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By John Foll, written between 9/14/2018 to 02/08/2019.
In Adam and Eve, Part 1: The Test of Faith, we learned that Adam and Eve had been created perfect, and were given a perfect world to live in by God. Have you ever heard the expression ‘In a perfect world…’? Well Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world! They were the only ones in the human race who ever lived in a ‘perfect world,’ when this world was perfect in the Garden of Eden. God gave them the ability of living forever without sin, since He created them perfect. There was nothing that Adam and Eve needed: they lived in a perfect world, they were perfect, they had food, they had each other, and everything they needed.
Adam had an easy but wonderful job taking care of the Garden of Eden, and Adam had the perfect wife, Eve. And Eve had the perfect husband, Adam. They were created or ‘born’ fully grown, unlike anyone else in human history.
But they had to become ‘spiritual adults,’ and needed to learn to love and trust God; they had no experience at life yet. So God gave them a light test to show their love and loyalty to Him, when He placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
In the Garden of Eden, we discovered that Satan lied to Eve telling her not to believe God,
after God had told Adam that they would surely die if they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan told Eve that she would become as ‘a god’, if she would disobey God. But we discovered that both
Adam and Eve were already like God, in their own human-finite way. This was because they were created in God’s image, and had God dwelling in them, not because of themselves. So that sneaky serpent in a way was promising something that they already had in a human-finite way! The Devil tempted Eve that she could be fully ‘god’, not just like God.
We discovered that Eve (and of course Adam too)
could have become more and more like God as they learned to love Him more and more, as time progressed, if they hadn’t fallen. So Eve was being ‘hood-winked’ out of her eternal life and her eternal inheritance of the Garden of Eden’, and robbed of her happy joyful state of bliss.
Because of her and Adam’s sin, they were robbed of their ability to be like God, since they now had an affinity for evil, unless God did something to reverse this. Eve didn’t need anything that Satan promised her, which could only bring sin, misery and death.
We saw that they fell prey to sin because they doubted God – which is lack of faith! What does that say about us in our day, who have been born into sin? What kind of a chance do we have of pleasing God and being saved if we don’t have faith in Him? Many people in our day (and indeed throughout human history)
have fallen prey to sin because of doubting God too! In fact, doubt is the main cause for sin! If you want to please God and be an overcomer against sin, you must believe God. Hebrews 11:6. So you should see how imperative it is to learn how to have true faith in God, if you don’t wish your life to be a failure and fall prey to sin and eternal death.
That is where we left off, and now we will continue exploring what happened in the Garden of Eden that we need to know about today:
How were Adam and Eve able to be perfect in the Garden of Eden before they fell prey to sin?
Jesus plainly declared: ‘no one is good but God alone.’ Luke 18:19 NASB.
So how were Adam and Eve able to be good in the Garden of Eden before they sinned? God was abiding in them and in His whole creation. We will endeavor to show this in this article.
In our article: Abraham’s Promised Possession Could Only Come Through the Resurrection: we stated that Adam and Eve had been given a measure of the Holy Spirit before they sinned. This provided the basis and the concept that we should write this article that you are now reading: “
Adam and Eve Part 2: Clothed with Righteousness”, which also led to us seeing the need to write “
Adam and Eve Part 1: The Test of Faith”, and then to “
Adam and Eve, Part 3: Redemption: Bringing Back What was Lost.”
Now let us explore this concept: that Adam and Eve had the Holy Spirit before they fell. You may be saying, ‘How do we know this?’ Keep reading, we will show you why Adam and Eve had the Holy Spirit before they sinned, and lost His full indwelling presence after they sinned. (Note that the Holy Spirit didn’t stop trying to work with them after they fell, but they lost His special presence and complete protection after it.)
When Adam and Eve were created they had a natural desire to love and please God and each other, which is righteousness. Since ‘no one is good but God alone’, the only way this could happen was if God was dwelling in them through the Holy Spirit.
