You In Christ and Christ In You

My first question for today is why did God create? Why did he do it? I've got to tell you, if I was him, I'm not sure I would know. Why did he do it? Why does God do anything? To glorify himself. That's exactly what he does. Now, when you say that, or when I say that, it may sound a little egocentric, right? Because whenever you do something to glorify yourself, people look at you and say, well, that's selfish. Why wouldn't God, glorifying himself, be selfish?

He created us. He wants us to glorify him. He gave us life. But why can he get by with it and I can't? Whatever he does is right. He's righteous. He's holy. There's no sense of self-aggrandizement in him. Because he is who he is, actually, the fact that he wants to glorify himself is a very gracious, wonderful thing, because he is the center of everything. So it's not a big ego like a politician would have, or Donald Trump.

He's the only guy I could think of at the time. God wants everyone to know who he is, and he wants to express himself in his creation. So that's why he did it. In Genesis 1, verse 21, the Word of God says, And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind. and every winged bird after its kind and God saw that it was good and then down to verse 24 and 25 then God said let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind and so it was so and God made the beasts of the earth after their kind and the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind and God saw that it was good What does after its kind mean?

Believe it or not, in Genesis 1.21 is the identification truth. There they are, after its kind. What does that mean? Life begets life. That's right. So when a creature that God created reproduces itself it reproduces itself after its own kind. Okay? I don't care what the evolutionists tell you. There's no such thing as a dog-cow. Right? There aren't any snakes that look like cats. You know those things that go around on the web sometimes and they show these creatures with a bird with a cat head on it and stuff?

God didn't create that way. You cannot, because it's a principle God put in place, Creatures that can reproduce, which is a wonderful thing that you can even do that, produces after its own kind. So, did God create after his own kind? What do you think?

Did he create in his own image and likeness? Sure he did. So he creates this this character Adam, after his own image and likeness. And he makes Adam the head of a race, and he's made in God's image. So what does it mean that if God creates a human being, as we know, and he creates him after his kind, or in the image and likeness of God, what's the similarity? What did Adam have before he fell now that was similar to what God had and what God is.

What did he give him? God is taller than 6 feet 2. He weighs less than 195. He doesn't have gray hair. So, what's the similarity? What does God have when he created Adam that he gave him likeness? First of all, God is a spirit, isn't he? So Adam would have to be, would have to have a spiritual component to him, would he not? He would have to be spirit. What else does God, what other characteristics does God have?

I'm sorry? Free will. Free will? What else? Soul. Got a soul? Does God have a soul? Does he? The Lord Jesus Christ has a soul. Does God the Father have a soul? He has a mind? Doesn't God have a mind? Does he have emotions? Sure he does. Does he have personality?

There are three of those personalities in God. Three of them. Distinct persons. So when he creates man, when he creates Roger, he made him a person. Distinct person. God's a distinct person. God the Father is a distinct person, the Son. So lots of similarities in terms of the makeup of man.

Now if he's going to do it, if he creates to glorify himself and he creates this creature who has a will, has a mind, has emotion, and he's creating to glorify himself, how does that all fit together? Why would God create a man with all of those qualities? What is he trying to do? He wants a relationship. He wants to have fellowship with his creature. He wants a creature who can behold him, communicate with him, fellowship with him, be loved by him, and love him back. And all of those things demonstrate the character of God, don't they? They demonstrate The qualities of Adam, before he fell, were characteristics of who God is. You see that?

And so, all the things that God created, there's none like Him, except man. So it's important to understand, I think, that when Adam is created, he is in a position of cooperation with God, he can have fellowship, But God set it up so that God would be sovereign and man would be subject. He created man that way so that man would be fulfilled by being subject to God. This was long before the Constitution of the United States was written. So does that make sense to you? He did not create man to be sovereign. He created man to be subject to God.

And man would be totally fulfilled by being in that position. It would be subject to his will, which would give man absolute perfect freedom. It's a very difficult concept to realize, that as believers, and looking at Adam, that being created by God with no sin, he was subject to God and he was absolutely free in that position.

