It is

almost an oxymoron to say God can die. But the truth be told, that is exactly what happened.

And the impact of that death still affects Him today.

Jesus sacrifice started in the cradle. It was on that day that God, the Word, the Son, took off

divine robes and put on human flesh. The kicker is that this was a one way trip. He would

either live forever in that form, or He would die in that form and continue on into eternity in that

form.

The sacrifice is found in the fact that God altered His very being so that He could spend a few

years with His creation in order to provide a way for Him to spend eternity with His creation.

The sacrifice is an eternal sacrifice. The cross merely sealed it for Him and for us, but the

incarnation was the real sacrifice for God. God became man and dwelt among us.

When Jesus rises from the dead, He is seen in human form. Thomas recognizes Him by the

scars in His hands, feet and side, John in Revelation sees the scars and describes Him as a

lamb that had been slaughtered. You never again see Jesus as He was before the

incarnation. Never again is He just the Word. He is flesh; He is bone; He is the Son.

Page 24 of 46


25/46


Chapter 4: Blending the Spiritual and the Physical

When we think in terms of the physical world, we usually think materialistically. Scientists

describe our universe as multi-dimensional. There are the three dimensions of space, the

dimension of time, physical properties of gravity, electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclearforces. These are things that we can perceive and touch. We know them. We are familiar

with their effects. We base our beliefs on our understanding of the physical world. The bottom

line if it doesnt fit in our understanding of the universe, then it cant possibly be true.

Scientists are actually discovering that our universe has at least eleven dimensions to it. Much

of this is unknowable currently.

Any way you look at it, the physical universe is huge, but there is a world even larger the

Spiritual world.

The spiritual universe is a much larger domain than we give it credit. God, the angels, demons

and Satan operate primarily in this world. Good and evil, sin and love abide in this world along

with things that man cannot even utter40 The physical world in which we live is not separate

from the spiritual world but a part of the spiritual world albeit a very small part.

Which do you think came first, the spiritual world or the physical world?

According to the creation account, God made the three components of our universe in the

beginning. In Genesis 1:1, 3, God creates matter, space, time and energy. In the beginning

(time), God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter). God said, let there be light

(energy) and there was light

God did all of this from the spiritual world. God had to actually create the space in which

everything in the physical world exists. Laws were set up at the beginning that made this

physical universe work. Gravity keeps the planets close to the sun, light keeps everything

alive on the earth, etc.

We know many of the physical laws that govern our world, i.e. gravity, time, space, etc. We

are bound by these laws in our physical universe. However, these laws do not apply to the

spiritual world. In the spiritual world, there is no time, space, gravity that we can define, but

somehow things that happen in our world affect the spiritual world.

Page 25 of 46


26/46


Did you realize that the act of disobedience by Adam and Eve in this physical world initiated

the seed of sin in man that would cause every person ever born of man to be born into sin?41

Our physical world and the spiritual world are connected. Sin is a spiritual property with

physical symptoms. God said to Adam, In the day you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of

good and evil] you will die.42 The act of spiritual sin brought the result of physical death.

Likewise, events that happen in the spiritual world directly impact the physical universe. The

spiritual laws of sowing and reaping43 cannot be tied to any physical property. Jesus said,

You will reap what you sow. This happens because the spiritual law applies to physical

actions. God even tells us to test out this law and see if he doesnt bless you. 44

One of the Ten Commandments comes with a physical promise. Respect you father and

mother God, your God, commands it! Youll have a long life; the land that God is giving you

will treat you well.45

How can you attribute long life to obeying your parents? I know what youre thinking, You

didnt know my parents. If we disobeyed, theyd kill us. Perhaps, but the principle addressed

here is a spiritual blessing that affects a physical property.

Even the simple act of blessing and curses can have a profound physical impact on people.

They are sounds uttered that can physically encourage or destroy even those that did not even

hear the blessing.