How do we know this? Because God is love (1 John 4:8),
and because Love is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:10),
and because He said that everything He created was very good! Exodus 1:31. He primed the pump to enable Adam and Eve to live righteously. You may say this is speculation,
but the salvation-gospel message is designed to bring mankind back to their ideal state, as it was intended at creation, which they would have kept if they had not fallen. Salvation restores mankind. In Heaven this ideal state will be fully regained.
God’s plan of Salvation for mankind is His plan to help humanity get back to the state they were in before they fell into sin. There are two Adams, and two different outcomes.
The first Adam fell prey to sin because of doubt.
The second Adam, Jesus, was an overcomer and clung to the rich promises of God, believing the promises in the word of God that He would be the offering for sin – that God would accept His sacrifice and would grant forgiveness to all who believe through Him. Jesus was a firm believer in God’s power to save! He succeeded where Adam and Eve failed,
He had perfect faith in His Father! Jesus and the Holy Spirit are God’s two most precious gifts to mankind, to help us break out of this inherited sin cycle, and help prepare us for Heaven and the earth made new. We will not go into all of the details of this here, because we have many other articles on this topic, and have gone into this in our books:
The Love of God: God's Plan To Save You: Part 1 How To Have Righteousness By Faith, and The Love of God: God's Plan To Save You: Part 2 How To Become the Bride of Christ.
We don't know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before they fell into sin, but it was probably less than 1 year. Their character development wasn’t complete, so God gave them a test to give them a choice. After they fell into sin, their characters became flawed.
Adam and Eve's character development was not complete when they were created, because character is based on choice and habit. They had to decide from their own free will to obey God and allow Him to guide and direct them.
This was what the test was for in the Garden of Eden. If Adam and Eve had not failed this test and kept obeying God, then this would have become a habitual choice for them; then they would have kept God’s power to be good. But they chose to doubt God and fell into sin.
What happened to Adam and Eve may be compared to a new Christian who gives their heart to God and is baptized. They have some growing to do until they come into the fullness of Christ. How quickly a new convert grows up spiritually depends on their desire to love and obey God; how strong it is. It is a measure of their love and devotion to God.
God gives us the power of choice: to decide what we will have: life or death. To everyone comes a test of faith.
Adam and Eve's walk with God in the Garden of Eden may be compared to that of a new Christian or someone thinking about becoming one. Except that Adam and Eve were created perfect without sin, whereas we are born in sin and have to get to know God. Says the Psalmist, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalms 51:5 KJV. See also
John 9:34. But Adam and Eve had a much easier time than we have, since they were born perfect and we aren't. The test that God gave Adam and Eve was a light test indeed, compared with what we have to deal with today.
Some people are born into families with almost no truth or morals taught to them. What kind of a chance do they have? What hope do a lot of them have to live a righteous life?
But thankfully God doesn’t leave us without hope! For where sin abounds, there God’s grace more abounds! Romans 5:20. So there is hope for those who are born under such bad circumstances, when they see their need and cry out for help! God knows their needs and desires.
But Adam and Eve had no knowledge of sin or its consequences like we have today. They had to sin in order to find out whether what God said was the gospel truth or not, which is why we have this mess today, because they doubted Him. Satan told them that they would gain the advantage by disobeying God, and they believed him and doubted God.
But they had no need to doubt God! This is what we want you to understand!
But God’s grace provided for their and our mistakes! God doesn’t leave us to our sins and failures - He has provided a way out for all who want it!
After sin came into the world what happened to mankind and creation?
In the animal kingdom we see sin, destruction and death: the strong preying on the weak, the results of Adam and Eve’s sin! This same evil exists in humanity too, the strong preying on the weak! Within a few years after Adam and Eve’s fall, their first son murdered their second son! Wow! How sad they must have been when their second son died! Genesis 4:1-8. Now they learned personally that the wages of sin is death indeed, after their second son died!
After Adam and Eve’s sin, God withdrew His full protection and presence from man and nature. (This is not to say that God completely abandoned man or nature.) When God is in control, life and property are preserved, when He is not in control, death, and destruction are assured; only God can truly preserve things and keep things together.
