Adam and Eve Part 1: The Test of Faith

By John Foll, written between 9/14/2018 to 02/03/2019.
© Copyright 2018 John Foll

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“In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 KJV & NASB. ‘And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.’ Genesis 1:31 NASB77. This was the way God created this world - there was no sin; everything was good; everything was perfect. There were no animals killing other animals, no people killing other people or animals, or bloodshed or strife, all was perfect.

If everything was good that God created, how did life get so messed up on this planet then?

We want to contemplate what God did for mankind at creation, and what was lost, and how to get it back again.

God made this world perfect, Adam and Eve were perfect.
But they were born fully grown with no experience at life; they had no experience of sin or death or their need for complete dependence upon God. Complete dependence upon God was something they needed to learn.

The Test of Faith Given:

“Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9 NASB. Then God created Adam. After God created Adam: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Genesis 2:15-17 NASB. God created everything that man needed, but He also put a tree in the garden to test him and show his trust. This was a test for Adam to prove his loyalty to Him. After God created Eve, this was a test for her also. It appears that Eve hadn’t been created when God gave this command to Adam to not eat from that tree, because she is not mentioned or addressed by God in this passage.

You may ask, ‘Why did God give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him, which was to not eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Why did He make the ability of living forever based on obedience? Why did He even give them a choice? Just make them be good! Sounds easy doesn’t it? To easy. This is a question many have asked. He made them perfect, so why did He give them a choice? God wants everyone to have a choice. He doesn’t compel any to love, serve and obey Him. Love doesn’t mean anything when it is enforced and there is no alternative. Love is not real, unless both parties of their own free will love each other; it must be reciprocated. God is kind and loving and does not force Himself on any, but desires all to obey Him out of love. To bring up what someone said one time, who we were discussing the love of God with: ‘God is a gentleman.’ This is to use ‘human terms.’ Would you appreciate someone demanding you do something against your will? Wouldn’t this make you resentful? Then why do some think that God would do this? What kind of a God would He be if He did this? Intelligent creatures come to resent compulsion if it continues too long, and causes rebellion! Forcing someone against their will to be good is not right. The only way someone could be forced against their will and not resent it, would be if they were stupid, and had no understanding; a brute animal. But many animals also have desires of what they want to do or not, and get upset or angry if they are coerced against their will, they just want to be free! We have observed this on several occasions. So not even many of the animals want to be forced to do something against their will either. But all intelligent beings resent compulsion. So compulsion is not an option for genuinely caring and loving beings, which is why God does not do this! God’s kingdom will be made up of those who want to be good, and have let God make them be good. God’s standards of love and perfection are so much higher than the standards of mankind that are so often trumpeted in society today, which are on display in the media through men of “learning” and in the teachings of many religions of this earth, and He is always 100% consistent. God is completely beyond all reproach. If it is wrong for someone to try to compel others against their will, it is wrong for God to do so too! See Genesis 2:18-25.

Adam and Eve were given everything they needed, and their test:

God gave Adam and Eve a simple test. He had given them everything there heart could want, and everything they needed. “Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18 NASB. Adam and Eve were made for each other. God truly provided for all of their needs. Since He provided for all of their needs, there was no need for them to fail the test. The choice of belonging to God, having eternal life, and all of the best blessings in this mortal life and the life to come depend on a willingness to love Him and desire to please Him.

So they needed a test to show their loyalty to Him and give them a choice. So the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was placed in the Garden of Eden. God made the test of their loyalty to Him as light as possible. Since God had given them everything they needed, there was no reason for them to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. What need have you to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, if you can eat from the Tree of Life? How wonderful the Tree of Life must have been! If you eat the fruit of it, you will live forever! Do you know of any other food which can provide eternal life? After sin, God made this statement: “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’" Genesis 3:22 NASB. So the Tree of Life had the ability of making the ones who ate from it live forever. So why eat from the other tree?

A Perfect World:

We believe that if they had remained loyal to Him, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would have been removed at some point. They had the advantage we do not have of being “perfect”, and living in a “perfect world”. Have you ever heard the expression: “In a perfect world…”? Well Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world! Adam and Eve had no sinful addictions, no predisposition to sin, no bad habits, etc. – they were perfect.

