Page 13 - Fundamentals Ebook
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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 God intended man