Great divide and man's true destiny

THE GREAT DIVIDE AND MAN'S TRUE DESTINY

At the outset, we need to understand 'The Great Divide' or difference, 

i.    between GOD the Creator and His creation, and, 

ii.    between eternal life and all other kinds of life, 

and we need to identify the GOD about whom we are speaking.

The Bible takes for granted the existence of GOD and that He is a personal Creator. It simply sets forth as given His transcendence, His self-existence, and His absolute sovereignty.  It exalts Him in His Deity and majesty and describes the atheist as a fool and without excuse. 

The Bible's concern is to reveal this GOD as totally distinct from all the false gods that men worship, and to reveal Him as the true living God whose life in the New Testament is called “eternal life”.  It is this life which He desires to share with man, His unique creation, and thereby to bring man into the special relationship of a son to Himself. 

The true God must be identified because when we use the word “GOD” it is largely meaningless until we explain to whom we are referring. Many say they believe in one God, but then, so does the devil.  The living and true God is the God who is now known as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. In the Old Testament He revealed Himself by His name, Jehovah.  In the New Testament He is seen in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus reveals Jehovah because He alone is “the image of the invisible God”. So, for the Christian, Jesus Christ is equal to GOD. We read in the beginning of John’s gospel, concerning the Lord Jesus, “…the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” In the religions of this world and the false sects of Christianity, all of which originate in the mind and nature of fallen man, this is neither seen nor understood. In these, the word “God” refers to someone quite different. The followers of these religions are in fact worshipping idols, non-existent gods of their own imaginations. 

The true God must reveal Himself if He is to be known, and He has done so in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. We should take careful note of John's last words in his first letter, written to Christians in a day of spiritual declension, “This is the true God, and eternal life ... guard yourselves from idols”.

If we want to build our lives on God's foundation, we must see that Jesus Christ is the only true foundation. He is called a "Living Stone", and those who are true Christians, spiritually alive through new birth, are also called “living stones” to be built on Him and together with Him as God’s dwelling place. Jesus Christ says, “I am the Life ... I am the Living One” and the true Christian shares the same uncreated life, the very life of God, uniting him to the living Christ.

We must clearly see this difference between uncreated, and therefore eternal, life and created life in all its forms. There was a time, we may say, when the Triune God lived alone in transcendent glory and happiness, but He decided to create the universe, and man within it, to express and share in this life. So, the whole created universe, including the angels and man, were brought into being. Now man was God's masterpiece, for he was God's supreme way of expressing Himself. He was created “in His image”, to reveal God and to rule His creation on His behalf.  This was to be accomplished through his sharing in God’s own eternal life, and in that way, he was to have a unique relationship with God Himself.

To make our point clearer, we will say that there are six different kinds of life. The whole physical universe is, in a sense, alive, for all things, from the stars to atomic particles, are in constant motion. The unconscious vegetable kingdom is alive, and the conscious animal kingdom is alive. The angels are alive. The life man has is life in a far higher sense than the animals, for he has a spirit, and was made “in the likeness of God". The great, infinite “I AM” created the small, finite “I am”. But GOD has life in the ultimate and highest sense, for He has eternal, uncreated life, and is the sole source of all life.

Now, let us focus our attention upon the great gulf that existed between man when he was created, having only a created life, and GOD, who has eternal and uncreated life, and let us see the implications of this.

When the first man, Adam, was created, he did not possess eternal life. He was only created "in the image of God” but with the capacity to receive it. Now, we know that Jesus Christ is the full and perfect “image of the invisible God”. The Eternal God had, of course, made His plans "before the creation of the world”. It is important for us to see clearly that God had in His mind the Man, Christ Jesus, when He created Adam, and also that Adam did not, indeed, could not, possess eternal life by creation, only a created life. The implications of this are far-reaching.

Adam was created with a spirit, soul and body, which we will consider in detail later. He was called “a living soul" with a spirit and a body, but without eternal life. As he had a human spirit, he had the necessary faculty or capacity for receiving eternal life. Had he done so, Adam would have had a unique relationship with God, sharing His life and nature, but not, of course, His deity. Not even the angels had this relationship. But Adam was, as it were, on probation - he was incomplete. He could not be created with eternal life because that life is uncreated. He had to choose to receive it. He could only have such a wonderful relationship of sonship to God, if he freely chose, as a morally responsible being, to live in trusting dependence upon and obedience to Him. Had Adam not fallen, each of his descendants would, of course, have had to make the same choice. 

Though made of the dust and to live initially on the earth, Adam’s true destiny was far higher. This is the significance of the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden. It was the gateway to eternal life and provided Adam with a way to demonstrate his choice. His whole destiny turned upon his choosing to take of this tree because only then could he become a complete man, like the Lord Jesus. Without eternal life, man is not true man in Heaven's view. Fallen man, as we shall see later, is false man, only a pale shadow of what he was intended to be.

Notice the massive implications of this. It means that history is the tragic record of man's development in a way quite contrary to God's intention, and that man is now incapable of realizing even his earthly calling. Man chose the knowledge of good and evil in preference to eternal life. This tragic choice, and God’s remedy, we will pursue later.