Measure Upon Measure – Death – The Restoration Of God - Part 9 (Section 1) Series

MEASURE UPON MEASURE – DEATH – THE RESTORATION OF GOD - Part 9 (Section 1)

CHAPTER 5 - THE FIFTH CONSEQUENCE

In this fifth consequence, because it is the longest, and probably the most important, it is difficult to break it into sections. I have done that but it ended up with some sections being a bit smaller than normal. There are 5 breaks (sections) in this fifth consequence, and by rights the whole 5 sections should be read/considered as one.

So far we have looked at four results of the Fall into sin in Eden. They were guilt and shame; and separation; and the curse that came upon men and the world; and sorrow. The next one has a ring of finality about it and wraps all the others up in its power. That is death. In every consequence of sin, Jesus Christ identified with the measure of it, making it His own upon the cross, but returning to us greater blessings than Adam ever knew. This is what I mean by Measure Upon Measure. He restores more and more and greater and greater.

We now take up the fifth consequence of sin. In every aspect it is the inevitable culmination of all previous consequences and at the same time it is the most severe, the most imposing of them all. This consequence is death.

Because we were not existing at that time, we can not comprehend the perfection of the conditions the earth originally enjoyed. Adam was placed in surroundings which were God’s ideal, for we were told several times, “and God saw that it was good”. Already we have hinted at some of those utopian conditions. Sometimes we have posed suppositions and perhaps have forwarded suggestions in the area of speculation.

There are some who think the world as such existed “outside” of the Eden that God created where He made man and woman for that Garden. After all, all created life was told to be fruitful and multiply. Whatever might have been outside of the Garden of Eden we do not know but the animals, plants, insects, birds, and fish would have been there. God created them – mammals – birds – fish and all other life forms and they populated the earth. It would be absolutely wrong to think all that was contained inside Eden.

What we can be certain about it that Adam was the FIRST man. God did not have people running around outside the Garden. {{1 Corinthians 15:45-47 Also it is written so, “THE FIRST MAN, ADAM, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from heaven.}}

It is in that range where we might spend a brief time now. It is my proposition that in the unspoilt and pristine creation, there was present no death whatsoever, but that statement needs refining. Death and decay meant separation and must irrefutably be considered foreign to God. HOWEVER that death and the entry of it is confined to humans who were created in the image of God. The animal kingdom was not, even though a gorilla resembles a human in a broad way; and vegetation, was not. We know that all the grasses and weeds and crops such as wheat flower in their season, and have seeds and the plant dies. The butterfly and moth hatch, lay eggs, then die.

Again we come back to the Garden and the outside world. The outside world functioned according to Nature but the Garden was select and special, the residence for Adam and Eve. Perfection was all around them.

How big was the Garden? Answers in Genesis has a photo of Adam in the Garden feeding a Tyrannosaurus Rex with other dinosaurs there, a huge impossibility as far as I am concerned. I won’t put down AIG but I think the understanding of Eden is really imperfect.

Let me ask a question. How extensive was the Garden? I think the answer is clear. These eastern gardens (paridisimo) are not very large. Let us say that Adam and eve had not sinned. There would have been hundreds of people. Where would they be? Adam’s job was to tend and keep the Garden, so it was big enough for him to do that.

I know this is speculation and I said earlier it was. The reason for challenging your minds in this is to consider death and its outcome. Death entered through the First Man and I think it pertained to human beings alone, not the plant and animal creations. Do not challenge me. There is so much uncertainty that God has kept from us, that we can use world like “maybe”, “perhaps”, “it may have been that way”.