Absolutely free. Make sense? Or not? Don't we view freedom, I can do what I want? The thing about Adam was, the way he was created, his desire was to do whatever God wanted. That's the same desire that a believer has. We have the liberty to do whatever God would have us do. Does that make sense?

In Genesis 1.26, God said, Let us make man after our own image, according to our likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. of the sky and over the cattle and over the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. That's another God-like quality God gave Adam. He gave him the ability to rule over creatures. And God created man in his image and in his image God created him, male and female, he created them.

In Genesis 2.7, then God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of lives and man became a living soul. Genesis 5, verses 1-3, and this is the book of the generations of Adam, and the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

So, you can say, to sum this up, you can say God is essentially a spirit, and therefore man, who is similar to God, possesses a spirit. You could say man resembles God in certain respects, without being equal with him. Are you alright with that one? Three, man's likeness to God is what truly distinguishes him from the rest of creation. Man is a personal being with the power to think, feel, decide, and has the ability to make moral choices and the capacity for spiritual growth or decline. And lastly, in the beginning, man loved God and was a holy creature. Adam's likeness to God was not physical, but in one of personhood, God is a person, so man is a person. You alright with that? So man and God, God and man and how he created them.

Now, how would you describe the principle of reproduction? We've already talked about it a little bit. How would you describe it? From a biological standpoint, how do you describe reproduction? Come on, did you take biology in high school? You know how this works? We don't have to have a class on this, do we? How does it biologically work?

By two people. Two people, there's appropriation. And just like we said, when there is one, the offspring is like the parents. Now, the question is, is that true spiritually? When God gives man and creatures the ability to procreate, and he put in his principle of like begets like, was that only a physical thing? Or was it more than that? Man is the only one born with a conscience. Conscience? Yeah? So, what I'm after here is that If God gives man the ability to recreate biologically, does he also include spiritually in that? In other words, maybe set it up this way.

You'll notice that Cain doesn't come on the scene until after the fall. And Cain is just like his parents spiritually, isn't he? Is he born dead or alive spiritually? He's born dead. Why? Because that's what his parents were. Okay. So how come, Steve? In verse 27, it's talking about how he created an image, man in the image of himself. It kind of elaborates there, it says, an image of God he created, male and female, that still is male and female. Yet there's a biological difference there. Okay. Do you want to hear my theory on that? Yeah. It's theory now.

I think that when God created Adam, he created all of maleness and all of femaleness in Adam. He was both. He wasn't bisexual. He just had all the qualities and properties of male and female. And then when he created Eve, He took all the femaleness out of Adam and created another human being with it. And that's why when a man and a woman come together, they're fulfilled. That's why I think that that verse says male and female, He created them. And He created Eve before the fall, obviously.

Is that okay? Did I answer your question? Yeah, I just wanted to address that for a minute. male or female in Christ. It's the race. It's not like a dog versus a man. Male and female are still within the human race. Here it doesn't matter if male or female. It's just identifying the human race. From a spiritual and soulish viewpoint. Yes, and spirit. It doesn't matter male or female in that you're born dead and the sin is transferred whether male or female. That's right.

And I said when you get into Paul's, in Christ there is no difference. So I think it's the same here, male or female doesn't mean anything. Everybody understand what Courtney's talking about? It's just the human race, which is the whole lineage, male or female, doesn't matter. That lineage.

The whole entire human race, because Adam was the head of the race, are all born dead like Adam was, dead to God. When Adam was created, do you think he was created dead? No, he was created innocent and he died when he sinned. I thought you just said that he was created dead. Well, I should be clear about that. When he's created by God, he is in fact alive to God. He's innocent. It's not until he sins. Yeah, that's what I thought.

He was created with the potential to fall. Well, let's talk about that. Did Adam have a potential to fall? Did God create him with the potentiality to fall? Seems like God set him up, if you buy that. He had a will, right? He certainly did. He certainly could choose against God. And he did.

