ADAM’s CHOICE THE REASON FOR THE CROSS

THE ETERNAL PURPOSE(The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee - Chapter 7, Part 3)

Adam chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby took up independent ground.

In doing so he became (as man is now in his own eyes)

a ‘fully developed’ man.

•He could command a knowledge;

•he could decide for himself;

•he could go on or stop.

From then on he was “wise” (Genesis 3:6).

GENESIS 3:6 NKJV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one WISE, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

GENESIS 3:1-6

GENESIS 3:6 MSG

When the Woman saw that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would GET OUT OF IT —

•She’d KNOW EVERYTHING!—

•she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

But the consequence for his was death rather than life,

•because the CHOICE he had made involved COMPLICITY with Satan and brought him therefore under the JUDGMENT of GOD.

That is why ACCESS to the TREE of LIFE had thereafter to be FORBIDDEN to him.

TWO PLANES of LIFE had been set before Adam:

•that of DIVINE LIFE in DEPENDENCE upon GOD,

•and that of HUMAN LIFE with its ‘INDEPENDENT’ RESOURCES.

Adam’s CHOICE of the latter was SIN,

•because thereby he allied himself with Satan

•to thwart the ETERNAL PURPOSE of GOD.

He did so BY CHOOSING

•to develop his manhood—

•to become perhaps a very fine man, even by his standards a ‘perfect’ man—APART from GOD.

But the END was DEATH,

•because he had not in him the Divine life necessary to realize God’s purpose in his being,

•but had CHOSEN to become instead an ‘independent’ AGENT of the Enemy.

Thus in Adam we all become sinners,

•equally dominated by Satan,

•equally subject to the law of sin and death, and

•equally deserving of the wrath of God.

From this we see the Divine reason

•for the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

We see too the Divine reason

•for true consecration—

•for reckoning ourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and

•for presenting ourselves unto Him as alive from the dead.

We must all go to the Cross, because what is IN US

•by nature is a SELF-LIFE, subject to the law of sin.

Adam CHOSE a self-life rather than a Divine life;

•so God had to gather up all that was in Adam and do away with it.

Our ‘old man’ has been crucified.

God has put US ALL IN CHRIST and crucified Him as the last Adam,

and thus ALL that is of Adam HAS PASSED AWAY.

Then Christ arose in NEW FORM;

•with a body still,

•but ‘in the Spirit’,

•no longer ‘in the flesh’.

“The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).

The Lord Jesus now has

•a resurrected body,

•a spiritual body,

•a glorious body, and

since He is no longer in the flesh He can now be received by all.

“He that eateth me, he also shall live because of me”, said Jesus (John 6:57).

The Jews revolted at the thought of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but of course they could not receive Him then because He was still literally in the flesh.

Now that He is IN THE SPIRIT

•every one of us can receive Him, and it is

•by partaking of His resurrection life that we are constituted children of God.

“As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God... which were born... of God.” (John 1:12,13).

God is not out to reform our life.

It is not His thought to bring it to a certain stage of refinement, for it is on a totally wrong plane.

On that plane He cannot now bring man to glory.

He must have a NEW man; one BORN ANEW, born of GOD.

Regeneration and justification go together.

HE THAT HATH THE SON HATH THE LIFE

There are various planes of life.

Human life lies between the life of the lower animals and the life of God.

We cannot bridge the gulf that divides us from the plane ABOVE or the plane BELOW,

•and the distance that separates us from the LIFE of GOD is vastly greater than that which separates us from the life of the lower animals.

In China one day I called on a CHRISTIAN LEADER who was SICK in BED,

•and whom, for the sake of this story, I shall call ‘Mr. Wong’ (though that was not his real name).

He was a

•very learned man, a Doctor of Philosophy,

•and one esteemed throughout the whole of China for his high moral principles,

•and he had long been engaged in Christian work.

But he DID NOT BELIEVE in

•the need for regeneration;

•he only proclaimed a social gospel.

When I called on Mr. Wong his pet dog was by his bedside, and

•after speaking with him of the things of God and of the nature of His work in us,

•I pointed to the DOG and inquired his NAME.

