JESUS Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour. The Bible describes him as unique in every respect, incomparable, and perfect. ‘At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:10–11).
The record of his life and ministry is shown to us in the Gospels—how he ‘went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38) and ‘proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom’ (Matthew 4:23).
He was in an especial sense ‘a new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). He was born of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). He gave his life as a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:12), then God raised him to life again and he was the first to be given immortality (1 Corinthians 15:23). He was taken to heaven into God’s presence and will come again. ‘This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). In the mean time he is an intercessor for those who are his followers, taking their prayers to God (Romans 8:34).
Adam and Eve in Paradise
Jesus Christ is called the ‘last Adam’
(1 Corinthians 15:45). Adam was the first man, who brought sin and mortality upon the human race. Jesus is the ‘last Adam’ because he brought blessing and the prospect of immortality.
The definite lesson we can learn from Adam, indeed must learn sooner or later, is that God always means what He says. Adam and Eve, placed in the Garden of Eden—the Paradise of God—were given a wonderful privilege. ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”’ (Genesis 2:15–17).
Adam and Eve disobeyed. They ate of the forbidden fruit and incurred the penalty of death. God always means what He says. ‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ (Genesis 3:19).
The Tree of Life
There were further consequences. There was a tree in the garden which, in common with all the other trees, had not been forbidden. Now that Adam had sinned, access to that tree was barred!
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life (vs. 22–24).
Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12).
The human race is mortal, under sentence of death. For the time being eternal life is barred. It is here that we learn the value of Jesus as the Saviour. For, in his last message to his disciples through the Apostle John he declared,
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).
R W M