study 1: why did god create a man? - amazon s3 of contents introduction: what is the object of the...

P H A S E 1 : F E E D M Y L A M B S

S T U D Y 1 :

Why Did God Create A Man?

"Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord;

You know that I love You." He said to him, "Feed My lambs." Jn. 21:15b

7201 TruthSeekers Covers 6/18/01 12:15 PM

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I am so grateful that God has merged our two life paths for a while. I pray you are as hungry to

learn, as we are to share what we have been taught. You are beginning a discipleship program specifically designed to fit your busy lifestyle, but giving you the essentials for practical and effective Christian living. A disciple is simply one who learns from a teacher and puts into practice what they are being taught. You can be a disciple of any teacher on any subject, but your decision to learn how to become a committed disciple of Jesus will bring you God’s wisdom in daily living, and the greatest joy, purpose, and peace, you can possibly experience this side of Heaven.

Why call it Milk to Meat? Our title comes from two passages in Scripture. The first is Paul’s challenging words to the believers he loved and taught in Corinth as recorded in I Corinthians 3:1‐2:

1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in

Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and

even now you are still not able;

Later, the New Testament writer to the Hebrew or Jewish believers also used milk and meat terminology when he lovingly but sternly rebuked and challenged them regarding their failure to progress to spiritual maturity or Christlikeness, even though they had been Christians long enough to have reached that level of maturity. His words to them are found in Hebrews 5:12‐14:

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first

principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a

babe. 14 But solid food (meat) belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use

have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The word milk in both of the above passages refers to the Biblical truths that must be the initial diet of every new or baby believer, and of course, we all begin as babes “in Christ.” The meat refers to those Biblical truths that nourish adult believers who are spiritually mature enough to digest and apply the deeper teachings of God’s Word. You will explore the meat truths in your Phase II studies.

The problem both writers addressed involved two types of believers: the babe “in Christ” and the carnal believer “in Christ.” Both types needed to progress from a milk diet to a meat diet, and they were failing to do. Both types started right by receiving Jesus, but were failing to progress from spiritual infancy to spiritual adulthood or maturity. Your prolonged spiritual infancy grieves God’s heart, hinders His plans, and ignores the resources He has provided to maximize your life on earth.

You will begin our Phase I materials under the general title of: Feed My Lambs. That Phase I title comes from what Jesus asked of the Apostle Peter before sending him out to evangelize and disciple others. Jesus’ clear instructions/commands to Peter are recorded in John 21:15‐17:

15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love

Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

Did you notice that 3 times Jesus asked Peter “do you love me?” Three times Peter affirmed his love for Jesus and after each response, Jesus charged Peter to demonstrate his love by doing something:

1. Verse 15 “Feed My Lambs”–teach babes “in Christ” the milk of God’s Word.

2. Verse 17 “Feed My Sheep”–teach adult believers “in Christ” the meat of God’s Word.

3. Verse 16 “Tend My Sheep”–oversee the well being of the flock as God’s shepherd.

The New Testament reveals that Peter did obey Jesus’ charge. He wrote the book of 1 Peter in your New Testament to feed “lamb” believers by giving them the “sincere or pure milk” of the Word of God (I Pet. 2:2). Later, he wrote the book of 2 Peter to teach the “meatier” truths that are needed by growing “adult” believers. Peter also fulfilled Jesus’ charge to “Tend My Sheep” by becoming a wise, caring, and active spiritual shepherd over first century Christians as the Apostle to the Jews.

We follow Peter’s pattern and start you out in our Phase I milk materials that are designed to Feed My Lambs. Your life is a daily journey and we will show you that your Heavenly Father does not want your journey on earth to be an ordeal, but a wonderful adventure. Since your eternal destination is assured “in Christ”, you can/should “make your daily journey worthy of your final destination!”

Our Phase I materials designed to Feed My Lambs consists of four basic study units:

Why Did God Create A Man?

Christ+0!

Instant and Eternal Riches “In Christ.”

Eternal Security: Once a Butterfly–Always a Butterfly.

Your writer is a lay believer, meaning I have had no formal seminary training and have not served as part of a local church pastoral staff. I was not converted until age 27, and as to my Biblical knowledge, I was a blank sheet of paper! Initially, I could not find the different books of the Bible without the index. I will be sharing with you the result of my 30+ years of searching, being taught, and practicing what I was learning. I will teach you what I wish others had taught me as a new believer, in the logical and sequential order I now see as God’s biblical pathway to true spiritual adulthood.

I owe a great debt to gifted teachers who shared their wisdom in God’s Word. My life was eternally changed by Rev. Bailey Stone (my dear friend), Dr. Bill Thomas (my first pastor), Dr. Frank Sticht (my first Bible teacher), Major Ian Thomas (my first discipler), and gifted writers like Dr. Charles Ryrie, Dr. Alfred Edersheim, and Dr. David L. Cooper. My adult growth under theologians like Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Pastor George Zeller, and Dr. Renald Showers, continue to enrich my life and walk. I thank God for using them to teach me how to “maximize my journey” to my Father’s house. Tom Murray General Director

For additional information or resource materials contact: Truth Seekers Fellowship

5390‐1 Estate Office Drive, Memphis, TN 38119 Phone: 901‐685‐3385 Fax: 901‐685‐1291 email: [email protected]

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF THE EXERCISE IN LIFE?............................................ 2

QUESTION 1 - WHY DID GOD CREATE A MAN?............................................................................... 3

GOD IS LOVE....................................................................................................................................... 3 Three Types of Love...................................................................................................................... 4

GOD’S LOVE REQUIRES A RESPONSE .................................................................................................... 6

QUESTION 2 - HOW WAS MAN EQUIPPED TO FUNCTION? .......................................................... 8

THE MATERIAL COMPONENT – MAN’S PHYSICAL BODY ........................................................................ 9

THE IMMATERIAL COMPONENTS ....................................................................................................... 10 1. Man’s Personality (Soul) .................................................................................................... 10 2. Man’s Human Spirit ........................................................................................................... 11 3. Spiritual Life ....................................................................................................................... 11 4. Man’s Created Holy Nature............................................................................................... 11

QUESTION 3 - WHAT WENT WRONG?............................................................................................ 14

A. INNOCENCE WAS TESTED.............................................................................................................. 14

B. ADAM AND EVE FELL ..................................................................................................................... 14

C. THEIR FALL BROUGHT DEATH ....................................................................................................... 15

D. GOD'S MORAL IMAGE BECAME MARRED........................................................................................ 17

QUESTION 4 - WHAT DID GOD DO? ............................................................................................... 21

GOD REVEALED HIS ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN................................................................................ 21

CONCLUSION: WHAT IS GOD’S DESIRE FOR THOSE “IN ADAM”?.............................................. 38

HOW SHOULD YOU RESPOND TO GOD’S LOVE ................................................................................... 38

All Scripture is taken from the New King James Version

2 TSF/MTMI/Why Did God Create a Man?/2002

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF THE EXERCISE IN LIFE?