But Adam and Eve fell prey to sin, read Genesis 3:1-24 for this sad story. And so the human race inherited sin from the progenitors of the human race, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created perfect and had no sinful tendencies, yet they fell prey to sin, and thus the whole human race inherited their sinful tendencies from them.

How did Adam and Eve fall, since they were perfect?

They had everything they could want, plenty of food, an easy job (caring for the Garden of Eden), great beauty, and they had each other. Mankind has been going steadily downhill since creation. Think about it: they had the ability of living forever! Then after sin until the flood some lived up to 969 years (Genesis 5:27), then later down to 70 years. Eve would have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and Adam would have been the most handsome, the best man, and Eve the best woman – we are fairly certain of this. So they had everything they needed, lived in a perfect world, and they had each other.

Why did they want to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Here we get to the heart of this article. The answer may surprise you! It is the same reason why we so easily fall prey into sin too!

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:1-6 NASB.

Satan lied to Eve: ‘he said, you shall not surely die!’ He was contradicting God, calling Him a liar! This is what Satan does, he contradicts God. You can tell whenever you hear any message from him, because sooner or later he contradicts God, sometimes very subtly, and sometimes in your face - boldly contradicting God. Satan said, ‘In the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God’. Satan indeed declared that she could be a ‘god’ here, knowing both good and evil, if she would disobey God. But she already knew God, and she already had eternal life. She had her husband, the perfect husband. And more importantly she was already like ‘God’. What? Adam was created in the image of God, and Eve in the image of Adam. ‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’. Genesis 1:26 KJV. “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.” 1 Corinthians 11:7 KJV. So Adam was created in the image of God and in the glory of God, and Eve was in the glory of man. And man was like God, and Eve was like Adam. Therefore Eve was like God too! So she was already like God, in her own human, finite way. (We are not saying she was an equal with God, but that she was already like God in her own human-finite sphere.)

Satan tricked her into thinking she was missing out on something big. Thus Satan tricked her out of being like God. When she fell for this lie, it started a chain reaction which caused the human race to fall into all sorts of sin and evil, which was anything but like God! Satan tricked her into thinking that she had to disobey God in order to be like God, when she was already like Him! What foolishness! He is such a trickster! His lie was utter foolishness! Those who really know and love God, will not seek after what God is already providing them. Thus the eating of the forbidden fruit was the first effort made by mankind to earn their own salvation apart from God - to be their own god and save themselves! (But God was already helping them to be like Him and saving them!) If she would have followed God’s plan, she would have become more and more like God, as time unfolded, as she learned to love God more and more. So what need did she have of the devil’s lie? We were all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), and John tells us: ‘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. It was a sin of covetousness, wanting what did not belong to her; for something she should not have. She was offered something she didn’t have or need, something forbidden. She was not really in need of anything, because she had been given everything that she needed, for God had given them everything they needed to sustain their life, and they had each other. ‘The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;”’ Genesis 2:16 NASB77 and God had given her the perfect husband. There was nothing in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that she needed, it could only bring sadness, misery, sickness and death. Everything was perfect, except for the forbidden fruit on that tree, and the serpent entwining the tree. In the end, she gave into the devil’s temptation, ate the fruit and gave some to her husband to eat, and he ate.

Why did Eve fall? How do we know that Eve’s doubt of God led to her fall and sin?

The Devil lied to her. She believed the lie, which mean she doubted God, and ate the forbidden fruit. Because Satan contradicted God, and she believed Satan instead of God. You cannot believe what God says, and the exact opposite which is what Satan preaches, at the same time. They are mutually exclusive, one or the other. For Eve’ to believe Satan’s lies, in direct contradiction to God, shows that Satan had planted doubt in her mind that God really meant what He said. Satan told her, ‘You surely shall not die!’ And the Bible tells us that: ‘When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.’ So Eve must have decided that God was wrong, and that the serpent was right, meaning she doubted God.

Why did Adam fall?