He told me he was called Fido.

‘Is Fido his Christian name or his surname?’

I asked (using the common Chinese terms for ‘personal name’ and ‘family name’).

‘Oh, that is just his name’, he said.

‘Do you mean that is just his Christian name?

Can I call him Fido Wong?’ I continued.

‘Certainly not!’ came the emphatic reply.

‘But he lives in your family’, I protested, ‘Why don’t you call him Fido Wong?’

Then, indicating his two daughters, I asked ‘Are your DAUGHTERS not called Miss Wong?’

‘Yes!’

‘Well then, why cannot I call your DOG Master Wong?’

The Doctor laughed, and I went on:

‘Do you see what I am getting at?

Your DAUGHTERS were BORN into your family and they bear your name

•because you have COMMUNICATED your LIFE to them.

Your DOG may be an intelligent dog, a well-behaved dog, and altogether a most remarkable dog;

but the question is NOT, Is he a GOOD or a BAD DOG?

It is merely, is he a DOG?

He does not need to be bad to be disqualified from being a member of your family;

•he only needs to be a dog.

The same principle applies to you in your relationship to God.

The question is NOT whether you are a BAD man or a GOOD man,

more or less,

•but simply, ARE YOU A MAN?

If your LIFE is on a LOWER PLANE than that of GOD’s LIFE,

•then you CANNOT belong to the DIVINE family.

Throughout your life your aim in preaching has been to turn bad men into good men;

•but MEN AS SUCH, whether good or bad, can have no vital relationship with God.

Our only hope as MEN is to RECEIVE the SON of GOD, and

•WHEN we do so HIS LIFE IN US will CONSTITUTE us sons of GOD.’

The Doctor saw the truth, and that day he became a member of GOD’s FAMILY by RECEIVING the SON of GOD into his HEART.

What we today possess in Christ is MORE THAN Adam lost.

Adam was only a developed man.

He remained on that plane, and never possessed the LIFE of GOD.

But we who RECEIVE the Son of God not only receive the forgiveness of sins;

we RECEIVE also the DIVINE LIFE which was represented in the garden by the TREE of LIFE.

By the NEW BIRTH

•we RECEIVE something Adam never had;

•we POSSESS what he missed.

THEY ARE ALL OF ONE

GOD wants SONS who shall be JOINT-HEIRS with CHRIST in GLORY.

That is HIS GOAL; but HOW can He bring that about?

Turn now to Hebrews 2:10 and 11:

“It became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing MANY sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are ALL of ONE: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

There are TWO parties mentioned here, namely,

•“many sons” and

•“the author of their salvation”,

or, in different terms,

•“he that sanctifieth” and “they that are sanctified”.

But these TWO parties are said to be “ALL of ONE”.

The Lord Jesus as Man derived His life from God, and (in another sense, but just as truly) we derive our new life from God.

He was “begotten...of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20mg.),

and we were “born of... the spirit”, “born...of God” (John 3:5; 1:13).

So, God says, we are ALL OF ONE.

“Of” in the Greek means “OUT OF”.

The first begotten Son and the many sons are ALL (though in different senses) “OUT OF” the ONE SOURCE of LIFE.

Do you realize that we have the SAME LIFE today that GOD has?

The LIFE which He has in HEAVEN is THE LIFE which He has imparted to us here on the EARTH.

That is the precious “gift of God” (Rom. 6:23).

It is for THAT REASON that we can LIVE a LIFE of holiness,

•for it is NOT OUR OWN LIFE that has been changed,

•but the LIFE of GOD that has been imparted to us.

Do you notice that, in this consideration of the eternal purpose, the whole question of sin ultimately goes out?

It no longer has a place.

Sin came in with Adam, and even when it has been dealt with,

as it has to be,

we are only brought back to the point where Adam was.

But in relating us again to the DIVINE PURPOSE—

•in, as it were, RESTORING to us ACCESS to the TREE of LIFE—

Redemption has given us FAR MORE than Adam ever had.

It has made us PARTAKERS of the VERY LIFE of GOD HIMSELF.

II PETER 1:4 NKJV

by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be PARTAKERS of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.