More lessons on RENOVATION:
GENESIS OF SALVATION
The most important reason God gave us His Word, the Bible, was to reveal the plan of salvation to us. Nothing is more important. The Bible is not a science book, although one will find truths which will affect one's perspective of science. It is not a book intended to answer questions which our curious minds may wish to seek from God. The primary purpose of the Bible is to inform mankind the manner by which he can return to God.
The reason God speaks of beginnings in the book of Genesis is, therefore, not to inform the curious mind as to how man came about in the first place. God is relaying a message to us about salvation. Oh, the accounts in Genesis must be taken literally, but God had something in mind in relating this actual history to us. The restoration of mankind to pre-fall existence, as Adam originally knew it, demanded the story of that original fall of mankind into sin.
The solution to man's sinful plight is involved in the account of the manner in which man first fell. We must know where and how man "got off track", so to speak, in order to understand the remedy.
And, as we will unmistakably see in this study, God decided to foreshadow the great plan of salvation by creating the world in a particular manner.
Why do we read of six days of God's working? Why did He choose to use six days? He could have easily snapped all into existence in an instant. Have you ever asked yourself this question? There is a reason.
One might ask, "By what authority do you have to say you know why God did choose to make the world in six days?" I have the authority given to me and you, true believers, from God's Word, itself, for the very same Bible contains passages that relate to Genesis which regard salvation which form so much of a parallel indicating a foreshadowing element that it is beyond coincidence.
Paul said we can have the mind of Christ. (I Cor. 2:16). This does not mean we can instruct God, as Paul's Old Testament reference in 1 Cor. 2:16 makes mention, but it does mean God's ways can be known by the "spiritual", as Paul puts it, believer.
The
uncanny similarities between creation in Genesis and the plan of salvation in the New Testament make the picture too clear for it to be mere parallels of coincidence. No. God had Genesis written for the very purpose of teaching us, among other things, the true plan of salvation.
WATER AND SPIRIT
Jesus told Nicodemus the reason He was indeed a teacher sent from God in reply to Nicodemus' recognition of that fact in
John 3. Jesus explained that His ability to teach and to perform the miracles He did was due to the fact that He could "see the Kingdom of God." (
John 3:2-3). In other words, He told Nicodemus that He truly was from God and that no man could do the things He did unless he/she be born again.
John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus turned the conversation into an opportunity to inform Nicodemus that God was preparing a way for man to return to Himself by referring to man's opportunity to see the Kingdom of God.
Jesus stirred up Nicodemus' curiosity regarding the means made for man to see the Kingdom. Nicodemus asked how a man could be born again. Not realizing there is more to a man's being than flesh, Nicodemus could only link a second physical birth with Jesus' statement regarding new birth. Would a man have to enter the womb and be born a second time? He felt Jesus' words were ridiculous.
Nicodemus did not understand that a man consists of not a body but also of a soul and a spirit. (
I Thess 5:23). Man is tripartite, or is made of three parts. Spirit, Soul and Body.
We know that the common thought of a dichotomy of two parts, soul and body, is an incorrect view of man. Human philosophy sees only soul (which they say is equatable with the word spirit) and body because the aspect of man's spirit as apart from the soul is "inactive" in fallen humanity. Man is so unaware of the human spirit because it died, not the physical body, the day Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, as God forewarned Adam. And all Adam's descendants have inherited his sinful condition along with a dead human spirit. being inactive, the human spirit remains unrecognizable by those who seek to understand man's being.
The Bible, however, clearly reveals that there are two elements, not one, besides the human body which complete a man's/woman's being. These two are not one and the same element (spirit and soul) because
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that a man's soul and spirit can be divided as much as bone and marrow can be separated.
Jesus explained the truth of His statement to Nicodemus that one must be born not the flesh but of the water and the Spirit. Should one be born of flesh in order to enter the Kingdom of God then one would have to re-enter one's mother's womb and be physically born a second time. Since, however, it is of the water and of the Spirit that one must be born again, we understand that the element which is born of the Spirit is the human spirit. Kind after its kind, as Genesis reveals. And human spirit, not flesh, is born of God's Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
If Jesus had said we must be born of the flesh, then our mothers would indeed be in the picture and somehow we would have to enter a second time into their wombs. But Since He clarified the issue by saying we are born of the Spirit, we understand that it cannot be our human flesh, but our human spirits that He is talking about.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
With the two elements of WATER AND SPIRIT in mind, in relation to our new births, we see a marvelous connection to the thought of Genesis' creation. (
Gen 1:2).
The parallel becomes strikingly more clear when we notice that man is intimately connected with the actual world since man was made from the dust of the earth, and man must one day return to the earth in death. In fact, rather than afflict man directly with a curse, God chose to curse the ground for man's sake due to his disobedience in the garden. (Ge. 3:17).
Thus it began. God's Spirit moved on the face of the waters. Here we have SPIRIT AND WATER. And the next immediate step taken by God to make the world parallel the initial steps of salvation as found in the New Testament.
First of all, God "Said." The Word of God came into action once the SPIRIT and WATER became involved.
Please understand that God's Word can only accomplish a work upon us when His Spirit is also involved. Otherwise, the Word is seemingly ineffective and almost incomprehensible. Paul said that the Spirit of God is given to a person that we might "know the things that are freely given" to us.
1Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Such "things" are spoken by ministers who are involved in true, spiritual ministry (not just any ministers). These words of wisdom are spoken not in words which man's wisdom teaches. It comes apart from the origin of man's mind and wisdom. They are those "things" which the Holy Spirit teaches about. Ministers of the true Church (not a denomination) speak forth spiritual wisdom by way of comparing spiritual things with spiritual words. Therefore, without the Spirit we cannot know these spiritual truths.
That is the reason God foreshadowed new birth by first having His Spirit move, and then by speaking His Word. Only when the Spirit is upon a person can that person comprehend the Word of God as it works. Only then can the Word do a work upon us as the world was worked and shaped into form by the spoken Word of God.
God must speak the Word. This is not simply reading black-inked letters in a Bible. It is when God's Spirit is upon your seeking, sincere heart that it is God breathing life to you through the written words. God must say. ...And God said.
Before salvation, we are as the world was before Spirit, water and Word. We are void and without form. And God's Spirit comes to us that He might form us.
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