God will not abide sin; He is a consuming fire against it! Exodus 24:17 NASB; Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3 NASB; Isaiah 29:6; 30:27, 30; 33:14 NASB; Hebrews 12:29 KJV/NASB. If someone chooses their own way apart from God, He honors their choice and allows ‘nature to take its course.’
Whenever someone separates themselves from God, only evil can result. Only by God’s continued presence and protection, the giver of life, could mankind have ever lived forever.
We believe that the animal and plant kingdoms were protected by the Spirit of God before sin, as Adam and Eve were. But after sin they lost their protection or a lot of it and began to die, because of sin.
It takes God's guidance and protection to keep bad things from happening. Oh how it makes our heart so sad with what happened to God's beautiful creation! It was not their fault!
But they had to suffer too, because Adam and Eve lost their faith in God and fell into sin.
Why did God make animal skins for Adam and Eve, after they sinned, if they hadn’t lost their covering?
After sin God provided animal skins for Adam and Eve to hide their nakedness. Genesis 3:21. (This was the first sacrifice for sin; some animals had to die for their sin to clothe them.)
Apparently something happened to them after they sinned, for the Bible says that their eyes were opened, which implies that Adam and Eve had a covering of some kind before they sinned. Before Adam and Eve sinned, the Bible says: “
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25 NASB.
So why were they not ashamed before they sinned? Because apparently they had a covering of some kind.
What was this covering?
It is not possible to live forever in a state of sin, because ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Romans 6:23. The only way someone can have eternal life is if they have God's power in them keeping them alive, helping them to be holy.
In order for someone to be good, they must have God’s presence or Holy Spirit dwelling fully in them. Think about it! Jesus declared that ‘no one is good but God alone.’ Luke 18:19 NASB.
Therefore Adam and Eve before they sinned must have had God dwelling in them, for it says in Genesis,
that God said that everything that He made was very good! Genesis 1:31 NASB.
God would never say that anything was very good, if there was any trace of sin in it or was defective in any way! God's ways are not man's ways, as the Heaven is above the earth, so are God’s ways above man’s ways. Isaiah 55:8-9.
Man may call something good when it is evil, and something bad when it is good, but not so with God! When God says something is good, or more especially when He says something is very good, then it is very good indeed and without sin!
Adam and Eve knew something was wrong when they saw that they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves to make aprons to hide their loins. Genesis 3:7. They knew something was wrong because they became afraid of God and tried to hide from Him. This was mankind’s first attempt to be righteous when they were not.
They had no thought before sin to try to cover their nakedness, or for any man-made religion before they sinned. Why is that? Because they lost something very precious when they lost their faith in God and fell, they lost their innocence and they lost the Holy Spirit! They got a boat load of guilt and fear in exchange for their trust in God - because they doubted God and sinned! Sounds like a bad deal to me!
Why give up the innocence, peace, love, joy, happiness and eternal life for doubt, guilt, fear and death? Makes no sense to me.
This is the foundation of all false religion and self-righteousness. False religion is the attempt to remove guilt and make oneself good and get peace;
it is a plan to make oneself righteous apart from the only true plan laid out by God. It is a plan to make oneself righteous without God.
Man’s way is to try to cover their physical and spiritual nakedness with a flimsy garment of their own devising. There are many false teachers out there proclaiming anything but God’s true plan.
Sometimes they get part of it right, but they have substituted some of their own ideas in place of some of Gods. But this makes it a man-made religion, since it is not the pure truth of the Word of God. But God’s way is the only way to get real peace and have true righteousness.
Acts 5:32 says that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God, therefore after Adam and Eve disobeyed God they lost the Holy Spirit! While they trusted God and obeyed Him, they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
But after they doubted god and fell into sin, they lost the Holy Spirit. This was a terrible thing that happened to them! Adam and Eve began to die after they sinned, in addition to losing the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit will not always abide with man. See Genesis 6:3. God said this right before the flood when all of mankind, but Noah and his wife and family, were drowned in the flood because of their great sin. We can only have spiritual life when God’s Spirit abides in us. We can only be good when the Holy Spirit is dwelling fully in us continually, by our continued choice!