Isaac and Jacob are remembered for their faith, not because of some act they performed, but

because they spoke spiritual words of blessing over their kids believing that generations later,

those words would be true. The surprising thing is that they did come true.

I love how the Message version reads in Hebrews 11:20 and 21, By an act of faith, Isaac

reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau. By an act of faith, Jacob on his

deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not hisown--as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.

They reached into the future in their blessing. Words get their power because they are so

closely tied to the spiritual world. In fact, every word you utter is recorded in the spiritual world

by God and you will be held accountable.46

Page 26 of 46


27/46


Words are what we use to communicate with the spiritual world. The function of words

operates on sound waves, but its not the sound that causes communication; it is the

understanding.

Our prayers offered to the Lord are done upon the wings of words. Its the transport system

that God established to reach into the spiritual world and communicate with the creator of theuniverse.

Jesus tells us that we are not to live only on physical matter (bread) but on spiritual food

(Words of God)47

In our world, words dont mean what they used to mean. Once upon a time, a mans word was

his bond. Today, you need 300 page contracts with signatures and initials on every page in

order to carry out a transaction. On top of that you have fine print, hidden clauses, andaddendums. The words used are only legible to a select group of individuals called lawyers.

But in Gods eyes, the testimony of two or three witnesses establishes a matter.48 Words still

mean things with God. They are so valuable, in fact, that He sent the portion of the Godhead

known as the Word to our world in the form of Jesus.

Think about that. Jesus is the Word of God. Everything God has uttered is wrapped up in this

part of God. How awesome is that?

Think of Jesus as the verbal contract of God with man. When Jesus succeeded in his earthly

journey and climaxed it on the cross, God was essentially signing His verbal contract with man

in the blood of His Son. It cannot get any more powerful than that.

So what do I mean when I say, blending the physical and spiritual?

To better explain this, I am going to use the illustration of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Simply put this is the field of energy in the universe that gives us light in its various forms.The only real difference between the different types of energy in the electromagnetic

spectrum is the wave length.

If I have lost you, lets try it this way. Visible light is the light you see made up of the colors of

the rainbow violet through red. What you cant see in the light spectrum is everything to the

left of violet where the waves get further apart (i.e. ultra-violet, X-rays, Gamma Rays) and

Page 27 of 46


28/46


everything to the right of red where the waves get closer together (i.e. infrared, radar, FM

Radio waves, Television waves, shortwave, AM radio waves, etc.) Although all these items

exist in the same electromagnetic spectrum, you cant see them. You can only see a very

small portion of the whole spectrum namely visible light.

You can only see the influence of an AM radio by capturing the electromagnetic waves using atool called a radio. This gadget is specifically designed to capture and send waves of energy

through the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves are all around you everywhere you go,

but you cant see them until you turn on your radio.

In a similar way, our physical universe is actually part of a larger spiritual universe. We cant

see into the rest of the spiritual universe without some sort of tool i.e. prayer, the bible, etc.

Man is drawn to this spiritual universe because man is part spiritual creature as much as he isa physical creation. Since man decided to walk away from God, he has tried every sort of tool

to contact the spiritual world. Witchcraft, horoscopes, astral projection, Hinduism, etc. are all

created by man to reach into the spiritual world and somehow grasp this larger universe. The

sad truth is that it accomplishes that feat. However, the contact with the spiritual world is not

controlled by God, but by every evil force that resides in the spiritual world.

God never forbid us to contact the spiritual world, He just said, There is only one mediator

between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.49

God provided us with two basic tools tocommunicate with the spiritual world the Bible and prayer through Jesus. The person we are

to contact in the spiritual world is specifically defined, You shall have no other God before

me50

In fact, God encourages us to spend as much time as possible in contact with the spiritual

world. He tells us to be filled with the Spirit of God.51 We need to fast and pray and spend time

in the Word. We need to devote ourselves to God wholeheartedly.

The spiritual and physical worlds are interconnected and God designed it that way.

