FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
RENEWING
THE MIND – XXIII
WHAT IS
MAN? - 3
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of IAUE.
Man is NOT a spirit. Man is an
image (body) with a likeness (soul) that is sustained by a spirit that is given by IAUE.
After creating His
man, IAUE gave specific instructions regarding his use of the garden of Eden.
Genesis 2:15 And IAUE Elohim took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And IAUE Elohim commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
After giving Adam
His duty (dress the garden and keep it), his privilege (you may eat freely of
every tree) and his limitation (you may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil), IAUE brought a deep sleep upon Adam, removed a rib from his
side and fashioned from it his mate. It is both interesting and important to
note that the one thing IAUE said about his man and woman after they were
created was:
Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked,
the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Then in Genesis 3,
we are told that the serpent beguiled the woman; and she ate of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil; then she gave to Adam who was beside her, and he
ate as well. The next thing we are told
about them was:
Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together, and made themselves aprons.
They had become “self-aware.”
For the first time in their lives, they became aware of their appearance in a
way that mattered to them. Why is this?
How did this happen? Until this
moment, they had only cared about their fellowship with IAUE and mutually
enjoying the garden He had entrusted to them; but now they were concerned about
“their” image; not the image of IAUE.
IAUE had said that
in the day Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would
surely die. Adam lived more than 800
years beyond that day, dying at the age of 930; so what died that day? Most theologians would tell you that his
spirit died; but a spirit cannot die in the sense of being terminated. The Scripture says that when a man dies,
whether he is a believer or an unbeliever, the spirit returns to IAUE who gave
it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
“Spiritual death” is
often defined as “separation from IAUE.”
Let’s examine this concept from the perspective of an event that occurred
in the ministry of Yahushua (Mark 11:12-21).
Yahushua approached a fig tree with leaves hoping to find some fig to
eat; but there were no figs, so he spoke to the fig tree and said no man would
ever eat figs from it again. The
following day, Peter observed the same fig tree having withered because it had
died from the roots. The roots,
immediately upon the words of Yahushua, had ceased taking in nourishment and
water from the soil. The part of the fig
tree that was responsible for receiving and transmitting what the tree needed
both to sustain life and to grow and bear fruit was no longer capable of
performing that function; and, in time, the body of the tree withered and
died. In like manner, when Adam ate of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the spirit within him was cut off
from the provision of the life and light of IAUE. In a very real sense, the light was turned
off because the spirit no longer had access to the light of IAUE. The “nature” of Adam, his life force, had been
light, providing access to and fellowship with IAUE; but now, he was cut off
from the source; and all that remained within his spirit was darkness.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee the only true Elohim, and Yahushua Messiah, whom
thou hast sent.
The fig tree took 24
hours to die physically once it was severed from the source of its
nourishment. Adam’s body took over 800
years to die after being cut off from its source. The different between the two
was Adam’s soul had only known life all of the years prior to his act of disobedience. His mind was trained by IAUE to think like
IAUE. “Life” was still the manner in
which he thought. It took centuries of
darkness within Adam for the idea of “death” to find root enough in him to
force the aging and withering of his body.
Even though cut off from the light of IAUE, there was enough in the
memories of Adam of the ways of IAUE, and enough desire to continue to walk in
His ways, that physical death was abated for a very long time.
Solomon tells us
that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25); but
Solomon wrote that 3,000 years after the fall of Adam in the garden. It took generations after Adam’s fall for man
to forfeit completely the thoughts of IAUE in favor of the ways of the world, the
ways of death; and the lifespans of man began to rapidly diminish as death
worked in him to kill his body.
Let’s consider in
more detail this proverb of Solomon; because it unfolds an important truth in
our current study. There is a way that “seems
right to a man.” To what faculty of man
does this refer? Does the spirit
contemplate ideas that are ways of death?
No. The spirit is simply the
breath of IAUE that animates man. That
breath is not characterized by having ideas, preferences or the ability to make
choices or to evaluate options. Does the body of man contemplate ideas that are
ways of death? No. The body of man does
not have ideas, preferences, or the ability to make choices or to evaluate
options. The body simply has needs which
the soul of man recognizes and decides how to meet. It is the soul of man (his mind,
will and emotions) that thinks, evaluates and makes choices.
Death seized the
reins of man’s soul. How did this
happen? It happened as a consequence of
the “nutrients and water” of IAUE no longer being able to be absorbed by the
spirit within man. If we compare this to
our illustration of the fig tree, it really is the soul of man that was the
object of death in the garden of Eden.
We have always focused on the spirit as that which died; but the spirit
within man was not the only thing that was separated from IAUE in that very
instant of disobedience. Man’s soul was instantly separated from IAUE; and that
is why we see the very first comment regarding man after the fall was an
expression of the fallen soul of man. He
knew he was naked; and he was ashamed.
This self-awareness was the first manifestation of the death of man.
Genesis 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.
The roots of the fig
tree were cut off from the source of life.
The roots, like the spirit in man, were simply the avenue through which
life flowed into the fig tree. The flow
of life being stopped resulted in the death of the tree. It just took man much longer than the fig
tree to die. Without the flow of life
from the spirit to man’s soul, the soul was lost, having no immediate or
ongoing direction. It was alienated from IAUE.
The longer man was separated from IAUE, the more corrupt his thinking
became, as the memories of IAUE and the stories of IAUE became more and more
like myths or fairy tales to a humanity that had no personal input of the
reality of such things.
Remember, when IAUE
created man, He made man “in His image” and “after His likeness.” We have already discussed the difference in
these terms. His image is IAUE’s appearance…what
He looks like. His “likeness” is his
nature, His character. Man was made to
look like IAUE and to become like Him in His nature. After the fall we see a different thing
happening with regards to this nature in man’s creation.
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:
After the fall, Adam
was not able to pass to the succeeding generation the image and likeness of
IAUE. It had become corrupted, severed
from the source. He passed down his own
image and likeness. In the fall, Adam
lost some aspect of the physical appearance of IAUE. Most scholars speculate it was a cloud of
glory that covered his body…hence impeding his awareness of his own nakedness. The light of IAUE clothed their bodies. (There
is no way of expressing with any certainty what was forfeited; but this is a
reasonable speculation.) What can be declared with certainty is the reason for
the forfeiture of the likeness of IAUE.
Having been cut off from the light of IAUE, it would have been
impossible for man to continue to mature and grow in the character and nature
of IAUE having no access to it to learn from it. The soul of man had lost its way, and there
was no avenue for restoration available.
Next week we will
discuss the impact of redemption upon the spirit, soul and body of man.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
No comments:
Post a Comment