He loved His wife and didn’t want to live without her. (He might have thought Eve would have died right away?) We think that he may have doubted that God would provide him another wife if she died. Think about it. If Adam had not eaten the fruit, in a few hundred years or so Eve would have died, then God could have created him another wife. But when his wife Eve gave him the fruit he did eat. There is no evidence that he resisted it when his wife gave him the forbidden fruit to eat, but that she gave him the fruit and he did eat. Herein is his sin: he meekly gave in to his wife and ate the forbidden fruit. No apparent thought about whether it was right or wrong, or an effort to resist it. He just ate what his wife gave him to eat.

What would have saved Adam and Eve from their fall into sin?

(Which would have saved the human race from inheriting sin.)

Faith. One simple word, but so full of grace and power: Faith in God! So what then was Adam and Eve’s greatest sin then? Doubting the plain word of God. Oh how many in our day are doubting the word of God too! Oh how many don’t really believe God when He said that ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life?’ in Romans 6:23. Or when Jesus the Son of God declared: ‘he who overcomes, will I grant to eat from the Tree of Life?’ Revelation 2:7. How few really believe what Jesus or His Father declared here! Or when 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. Thus it is clear from this that both our salvation and our ability of living forever is based on our faith in God and in the merits of Christ’s blood alone. This is all based on faith.

But you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that the wages of sin is death, and that the gift of God is eternal life?’

Or you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that those who believe in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life?’ Or you may say, ‘Don’t all Christians believe that only those who overcome, will Jesus grant to eat from the Tree of Life in Heaven?’ To all of those questions we say: No, unfortunately no! How do we know this? Without going into detail and possibly stirring up a spirit of debate, the answer should be obvious: Christianity in our day does not have the power to be good that it once had, as described in the Gospels and the book of Acts, and many other places in the New Testament. And there are many who believe that since we are saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:5-9 and in other places), that this negates all other passages in the Bible that say that Christians need to overcome by the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14; 12:11) and obey God. Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 13:4; 27:10. These passages in Revelation show that Christians have a need to overcome! These messages are the revelation of Jesus Christ! Revelation 1:1. (How could someone believe anything that contradicts what Jesus said? Which also includes Revelation 2:7.)

For the most part in the western world, Christianity in general is but a faint shadow of the way it used to be, as Jesus left it when He went back to Heaven after His death and resurrection. Christianity should be good, as ‘the good book’ says! And there is a great lack of faith in the miracles of God too! Without going into too much detail here, today there is not a big difference between a lot of those who claim to be a Christian, and those who do not claim to be one at all, other than rhetoric. You can’t slip a piece of paper between many of them! We know there are exceptions, but unfortunately they are not the norm nowadays. In general, there is a big lack of faith in God to do what He says He will do - a big lack of faith in both the promises and the curses laid out in the Bible. But Hebrews 11:6 declares that without faith it is impossible to please God! So unfortunately we see now that not all Christians really believe in the promises of God all-the-way, including Romans 6:23, Revelation 2:7, and John 3:16, for if they did, what a change there would be in this world today! What a blessing Christians would then be! What a wonderful world this would be, if they believed in the plain, simple word of God? But this is not God’s intent for this world or the way He wants Christians to be! He has a plan for all who will listen to fix these problems!

Many don’t believe the plain word of God as it reads, and seek out teachers who tell them that they are OK with no change of their heart or character needed, or that they do not need to do everything that He commanded them. Thus the greatest sin of our day is doubt too! It is an ugly word, that when cherished dooms the soul to misery, then eternal death, unless it is repented of. O reader, don’t be shut out of Heaven because of unbelief: Unbelief in the word of God! Satan definitely lied to Eve like he lies to so many today, saying that God didn’t really mean what He said; that He is withholding something from you - that if you eat that forbidden fruit you can become a ‘god’ too. And of course the devil also tempts people to all other sorts of evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds; stirring up as much strife and bloodshed as he possibly can.

So how could Adam and Eve have made it through this temptation?