Have you ever wondered why God sent Jesus into this world to die for our sins? Couldnt God

have just rewritten the contract in heaven and be done with it? If sin is a spiritual matter,

couldnt it have been taken care of in the spiritual world alone?

The short answer is, No.

Page 28 of 46


29/46


There were spiritual laws and penalties to sin that had to be accounted for. God doesnt cook

the books. He doesnt make accounting errors. Everything must be addressed. Every dime

must be accounted for. The wage for sin is death.52

Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no freedom from sin. A price

must be paid and it couldnt happen in the spiritual world because God cant die.

How then do you overcome this dilemma? How does a God that cant die, die?

Thats where the physical world comes in. If God could totally take on the elements that would

confine him to the physical universe he could tie himself to humanity by making himself human

fully man. If this can be accomplished, then He could die. But how do you do this?

God had a plan from the beginning to come into this world in such a way that the sin in this

world would not corrupt Him and in a way that would make sure that He was fully man and

therefore able to die.

Page 29 of 46


30/46


Chapter 5: The Sin Problem

The largest obstacle for God to overcome in the process we call incarnation is sin. The

incarnation is the point where God transforms himself into man. To be affective, the

incarnation has to happen at the cellular level. He has to conceived, carried in the womb andthen birthed; otherwise; he would not be fully man. He would be more of a facsimile of man

and not a real man. As I mentioned earlier, angels have encountered our world many times in

human form but they were no more human than a team mascot for the LSU Tigers is a

tiger. To be a tiger, you would need to be born a tiger. To be man, God has to be born as a

man.

The main problem is that when man is born, he is born into sin because of the sin passed on to

him from Adams original sin. The spiritual curse was passed down in the physical genetics of

the human gene. The bible calls this the seed.53

The seed issue would seem to pose a huge problem because you need it in order to be

conceived.

However, God set the law of sin upon other principles. There are two things that make a good

law: one is that it needs to be well defined. Obscure laws open to interpretations are not very

effective. The meaning of a law can change the next time a judge rules on the law. So when

they create laws, they try to capture the original intent of the law in the law itself.

The sin laws original intent is to produce a punishment namely death. The law is violated

automatically just be being born.

A method was created to satisfy the laws price. This was done by shedding blood.

It might surprise you to discover that the first shedding of blood was not performed by man but

by God.

After Adam and Eve sinned and tried on their new leaf clothing line, God exchanged those

leafy garments for animal skins.54 But where did God get animal skins?

He must have killed an animal first. He then placed the skin of the sacrifice over mans naked

flesh, so the first sacrifice was performed by God himself. Incidentally, the last and ultimate

sacrifice was also performed by God. What does this say about God? It shows that He is

desperate for reconciliation with man. It shows that man is not as involved in salvation as he

Page 30 of 46


31/46


thinks he is. It shows that man cannot muster up enough righteousness to overcome his

situation and that it takes the greater power of God to transform a sinful life.

The second component of a law is that the law must be based on something greater. In our

nation, we use a Constitution. When judges make rulings on laws, they are judging the law

against the Constitution and determine if the law is Constitutional.

The law of sin is also based on greater rules. One greater rule is the holiness of God. Sin

cannot abide in Gods presence. Even looking at God in our sinful state is cause for death.55

The holiness of God demands obedience and that is the foundation for righteousness. When

we disobey, we perform an unrighteous act which violates sins law. Adam did that based on

the single rule of obedience God set up with Adam, Dont eat from the tree.

Sin is a bad thing, but a good law. The law of sin is necessary in order for God to remain holy.

If God allowed sin in His presence or performed some form of sin, then he would violate Hisholiness.

The mission of Jesus had to be one of holiness. If He failed at any point to obey God, His

Father, He would immediately lose favor with God and become a blemished sacrifice. He

would no longer be able to provide the ultimate sacrifice for mans sin. He would never be able

to be one with the Father.

