MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - III

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - III

Gen 2:7  And IAUE Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

What is man?  If we look at how Elohim created man, we see that his body was created first.  The body existed before there was any life; thus, the body is merely the house designed for man.  Then IAUE breathed into the nostrils of the body he had formed, and life entered the body. James tells us in James 2:26 that “the body without the spirit is dead.”  The breath of IAUE is what animates the shell, the house that is man’s body. The union of the breath of life with the body produced the “living soul.”  The essence of man is his soul, his mind, will and emotions; all of the faculties that produce a distinct personality.

When I was a child, I used to make water bombs out of paper.  They were, essentially, origami boxes.  After many folds and tucks of the paper, you ended up with a layered flat square piece of paper.  It looked like nothing in particular until you picked it up and blew a breath into it.  That breath expanded it into a three-dimensional box.  (Of course at that point, I would fill it with water and throw it on my friends.  What can I say?  I was a child. It was fun.)  My point, however, is that once the “breath of life” came into it, it produced something with unique properties that did not exist before it was animated by the breath.  Such is man.  Without the breath of IAUE, he is a lifeless carcass. Whether or not he is a follower of Messiah, he is alive only because the breath of IAUE has animated his body.  The personality that is the result is the part of man that is accountable before IAUE for his actions; and for which he will ultimately be judged. 

Genesis 2:16  And IAUE Elohim commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat:
17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

We know from the story that both Adam and Eve ate of that tree, and according to the word of Elohim, they “died” that day.  However, the Scripture also tells us that they both continued to live physically.  In fact, Adam lived on to be 930 years old before he died physically.  How did they die in that day?  They died spiritually.  The spirit within them, the breath of life from IAUE, did not leave their bodies; otherwise, as James tells us, they would have died physically.  So what happened to them?   (Unfortunately, at this point, to properly answer this question, we must delve into a very doctrinal issue.  I know not everyone has a mind for doctrine; but I pray that IAUE will help you to understand what I am about to express; for this is possibly the most important doctrinal issue you will ever need to understand.)

In the day that IAUE formed man’s body and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, man was pure, perfect.  He was “righteous.”  Everything about the way Adam and Eve lived their lives was perfectly consistent with the life and light and moral purity of IAUE; and they were obedient to His will as though their wills were one and the same.  On the day they disobeyed the revealed will of IAUE, they sinned.  (Sin, by its very definition, is doing something that is not the will of IAUE.)  When they sinned, they chose to live their lives according to their own will. They chose self-determination over obedience. They forfeited that quality of purity they had known.  They forfeited their righteousness.  They were no longer as IAUE is.  The light of IAUE was removed from them, and darkness came over their spirit…and though the breath of life had come from IAUE, it was now severed from Him. 

Adam and Eve’s fellowship with Elohim was dependent upon the fact that they shared his nature.  They had been created in His image and after His likeness; but when they chose a different path from the one Elohim desired for them, they ceased to be like Elohim.  They ceased to be pure as He is pure, holy as He is holy.  They ceased to be righteous.

Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that Elohim created man, in the likeness of Elohim made he him;

2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

From the day they had sinned, Adam and Eve were spiritually separated from Elohim, as darkness enshrouded their connection with Him.  Having lost the quality of righteousness, they were unable to pass righteousness on to their offspring.  I like to imagine this as the life of Adam and Eve being like a glass of pure water.  Once they sinned, drops of black ink, poison, were dropped into their glass.  There is now absolutely nothing they can do to restore their water to purity.  No manner of good works, obedience, ascetic practice…nothing, can change the fact their water is now impure.  When they have children, all they can pour into them is contaminated water; and their children after them, the same.  It is a permanent condition, because once innocence is lost, it can never be restored.  No longer do they have the potential to give birth to offspring that are in the likeness of Elohim.  They give birth to children in their own likeness.

This did not destroy, however, their memories of their experience with Elohim.  They remained as faithful to Him as they knew to be, and passed their knowledge of and experience with Elohim on to their offspring for generations.  It was hundreds of years before there were generations of mankind who were so removed from the testimony of Adam and Eve that they began living their lives exclusively to their own selfish desires. 

Imagine yourself being imprisoned by some governmental authority.  For the rest of your life, you are separated from all social contact except your spouse who is imprisoned with you.  You have children in the prison, and you tell them all about the world from which you came.  Eventually, you and your spouse die, the only ones who have ever actually experienced life in “the outside world.”  When your children have children, they pass on your stories to them; but they are not the stories of experience.  They are simply the tales they have been told by their children’s grandparents.  Without the benefit of first-hand experience, the tales become fairy tales, and eventually they become irrelevant to their lives.  It was in this same manner that the testimony of IAUE became so diluted in human society that we find in Genesis 6 that mankind had become so corrupted that an act of judgment (the flood) was necessitated to deal with its wickedness.  The absence of righteousness had produced in man the only thing it is capable of producing---darkness.

Messiah was sent to resolve the problem of man’s unrighteousness. He was sent to make righteousness possible once again; for without it, man would forever live in darkness, separated from IAUE.  In order to bring this remedy to man, Messiah was born of a virgin; because had he been born of the seed of man, the “black ink” of the man’s water would have been passed on to him, and he would have, like the rest of us, been born without righteousness, without connection to Elohim. 

Yahushua lived his life in complete willing obedience to the will of Elohim, never doubting, never mistrusting, and never seeking his own interests or preferences.  At his execution, the righteous took upon himself the punishment of the unrighteous.  He exchanged his life for man.  He died for us that we who live might live for him.  His own righteousness became accessible to us. 

One night, Nicodemus privately approached Messiah to try to understand who he was and how he could do what he did.

John 3:1  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2  The same came to Yahushua by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from Elohim: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except Elohim be with him.

Nicodemus’ confusion was the result of his eyes seeing what his spirit could not confirm.  Academically, he could put two and two together and deduce that the miracles Messiah performed gave evidence that Elohim was with him and working through him; but how that was even possible was beyond his intellectual capacity to understand.  How did Yahushua respond?

John 3:3  Yahushua answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of Elohim.

He went right to the root of the problem.  Nicodemus was still in darkness.  Understanding spiritual realities was beyond his capability.  Man must be born again to have his spiritual sight restored.  Of course, Nicodemus could not understand this comment.

John 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5  Yahushua answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Elohim.

6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

When a man enters into the great exchange made possible by Yahushua Messiah, by faith he lays down his own life, his own will, to take upon himself the life of another.  In repentance, his life is rendered forfeit to him; and he bows his knee to the Master.  At that moment, the Spirit of Messiah is breathed into him by the Holy Spirit, replacing the breath that had heretofore animated his flesh. The darkness that had been man’s life-long experience is replaced with light, and with access to the Father.  Since the spirit that was in Yahushua was breathed into him in righteousness; and since Messiah never forfeited that righteous quality by an act of selfish pursuit in disobedience to the will of His Father, his spirit is still righteous.  By placing his spirit within us, we now partake of the benefit of Messiah’s righteousness.

This event opens the prison door and lets us walk out into the world…to see what had been seen by our ancestor, the things that had become to us mere fairy tales and legends.  Now they are our experiences; and now we are called to be witnesses of the Truth, so that others may hear from first-hand experience the reality of Elohim; and to observe in us a life that is lived in obedience to His will.

Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

I know this does not answer every question about the new-birth, or about righteousness.  I will visit both of these matters in weeks to come.  I am trying to lay down a basic foundation of the working parts of our discipleship to Messiah.  Next week we will explore the Holy Spirit’s role in our beginning the journey of discipleship.