Potential for both. It's interesting that God gives Adam a test, right? By the way, that's the first law. Don't eat that fruit. He gave him a test. Why do you think he did it that way? Why do you think God gave Adam a test? He gave him options. What's that? He gave him options. He gave him a will and he gave him options. Why would he give him options?

I mean, wouldn't you think, hey, you know, God's got a pretty good deal going here. You don't want to mess it up by giving Adam a chance to mess it up. But if he gives somebody will, you have to give him that chance. Don't you? If you give somebody the will to choose against you, then you have to give them the opportunity to do it. And that's what he did. Now, I'm leaping 12 weeks ahead.

One of the coolest things about being in Christ is that there's no possibility of in Christ of choosing against God positionally. It's the only safe place in the universe is in Christ. Adam wasn't in Christ. He was created by God in the garden. You see what I'm saying? So he's vulnerable. Because you're positioned in Christ, you're not. positionally, and we'll talk about position and condition as we go forward. Anyway, back to where we are.

When God created Adam, did he have a prototype? Did he have a man that he said, oh, well, let's see, I'm creating him after my own image and likeness, but he's got a body, he's got a soul. Where did he come up with this plan? called up the engineers, right?

If you look at Hebrews 1, it says, and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, speaking of Christ. I think that the blueprint in creating man is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ has existed from all eternity, because he's an eternal man.

So, in Colossians 1.15-18, when Paul says, and he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, For by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities. All things have been created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together, etc. I think the Lord Jesus is a prototype. If Adam was created in the image and likeness of God, part of that image is Christ. So are you saying that prior to his birth on Earth, he existed in some type of a physical form?

What do you think? What do you think? Had him in a closet, waiting. Well, he came as an angel to the Lord. But then if he had a body all the time, he wouldn't have had to come. Here's the problem with it. It's not a problem, it's a dilemma. Christ is an eternal man. He's not a time-space guy. So we can only think in terms of time, right? The Word of God says Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. Really? When was that? You mean He was slain before the sin?

The point being is that, well, maybe I'll go at it differently. When you come to me outside of Christ and we start talking about your genealogy and your existence, I can trace your existence all the way back to Adam, right? Can't every one of you do that? How about before Adam? Did you exist before then? In time? You didn't exist in time because there wasn't any time before then. So the only existence that you can claim before Adam is in the mind of God, right? So if you're in the mind of God, are you real?

In his mind. And that mind counts, doesn't it? Are there any people floating around in there that didn't get created? I don't think so. So, God being an eternal man, or an eternal person, creates you and me in his mind before he ever created Adam. If you want to do a time thing. What's the prototype? Well, Christ is the creature, not creature, but the second person of the Trinity, eternally. See, when you go back in time, you have to find a beginning point.

In eternity, you don't. When you and I came into Christ, your history changed. Do you realize that? You don't go back to Adam anymore. Where do you go now? You go to Christ. And you start following his line all the way back. And how far does his line go? How far? 2,000 years? Eternity. So I can say to you, you are an eternal being now. You're not a time-space being anymore. You're an eternal being. So from that perspective, I think the Lord Jesus Christ is the prototype.

So what does the term representative man mean? New term. Representative man or what's the synonym for representative man? Federal head. What does that term mean? This is a really important term that you don't see very often, nor is it ever talked about. And after you answer that question, I want you to tell me how many of these guys there are. What's a federal head? What's a representative man? who stands before God and he sees the whole human race through that person. Someone who stands before God and God sees the whole human race in that person.

Adam is a representative man. He is the head of the human race because he's the first one. And if you implement like begets like, then if Adam is the first one, everything that he's going to progenerate is going to be just like him, right? If that principle is true, then from Adam forward, every single human being, and there's only one Adam, there isn't George somewhere else, you know, there's only one Adam, And so every offspring that comes from Adam is going to be just like Adam. He's the representative guy.