Jesus states his current state of obedience when He tells us that He only does what His Father

tells Him to do.56

This presents that old theological issue, Could Jesus sin if He wanted to? The answer has to

be Yes.

The reason it has to be yes is because the governing rule for obedience according to God is

love. Love, as stated earlier, demands a choice not love in order to be love. If you have no

other option but to love, then you cant choose to love or not love.

Jesus had to have that choice. If He didnt, then Satan wasted his time. Do you remember the

temptation by Satan?57 Satan is giving Jesus choices. He can do this mission the Fathers

way or take the easy way out. At one point, Satan even says that he would give Jesus

everything if Jesus would just bow down to him one time.

Satan was going to surrender if Jesus would just disobey God one time. How could it hurt,

right? I mean, God would forgive His only Son, and He wouldnt have to die and go through all

the pain.

Page 31 of 46


32/46


Dont tell me that wasnt a powerful temptation. But that is all it was. Jesus knew the rules.

Do not bow down to [other gods] or serve them; for I, the Lord you God, am a jealous God. 58

That act would have been direct disobedience leading to death. Not a good thing for the savior

to do if he wants to be the savior. This makes Philippians 2:8-10 come alive. It was because

of the choice to obey the Father and humble Himself in death that God promoted His name

(Jesus) to a point where every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Master of all.

That means that Satan, the one that Jesus could have briefly bowed down to, will have to bow

down to Jesus because of the victory found in winning the battle over sin. There was a lot

riding on that temptation, and Jesus came through victorious!

It is important to keep in mind that God does not violate His nature nor does He violate His

own spiritual laws. Notice, I said spiritual laws. He can suspend natural laws anytime He likes

because He has not restricted himself to those laws.

When Jesus walked on the water59, He violated several laws of nature. Did He sin because He

broke those laws? By no means; in fact, we call them miracles. He even tells us that we will

do even greater things than that.60

You mean we get to break physical laws to and get away with it? Yep. It takes faith, but you

can lay your hands on a sick person, pray for them and see the sickness disappear.

I know I am making that somewhat simple, but so did Jesus. We make it so complicated

because we doubt. Have you ever wondered why we dont see miracles like we should, like

they did a hundred years ago? The simple reason is that Christians dont believe. Sadly, we

have more information about our faith than any Christian generation ever, but we do not

practice it. There is no commitment, no passion, no repentance, no holiness and no faith.

The only hope is the scriptures that tell us that in the last day, God is going to pour out His

spirit on all mankind and great things are going to happen.61 The last days get closer each day

we get out of bed. One day soon, God is going to find a church ready for His Spirits

outpouring. He will find them because they will be on their knees crying out to Him in Hishouse.

When He finds that church, look out world!

Back to Gods sin dilemma. How does God become a birthed baby and not catch the sickness

of the sin seed?

Page 32 of 46


33/46


That is found in the sin-law loop hole. Really good laws have loop holes for special

circumstances. The sin-law has a limit. The sin seed is passed through the one who is

accountable. How do we know this? Check out Genesis again.

Adam is formed by God from the ground on the sixth day.62 After man was created, God

planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden.63 He

then commanded the man not to eat of the tree.64 Notice though, who is not at this meeting

the woman. She isnt created for five more verses. You never see God tell her not to eat from

the tree, so who do you think told her the rule?

By design, the responsible person to God was Adam. God was going to hold Adam personally

responsible. Eve wasnt there. She is not accountable to God.

This concept is borne out through the scriptures. I know that people think that there is some

element of men lording over women in the Bible, and to some extent, you will find thoseaccounts. But the part you dont hear is that the woman was not responsible for the sin.

Here is a thought for you. If Eve ate the fruit, and Adam did not, would there be sin in the

world? Was it Eve, Adam or both eating the fruit that caused sin?

We know that their eyes werent opened until Adam ate the fruit. So the act of Eve eating the

fruit did not cause her to feel guilt, shame and sin. In fact, she rather enjoyed it. She actually

gave it to Adam to share. Why? It is because she ate it and didnt have any adverse effects.