God gives His breath of life to all who are alive, even for those who don't choose to obey Him. But there is more strength and power from Him when someone learns to trust Him all the way.
When you trust Him all the way, you will be given supernatural help! That help is through the Holy Spirit!
Adam and Eve tried to hide their nakedness by sewing fig leaves to hide their loins, a small covering, but God provided animal skins to fully cover them, so that they would not be naked at all!
How do we know that the animal skin clothing that God provided for Adam and Eve fully clothed them?
Because before sin the Bible says, “
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:25 NASB. We also have the direct testimony of the Bible here: “They [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and
the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He [Adam] said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and
I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’” Genesis 3:8-10 NASB. Please note this point:
They made their fig leaf loin cloths just before they hid from God, according to the Bible record. Now why would Adam and Eve hide themselves from God if they were not naked? If their man-made loin covering was clothing enough for them, would they indeed not be naked at all? No! They still hid!
Therefore they were still naked! We think that it is apparent from this that a mere attempt to cover one’s loins is not really removing nakedness, but only partly.
Dressing in a mere loin cloth is still nakedness! Think about it, it should be obvious. Since there is no mention of the shame of their nakedness mentioned in Genesis after God clothed them with animal skins, the conclusion is obvious that they were not naked anymore, because they were fully clothed. If you think about it, it should be obvious that they were not clothed in any skimpy garment that just covered their loins, which is still naked.
Sin brings shame. This is the way many of the false religions of the world are, they seek to provide a man-made solution to cover the nakedness of sin with a flimsy covering, but they cannot remove the shame of guilt, nor give peace! The man-made religions of this world can never cover the guilt of sin or take it away, nor can they give someone true peace, love, joy and happiness, because they are not God’s plan. They have no way or power to take away the guilt of sin, and they have no way or power to make anyone good.
Only God can do this for mankind. God’s plan is to take away our sins and fully cover us with His righteousness, to cover our spiritual nakedness, which is real righteousness indeed! When someone tries to hide their shame with a garment or plan of their own devising, this is really self-righteousness. When someone walks in the righteousness of their own devising, they are in fact still naked, just as Adam and Eve were still naked when they covered themselves with loin cloths, having only a fake righteousness, which is filthy rags in the site of God! All of this is laid bare before the piercing eyes of God, who sees everything – no sin is hidden from His eyes.
For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.’ 2 Chronicles 16:9 KJV. Jesus declared, “Therefore do not fear them,
for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” Matthew 10:26 NASB. And Paul stated, ‘
wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts;’ 1 Corinthians 4:5 NASB. “
For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Luke 8:17 NASB.
All of our pretended righteousness is laid bare before the searching eyes of God. This includes all who think they are righteous because they are doing nothing at all (by God’s power). They think that since we are saved by grace, that there is no need to obey God – some going as far as to preach that we shouldn’t obey God’s requirements because this is ‘works.’ But these are all another hideous form of self-righteousness, a man-made religion.
There is only one religion that counts with God, His Word, His way! Any deviation from His plan is a man-made religion.
There are two basic types of religions in the world: 1) self-righteousness: man-made righteousness – man’s way, and
2) the true religion of God: God’s righteousness - God’s way. Adam and Eve made their own self-righteous religion when they tried to provide garments for themselves to cover their nakedness, but when they let God clothe them, this was God’s righteousness for them.
True righteousness is what comes from God, not man.
Before sin, Adam and Eve were covered inside and out with the protecting power of the Holy Spirit.
Going back to Adam and Eve’s covering again that they had before they fell: We believe that they were covered inside and out with the protecting power of the Holy Spirit, who helped them to be good. But after they doubted God they lost the wonderful protection of the complete in filling of the Holy Spirit. You need to invite God’s Holy Presence into your life every day, and seek after Him with your whole heart every day, if you wish to keep His glorious presence and love in your heart. It must be your daily choice. God declares, “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:12-13 KJV. Ask God every day for His precious Holy Spirit, if you wish to stay fully protected, happy and full of new life! Jesus declared, "
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Luke 11:13 NASB. If you hunger and thirst after this, you must continually ask God for a fresh supply of His grace and the Holy Spirit every day!
