WAS Jesus going to come if Adam had not sinned? The answer is simple and straightforward yes.
Some Christians struggle to answer this and end up being waylaid.
Christian apologetics teaches us to be well grounded and groomed. If Jesus was/is an afterthought then religions can batter a believer into admitting to alternatives.
We quickly answer before we look at eternal life. Revelation 13:8 records, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
In the Godhead realm, there was a plan for redemption before creation.
A couple of years ago we looked at eternal life brought forth by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us retrace.
Eternal life was there before death. It is eternal because it’s everlasting and exists before and after time.
This life is not a rushed stop-gap measure, but has been there before time.
- Sunday word: God’s blessings to law-abiding people
- The promise of eternal life
- Of eternal life and death
- devotion column: Knowledge for growth in Grace
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The Gospel of Christ preaches the life of Christ which is received by grace through faith.
As we receive this life, we are ushered into the Christian faith or Christianity.
Receiving the grace of God awakens or quickens us by transferring us from death to life and from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Heaven.
We are, therefore, citizens of heaven and we do not hold valid papers to exist in darkness.
Please remember that we receive the life of Christ not that we give our lives to Christ.
Throughout the pages of the Bible, we see the life of God that He is offering to humanity.
This life is the basis for Christian hope. We, therefore, stand without shaking.
Believers behold the future without trepidation and pursue their purposes with boldness and determination.
Christians, therefore, live with a sense of security. Beyond the sense realm, we have full persuasion and conviction.
Apostle Paul in Titus 1:2 settles: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” Because of the eternal life, we live in hope not fear and despondency.
God cannot lie. It is not in His nature to reverse His promises. Here we are told that before the world began, eternal life was already there.
So our life is not in the hands of our ancestors. Our ancestors came after eternal life and cannot be custodians of eternal life. We, therefore, do not worship ancestral spirits, they cannot plead our case before God.
The book of Genesis in typology reveals to us this life. In the garden of Eden, we see the tree of life which points to Christ. Genesis 2:9 records: “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
The option to choose life has always been there. We are free moral agents. God is not a dictator and, therefore, allows us the liberty to choose our course.
Deuteronomy 30:19 shows: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” We are persuaded and encouraged to choose life. Let us go for life.
We have noted that life was in the eternal realm and superseded time.
The Bible teaches us that this life was seen in our material world. 1 John 1:2 clarifies: “(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)”
Eternal life came into our arena and was seen by human beings. The life was seen. This life of God is the Man Christ Jesus.
The Amplified Bible makes it clearer. It reads: “And the life [an aspect of His being] was revealed (made manifest, demonstrated), and we saw [as eyewitnesses] and are testifying to and declare to you the Life, the eternal Life [in Him] Who already existed with the Father and Who [actually] was made visible (was revealed) to us [His followers].”
Jesus Christ of Nazareth came on earth to release this life to the physical world.
The Christian faith, therefore, is the only path for eternal life. Jesus emphatically declares in John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
If Jesus Christ came with eternal life, therefore, there is life after death. What we call death in our physical realm is sleep.
Eternal life was there before death and shall be there after death. It supersedes death.
Therefore, this world is not the end of it.
We accept that Jesus came in the flesh to avail to us His life after His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating on high.
1 John 4:2-3 lay the foundation: “[2] Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: [3] And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world.”
Jesus Christ is not a mysterious distant phenomenon.
He is there to connect God to His people and humanity to God. We believe that He came and that He shall return. He is our hope and assurance of eternal life.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.
- All Bible quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise stated.
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