Everything that's true about Adam is true about everybody that comes from him. So you have to answer this question. In the garden, you know, if I'd have been in the garden, I wouldn't have done what Adam did. Really? You're just like him. Yes, you would have. Yes, you would have. Given the same set of circumstances, you'd have done exactly the same thing because you're from him. Now, how many of these representative men are there? Two. Who's the other one?

Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of our human race too. And it's really important to understand this principle when we start talking about the identification truths. Because God is going to do way more than just forgive you your sins.

He's going to move you out of one creation into another, from one representative man to another. You see that? And so, I find it really interesting, and maybe it's just because I've got a weird mind, that God would set this like-begets-like, and this progeny, and this representative thing up, because initially when you look at it, you think, well, boy, this wasn't fair. created and born into a fallen world because of what somebody else did.

I don't like this scenario at all. I don't like that scenario until I realize that that principle holds true for those that are in Christ too. Now everything that's true of Christ is going to be true of me. How cool is that? So that takes away, well I'll put it this way, I'm glad God implemented the principle now. I wouldn't have been glad about it if I didn't know, if all I knew was I came from Adam and I had no choice, really. And by the way, when I come from Adam, I don't have any choice about that, do I? No, we're all born dead, every single one of us.

So, God made Adam the representative or federal headman of a race, and in that way the personhood and human characteristics of Adam would be instilled in his whole race, through the inherited oneness of nature. And Adam could say when he saw Eve, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. In what respect was Adam's likeness to God? How was Adam like God?

And I'll give you some of the characteristics because we've already discussed it some. The likeness is spiritually and soullessly. A spirit that is kept in a living union with God is never for one moment infringed on the laws of divine union or cross over to take counsel with or be influenced by its own soul or self-conscience. Reason of will or desire. That's from T. Austin Sparks. Mental and moral attributes of man. He has volition.

He can love. He can understand truth. He can be faithful. He can be holy. He understands justice. He has the capacity to reflect. He has the power to taste. He can compare things. He can admire things. My dog doesn't admire anything. He's aware of the fact that he knows things. He's conscious of knowing.

He can feel the pleasure of knowledge. He realizes that he has the power to impart knowledge to somebody else. He has the power to discover the efficacy and final cause of things. He can enjoy the pleasure of discovery. He has an imagination. And most of all, he can know the Creator and the Lord of all. He can distinguish between right and wrong. He has a conscience of integrity. and well-ordered and perfectly balanced passions. That's what God has and that's what the man of Christ has.

So, that's Adam when he was created before he fell. He's got all of that going for him, right? So, when Adam did fall, did God's opinion of him change? Because if you look in Genesis 1, every time God created something, what was his opinion? It was good. Now, Adam took a bite out of something and he fell. What's God's opinion about him now? What's that? Only evil continually.

Genesis 6.5 says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Oh boy.

Now I know all of you think you're better than that, but trust me, you're not. When God looks over the earth and he sees that every intent of man's heart is only evil continually, there isn't any wedge in there for you to say, yeah, but, I did a good thing last week. All the intents of your heart are evil once in a while, no, continually, all the time.

So what's God's attitude about his view of man. Well, I think he was disgusted until he sent Christ and Christ died for our sins and then things changed. Yeah, he's not, how would you say this, would you say, well, gee, God's unhappy? Well, wasn't he unhappy with Sodom and Gomorrah and he sent hope and it was gone? Well, you know, he said he repented of the fact that he even created man.

Because if his purpose is to glorify himself, Right? That's what he was going to do. So he gives man free will. Man exercises his free will to choose against God and thereby gets a sin nature and so the thoughts and imaginations of his heart are only evil continually.

God is looking at man and thinking, well, there's no way that I can carry out my purposes in this man, can I? Do you think he can? I mean, if all the principles we've talked about this morning are true, then God sits down and looks at Adam and everybody that comes from Adam, because he's God, he doesn't have to think long about this. He can't carry out his purpose in Adam, can he? He would deny the attributes of God if he were to wipe out the human race, because he only created him. Oh wow, I thought of that. It would deny the attributes of God if he just wiped out the human race? How do you mean?