Faith in God. If they had believed what God had said, and that He loved them, then they would not have fallen! But isn’t this why so many people fall prey to sin today? Doubt or lack of faith in God. How many people, who say they are ‘believers’, really believe all of His Words in the Bible? If they really believed what God said, they would be doing it. Because God gives the power and ability, to all who love Him, of becoming His son or daughter. He gives them the ability of obeying His Word, if they believe! God’s love and power are the ultimate, and are unimaginably powerful! They are beyond compare to anything in this universe. Jesus said, if we would have faith, we would say to this mountain, ‘move to yonder place’, and it would be moved! Matthew 17:20.  – Faith can move a mountain of doubt! To him or her who believes the word of God, they have a wonderful power changing them; they have help that is not available to those who doubt. Those who have learned that God is to be loved and trusted - truly have the power to become the son or daughter of God, because God’s supreme power can do anything good for someone who believes Him, helping them overcome a mountain of doubt! This faith does not take away our choice! Far be it! Our belief in God’s Word shows our choice to want to be His son or daughter! And God will honor our choice, whether to become His son or daughter and have eternal life, or to doubt Him and go our own way and do our own thing, which leads to eternal death.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” 1 John 3:1 KJV.

In conclusion, we learned that Adam and Eve had been given everything they needed, including each other, and they lived in a perfect world, yet they still fell to sin. We learned that because they doubted God that they fell prey to sin, bringing all of the woes of sin and evil into this world. We also learned that doubting God is the same reason why we fall too! If Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world, having everything they needed, yet they fell because of lack of faith, then how shall we escape from falling into sin unless we have faith in God too? Therefore it behooves us in our day to learn how to have faith in God, and learn to love Him, to help break us out of this endless cycle of sinning, misery and death. Because we definitely don’t live in a perfect world in our day, and we are all sinners who have inherited tendencies to sin, that unless saved and changed by God, we are doomed to be stuck in sin, misery and eternal death.

May you learn to trust in God and love Him all-the-way. May you gain victory over sin through Christ. May you believe in Jesus that you may have eternal life! May the grace of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.

* In part 2 of this series you will discover how God provided the Holy Spirit for Adam and Eve before their fall, to help keep them from sinning, to help them be pure, Holy, good and His, and that after their fall they lost His full presence. And in part 3 you will learn of God’s plan to redeem mankind from this pit of ruin, misery and death, and restore them back to the way things were in the Garden of Eden, where everything was very good! So you will learn of God’s plan for your life, and how you can be restored as well, to what you were meant to be! You can regain what mankind lost after their fall, if you learn to have true faith in God! Amen. This is what we will study!

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09 The Test of Faith: Editor’s Notes (The Everlasting Covenant)

Theme Text from the article by E.  J. Waggoner from The Everlasting Covenant: 09 The Test of Faith, from The Present Truth, July 2, 1896:

So “it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Gen. 22:1, 2.

Please read this article now before reading our notes on them: http://whiteraimentevangelismfaith.blogspot.com/2018/08/09-test-of-faith-everlasting-covenant.html

Editor’s Notes by John Foll:

This is such an amazing story, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son on a mountain in the land of Moriah! From a human standpoint, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own eternal life! Or ‘to put a knife to his own throat,’ as Waggoner put it! And he was asked to sacrifice the eternal life of everyone in the world. Would he continue to believe God’s promise, that he would personally have a possession in the land of Canaan, which could only happen for him through the * Resurrection, and that from one born to him would all the nations of the world be blessed? Or would he lose his faith in God’s promise? This was the test!

* We will post an article soon on this called: “Abraham's Promised Possession of Canaan Could Only Come Through the Resurrection”. E. J.  Waggoner already covered the fact that Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own eternal life, and that Abraham could only gain the promised inheritance through the resurrection, but we want to go through it again and ‘make it plain’ in a separate article.

How many people are willing to go through the test of faith like Abraham went through? Without faith it is only natural to question how God could save the world through Jesus, if Jesus had to be born through Isaac, the child of the Promise, but then Isaac was slain! How could this even be possible? But this is not the path of faith!
 
