12/30/2023
When we come to know Jesus Christ, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, something amazing begins to happen in and to us. We are most certainly relieved of the sin which began in Adam, but the knowledge of good and evil remains... so what is God to do with that?
“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV
So Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the sin wasn’t the knowledge... the sin was disobedience, and breaking covenant with God. Many, many, seekers believe that the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary pushes a reset button that returns them to the exact state of Adam before he ate the forbidden fruit, but that is not true. We still possess the knowledge of good and evil; only the sin has been washed away.
“But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.”
Hosea 6:7 ESV
So if we still have this knowledge, and God didn’t wish for Adam to have it, how do we deal with that now? The answer is in Jesus Christ who transforms us into new creatures... we evolve into something that Adam was not. We receive more than forgiveness, we also begin to change into new beings, new creatures, in Christ. We receive redemption and much MORE!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;”
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 ESV
With Jesus we haven’t returned to being like Adam... we have been elevated, and are becoming like Jesus Himself. Isn’t that a remarkable gift? This is a metamorphosis that Satan would like to blind us to. He would rather we not know that we have been, and are continuing to be, changed into a more perfect creature... he wants us to believe that we are still the same old vulnerable, and destined to die, human being that Adam was. But we are not; in Jesus we are much more! We have been given a gift that makes us greater than we ever dreamed possible...
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
James 1:17 ESV
So today we are living lives of change because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We are becoming new in ways that make us more like Jesus with each step we take. We are not the heirs of Adam, but have become heirs, and joint heirs, with Christ. Each time we suffer and model ourselves after Him we become more and more like Jesus, and less and less like Adam.
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Romans 8:16-17 ESV
Today we praise God and Jesus Christ for our redemption from sin, but we must praise them further for beginning a work of transformation in us. God has not only forgiven us, He has made a way for us to become His children in an even more perfect sense. Every good thing flows from God; He is the spring from which all good gushes, just as the Psalmist sang of Him...
“Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."”
Psalms 87:7 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the redemption from sin that you made possible through the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ, but I thank you further for the subsequent change that is occurring in me every day of my faithful life. I thank you for making me more like your Son Jesus as I journey with Him, and believe more in Him with each step taken. I sing as the Psalmist of the great gifts and miracles that you give me Lord, but none can compare with that of Jesus. In that day of judgement when I stand with Him before you I will not be standing as His child, but yours, and not the servant of Jesus, but His brother. My mind cannot grasp the magnificence of this Father, and my being cannot contain the joy of that thought... so I must sing out, and shed tears of joy to relieve myself of its upwelling! Hear my heart Father as it shouts your name in glory, and feel my gratitude as it bubbles forth in rivers of praise! You are great, and my love for you cannot be bound nor contained within me. Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou my God Almighty!
“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Rich Forbes