You must die daily. 1 Corinthians 15:31. You must die daily to sin, stay contrite before God, and stay fully yielded to Him, to keep the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
How else do we know that Adam and Eve had the Holy Spirit in them before they sinned?
Paul declared: ‘
do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?’ 1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB. And: “
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 KJV.
Wow! This last verse really nails it! We hadn’t thought about how verse 17 proved our point before we just put this here in this article!
Since God created you, and since your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in, it is clear that this was God’s plan and devising, this was the way things were meant to be. Thus it is clear that this was the way mankind was created by God to be before sin, when all was perfect and they were ‘very good.’
Mankind was created by God to be a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. Redemption provides a way for mankind to get the Holy Spirit back; to be filled with Him again, like they were in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve doubted God.
What relevance do these declarations by Paul have?
First, we learn that our bodies are the temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. That means that we were created by God for that very purpose, to be a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in! But we must want His continual presence in our heart at all times, or we will lose Him!
Oh don’t miss this point dear reader! You were meant to be a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. Since we were meant to be a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in, it follows that Adam and Eve had the Holy Spirit in full before they sinned; the Holy Spirit was given for their happiness and joy.
Second, we also learn from Paul that if anyone defiles the temple of their body, or their mind (which is part of the body),
that God will destroy them, whose temple they are. What? Everyone is God’s temple to dwell in simply stated. God will destroy those who defile their bodies and minds, if they don’t repent. “
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23 KJV.
So what does this all mean regarding Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve defiled themselves when they doubted God (lost faith in Him), which caused them to sin against Him. I.e. when they disobeyed Him - because of this they had to die.
Sin is defilement. But we say doubt in God is SIN! Doubt doesn’t just lead to sin, it is sin! Especially when it is dwelled on and dwelled on. When the temptation to doubt first comes, it is not sin, unless it is dwelled on, watered and cultivated.
Those who doubt God cannot possibly have the power to overcome sin, but will be overcome by it, until they make some kind of a confession to God and start to repent and learn to trust Him.
To be an overcomer, you must believe God, and you must believe Jesus His Son.
From all of this we learn that Adam and Eve would have had the Holy Spirit dwelling fully in them before they lost their faith in God and fell. Another words, Adam and Eve had the Holy Spirit dwelling fully in them while they believed what God said. But after they doubted God, this was like the proverbial ‘slap in the face’ to God, who harbored nothing but love, mercy and compassion towards them whom He created.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, i.e. without faith it is impossible to be saved. Hebrews 11:6.
How can we say that without faith it is impossible to be saved? Because Jesus declared: “
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB.
As Jesus plainly stated here, those who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life. From this we learn that those who don’t believe in Him cannot have eternal life. Therefore those who don’t believe God, or don’t have faith in Him cannot be saved, unless they eventually learn to trust Him.
Those that don’t have faith in God, cannot help but fall into sin. Those who don’t have faith in God, cannot have the continual abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. So Adam and Eve lost that special infilling from God of the Holy Spirit when they doubted Him and sinned against Him.
The only way to be good is if you are a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in! You must allow God’s Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart 24 by 7 if you want to be His; if you want to be fully protected as much as you can be on this earth.
In God’s presence there is life and joy and eternal protection. Psalms 16:7-11. It is foolishness to go your own way apart from God, it will cut you off from life, just like it did for our first parents in the Garden of Eden, which caused them to die.
We realize we are making a lot of inferences here, but this is the way the Bible is to be used. Isaiah declares: “
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” Isaiah 28:10 KJV.
That is what we are doing here, putting the teachings of the Bible together, to show you the harmony in what it teaches, and to show you what it means, because the Bible doesn’t contradict itself. No part of the Bible is to be read or interpreted in a way that contradicts the whole. No portion of the Holy Scriptures should be interpreted in such a way as to take away its plain apparent meaning, unless a good reason can be given for that (like it appears to be symbolic and must be interpreted). We are using the Bible to help ‘flesh out’ and explain or fill in more of the details with what happened before and after Adam and Eve sinned, using the principles that the Bible has well established.