Well, he is incapable, or not incapable. He does not associate himself with sin. Oh, I see. A man sinned. So, sin did not come from God. What's also neat is that we know that for the foundation of the world he already had a plan in place. Adam doesn't show up. God has a plan in place before Adam even shows up.

So it's not a surprise to him. The hardest thing, I think, Roger, for us to get is to understand that God does not think sequentially. He already knows who won the Super Bowl. Because he has all knowledge in play all at once. So there isn't any past or future to him. How that works, trust me, I have no idea.

It's sort of like grace, isn't it? Absolutely, because it fits with God. The problem that man has, and the problem that creation has, is that sin, because of the will that man has, is an offense against the Creator. And that offense has to be satisfied. God does not say, oh never mind, I'll let it go. He creates man after his own image and likeness and man turns against him. That kind of thing doesn't let go. That has to be, as the term we use, propitiated, or God has to be satisfied about that.

So God isn't, his opinion of man is correct in the sense that he recognizes that because he just takes a look at man and what does he find? He finds that the wickedness in the earth is great and that all the intents of the hearts of man is just evil continually.

So, let's compare Genesis 1.31 with Genesis 6.5.

Genesis 1.31, And God saw all that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day.

And I just read Genesis 6.5 to you.

How would you compare those? Or could you? Obviously, man isn't good anymore. And oh, by the way, because Adam is a representative man, what did God give Adam dominion over when he created him? The neighborhood? Animals. Everything. He gave him dominion over the first creation.

So when Adam falls, what happens to the creation? Everything associated with Adam, as Roman says, is subjected to vanity. So, does the representative man have a lot of power? Yes he does, because his actions accrue to the benefit of all those that come from him.

Let me give you one biblical example that shows. You know in Hebrews when it talks about that the priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood of Aaron? Remember that? That Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And what's the proof that the writer of Hebrews affords?

He says because Adam, Levi, paid tithes to Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham. You see how that works? That's the representative. Levi, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi wasn't even born yet, was he? He wasn't even on the planet. But the principle still holds true that Levi's Aaron's priesthood is less than the Melchizedek priesthood because God considers tithes being paid to Melchizedek by Levi, although he did it in the loins of Abraham. You see how that principle works? So God keeps that principle, and when we spend more time discussing what it's like to be in Christ, that principle holds true there too. So that you can say, whatever is true of Christ is true of me. Pretty cool, huh? And it's a principle God put in place, we didn't come up with it. How much of the original blueprint was left over after man fell? How much of the original blueprint or the original way that God created Adam was left over after Adam fell? Still had a body, didn't he? Probably needed a haircut by now. He still had a body, he was made from the dust of the ground, so that's still going on, right? What's the difference now with the body?

It's going to die. In the formative aspect of creating Adam, he breathed into Adam the breath of lives, that word is plural, so he gave him spiritual life and soulish life. How much of that is the same? He's spiritually dead. So his spirit is dead to the source of life who is God. So that's different. When he dies spiritually to God, something else happens. He gets something else that he didn't have at creation.

What was that? What's that? He gets a sin nature. Now how would you describe what a sin nature is? What is it? Against God, everything bad. Where'd it come from? Self. It's a sense of self. Where'd self come from? It's a sense of yourself, and in itself it's the center of the universe. And it's a nature. It just isn't... It's a green. Yeah, it just... It comes in and it controls the man now. That's why God could say he looks at man and all he sees is evil continually. Where did that nature come from? Walmart. Where did Adam get it? Is it just the absence of God with the sinful soul now that creates this thing called the sin nature?