If you study the history of mankind, you cannot miss seeing his restless, unending, search for meaning in life. Each of us is plagued by three major questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here on earth? Where am I going? This search for meaning drives scientists to probe earth and sky looking for answers, while philosophers formulate deep systems of thought to explain our origin, our purpose, and our destination. Everyone wants to know the truth. But what is “the Truth” regarding our origin, our existence, our purpose, and very importantly, our ultimate destination?

I have discovered that the Bible contains a philosophy; it is God’s philosophy of history. I am convinced that the Bible presents the ultimate and authoritative Truth that answers our three questions regarding the meaning of life. The Bible is God’s revelation to mankind concerning His Eternal Plan in establishing a universal Kingdom over which He rules as King/Monarch and man serves as the governor of this earth. Therefore, the object of the exercise in this study unit is to help you see exactly what God had in mind when He created man and how man fits into God’s Eternal Plan.

Once you have discovered God’s purpose in creating man, you will then discover how man was equipped by his Creator/God to function in His eternal Kingdom plan. You will also discover what went wrong through the first man and woman and how their rebellion affects you today. Finally, you will discover the gracious remedy that God has provided to reverse man’s dilemma.

Let’s begin with two contrasting statements before exploring: Why Did God Create A Man?

1. You cannot understand and appreciate all that Jesus accomplished at Calvary without first understanding exactly what happened at the fall of Adam and Eve.

2. You cannot fully understand what happened when Adam and Eve fell unless you clearly understand what Jesus experienced and accomplished on the cross at Calvary.

When you finish this first study unit, I urge you to return and reread these two statements to see if you really understand both statements and if you could explain these truths to someone else.

Let’s begin by helping you find God’s answers in the Bible to the four essential questions listed below. You cannot adequately understand and personally apply all of the good things that God has provided through the crucifixion, burial, bodily resurrection, and ascension of Jesus His only begotten Son until you understand the answers to the following four questions:

Question 1 - Why Did God Create A Man?

Question 2 - How Was Man Equipped To Function?

Question 3 - What Went Wrong?

Question 4 - What Did God Do?

The “object of the exercise in man’s creation”, his present purpose on earth, and his ultimate destination and purpose in eternity, is that man might experientially know his Creator/God and fulfill his purpose in God’s eternal plan. Answering our first question will help you discover the incredible love, wisdom, and grace, that God demonstrated when He created the first man and woman and see the wonderful role He intended for mankind to play in His eternal Kingdom plan.

TSF/MTMI/Why Did God Create a Man? – 6/2001 3

QUESTION 1 - WHY DID GOD CREATE A MAN?

Did God create a man simply because God wanted to play the role of “Divine Rule Maker” and demonstrate His sovereign power over man by severely punishing him whenever man failed to obey God’s commands? Or did God create a man so that one‐day He could eternally torment him in Hell? I can tell you that the Biblical answer to these two questions is an emphatic “No!”

God clearly reveals in the Bible that the truth and the answer to Question One must be in total compatibility with God’s holy nature, His pure character, His good purposes, and His loving heart. Why? Because whatever God does always reflects what God is like and reveals who God is. How has God chosen to reveal Himself to man? God has chosen to reveal His nature, character, purposes, and heart, in the Bible, in His creation, and in the circumstances of human history.

One important truth as you begin: Always remember that God has no deficiencies–‐meaning God never has and never will need man to be complete. The Bible clearly reveals that God is totally self‐sufficient (self‐contained), lacking nothing within Himself. God is eternal, all‐powerful, all knowing, and completely sufficient within Himself. And the Bible consistently reveals that God’s purpose in all that He does is to satisfy Himself and to reveal Himself to His creatures and to ultimately receive the glory, worship, and honor that He alone deserves as the only true God.

Thousands of years ago the psalmist asked the same question you are now considering. He asked why an all‐sufficient eternal God would love and be mindful of man His creature.

Psalm 8:4

What is a man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

Your first step in discovering the answer to why God is mindful of man or focuses His attention on man is for you to learn what the Bible reveals about the love of God. Once you have gained a glimpse into the love of God, you will be on your way to deeper insight into knowing and understanding why God created a man. Let’s consider the love of God under two points:

God is Love

God’s Love Requires A Response

GOD IS LOVE

Perhaps you have heard someone state that “God is love” and that is a true biblical statement. In fact, God clearly affirms it in His Word in I John 4:8,16. God repeatedly reveals in Scripture that His very nature is love. He also reveals that He offers you, as His creature, the purest and most sacrificial form of love you can possibly experience now and for all of eternity. God also reveals in His Word that He wants you to clearly understand and personally respond to His great love for you!

Since God reveals in the Bible that He is love, what do you think could possibly satisfy the love that God has for man His creature? Obviously, the same thing that alone can satisfy your love for another person and that is to have that person respond by loving you back! In human love, your love for another person is satisfied only if and when the person you love responds to your offer and loves you in return. Your clearly understanding and accepting the biblical fact that God’s very nature is love will help lay the solid foundation for you to discover one answer to: Why Did God Create A Man?

To help you clearly understand what the love that God offers is, you must learn what the love that God offers you is not. We have chosen some descriptive names for three types of love that we want


you to now consider. You will not find these three types of love referred to by these names in the Bible, but we hope these types of love will help communicate the truth we are trying to share with you about God’s love for you and what He desires from you in response to His offer.

Three Types of Love

Candy Love

Candy Love is the term we chose to describe that type of love you can receive by offering someone a reward or a bribe. You can receive Candy Love from children by offering them a piece of candy or some other reward if they will give you a hug. Adults can also give and receive Candy Love. Husbands can reward or bribe their wife with a variety of goodies (no fussing about bank overdrafts, credit card abuses, etc.) in exchange for her meeting all of his fantasies and needs. But the bottom line about Candy Love is that if you use candy to bribe someone to love you, you must expect to keep him/her with more candy. And the amount of candy it takes to keep them will always keep going up.

Unfortunately, there are those who present God as so desperate for man’s love that He is willing to offer all kinds of goodies (candy) if only man will love Him back. This is a gross distortion of God’s very nature and certainly does not describe His heart of love for man. God does not and never will stand with His hat in His hand offering anyone a reward or bribe to love Him back. The Bible says, “God is love” but the Bible does not say that God is a beggar!

You should realize that God is not and never will try to make a deal with you. God is not saying: “If only you will love me back, I will forgive all your sins, solve any problem you bring Me, make little or no demands of you in daily life, provide prosperity and health for you and yours, and then take you to a wonderful Heaven when you die.” You must see that Candy Love cannot possibly satisfy the heart of God because it results from a reward or bribe. God does not beg, nor will He ever bribe, any person to love Him back. God knows that if you respond to His love with Candy Love, it will always take more Candy to keep your love. And the first time God doesn’t deliver enough Candy for you, you will be ready to end the relationship. Candy Love lasts only as long as the candy keeps coming!