So even though Adam and Eve were not aware of the rest of the Bible that would come later, many portions of the Bible can be used to help understand the truths that also apply in Adam and Eve’s day as well.
The truth is always the truth.
God’s People put on Righteousness as a Robe:
Let’s explore the passages in the Bible describing the ‘spiritual clothing’ that God wants to put on His people.
This will help you to see that God wants humanity to be clothed in His righteousness and the Holy Spirit, which is the way we believe it was in the Garden of Eden.
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3 KJV.
This text reminds us of what Jesus declared: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Matthew 5:6. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Matthew 5:3. And ‘no one will take your joy from you.’ John 16:22. Etc. Those who mourn in Zion, God will give them beauty for their mourning, and the oil of joy.
In the Bible, ‘oil’ can represent the Holy Spirit. Through the prophet Zachariah, God prophesied that the oil represents ‘the two anointed ones who are standing before the Lord of the whole earth.’ Zechariah 4:12-14 NASB. Anointed ones can be a reference to kings or priests anointed with oil.
When did Jesus become the anointed one or the Messiah? At His baptism when He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Matthew 3:16.
Our passage in Isaiah 61:3 gives the reason why we need the anointing of the Holy Spirit: so that we can be trees of righteousness planted by the Lord – this brings glory to God! God is glorified by this that you bear much fruit for Him. John 15:8. This is indeed the only way you can become righteous - if you greatly desire God to give you the ‘oil of joy’ in place of the sorrow that your sins bring on you.
What an exchange! His joy for your sins and shame! All of those who are tired of the way their life is going, and just want a better life, can receive this oil of joy for their mourning and sorrow! Joy in place of sorrow! Righteousness in exchange for the nakedness and shame of sin! See how much better God’s plan for your life is than many people imagine?
In order to be firm as a rock, and truly planted so that you cannot be moved by the problems of this world or by the winds of strife, you must be planted by God, and filled with ‘the oil of joy’ - the Holy Spirit. This is what brings glory to God, when you become a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in; when you allow and ask the Holy Spirit to dwell in you each day; when you allow God to plant you in the stream of His righteousness!
God wants to clothe you with a garment of praise! (Your praise of thanks to Him for saving you!)
God wants to clothe you with the garment of His righteousness! And clothe you with the garment of the Holy Spirit! Do you want this? Are you ready for it?
“When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.” Job 29:11-16 KJV.
Here Job declared that he had sought out justice and helped those who were poor: the fatherless and the needy; he declared that this was to ‘put on righteousness’ - to be ‘clothed’ and that judgment ‘was as a robe and diadem.’ Just is the root word of justice or judgment. A good judgement is making the right decision. Just is another word for right or righteousness.
This righteousness appears to be a type of spiritual clothing.
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.” Isaiah 61:10-11 KJV.
God declared through Isaiah that He wants to clothe mankind with a garment of salvation and a robe of righteousness. These are the two things that all need to have to be complete in God: 1)
Salvation through Forgiveness, and 2)
A Robe of Righteousness. In order to be righteous you must first be forgiven of your sins, and you must want to repent from your sinful ways, then God clothes you with the garment of salvation. When you receive His salvation and greatly value and treasure it, you will be clothed with the robe of His righteousness too! You are part of the bride of Christ if you belong to Him. Jesus Christ - the Messiah - the Bridegroom wants to clothe you with salvation and the robe of His righteousness. He wants to deck you out in the jewels of His lovely character, and He wants to cause you to bud and bear much fruit for God’s glory. God wants righteousness to spring forth from among all the nations of the world. This is God’s plan for all the world and wants to use His people to do it! He alone can cause this to happen, but only for those who believe.
The jewels are the precious fruits of the Spirit that God will adorn your life and character with, when you get His righteousness, when you get the Holy Spirit in your life. To get this and all that God wants to give you, allow Him to clothe you with His salvation and the robe of His righteousness.
Now let’s see our above passage from Isaiah 61 from the New American Standard Bible:
“Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed. I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” Isaiah 61:9-11 NASB.