God said that they would die. She didnt. Therefore, it must be fine for them to eat it.

I submit to you that Eves act alone had nothing to do with the problem of sin. Adam had not

sinned yet. I believe that evidence throughout Scripture bears a testimony that if Adam did not

eat, he could have possibly atoned for her guilt and the sin seed would have died with her.

There is a priestly order to things in the Bible. The husband is the individual in the household

that is directly accountable to God. Its not that the others in the house are less important, it is

that the responsibility for the household falls to the husband. That accountability is seen

throughout scripture. Men are found in leadership because God holds them accountable for

the family, not women.

It sounds odd given our humanistic society. And it certainly wasnt designed to devalue

women. This principle is something that God Himself follows within the Godhead.

Page 33 of 46


34/46


The Bible tells us that Jesus submitted to the Father in everything. That is to say, Jesus is

accountable to the Father. Accountability does not show that Jesus is less valuable than the

Father; it is simply a chain of accountability. Yes, there is an element of submission to it, but

not in the sense of a Master/Slave submission. Rather, it is a voluntary submission in love

knowing that you are building the other up in the process.

Jesus did everything to bring glory to His Father. In turn, the Father brought glory back to the

Son. But it started by the Son submitting to the Father.

This principle carries over to the church. Jesus is the head of the church in the same way that

the Father is the head of Jesus.65 Jesus is the head because He sacrificed his life for it.

That same word head is passed down to the husband and wife. The husband is the head of

the wife.66 Like the other relationships before it, this one must be saturated in love. Notice

also that it always costs the head something to be the head. Husbands must lay their livesdown for their wives. Jesus died for His church.

This accountability is like a priests duty. They are responsible for those accountable to them.

The priests duties are to atone for others sins. But if the priest sins, there is no atonement

left. They had to be clean to be a priest.

Adam forfeited his ability to atone by participating in the sin. When he took the fruit, he gave

up his responsibility. That is out of Gods order. Instead of God being his head, he made Eve

his head. We arent allowed to transfer our allegiances.

In short, it was Adams act of eating the fruit that cause the sin seed to be born in man. There

was no further redemption that man could conjure that would overcome the act of

disobedience.

Adam was the one that told Eve not to eat, but in the end, he failed.

I have one quick side note about the passage in Genesis 3. When the serpent talked with Eve

(which she did not find odd at all) she changed Gods rules. The law was, Dont eat. She

added Dont eat, and dont touch it.67 This is the first occurrence of legalism in the Bible.

Legalism are rules added by men on top of Gods law to make you feel more spiritual by

putting people in bondage to more rules thinking they make you more holy. Eves legalistic

touch didnt keep her from violating Gods laws. Legalism is no way to enhance your spiritual

claim to holiness. It only leads you to death.

When Gods divine order is messed with, chaos is just around the corner.

Page 34 of 46


35/46


Looking at the sin seed again, so where is the out clause?

Believe it or not, the woman is the out clause.

You mean that the very person that started this has a way of getting us out of it?

Yep. Its funny how God works sometimes.

God told the serpent the loophole that he designed into the sin law. Genesis 3:15 gives man

hope. The seed of the woman will strike your head and you will strike His heel. Interesting,

but what does it mean?

It tells us that, because the woman was not held responsible, she would be able to produce an

offspring that would be pure again. That offspring would defeat the one that defeated man.

But it would cost the womans offspring dearly.

From that point on, the women of the Bible understood that any child born could potentially bethat deliverer. Eve recognized this right away and thought Cain might be the man.68 Later,

after Cain killed Abel, she bore another son, Seth. She saw him as a seed replacement for

Abel.69 She thought to herself, Maybe this one will be the one.

However, the deliverer didnt come until after God gives more clarification. The child had to be

born of a virgin.70 Why a virgin?