Smack Love

Smack Love is the term we chose to describe that type of love you can receive in response to a threat or fear of punishment. Simply put, Smack Love is the exact opposite of Candy Love. Promise of reward is what drives Candy Love. Fear of punishment is what drives Smack Love.

Children will give you a hug if they know that to refuse will result in a smack! Adult men/women often settle for this type of love by threatening or even abusing their mates. Smack Love responds out of fear, but fear ultimately produces only a mechanical numbness in relationship and response.

Sadly, some also present God as a fearsome Tyrant who says to you: “If you do not give Me your love, I will cause all sorts of pain into your life (disease, death of a loved one, your own death, etc.) and then I will torment you in Hell forever and forever.”

If you get someone to respond to you using Smack, you will have to keep him/her with more Smack. You can scare a person only so many times and for only so long. Eventually, they will simply give up and cease to care about what you might do to them. Smack Love eventually produces only a numb, mechanical, response from the one being constantly threatened and living in fear.

Smack Love does not and cannot satisfy the heart of God. In fact, nowhere in Scripture are we told that God gets any pleasure from threatening or punishing man. And, God does not desire man to be


separated from Him and His love or to suffer eternal torment in Hell. That this is so is confirmed throughout the Bible, but for now, simply look at one clear verse that reveals the heart of God.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Smack Love is not what God had in mind when He lovingly created man–His creature. God deserves and desires your reverential awe, loving worship, and total obedience, because of Who He is, not because of your fear of Smack. You can also see God’s heart by looking at another verse.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

God’s love, properly understood and received, will cast out all of your fears about how He sees you, and help you see His plans for your relationship with Him now on earth and eternally when you arrival at your eternal destination. Smack Love cannot possibly satisfy the heart of God. Then what kind of love does God offer you and how does He desire for you to respond? Keep reading!

Genuine Love

Genuine Love is the term we chose to describe that type or quality of love that is neither Candy or Smack! Genuine Love is not driven by bribe or reward, nor is it driven by fear of punishment. It is an unselfish love that focuses on the one being loved and puts their needs and their best interest above any self‐interest and self‐fulfillment.

We all desire and seek Genuine Love to satisfy the deep longing in our innermost being. The purest form of Genuine Love originates with God Himself; not humans, therefore, we can refer to God’s Love as Divine Genuine Love. Since Divine Genuine Love originates with God, He is the One that initiates toward you by offering His love to you, and God’s Love requires your response.

The Bible says, “we love Him because He first loved us” (I Jn. 4:19). As you will see, God does not want your response to be a Candy response or a Smack response.

Exercise 1 Three Types of Love In your own words briefly describe your understanding of the 3 kinds of love:

1. Candy Love_______________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Smack Love_______________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Genuine Love _____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________


GOD’S LOVE REQUIRES A RESPONSE

Please remember that the Bible does not actually use the terms Candy, Smack, or Genuine, to describe the different types of love. Knowing that no illustration we could give would be totally adequate, we still chose to use these three terms in our attempt to help you better comprehend what the love of God is not, and what the love of God is. We all have experienced some form of Candy and Smack love, but not all of us have ever experienced Genuine love. With God’s Genuine Love on your mind, let’s now focus on how God desires you to respond to His love.

As we are going to discuss in the next section, when God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, they were given the responsibility to oversee all of His Kingdom on the Earth. God desired to have a genuine love relationship with Adam and Eve and in this relationship, they would bring glory and praise to God. Although God created them without flaw, in His own image, in perfect fellowship with Himself, He also gave them both the capacity and the responsibility to choose their response to His love for them. God certainly had the power and the right to create Adam and Eve without the freedom to choose, but without their freedom to say “no” to God, their “yes” would have been meaningless. If Adam and Eve had not been given the freedom of choice regarding their response to God’s love, they would have been no more than robots and behaved as such.

However, what you are going to discover is that Adam and Eve, in spite of God’s love toward them, chose to rebel and reject God’s plan for them and follow their own desires. As a result of this choice, Adam and Eve’s good relationship with God was broken, they died spiritually and became enslaved to sin. What is worse, all of Adam and Eve’s descendants (the whole human race) would be born into this same state of death and slavery. All of us, as descendants of our original parents Adam and Eve, are born into the world enslaved to sin and cut off from God, the root and source of life.

Over the years that I have been teaching, several people have asked me the following question: “Why would a truly loving God create a man and woman and then send or allow them to go to Hell?” That is a great question and one that gets to the very heart of this study unit.

What you are going to discover is that God does not leave us in our fallen and corrupt state without any hope of salvation. Instead, by His grace, Divine Genuine Love and mercy, God begins to work out His Eternal Redemptive Plan. In this plan God, through the work of His Son Jesus, gives fallen humanity a way to escape from the slavery and condemnation that were caused by Adam and Eve’s original choice of rebellion against God.

On the basis of this Redemptive Plan, God offers the opportunity to everyone who hears the “good news” about the work of His Son Jesus to be restored to right relationship with Himself by believing and receiving His gracious gift of life in Christ. God’s desire was never to create mankind only to see him destroyed by sin. Instead, in His grace he has chosen to give us an opportunity to respond to his genuine love by accepting His gift of salvation in Christ as our genuine love response to Him.

God’s Divine Love or what we have named Genuine Love, was graciously given to man His creature, and that Divine Genuine Love could only be satisfied by man’s genuine love in return. God does not desire, nor is He ever satisfied, with Candy Love or Smack Love. He desires and is satisfied only with Genuine Love.

There is a mystery about the love and wisdom of God that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend. We are limited to His Word, the Bible, in what we can know about His genuine love for us. As you discover what he has revealed in His Word, you will see that God’s desire for you is to be


restored to life and relationship through Jesus. Your final destination is determined by your response to the good news of God’s gift of salvation in Jesus.

It will be helpful for you to stop and answer the following questions to test your understanding of your God‐given freedom and your personal responsibility to respond before you proceed to your next discovery: How Was Man Equipped to Function?

Exercise 2 God’s Love Requires a Response 1. Why did God give man Adam and Eve the freedom to respond to His Love? ______________________

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2. How does God desire for you to respond to his love?___________________________________________

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___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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Summary 1 Why Did God Create a Man?

• To accomplish His eternal plan, to reveal Himself and His love to man; to have a genuine love relationship with man; and to bring glory and praise to Himself through man.

• To give and receive Genuine love, not Candy or Smack.


QUESTION 2 - HOW WAS MAN EQUIPPED TO FUNCTION?

This second question will help you see how God designed man to function at his creation and the equipment that God gave to man so that he could fulfill God’s purposes and desire. Let’s begin at the beginning of God’s Word by reading what God said about His creation of man:

Genesis 1:26‐27

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Did you notice that man was created in the image of God? But what image did man reflect? Adam and Eve were created to reflect God’s moral image. What do you think God saw as He watched Adam and Eve behave after their creation? The answer is that He saw His own moral image! Did you also notice in the above verses that God designed the man to have dominion over the fish, the birds, the cattle, over all the earth including every creeping thing! What an awesome purpose and design God had in mind when He created man to serve as governor over God’s earthly creation. As God’s governor, Adam was responsible to carry out the will of his Sovereign Creator/King. What did God say concerning Adam and Eve at their creation?

