Excerpt Chapter 4 Out of the Darkness

Chapter 4

My Father as a Rolling Stone: God’s Purpose in Salvation

 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
– Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you
to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
– Ezekiel 36:26–27

 

 

In chapter 3, we talked about God’s plan of salvation. Redemption is a divine act by God to deliver the soul of man from sin, death, and Satan. Salvation is God’s divine plan of love, expressed through His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from remaining eternally separated from God, condemned to spend eternity in hell. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command and ate the fruit from the tree in the garden of Eden, sin entered into the world, for Satan had deceived man to disobey God.

            According to 1 John 3:4–5, sin is lawlessness, and it was for this reason that Jesus came into the world. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

In Romans 5:12–19, the scriptures explain the origin of sin, sin’s effects from the beginning of time to today, and the relevance of Adam’s life in comparison and contrast to the life of Jesus.

‘Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.’ (Romans 5:12–19 NIV)

            As an educator, I often use the illustration of a boulder, a steep hill, and a little village in a valley to explain to my students what can be the result of their poor choices and actions in the course of a school day and how they relate to life in general. “Imagine being at the top of a steep hill,” I say to them. “Standing before you is a huge boulder, and off to the side is a sign that says, ‘Danger! Please do not push!’ Intrigued by the sign and curious about the unknown danger surrounding this rock, you want to investigate. What possible danger could there be in pushing the boulder? you wonder, and the idea of pushing the boulder becomes even more enticing. You choose to push it. It is only after you have set the stone in motion and watched it disappear from view that you look beyond the steep hill where you stand. You notice a little village in the valley below, directly in the path of the boulder you just pushed over.

          “Immediately you are gripped with horror, anxiety, and guilt for the actions that you now recognize as foolish. You ignored the sign, not realizing the significance of your action until it was too late. As your heart pounds and races, the boulder momentarily appears to be moving in slow motion. You think about what you could do to change the outcome of your actions. I could run ahead of the boulder and try to stop it! Before you can even finish this thought, you realize how impossible it would be, and how foolish it sounds. You then think to yourself, I could outrun the boulder to warn everyone in the village below about the devastation that is fast approaching! You inevitably realize that nothing can be done to stop the boulder from rolling until it comes to a place of rest. The village in the valley is now destined to experience and suffer the consequences of your decision to push the boulder. You watch in agony, guilt, and shame, as you see the devastation and destruction left behind by your actions.”

This is a simple story with a simple message. We must accept the responsibility and the consequences that come with making poor choices. We should learn from our mistakes and recognize when our actions or behavior injure others, ready to be accountable and to make amends for the harm caused to others. Oh, and it may not hurt to heed the warning signs around us. This may be a simple story, but how many of us have ignored obvious warning signs, choosing destructive behavior and actions that have devastated the lives of others, including our own?

            My father made a choice to abandon his family and divorce my mother, leaving in his wake a family that was fractured, displaced, and devastated by the rolling stone that bowled us over. Poppa was truly a rolling stone! To this day, I would not be able to identify my father if he stood right in front of me. His actions and his absence, however, left an impression that our family felt for years after his departure.

            In the same way, Adam made a choice to disobey God, and the effects of his action have been felt for centuries down through the generations until today. Like Adam’s choice, my father’s actions became a curse that affected my mother and his children. Thank God for Jesus Christ! We do not have to languish forever and live our lives under the curse of Adam and the sins of our fathers. God’s purpose for salvation was to destroy the curse of Adam and Eve’s disobedience and to restore our lives from the devastation and destruction caused by the effects of sin that bowl us over like a rolling stone.

            Jesus Christ is God’s divine act of love to redeem man’s fallen nature and to save his soul from death and destruction. This redemption restores man to a right relationship that allows him to enjoy fellowship with God. After Adam committed the sin of eating the fruit from the tree, God began to demonstrate His love, concern, compassion, and justice for man’s fallen state.

              Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:7–11, 21 NIV)

            Do you see how God responded to Adam and Eve? Notice how He came to them in the garden after Adam expressed his fears to God and acknowledged his attempt to try to hide from God because of his nakedness. Do you see that God did not condemn them for what they had done? Did you notice that God did not chastise them for the obvious wrong they had committed? Instead, God responded with mercy, kindness, and grace. God made garments of skin, and He himself clothed them. God initiated an act of redemption by providing them with a covering to cover their nakedness, their shame, and their guilt. God provided Adam and Eve comfort, reassurance of His love, and care for them. He dealt with their immediate need, even though they had committed a sin. Although there were immediate and eternal consequences for their actions (Genesis 3:16–19), God provided an immediate and eternal solution to overcome Satan’s destructive influence and power.

            “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NIV).

            The plan of salvation is God’s promise to redeem the fallen nature of man. God’s purpose in salvation is to restore man to God’s original likeness and image. He does this through the power of His love, His Son, and His Spirit at work in the hearts and minds of everyone who sincerely believes in what Christ accomplished on the cross.

            “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26a–27 NIV). Every man in existence is created in the likeness of the Creator of heaven and earth. Every man has a spirit and a soul, which is housed in his physical body.

            “The Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7 KJV). “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4 NIV).

God is a Spirit, and He has a soul as well. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38a, emphasis added). “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38 NIV, emphasis added).

The soul of God and man is made up of the mind (intellect), the heart (emotions), and the will (ability to choose). Collectively, these make up our human nature. With the freedom she had been given, Eve was influenced by Satan and chose to disobey God. At first, Adam chose to obey God by ignoring the tree, but he was later influenced and chose to disobey God by taking the fruit from Eve. Since Eve came from Adam, and every man has come from them, we are all born with the capacity to choose the opposite of what God desires for us. Sin distorts the image and likeness of God in man. This is what is referred to as the sinful nature. What we call human nature, the ability and freedom to choose, is also condemned and regarded as the sinful nature. When man’s choices are in rebellion against God’s intentions for man, or they contradict His word, God regards these choices as sinful.

“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5 NIV).

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV).

            “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19–21).

            It was never God’s intention for man to choose the opposite of what He desired for man. Rather, he desires that men choose Him over the influence of evil and Satan. We can only be tempted and influenced by the devil through the desires that are within us, so when we are tempted, God wants us to turn to Him instead of giving in to our temptation. God knew beforehand that man’s fallen nature would make it impossible for us to follow through with the choice to live for Him. This is why He provided Jesus Christ. Even in the beginning, in the garden, God saw our need for His divine help and provided us with an eternal solution for an eternal problem. Since the beginning of time, it has been God’s plan and desire to restore man to His own image and likeness.

By the power of God, Jesus Christ died and rose again so that we may experience God’s love in redemption. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Spirit takes residence and lives within us to restore our souls and transform us back into the original image and likeness of our Creator. God’s word is the source of power that provides the knowledge and inspiration that moves us to respond to God and allows Him to work in and through us to accomplish this great work.

Out of the Darkness: A Journey into the Marvelous Light is available now on-line to purchase today! Use the link on my blogroll to Tate Publishing on-line bookstore, or amazon.com! You can purchase an autographed copy by contacting me directly authorcjones@yahoo.com