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man He would see His Son. When He saw man as He created
man to be He would be pleased because man would radiate
Christ. That was God’s original plan, that man would reflect
Christ all over the earth. You know the sad story. Adam #1
sinned. What did Adam lose when he sinned against God? I
know he lost lordship/dominion. I know he lost his innocence.
I know he lost the garden. I know he lost most of his brain. He
doesn’t think like God created man to think. But bottom line,
what did he lose?
I’m suggesting that he lost the very thing that makes
man a man. The thing that makes man a man, as God intended
man to be, he sinned away. The Apostle Paul explains it in
Ephesians 2:12, “…remember that you were at that time
separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world.” Before you were saved
you were without Christ in the world.
Ephesians 4:18, “…being darkened in their
understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the
ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their
heart…” Man was excluded from the life of God. What in the
beginning was a wonderful plan, that man would reflect Christ,
has now been destroyed; that unique part, the image of God, the
life of God. Are we surprised that man now lives like the
animals? That’s why. They are separated from what makes
man a man. He fell from humanity.
I want to show you Christ as the last Adam. We begin
with the Christmas story but I want to get to the heart of it. It’s
not the virgin birth. It’s not the star in the sky. It’s not the Wise
Men. It’s not the murder of all those little babies. It’s not the
shepherds. It’s not the announcement by the angels. It’s not
the five Christmas songs that we have in the New Testament.
It’s not even His titles; Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, or Seed of David.
When you look in the manger you see God starting over
with Adam; not just a baby but Emmanuel. Do you know what
Emmanuel means? It means “God with us”. This is man as
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