Genesis 1:31

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

Everything God made in the six days of creation was very good, including Adam and Eve in their original created state. Adam and Eve had to be specially equipped in order to reflect God’s moral image and govern the earth for God. You will now see how God equipped them, or the design and equipment that God engineered into the man and the woman so that they could reflect His moral image and govern the earth. With the creation of man, God’s initial work in bringing His eternal Kingdom into existence was completed. So, how did God design and equip man?

You can best understand the design and equipment God engineered into man if you think of man as possessing both material components and immaterial components. We will use this two‐component division of man for the balance of this study unit because the Bible affirms it, and it eliminates unnecessary confusion over man’s different facets.

The Material Component

Man’s Physical Body

The Immaterial Components

Man’s Personality (Soul)

Man’s Human Spirit

Spiritual Life

Man’s Created Holy Nature


THE MATERIAL COMPONENT – MAN’S PHYSICAL BODY

God does not dwell in a physical body. The Bible states that God is Spirit (John 4:24) and that God is invisible (I Timothy 1:17, 6:16). The fact that man was created with a physical body is not what makes him in the likeness of God. For man to be able to understand his earthly physical domain, God formed a physical body for him from the dust of the earth. From this point on we will think and speak of man as being both material (physical) and immaterial (non‐physical).

We can illustrate this division of man’s two components by the following illustration:

Note: As you progress through your study we will be using the term “man” in our discussions and illustrations. We are using the term “man” with the understanding that the term refers to all humanity including both the man and the woman. The material and immaterial components of Adam’s humanity were not superior to or different from those of Eve.

Man’s material body is such an incredibly sophisticated piece of engineering, both in design and function, that it clearly reveals that only an Omniscient and Omnipotent Creator could have possibly conceived and constructed it. But the material body of man is not his most important component; it merely houses the immaterial part of man. The material body allows man to express externally to God and others what is going on internally in the immaterial part of man. Without your material body, no one could possibly know what is going on inside you! While the material body is obviously important it is the least important of the two components of man.

While you have only one body, your physical body consists of many different parts such as, ears, hands, lungs, and eyes, that all have different functions. Your body remains one body but it has many different parts and functions. This point will also apply when we explore your immaterial components and discover that you also possess many different immaterial parts such as, mind, spirit, emotions, all with different functions, but you still remain one immaterial person.


Answer the following questions and then proceed to your next segment.

Exercise 3 Man’s Material Component 1. What purpose does your body serve? ________________________________________________________

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2. Why do you have many parts but only one body? _____________________________________________

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THE IMMATERIAL COMPONENTS

Remembering that you possess only one physical body with many parts and functions, you can now see that you are also only one immaterial person with many different immaterial parts that perform different functions. It is not easy to explain or understand exactly how all of your immaterial parts function because they too are interrelated and overlap each other. However, the Bible does address these individual immaterial parts and we must do the same.

In an effort to simplify your understanding of this important part of your humanity, we have selected and will concentrate your attention on four essential parts of Adam and Eve’s original immaterial components. We risk over‐simplifying the subject, but we want you to see that these are the essential components that allowed Adam and Eve to reflect God’s moral image.

1. Man’s Personality (Soul)

2. Man’s Human Spirit

3. Spiritual Life

4. Man’s Created Holy Nature

1. Man’s Personality (Soul)

Personality is the term we are using to describe some of the immaterial components of man and we are limiting personality to include three essential facets:

1. Mind (intellect)–that allows man to reason, understand, and think critically.

2. Emotion (feeling)–so man can experience and express love, joy, sorrow, fear, etc.

3. Will (volition)–so that man can either submit to God’s will or insist on his own will.

God has personality and He created man with personality (soul). God does not dwell in a physical body, but He does possess intellect, emotion, and will, and God is treated in the Bible as a Person. You can understand that no personal relationship is possible unless both parties in the relationship possess


the three facets of personality. Personality (mind, emotion, will) is one immaterial component of God and it is also an immaterial component of man His creature.

2. Man’s Human Spirit

The human spirit is another of man’s immaterial components. Man is not a spirit being, but he possesses a human spirit. God alone is eternal Divine Spirit, but He created man with an eternal human spirit. Man’s human spirit originated from God at man’s creation, and through the process of human procreation, every person has a human spirit at their physical birth. As you will soon learn, man’s human spirit is the determining factor in his attitude toward God and controls everything else in his life. The human spirit is not the total immaterial person, but it is certainly the most prominent component in his spiritual life. Before their rebellion and fall, Adam and Eve’s human spirit was alive toward God and enabled them to reflect His will and moral image.

The material or physical components of man can and will die, but the immaterial components can never die because man possesses an eternal human spirit. Man’s eternal human spirit is what gives him immortality. The fact that you possess an eternal human spirit from God through your physical birth is what gives you eternality. You will one‐day die physically, but you can never cease to exist as a person for all of eternity, because you possess an eternal human spirit from the moment of physical conception.

3. Spiritual Life

Spiritual Life is a term we are using to describe the kind and quality of life that Adam and Eve possessed from the moment of their creation until their rebellion and fall. Physical life is simply the absence of physical death and Spiritual Life is the absence of spiritual death.

Now death when used in the Bible never means extinction or annihilation–it always means separation. Their possession of Spiritual Life meant that Adam and Eve were originally spiritually alive toward God and not spiritually separated from Him. We illustrate Spiritual Life with the capital letter L inside a triangle because Spiritual Life originated from the Triune Godhead consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Possessing Spiritual Life did not make Adam and Eve gods, because they did not possess Divine Life, which God alone possesses.

4. Man’s Created Holy Nature

Created Holy Nature is the term we use to describe the original disposition or attitude that Adam and Eve had toward God and His right to rule. Their nature determined their character and conduct. It is only one part of man, but man’s inherent nature affects the total person. The term Created Holy Nature describes Adam and Eve’s original disposition or attitude toward God and His right to rule over them. Their created holy nature was demonstrated by their willing and joyful obedience to God’s will and commands and was reflected in their sinless reflection of God’s moral image.


Let’s now attempt to illustrate Adam and Eve before they rebelled and fell:

As stated earlier, Adam and Eve possessed other immaterial components that the Bible addresses

such as conscience and heart. But for now we are limiting your study of the immaterial parts of man to the components we have listed and discussed above.

Since Adam and Eve were created with personality, they could interact with God’s personality and enjoy His fellowship, understand and submit to His will, and fulfill their purpose in God’s Eternal Plan. Adam and God interacted mentally, emotionally, volitionally and spiritually. Adam and Eve experienced the love of God, exercised their God‐given freedom to choose their response, and responded in love by allowing God to teach their mind, control their emotions, and direct their wills. Their experience of the love and fellowship God offered, along with their created holy nature that governed their behavior, allowed them to truly reflect God’s moral image.