If you are the offspring of God, if you are born again or born from above, you are reborn as a son or daughter of God. ‘
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:’ 1 John 3:1 KJV. The bride of Christ wants to be adorned with the jewels of Christ’s righteousness, just as a real bride seeks to deck herself out with jewels and other adornments for her wedding.
This gives the reason for the rejoicing of those who are part of the Bride of Christ: because God has clothed them with His garments of salvation and righteousness.
“And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.” Isaiah 59:16-17 KJV.
“Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.” Isaiah 11:5 NASB.
- This is what Jesus did for us! This describes the plan of salvation: Jesus saw that there was no way that mankind could save themselves, and saw that there was no one to intercede for them… Because of His great love for us, He interceded for us, and brought about salvation for us and it sustained Him. Jesus put on the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation and the garments of vengeance and was clad with zeal as a cloak. This describes the various phases of His ministry for mankind: savior, avenger of the wronged, and zealous for God’s righteousness. This prophecy also talks about what the Apostle Paul would later describe as the Armor of God.
Jesus put on all of the armor of God to show us how to live, and to be righteous and an overcomer too, by putting on the full armor of God.
The armor or clothing of God:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:10-17 NASB.
Adam and Eve girded their loins with fig leaves to cover their nakedness and shame, but God wanted to cleanse them from their sin and gird their loins with truth, and give them the breastplate of righteousness. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves to cover their sin, shame and nakedness, but God wants to take away everyone’s sins, shame and nakedness, and clothe them with a garment of righteousness and truth, and to help them put on the full armor of God!
God doesn’t want any part of you to be unprotected, from head to toe! The only safety (and joy) that can be had is when you let God clothe you with the garment of salvation and the robe of His righteousness, and give you the full armor of God, so that you may stand firm against the rulers and powers of darkness in this world, and spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places –
to help you stand firm in this evil day, and in the evil days to come, having done everything to stand firm, giving you and girding you with the full armor and clothing of God - that you may be completely protected against the evil one. We have already discussed the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-17 in several of our books and blogs, and you can read them for a more complete understanding of this armor of God.
But we note here that it is part of the clothing that God wants to clothe you with, if you will allow Him to. This clothing is provided to you when you give yourself to God and gain the full power of the Holy Spirit in your life; this is what you get when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and remain connected to the vine Jesus. “I am the vine, and ye are the branches’. John 15:5. So remain connected to Him, and keep His sweet presence in your life!
The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints:
“’Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.’ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Revelation 19:7-8 NASB.
Linen, or fine white linen, is the garment of the priests. See Exodus 28:3-43. In this passage God describes the way that Aaron the High priest and his sons were to be clothed: many parts of this complex priestly robe and its accessories were made of linen, and it was decked with jewels and gold -
all symbolic of what God wants His people to be clothed with. What? Listen now to what God declared: “Moses went up to God, and
the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘
You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. ‘
Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and
you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” Exodus 19:3-6 NASB.
But God spoke this to the Israelites, what does this have to do with Christians? “
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29 KJV.
Do you belong to Christ yet? Have you given yourself to Him yet? Then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise, and then you are to be a priest for God to help others in this world, praying for their good and helping them, like God’s priests of old did.
Thus God wants all of His people, Israelites, Jews and Gentiles alike, Abraham’s seed, to be a kingdom of priests, wearing the ‘fine linen’ which is the righteous acts of the saints, given to them by God. This is also the same thing as the robe of salvation and the robe of righteousness that Jesus and His Father want to give you, if you want it.
Do you want it? Revelation 19:8 says that the ‘fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.’
The only way you can be righteous is if you are clothed with Christ’s righteousness and salvation. When you have allowed Him to adorn you for the wedding supper of the Lamb, then you will have ‘the righteous acts of the saints’, which is the fine linen or robe of righteousness! Then you will be a blessing to others in this world.
Conclusion:
Since God pronounced everything He created as being very good, and since He created clothes for Adam and Eve after they sinned and their eyes were opened, we infer from this that they must have had some kind of clothing before they fell, which we infer was the righteousness of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus said that no one is good but God alone. This righteousness was given to Adam and Eve by the Holy Spirit.
