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Restoring the Image of God in man God’s image in Adam was a moral image, man’s conscience was alive and he would learn to do what is right. Each day the Lord would meet Adam and Eve in the garden later in the day and converse with them. It was their time of fellowship. That is, until that fateful day when Adam chose to side with Eve, eat the fruit from the tree they were told not to. Then hid from the Lord when he came to fellowship in the afternoon. The Lord knew he and Eve were disobedient, that they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil because they hid from him instead of being there to meet him. Eve was deceived to eat from the tree, but Adam made a choice to eat with her. From that time forward mankind had a severed relationship passed on. Their image of God was flawed, marred as they reproduced in each generation. Man’s conscience could no longer distinguish what is right from wrong as it was intended. His limited abilities that were like God were diminished and more so after every proceeding generation. A man was chosen to whom a nation would be made. Abraham would be God’s chosen of whom was told to leave his land and family “ I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed ." Gen 12:2- This was done so that this future nation would be given the moral law that would distinguish them from all other nations in the world. No longer did man understand instinctively the ways or things of God, he had to have it explained. God would directly be involved with a nation of people, He would guide, instruct bless and punish the people who are now a nation under him. The Bible began to be written. The law given to Moses was training wheels to Israel it shows that we as sinners need a savior, not just rules to obey to be different than others. The law was given to show man how he fails to keep what he once was made as No longer did man understand instinctively the ways or things of God, he had to have it explained. Gal 3:19 “ What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.” The seed spoken of here is the Messiah, the seed of the woman that was the first prophecy promised to our first parents in the garden. Gal 3:23 “ we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.” This afterwards was the messiah, of whom Gal. 4:4-5 says “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law , that we might receive the adoption as sons.” He was revealed to Israel first, those who were given the law. The tutor of 613 laws was then replaced by the Holy Spirit who would be more personal to the individual. Gal. 3:24-25 “ Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Gal. 5:18 if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” The new covenant has the image of God restored in man, the moral law and our conscience are now alive because God has given man His Spirit, the Spirit of life. It restores the intentions that God made man to be in his image. This changes everything, our inner nature inherited from the garden. Our relationship to God and how we are to act with our fellow man. Rom. 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ The spirit will produce in every believer these qualities at different variations. Gal. 5:22-23 “ the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Without these present one can know they do not have the Spirit of life present in them. |
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