How many are really willing to do whatever God asks, regardless of the cost to themselves? This was the strongest test that any human being has ever been asked to do by God, which was put on Abraham, but thank God he passed the test for all of humanity! Did you know that what Abraham did here was for all of humanity? Abraham was a type of ‘Christ’ here or a type of the ‘Father.’ What would have happened to God’s promise to save the world through the offspring of Abraham, if Abraham had failed? God would have still found a way to keep His promise, but Abraham would have lost out, and it would have brought dishonor upon God. John the Baptist said, ‘God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones.’ Matthew 3:1-2, 9; Luke 3:2-3, 8. Another words, God can raise up someone faithful to Him from the very rocks if needed, like Abraham. How God would have kept His promise to Abraham, if Abraham had failed, we cannot tell. Would Abraham believe that God is love, pure, just and holy? Would he believe God’s promise to him of eternal life, through the offspring of his son Isaac, if he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice his son? But by faith Abraham did not fail! Yes he did believe! WOW! That is faith! Thankfully Abraham passed the test! This is why he is called the father of the faithful or the father of them that believe. Romans 4:11-16.

Abraham passing this test shows everyone that God does indeed keep His promises, and that He will save all to the uttermost who put their trust in Him for salvation! What God did for Abraham He can do for you too, and for everyone else who puts their full trust in His mighty power and promises to save! The blessing of Abraham passing this test has been passed down to mankind, through God being able to keep His promise directly and literally to Abraham, that through his offspring (of Isaac) all nations of the world would be blessed. Genesis 22:15-18. Does this really matter? You bet it does! This was when God sent His only Son Jesus to this world to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16, 17), and when Jesus showed us how to live, have peace, and be full of love and joy and have eternal life! The result is an object lesson in faith, and that Abraham trusted God enough to be willing to sacrifice his own eternal life to obey God! Wow! Do you see now why it was so important for Abraham to pass this test? It was so Jesus could be born through the offspring of Isaac and die on the cross for our sins! What is the big deal about Him being born through Isaac? It is because God promised it to Abraham! So what is the big deal about whether God kept His promise to Abraham or not, for us today? You had better believe it was a big deal! In this world of evil and shades of grey in between good and evil, great hypocrisy and lies, it is a most wonderful thing to have someone to believe in who is perfect in love and purity, who always keeps His promises. So where would we be now if Jesus had not been born and died for our sins? Where would we be now if we couldn’t trust God to keep His promises?

Isn’t Abraham’s struggle in passing the test of faith similar to what Jesus went through? Jesus had a great struggle too in the Garden of Gethsemane over the fate of all sinners. It tested His resolve to save humanity, and the fate of the entire world hung in the balance! What if His sacrifice hadn’t been accepted by the Father? What if He had sinned even once? Perhaps these were some of the thoughts that Jesus struggled with before and after He came to this earth as a babe, grew up, was baptized and went through that great struggle in the garden and won it, and went through with His great sacrifice to save us, praise God! This in some ways was like Abraham’s struggle to sacrifice his son, only much more severe! Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:44-46. Jesus sweat great drops of blood during His great struggle in the garden of Gethsemane!

At the beginning of the world Jesus was asked by the Father to sacrifice His life for the sins of the world, which was like asking Him to sacrifice His own eternal life, because He could have failed in His mission when He was asked to die! Revelation 13:8; John 3:16, 17; Ephesians 1:3-4. Jesus was tried and tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15. He could not have been tried and tempted in all points like we are without sin, if there was no possibility of His failure. Think on that! The Father asking Jesus to die on the cross for our sins was like Abraham telling is son that he was the sacrifice, and putting him on the altar and getting ready to slay him. Isaac could have easily overpowered Abraham, who was quite old when this story took place! So Isaac cooperated with his father to be the sacrifice, like Jesus did when he cooperated with His Father to be the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world! Beautiful parallel! Jesus had eternal life and power within Himself, and could have changed His mind, and backed out of His Father’s plan to save the world if He had wanted to. But like Isaac he cooperated with His Father to be the sacrifice! He could have called 10,000 angels or 1 Trillion angels to save Himself from the cross, and could have easily slain all of His accusers and those who nailed Him to the cross. He had the power to do this! But He did not, because He loves you and me!

He could not have saved you and me, if He had saved Himself. The priests and rulers said, ‘He saved others, but He cannot save Himself.’ “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.” Matthew 27:41-43 KJV. Little did they realize the truth behind their mocking statement! - He wasn’t trying to save Himself, but all of mankind! There was no way to save Himself from the death on the cross, and save us too! Oh how most of us, if we had been in this position and had the power He had, would have really given it to our accusers and to the ones torturing us, and would have let them have it and destroyed them all! But thankfully Jesus was not like us! What Jesus did, especially after all of those unholy taunts that were hurled at Him, showed His infinite love and pity for us! The test for Jesus to get revenge on His torturers and abusers would have been very great, considering His Godly power and ability of issuing payback and punishment! This was Satan’s goal in all the abuse that was heaped upon heap upon Jesus.