Adam and Eve were able to be "very good", as God declared in the Garden of Eden before sin, because He upheld them by His power, and His Spirit filled them. But their character development was not complete, since they had been created fully grown.
They were spiritual infants and had to learn to love and obey God and have faith in Him, same as you and I. So a test of faith was provided for them, which was lighter than the test and trials that we face in our day. In our day we have pain, suffering and death - all because sin has been transmitted to us at our birth from their fall.
Since mankind’s fall into sin, it is a struggle to be good - impossible without help from God to do so. But God has a plan called redemption which will restore to mankind all that was lost - but only to those who want to yield to Him and let Him help them. This is all quite necessary now since there is sin, suffering and death. Things are not right in this world, but God has a plan to restore the peace, love, joy, faith, hope, happiness, and eternal life that was lost after Adam and Eve fell. Amen!
After Adam and Eves sinned, they sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame and nakedness. This is the foundation of false religion. There are two basic religions in this world: 1) Self-righteousness or man-made righteousness, and 2) Gods true righteousness, which only comes from Him. We need to be clothed with God's righteousness - fully clothed with it (that is His doing),
or we will be spiritually naked. Any plan of man's devising that is not God's plan, is actually a form of self-righteousness, including the idea that many have that all attempts to obey God is “works” (or sin).
So some of them appear to do nothing at all, thinking that this makes them good, but it does not. Many of them are unconcerned about sin in their life, since they believe that they are “saved.”
But this view contradicts the word of God! We learned that ONLY God's way and plan can bring righteousness. Only when we seek to obey God and allow Him to save us; only when we follow His plan in the Bible can we be righteous. It is totally the work of God, but we must cooperate with Him and believe, having the faith to believe that God will do all that He has said He will do. He alone can save us, and fit us up and clothe us with His righteousness.
The Bible in many places refers to a type of spiritual clothing that God's people are to be clothed with. We infer from this that Adam and Eve were clothed with “spiritual clothing” before they sinned, which is the Holy Spirit. God wants to do this for you now! God wants to give you the full armor of God, clothe you with His precious Holy Spirit, that you might be fully protected from the devices of Satan and not be spiritually naked; that you might go forth with joy!
This clothing of righteousness, which is symbolically like the fine linen worn by the priests in the Old Testament days,
will give you ‘the righteous acts of the saints’.
If you are tired of sinning and causing hurt to yourself and others, then allow God to restore in you what was lost. It can be yours by His most blessed promise! He will do this for all who will submit to His loving watch care and yield to His precious Holy Spirit. Adam and Eve will yet live and regain all that was lost! They will yet regain the Holy Spirit, having the eternal joy of the Holy Spirit dwelling fully in them. This will also be true for all who love and trust God and give themselves to Him.
Adam and Eve will yet regain God's protecting power like they once enjoyed, where nothing bad could happen to them, and they will yet be clothed in righteousness again, like they were in Eden. All this God will do for them and us as well - for all those who desire God's wonderful salvation!
Dear reader, the Holy Spirit longs to dwell right now in your heart! You were created to be a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in!
Why not claim this most blessed joy and experience for yourself, and allow God to envelope you in His love, and shield you from the evil that would destroy you? Let Him shelter and protect you in His love. This is our prayer for you!
God wants to clothe you with the garment of salvation, provided by Jesus’ death on the cross for your sins, and He wants to provide you with a robe of righteousness to clothe your spiritual nakedness –
so that you can be like Him, be saved and live a righteous life for His glory. God has a plan put in place to restore those who want it, to the ideal Eden like state which Adam and Eve had before sin. This plan will conclude when the redeemed of mankind are brought to Heaven, and on the Earth made new, when all who reside there from the least of them to the greatest, will all know the Lord and worship Him!
May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. May you be fully clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and His peace, love, joy, faith, and happiness; that you may not be lacking in any good thing. May your spiritual nakedness be fully clothed with Christ's righteousness. May you have the greatest time of your life as you learn how wonderful God is, and crave His constant companionship. Amen.
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