Adam demonstrated genuine love by maintaining an attitude of total dependence upon God. Adam’s attitude of total dependence was reflected in his total obedience to God and His commands. This mutual love relationship resulted in Adam’s behavior reflecting the moral nature and sinless character (image) of God Himself! This is how Adam and Eve were created to function! But Adam and Eve were not locked into this relationship, as you will soon see.

How long this loving fellowship between God and Adam and Eve lasted before their rebellion and fall is not given in the Bible. It certainly would have lasted long enough to allow Adam and Eve a sufficient amount of time and sufficient experiences with God to fully appreciate the joy and fulfillment this fellowship provided.

Adam and Eve in their original created state were characterized by moral God‐likeness or what we can call created creature holiness. Created creature holiness means that Adam and Eve reflected God’s moral purity or holiness, but they did not possess God’s Divine nature or Creator holiness. Their initial holiness was the result of God’s creation and not the result of their choice. That is why we refer to their creature holiness as “unconfirmed creature holiness,” because it was a created holiness and not the result of their conscious choice. Until their created holiness was tested, it remained unconfirmed. Their unconfirmed holiness could not become confirmed holiness until Adam and Eve were confronted with an alternative to obeying God and they actively chose to love and obey God’s instructions in a real test of their desire and will.


Complete the following questions before you move on to the next section.

Exercise 4 Man’s Immaterial Components 1. What were the four major components of the immaterial part of Adam?

1. ___________________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the three essential components of personality? Briefly describe each.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________________________

3. What is Spiritual Life?_____________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Illustrate Adam at his creation:

Summary 2 How Was Man Equipped to Function? • God as Spirit does not have a body like man, therefore, there is no physical likeness.

• There is an immaterial likeness because both God and man possess personality (M‐E‐W).

• There is a spiritual likeness because man possesses an eternal spirit.

• Adam and Eve were created with Spiritual Life which remained until their fall.

• Adam and Eve originally possessed “unconfirmed creature holiness,” but it had not been tested.


QUESTION 3 - WHAT WENT WRONG?

Having discovered why God created man and how man was equipped by his Creator to fulfill his purpose in God’s Eternal Plan, you can now turn your attention to what went wrong.

A. Innocence Was Tested

B. Adam and Eve Fell

C. Their Fall Brought Death

D. God’s Moral Image Became Marred

A. INNOCENCE WAS TESTED

After a sufficient amount of time had passed for Adam and Eve to experience God’s love and fellowship, it was time for their testing. Their created creature holiness or moral reflection of God could not be confirmed until it was tested. In their initial walk with God, the unconfirmed creature holiness of Adam and Eve manifested itself as what some have chosen to call innocence. And their innocence now had to be tested for created holiness to be either confirmed or lost.

God allowed a fallen angelic being named Satan to offer Adam and Eve an alternative to serving God and submitting to His rule and commands. Adam and Eve would now have to make an active choice either in favor of God or against God. The proposition Satan proposed involved their choosing to trade their love for God for love of themselves, their dependence upon God for independence from God, and their obedience to God for disobedience and self‐rule.

B. ADAM AND EVE FELL

Before they chose to rebel and fell, Adam and Eve possessed the God‐given capacity to choose contrary to their created holy nature. Their nature and behavior was sinless as a result of the gracious creation of God and their sinlessness manifested itself as innocence. During their period of probation, Adam and Eve possessed the freedom or power to choose and to behave contrary to their created nature of creature holiness or sinlessness. Adam and Eve would now have to individually decide how they would exercise their God‐given “power of contrary choice.”

Adam and Eve clearly understood God’s one central command or test regarding their submission to His rule and their obedience to His will:

Genesis 2:15‐17

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely

eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat

of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:1‐6

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it

nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”


4 And the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.” 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like

God, knowing good and evil.” 6 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.

Their first experiences of walking in fellowship with God must have been wonderful for Adam and Eve. The first two chapters of the Book of Genesis reveal that God initiated nothing but good things toward Adam and Eve and they gladly received God’s love and enjoyed all that God provided. We can only imagine today what their life was like before they chose to rebel.

Satan’s proposition consisted of two parts: (1) “You surely shall not die!” (Genesis 3:4) and (2) “in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Satan assured them that it would not hurt them to disobey God and that their active disobedience would actually benefit them by making them become as or like God. It was Satan’s way of telling Adam and Eve that if they rejected God’s rule, they would be free to rule themselves.

The proposed opportunity to be sovereign and rule their own lives was too great to pass. Adam and Eve willfully rejected the rule of God and asserted their own self‐rule. Instead of existing for God’s purposes, they would now exist for their own purposes. No longer Deo‐centric (totally God‐centered), they now became ego‐centric (totally self‐conscious or self‐centered). But their change of attitude and declared independence from God and His rule over them did not bring Adam and Eve the benefits Satan had promised.

C. THEIR FALL BROUGHT DEATH

Since God had created Adam and Eve with the freedom to choose and the power of contrary choice, God had no other option but to honor their decision. God’s warning had been that “in the day that you eat, you will surely die.” The Bible records that Adam and Eve did not die physically that day. In fact, they lived physically for hundreds of years after their rebellion and fall. Physical death did originate at their fall, but physical death was not the first consequence of their rebellion against God’s rule and their disobedience to God’s command (sin).

Then what death did they experience that same day? They died spiritually! Their human spirit that was originally created alive toward God now became dead toward God. Their spiritual separation from God constituted spiritual death. Physical death would follow, but the first consequence of man’s sin resulting from his rebellion against God’s right to rule was not physical death but spiritual death. Spiritual death is simply spiritual separation from God.

Adam and Eve also lost their created holy nature or favorable disposition toward God and now became totally confirmed in a disposition or attitude of total enmity against God and his rule. Adam and Eve’s demonstrated their rebellion against God and His right to rule by an act of sin.

This is a good place for you to learn the definition of sin. The Apostle John tells us in one of his epistles that sin is lawlessness against God, His right to rule, and His commands.

1 John 3:4

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

Adam and Eve’s created holy nature was replaced by a sinful or lawless nature that would not and could not submit itself to God’s rule or His commands. Deciding to be their own sovereign, Adam and


Eve could not tolerate God’s claim of sovereignty over them. One evidence that this change of attitude had occurred is that Adam and Eve purposely avoided God when He entered the garden after their fall (Genesis 3:8). They would now begin to use all of their God‐given human attributes in ways that were contrary to the will and purposes of God.

Since sin is lawlessness, Adam and Eve now possessed a lawless nature. We can refer to their fallen nature as the sin nature. Just as God through their original created holy nature controlled their whole being and behavior before their fall, their sinful nature would now do the same.