It has been said that Jesus died ‘the second death’ of unrepentant sinners, to pay the price for our sins, for Him who knew no sin! He died as someone who will die who is lost, without hope. We deserve to die as a lost sinner without hope, but Jesus took our place so we don’t have to, if we believe in Him. He died the death that we deserve, in our place, just like the ram that God gave to Abraham to die in the place of his son Isaac too! Beautiful parallel!

From a human standpoint, all hope was cut off for Jesus when He died, and so His disciples and the world thought. But Jesus had to lose His life in order for God to keep His promise to Abraham! He had thought He was cut off from His Father when He was dying on the cross and said, ‘My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken Me?’ Matthew 27:46 KJV. From a human standpoint, all hope was apparently cut off to Abraham too, by God’s request that he sacrifice his son Isaac! Abraham was probably tempted with the thought that if he sacrificed Isaac’s life and God didn’t resurrect him back to life, then he would lose his son and the promise of eternal life for himself, and for everyone else in the world! Think about that!

Abraham had to have great faith to do what God had asked him to do. Abraham had to believe the promise of God, against the command of God! Wow! God’s command seemed contrary to His promise. If he had taken his own son’s life that would have been murder, which is sin! Wow! What a test! Jesus could not save the Jews from the hated Roman government rule if He died. This was what the Jewish nation was expecting from the Messiah. But He did die. From a human standpoint at the time of His death, He had failed in His mission, but from God’s promise and plan He had succeeded! His goal at this time was the salvation of the whole world from sin, suffering and death – for all who would believe, not saving the Jews from the Roman rule! So the hopes of those who hoped in Jesus died when He died, or so they thought. But it was only through His death and resurrection that He is able to forgive our sins and impart eternal life to us! It was only through His death that God was able to keep His promise to Abraham!

“And Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.’” John 12:23-25 NASB. This was not only what Jesus taught His disciples to do, it is also what He did Himself! He lost His life for our sake, and gained His own life back again and thus helped us gain eternal life too! Don’t you love Him? He had to trust in the Resurrection, just like Abraham did and we do. But He is the Resurrection and the Life! John 11:25; 10:17-18. From a human standpoint, it was foolishness for Christ to die on the cross for our sins! “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV. But thank God, Jesus did just that – dying on the cross for our sins! Otherwise we would have no hope. So Jesus went through a very great struggle to save humanity, and won it for our sakes! Amen.

So now we see more clearly why Abraham had his big test of faith, where God asked him to sacrifice his only son. It was a type of what God and Jesus went through, when Jesus agreed to die on the cross for our sins, all the way until His death on the cross! Note what Abraham told Isaac, when Isaac asked him where the lamb for the sacrifice was: he said, ‘God will provide.’ Genesis 22:7-8. And that is exactly what God did! Genesis 22:10-13. God provided! What faith this was! God did provide, not just the ram caught in the thicket to die in the place of Abraham’s only begotten son Isaac, but He also provided His only begotten son Jesus too, as ‘the lamb of God’, to die in the place of every believing sinner in the world, including Abraham and Isaac too! Praise His name forever! Amen!

May the grace of God, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.

© Copyright 2018 John Foll


Blog Edited by John Foll.

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From the Editor: “The Everlasting Covenant” has had a very great impact on my life! These articles, with its stories from the Bible, led me to fall in love with God, there is no other way of putting it. The thing I was needing the most in my life was given to me after I learned how much He loved me in “The Everlasting Covenant” by E. J. Waggoner.

It is my prayer, dear reader, that God will richly bless you, as you learn more and more about His great love for you as presented by E. J. Waggoner in “The Everlasting Covenant”, as we continue to present more articles from it.

May the grace of God, and the priceless, precious fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, as you go down this journey of falling totally in love with God! Riches beyond measure await you, if you will just get to know Him and His great love for you!


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