And it's interesting, God told Adam that the day that he would eat of the tree, what would happen to him? He would surely die. In dying, he would die, meaning he'd die spiritually right away and physically later. And what else would happen? That his eyes would be opened. And so as his eyes get opened, what's that about? Because he said, what's the name of the tree, by the way, that he's not supposed to eat? It's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So did Adam know what good was? Did he know what evil was? He didn't know what evil was, right? He didn't know evil, he's innocent. Did he know what good was? How many think he probably knew what good was? Come on you cowards, stick your hands up. No, he didn't know good either. He didn't know the contrast. He just knew innocence. He was innocent and he knew God. Right? Knowing good from evil. So now his mind is open. And he becomes, the verse says he becomes this God, doesn't he? Knowing good and evil. What's that about?

Did he lose his dominion over Ymir? Yeah. Who got it? Who did he lose it to? Satan. Yeah, he lost it to Satan. We'll talk about that in a second. The whole creation fell and he lost dominion. But when Adam fell, he took his eyes off of God and turned to himself to make the judgment, right? That's right. Isn't that the sin nature, turning inward to yourself? Yeah.

But the Word of God said that he became flesh. He got this thing called the sin nature, which is self-focused, but the sin nature itself is a propensity to evil. It's a propensity to be against God continually. And so that comes in to be part of who Adam is, which wasn't created by God. Maybe you could say that the absence of good is this evil thing called the sin nature. We call it the old man. There's a propensity for Adam to be evil. He couldn't do good if he wanted to, and he lives in abject darkness. I'm going to put it this way. He could be good on a relative scale. What he can't be is godly. And if you read Romans 1, condemnation is because you can't be godlike, not because whether you can be good or not. It's godliness that's the issue. Adam could be godly before he fell. So, Adam still has some similarities to God when he falls. He's still got a mind infested with his sin nature. He still has a will, but how free is it? How free is man's will? Free now. You can't say that everything about Adam fell but his will and that he's got this illuminated, wonderful will to choose.

No, he doesn't. His will is just as fallen as his mind, his emotions, everything else about him. But he still can make choices. He still has options. The problem is that his options are limited now. Because he can't choose life because he can't see it. See that? Unless the Holy Spirit acts on him, he doesn't even know that life exists. He's stuck in a darkness where he only can choose dark and evil. And unless God intervenes, he's really in trouble. Because he's exercising his will to do what? Well, I think I'll pick this sin over that sin. He cannot pick anything other than sin. That's how in abject darkness he is.

So would you say, so why is every human being just like Adam? Why were you all born dirty rotten dogs that you are? Because you came from Adam, right? Right? Isn't that why you are the way you are? Or were? So what term would you use to explain what this likeness is? How about the term identification? Every human being born on this planet is identified with Adam, just as he exists after the fall. You are in union with, identified with, have the same characteristics as Adam, right? And according to Philippians, you're a no hoper. You have no chance.

So the last question I had today was then why was Joseph, why wasn't Joseph the Lord Jesus' human father? Say that again? Do you see now why Joseph couldn't have been Christ's father? Because if he was, what would Christ have gotten? That's right! So if you're going to bring in a brand new man, who's a brand new head of a brand new race, who's a representative man, he cannot come from the old stuff. Right? Well, how about Mary? What did she contribute? What did she contribute? How come he's not sinful because of her? Because God, because he was born through God by Mary.

Think about what a representative man is. Can I be born of a woman, and if my father is different, the sin passes down through the man, because the man is the head. Adam is the head, not Eve. Adam is the head. So as the beginning comes down the line, if you are going to interrupt the line, you have to interrupt it on the male side. It's got to be the father. You can put a fertilized ovum in a woman and use her egg. The sin nature comes from the man. From the seed of the man. That's why it's different. That's why he's different. The fertilized ovum, the fertilized egg, the zygote in Mary's womb was not human produced. The Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. Physically. That's in verse 111. So, hey, we got through. Okay, let's close. Our dear Father, how we thank you, Father, for these principles that you've put in place that, as we grow and learn of them, will cause us to rest in the absolute wonderful position that we all occupy in your dear Son. And we pray in his name, Amen.