The sin nature can be defined as the capacity and desire to leave God out of one’s life. The tragic result of Adam and Eve presenting themselves as the servants of sin is that their fall left them locked into a master slave relationship under their sinful nature. Because of its position as master, the sin nature now had the authority to dominate and totally control every aspect of their fallen humanity. The sinful nature does not always make fallen men and women act as badly as they are capable of acting, sometimes it will prompt fallen men and women to live morally and do kind, humanitarian acts, in order to demonstrate what man can do apart from God. But the sin nature, because it is lawless by nature, can never yield subjection to God’s rule or obey His holy commands. This is what the Apostle Paul confirmed in his New Testament letter to the Romans:

Romans 8:7

Because the carnal mind (sinful nature) is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Far from gaining freedom and god‐like status, as Satan had promised, Adam and Eve died spiritually and became hopelessly enslaved in a Master/Slave relationship under their sin nature. They were still physically alive and soulishly active, but they were now spiritually dead and in bondage to their sin nature.

We have prepared the following illustration to demonstrate their fallen condition:

Notice that Spiritual Life (L) has departed and the sin nature has now replaced their original created holy nature. Not only did Adam and Eve die spiritually and become slaves to the new sin nature, they also lost their power of contrary choice, meaning they could not now choose to behave contrary to the desires and commands of their new master or their sin nature. In their original created holiness they had the God‐given freedom and power to choose to behave contrary to their created holy


nature, but in their fallen condition and slavery to their sin nature, they could not reverse the process. Their created holiness was lost. Their power of contrary choice was lost. They were now spiritually dead toward God but alive toward their sinful or lawless nature. They could not free themselves from their “confirmed” fallen or unholy condition.

D. GOD'S MORAL IMAGE BECAME MARRED

What happened to God’s moral image when Adam and Eve fell? God’s moral image became marred and distorted. Adam and Eve still possessed personality in common with God and they retained their human spirit after they rebelled. Their dilemma was that their human spirit was now dead toward God and alive toward sin or lawlessness. They were now locked into a Master/slave relationship with their sin nature from which they could not free themselves. But Adam and Eve as well as all of their physical descendants–meaning all fallen mankind that would come from them–would continue to bear some of the image of God. That is why after their fall, the Bible still uses the present tense when discussing God’s moral image in man. Look at one Old Testament and one New Testament confirmation that fallen man still bears some of God’s image:

Genesis 9:6

“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.

James 3:9

With it (the tongue) we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God.

Adam and Eve, after their fall, could not pass to their descendants what they no longer possessed, and they no longer possessed spiritual life, their created holy nature, and their power of contrary choice. Therefore, fallen Adam and Eve and their fallen descendants could no longer reflect an undistorted moral image of their Creator/God. Because fallen man still possesses all of the original human attributes God created him with (except Spiritual Life, a created holy nature, and the power of contrary choice), God forbids human murder to this present day. God has ordained capital punishment for those who commit human murder because man still bears some of His image, but capital punishment is to be carried out by God‐ordained governments and not by individuals. Noah gave the Genesis 9:6 passage above over 1500 years after the fall. The passage in James 3:9 is New Testament truth given after the life and death of Christ, and this verse forbids cursing another person because men still bear a marred and distorted image of God.

What has all this to do with you and me today? The answer to that question can be found in the following Scriptures:

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned:

Romans 5:15

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

These are only two of many verses in the New Testament that teach that every physical descendant of Adam and Eve inherits the consequences of the fall at the moment of their conception and physical birth. Every boy and girl born into this world with an earthly father and mother are the physical


descendants of Adam and Eve. They are born into this world physically alive but spiritually dead (separated from God) and in bondage to their fallen sin nature from the moment of their physical conception. This is the common human dilemma that all have inherited in all of man’s history since the rebellion and fall of Adam and Eve.

In their fallen state no man or woman can live without sinning, nor can they perfectly reflect the moral image of God! The above verses clearly tell us that we were born “in Adam” which means that we are the physical descendants of Adam and Eve and we are born suffering the consequences of their original sin and fall. Adam could not give to his children what he no longer possessed‐Spiritual Life and a soul free from the sin nature. Therefore, all descendants of fallen Adam are born without Spiritual Life and in a Master/slave relationship to their sin nature.

To be born “in Adam” simply means to be born physically alive but spiritually dead and in total bondage to your lawless or sinful nature.

Therefore, the consequences of Adam’s fall do impact you and me today! We were born into this world spiritually dead toward God and in bondage to our sin nature. We cannot and do not reflect the clear moral image of God in our desires or our behavior. We do bear the marred image of God, but the original unmarred image or created total moral likeness, is absent in both our desires and behavior from the moment of our physical birth. We are sinners by birth and we are sinners by choice.

Whenever the Bible says that you and I were born “in Adam” it means that we were born spiritually separated from God and in bondage to our sin nature. Our fallen human spirit is not alive toward God and we are born with a lawless or hostile disposition toward His rule and will for our lives. We are incapable of reflecting anything more than a marred image or likeness of God’s true moral holiness and character! Our “sin nature” holds the position of Master over us from our conception and physical birth and we serve as slaves under the control of our sin nature.

If you will look back at our illustration of Adam and Eve after their fall, you will see that they have forfeited Spiritual Life and that their created holy nature has been replaced by their sinful nature. As a slave to their sinful nature, Adam and Eve and their descendants would no longer be free to serve God. We illustrate their Master/slave relationship under the authority of their sin nature by the solid line from their sin nature to their body. This hard line is to indicate that they are locked into total service to the desires and commands of their sin nature and not God.

Because all fallen men and women possess a sinful or lawless nature at physical birth, they cannot and will not tolerate any of God’s attempts to rule over them, and they will not and cannot perfectly obey God’s commands or laws. By definition, man’s sinful nature is a lawless nature, and therefore does not desire to please God, obey His commands, or do His will on earth.

All fallen descendants of Adam and Eve, because they are under the control of their sinful nature, insist upon self‐rule instead of God’s rule, and they live to please self, not God. In fact, if the sinful nature were to obey God in the slightest way, it would cease to that degree, to be a totally lawless nature. That is why the Apostle Paul said earlier in Romans 8:7 that the sinful nature or what the Bible also calls the flesh is not subject to God’s rule and indeed it cannot be.

Because the carnal mind (the mind set on self and not God) is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Instead of improving himself by his rebellion against God, man had prevented himself from obtaining the fullness of his original potential and purpose. He had debased himself and lost much of


his original intended dignity. His rebellion confirmed him in a tragic predicament of slavery to his sinful nature, a dilemma that he was now totally incapable of rescuing himself from.

You have now seen why God created Adam, how the Adam and Eve were equipped to reflect God’s moral image and do His will, and what went wrong when they exercised their God‐given freedom to choose their response to the love and the authority of God and chose to say “no”.

Answer the following questions before you proceed to see: What Did God Do?

