Mark 11:20-23 (NKJV) 20 Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” 22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
Yesterday we journeyed back to the book of Genesis to observe a principle set in motion by the creator. This principle is stated in Hebrews 11:3. God created by releasing words filled with his power into a void. Those words made all that we perceive as the physical world. God used the same principle to shape what he had released into the heavens, the waters, the land and all life on earth.
God then changed the format of what he was doing. He formed man’s body out of the substance of what he had created. Man’s body was fully functional but empty. There was no soul within it. God breathed into man and he became a “living soul.” What God breathed into man was his own life. Man became a living “soul” when God put a spirit being into his body. Man is the link between two worlds. He is a spirit. God is a spirit.
Man is not God. That must be understood. There is no one like the Lord our God (Ex. 8:10.) However, man is like nothing else God created. God said that man was to have dominion over all the earth. Man had no tools that we know of. He had no technology. How was he to have dominion. I believe he was to rule the earth using the same principle by which God created it. The physical world was designed to respond to a God’s word. It was designed to respond to words that originated in the world of the spirit, the creator world, spoken by a spirit being.
When man choose to commit the sin of high treason his connection to that world was severed.
Genesis 2:17 (NKJV) 17 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.”
In the Young’s Literal Translation, this verse says “for in the day of thine eating of it—dying thou dost die.” God is telling Adam there will be two deaths. He did not die physically when he ate. He died spiritually. Spiritual death is to be cut off from God who is life.
When this happened, man could no longer be God’s conduit for creative words. The creation was designed to respond to words that originated in the world of the creator. Man no longer had that connection. God could override the dominion he gave man but in doing so he would lose all of his children. The love of God would not allow that.
God did not stop speaking. He changed his method. God raised up prophets who would speak his words just as he gave them. He anointed people with messages that they often did not understand. However, they spoke them just as God gave them. They did not editorialize nor interpret. They simply said what God said. This is why the channel had to be protected with some outwardly harsh penalties.
Deuteronomy 13:5 (NKJV) 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
Earlier in this chapter, God tells Israel that even if a word spoken by a prophet comes to pass, they must not follow that prophet if his word leads them to other Gods. In verse 5 it says that this kind of prophet had to be put to death. I wonder how many prophets today would fail this test.
The underlying message of all the prophets who spoke to Israel was the one spoken by God himself to the devil in Genesis 3:15. There is one coming who is going to put right what is wrong. That prophecy was fulfilled in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) when the virgin of Isaiah 7:14 gave birth to a son when she had not yet had sexual relations with any man. Jesus, the son of man and the son of God, was born.
Paul calls Jesus the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45. This means that whatever Adam was to the world the man Jesus was to the world. Nevertheless, Jesus was more than Adam. Adam was created by God. He was a spirit being in a physical body. He touched both realms and as such could be the conduit for God’s creative power to the world.
Jesus differed in a very important way. His body was made in the same way that all human bodies were made since the creation of Adam and Eve. There was a difference of course. His body was made of the flesh of his mother only. He had no human father. He was just as fully human as Adam. God formed his body from the “dust of the earth.” God formed Jesus body from the substance of humanity in Mary. The main difference is in what spirit God put into the body. In Adam’s case it was a human spirit. God did not put a simple human spirit into Jesus. He clothed himself with flesh.
Hebrews 2:14 (NKJV) 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
The theological word is “incarnation.” God became man. Jesus was God in the flesh.
John 1:1 (NKJV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 (NKJV) 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God, once again, had a conduit through whom he could speak to the creation directly. He had a voice that did not require a sinful human to speak precisely as directed. He could speak himself. The creation once again heard the direct voice of its creator.
Romans 8:29 tells us that Jesus was to be the firstborn of many brethren. Romans 5 tells us that as Adam’s disobedience brought death to the earth, Jesus obedience would bring life to many. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 tells us that any who are “in Christ” are new creatures. What Jesus was, we become in salvation. We do not become God. There is still only one. Jesus was God manifested in the flesh. We are not that. What we are is what Adam was.
When I am born again my spirit is made new. I am vitally joined to Jesus.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV) 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
Adam was joined to God because he was a spirit put into a physical body. We are joined to God through our connection to Jesus our savior and Lord. Adam was able to have dominion over the earth. It follows that he exercised that dominion by using the words of God spoken to the natural world.
If Jesus was the last Adam we should see evidence of this in his ministry. If we do, then we must conclude that, since we are one spirit with him we must also have this same authority. Let us look at the ministry of Jesus and find out. Join me tomorrow.
Leave a Reply