This was done because the man carries the sin seed. It is a feature that exists due to the

accountability factor.

The way around this is to take man out of the loop and leave woman. The Holy Spirit was the

Father and Mary the mother. Therefore, if God was going to be the Father, then the sin seed

would not be present at Jesus birth.

When the angel Gabriel came to Mary 4000 years after Eves promise, he told her that the

baby in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.71 God had used His loophole in the sin law to

get the savior God into the flesh of man.

Page 35 of 46


36/46


Chapter 6: The Incarnation

There is something about the Bible that I always found curious. There are some doctrines we

believe today that arent talked about in the Scriptures like we do today. For example, the

Trinity doctrine is based on many passages. But no single passage exists that says, Jesus isthe Son of God, the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God, yet all three are one and yet they

are different. We call this the Trinity.

From a theological point of view it would be great to point someone to that one scripture and

say, See, it says right here as plain as day.

The Scriptures are not laid out in doctrinal fashion. They are designed to make you read

them and discover what God is saying. In fact, God says, search the scriptures. He wants

you to read them, not as a doctrinal thesis, but as a living love letter from Him to you. TheBible, unlike any book you will ever read, is alive. God uses it to speak to His people. If it was

just doctrine, it would not have that personal touch. It would come across more as a rule

book and less as a book that shows God reaching out to man passionately.

Probably the greatest example of this is the doctrine of God. You will not find in the pages of

scripture any place where God sets out to prove His existence. In fact, God is just assumed.

Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God He doesnt waste any time talking about why He exists,

what His purpose is for existence, how we know He really exists. He just states unequivocally,

I exist.

Later He takes that statement as His name. When God first called Moses at the burning bush

event, Moses asks a great question, Who do I tell them [Pharaoh and Israel] who sent me.

God answers Moses, Tell them the I am sent you.

Moses never proves that God exists; only that Egypts gods are no gods at all. The Egyptians

already knew there had to be some form of deity above man. They just had it wrong when it

came to who that deity was.

God is not the substance of his creation. He is not divided up into multiple gods constantly

warring. He is not the uncaring, uninvolved sovereign that just lets the world runs its course

without His loving intervention. He is, and He alone is God period end of discussion.

Page 36 of 46


37/46


The name I am became so closely associated with God, that Jesus was accused of being a

blasphemous deceiver by the Jewish rulers because He used the I am phrase when referring

to Himself. He said, Before Abraham was, I am.

The incarnation was the single most significant event in human history. It was talked about for

centuries before, but when it actually occurred, man was somewhat disappointed. They did

not understand the purpose of the incarnation. They wanted something substantially different.

This misunderstanding was due to the fact that they misinterpreted the Scriptures, and Jesus

held them accountable for not understanding the Scriptures.

To understand the incarnation better, you have to understand why it occurred.

The prophets had foretold that the deliverer or Messiah would come. I dont think anybody

had any real issue with that. The problem was that nobody understood the purpose in His

coming.

The Scriptures give two main functions of the Messiah, and I think that the problem everyone

ran into was because they blended the two together or they simply ignored all the bad parts

and just wanted to believe the good stuff.

The two veins are as follows: The Messiah would be a conquering king, and the Messiah

would be a suffering servant.

Put yourself in the shoes of the typical Jewish leader in Jesus day. You are preaching your

messages on Saturday morning for generations about the Messiah who would come. Do you

think they concentrated on the parts that showed him suffering, dying and being rejected by

the Jews, or do you think they preached about the conquering king that would come and

deliver His people from the captors and rule the world putting all of Israels enemies under His

feet?

They werent about to ruin their Saturday morning crowds with bad news. They only wanted to

see the good news.

The problem is that they didnt understand that the bad news of the Messiahs suffering was

their good news. The words good news are translated gospel and that is defined by Paul

as the following, Jesus died, was buried and rose again. Yes thats bad news, but it is also

good new

god with us - the book

Documents