Exercise 5 What Went Wrong? 1. What is unconfirmed creature holiness? ______________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why was a test necessary? _________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the power of contrary choice? _______________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What was Satan’s lie? _____________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What happened the day Adam and Eve sinned? _______________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What is the sin nature? ____________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________


7. Illustrate Adam and Eve after the Fall.

8. What happened to God’s moral image at the fall and after? ____________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

9. How does their fall affect you today?________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary 3 What Went Wrong?

• Unconfirmed creature holiness had to be tested.

• Satan denied God’s word and warning, and promised Adam and Eve equality with God through their disobedience.

• Adam and Eve exercised their power of contrary choice and sinned against God by rejecting His rule and asserting their own rule.

• Sin produced immediate spiritual death, bondage to the sin nature, and eventual physical death.

• God’s image was marred, but is still intact in all men and women.

• The consequences of Adam’s sin have passed upon all of his physical descendants.

• All men and women are born separated from God (spiritually dead) and in bondage to their sin nature.


QUESTION 4 - WHAT DID GOD DO?

Man’s rebellion left him confirmed in his dilemma of spiritual death and bondage to his sinful nature. Being enslaved to sin as his new Master left him totally incapable of rescuing himself from his predicament. Nothing short of a supernatural, divine intervention would be able to save man from the dilemma he had brought upon himself by his own choice. It is obvious that man’s redemption could not result from what man could do—but what God would have to do for him.

A. God Revealed His Eternal Redemptive Plan

B. Fallen Man Must Now Respond

GOD REVEALED HIS ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN

So far you have discovered that God in His sovereignty chose to create man. God also elected to give Adam and Eve a choice as to whether or not they would love their Creator and submit to His rule. Adam and Eve actively chose to say “no” to God’s offer of love, fellowship, protection, and purpose. Adam’s choice left him with no human possibility to reverse his decision or its consequences of death and slavery. As a slave, he could not free himself from his new Master. His dilemma meant that he would now remain spiritually dead and in bondage to his sin nature. Eventually, man would die physically, that is, unless God supernaturally intervened on fallen man’s behalf!

The foolishness and sin of man became the backdrop for God to further demonstrate His eternal love and grace toward man. God now demonstrated His inherent love, mercy, and grace, by revealing His Eternal Redemptive Plan. God’s Redemptive Plan provided fallen man with a gracious way of escape from his state of spiritual death and slavery. God would now provide eternal salvation as a gift to fallen man, and make it possible for him to receive this gift through believing the “good news” about salvation in Jesus.

God’s supernatural redemptive act on fallen man’s behalf is the very essence of the Gospel and it is Good News–because it is the only way for Spiritual Life to be restored and fellowship with God to again be possible. God’s mercy and grace in providing undeserved redemption for fallen man will be the source of all praise and worship by the redeemed of all ages for Eternity!

We will now focus on God’s Redemptive Plan by concentrating on four essential points:

1. Jesus Was Sent By His Father

2. Jesus Lived A Sinless Life

3. Jesus Died A Perfect Death

4. Jesus Arose Bodily From the Grave


As God had promised in Genesis 3:15 after the fall, in the process of time He sent forth His only begotten Son–Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus became truly man and was born with a physical body just like yours and mine. The difference between him and us was that Jesus did not have an earthly father. Jesus also was not created; He was the Creator/God who took on the form of man His creature. At His incarnation, Jesus’ perfect humanity was added to His undiminished Deity and Jesus was born fully God and fully man: the God‐Man. Jesus’ humanity was miraculously conceived in the borrowed womb of a virgin Jewish girl through the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Mary’s egg was needed for Jesus to be truly man because no male sperm would be involved in His virgin


conception. The Holy Spirit’s overshadowing fertilized Mary’s egg and that same overshadowing also prevented or screened Mary from passing her sin nature to that holy child Jesus–that was conceived and formed within her. No earthly father was involved in the conception of Jesus.

The Bible clearly teaches that the virgin birth of Jesus is not up for debate! If Jesus had been conceived from an earthly father, He too would have been born spiritually dead and in bondage to a sinful nature, and He could not therefore possibly be your sinless Savior. If Jesus were a fallen descendant of fallen Adam–Jesus could not be the Savior—He would need a Savior too!

Let’s illustrate Jesus at His conception and birth:

Notice that Jesus was born with a real physical body just like yours and mine. Also notice that He possessed Spiritual Life at conception (L) and that He had no sin nature. Jesus was conceived and born spiritually alive and totally free from slavery to the sin nature possessed by all fallen men and women descended from Adam and Eve. Notice that Jesus possessed a Divine Holy Nature, not a created holy nature like Adam possessed at his creation.


The virgin conception of Jesus qualified Him to live a sinless life. For the totality of His earthly life Jesus never once said “no” to the desires and will of His Father. Out of His love for His Father, Jesus was totally dependent upon His Father. This dependence was demonstrated by His total obedience to His Father. There was total mutual inter‐availability in that Jesus was totally available to the Father and the Father was totally available to the Son. This relationship produced a perfect moral image of God to this fallen world. To watch Jesus behave was to see the Father’s perfect moral likeness. This is the truth that Jesus confirmed to Philip his disciple:

John 14:9

Jesus said to him, ʺHave I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ʹShow us the Fatherʹ?

Just as Jesus’ sinless conception allowed Him to live a sinless life, His sinless life from birth to Calvary qualified Him to die a perfect death for the fallen descendants of Adam and Eve like you and me.


Answer the following questions before you look at Jesus on the Cross of Calvary.

Exercise 6 What Did God Do? 1. When Adam said “no,” what became his dilemma?

A. __________________________________________________________________________________

B. __________________________________________________________________________________

C. __________________________________________________________________________________

2. What did God’s Eternal Redemptive Plan involve? ____________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. How can you explain Jesus’ Deity and His perfect humanity? ___________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Why was Mary’s egg necessary at Jesus’ conception? __________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What two functions did the Spirit’s overshadowing play?

A.___________________________________________________________________________________

B. __________________________________________________________________________________

6. Why was the virgin birth imperative?________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Can you illustrate Jesus at birth?


8. How was Jesus different from all fallen men?_________________________________________________

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___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

9. How would you describe His sinless life? ____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

10. What qualified Jesus for the death that He died? _____________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Jesus’ sinless life qualified Him to die a perfect atoning and substitutionary death for you. His total daily obedience throughout His life finally led Him to His ultimate obedience on the Cross where He established the basis for your eternal redemption and restored Spiritual Life and fellowship with God.

The New Testament crucifixion accounts tell us that Jesus was nailed to the cross at approximately 9:00 a.m. on Friday in the year 30 A. D. From 9:00 a.m. until noon Jesus suffered the wrath of men as they mocked Him, spat upon Him, and taunted Him to free Himself from the Cross, as proof of His claim to be the Son of God, Israel’s Messiah, and man’s only Savior.

Then, beginning at the noon hour, God brought a great darkness over the whole earth and this darkness lasted from noon until almost 3:00 p.m. During these three hours of darkness, Jesus suffered the “wrath of God” for you and me. The transaction that took place in that darkness between the Father and the Son provided the grounds for your eternal salvation and mine.

2 Corinthians 5:21

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

In order to understand all that transpired during those three hours of darkness you must revisit the hours Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. The following passages will help you see the details of His spiritual battle and intense agony in Gethsemane. We have bolded parts of these passages to draw your special attention to the details they reveal.

Matthew 26:36‐46

36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”


37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

40 Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, “What, could you not watch with Me one hour?”

41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold,

the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” 46 “Rise, let us be going. See, he who betrays Me is at hand.”

Mark 14:32‐42

32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

33 And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.

34 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.” 35 He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour

might pass from Him. 36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me;

nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” 37 Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you

not watch one hour?” 38 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” 39 Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words. 40 And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not

know what to answer Him. 41 Then He came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough!

The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” 42 “Rise up, let us go. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

Luke 22:39‐46

39 And coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.

40 When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours,

be done.” 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of

blood falling down to the ground.


45 When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow.

46 Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

The agony that Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane was the greatest spiritual battle He ever fought. Three times He prayed in agony for something from His Father. Let’s harmonize six points from our verses to help you truly understand and appreciate His warfare.

1) Mark 14:33 Jesus was “troubled” or “greatly amazed”– meaning He was utterly surprised or

stunned with astonishment. 2) Mark 14:33 Jesus was “deeply distressed” or “sorely troubled”–meaning He was under

heavy pressure. 3) Mark 14:34 Jesus was “exceedingly sorrowful”– meaning He was at the point of

tremendously deep depression. 4) Mark 14:34 Jesus was “even to death”–meaning His sorrow and depression was so great–

there was a real danger of the total collapse of His physical body – it was that great a heaviness.

5) Luke 22:44 Jesus was “in agony”–meaning He was in conflict and the nature of His conflict is described elsewhere in Isaiah 49:1‐13; Hebrews 5:7‐8.

6) Luke 22:44 He “sweat great drops of blood” falling on the ground.

What Was Jesus Troubled, Distressed, Sorrowful and In An Agony Over?

As you have just seen, Jesus was in intense agony in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. But what was Jesus agonizing over? We will look at two issues that Jesus dealt with during these hours:

A. Jesus’ Apparent Failure to Bring Israel to Accept His Messiahship.

B. Jesus’ Having to Drink The Cup.

A. Jesus’ Apparent Failure To Bring Israel To Accept His Messiahship

After His long hours of agony “an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43). The appearance of this angel gives us a clue as what is now happening. The words contained in the strengthening message of this angel are not found in Luke 22:43 but in Isaiah 49:1‐6.

1. “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The Lord has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

2. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword:

In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.

3. “And He said to me,

‘You are My servant, O Israel,


In whom I will be glorified.’

4. Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work with my God.’”

5. “And now the Lord says,

Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him, (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. And My God shall be My strength),

6. Indeed He says, It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

The picture you find in Isaiah 49 is that of the Servant of Jehovah or the future Jewish Messiah and the seeming failure of the Servant of Jehovah to accomplish His mission of bringing Israel to respond positively to Him and His message. The Servant had been faithful in fulfilling the commission God had given Him, however, Israel had rejected Him and now the Servant is agonizing over Israel’s denial of His Person and His claims of Messiahship. He had apparently failed in his mission to bring Israel back into relationship with Jehovah her God.

In the midst of the Servant’s agony as recorded in Isaiah 49, an angel is sent by God to strengthen His Servant. The exact message from God to the Servant is found in verse 6:

6. Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’

In Gethsemane, God’s message to His Servant (Jesus) now comes through an angel (Luke 22:43). Gethsemane is the actual fulfillment of the Isaiah passage that dealt prophetically with the Servant of Jehovah and His mission. Jesus was the true Servant of Jehovah. The angel affirms that Israel’s rejection of His Messianic claims is not a failure. Israel’s rejection was always known by God and was included in God’s Divine Plan from eternity past.

Israel’s rejection of Jesus as her Messiah at His first coming, meant the Gospel would now be sent to the Gentiles. After a sufficient amount of time is given for Messiah and His Gospel to serve as a light and way of salvation for the Gentiles, unbelieving Israel living in the last days before Messiah’s second coming, will return to God and He will restore the dispersed of Israel.

The Apostle Paul affirms his understanding of this truth when in Romans 11 he uses God’s purpose for Israel’s unbelief as his outline for explaining God’s plan for bringing the Gospel to the Gentile


nations: by Israel’s falling away, salvation came to the Gentiles. Blindness in part has befallen Israel “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in,” then all Israel shall be saved.

In eternity past God in His infinite wisdom and mercy had designed an Eternal Redemptive Plan that included the rejection of the Messiah by Israel at His first coming to allow the Gospel to be offered to the Gentile nations. One of the things happening in the Garden of Gethsemane that was causing the agony Jesus suffered was the fulfillment of the Isaiah 49. This passage predicted Israel’s rejection of the Servant of Jehovah and that has happened in Israel’s response to Jesus.

Before you proceed to see what the second issue was in the agony Jesus experienced in Gethsemane you should answer the questions in Exercise 7.

Exercise 7 The Garden Of Gethsemane ‐ Issue 1 1. What was the first issue Jesus agonized over? ________________________________________________

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2. Why was an angel sent? ___________________________________________________________________

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3. What was God’s message to His Servant?____________________________________________________

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4. How does Israel’s falling away affect the Gentiles? ___________________________________________

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B. Jesus’ Having to Drink the Cup

The second issue Jesus agonized over in Gethsemane was His having to drink “the cup” and this is the issue the Gospel writers are now focusing on. Notice that three times Jesus prays basically the same prayer (Matthew 26:42‐44; Mark 14:36). In each instance Jesus prays, “Let this cup pass from Me.” However, he ends each request by adding: “if only it is your will not in accordance with My will.” Jesus is agonizing over the cup and He prays earnestly that it might be taken away from Him. Nevertheless, Jesus is willing to drink the cup if the Father so wills.

So our next question should be: What is the cup that Jesus is agonizing over? There have been two prominent suggestions as to what was involved in this cup:

First Suggestion: Jesus’ physical death

Second Suggestion: Jesus’ dying prematurely


The First Suggestion: Jesus’ physical death

This suggestion states that Jesus is afraid and is shrinking back from dying physically.

Problems with this suggestion:

1. Jesus said He must die.

2. Jesus became incarnate to die.

3. Jesus’ total obedience required His death.

1. Jesus said He must die.

Jesus clearly states in John 10:17 and several other verses that He is going to die: “Therefore, My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life for the sheep.”

Jesus’ death was inevitable because there could be no atonement apart from His physical death. Jesus was not asking that His atoning death be taken away. That would have prevented human redemption that had been planned from eternity past. In fact, Jesus has moved towards this very goal since birth and He is not shrinking from accomplishing this goal now.

2. Jesus became incarnate to die.

Jesus clearly stated on several occasions that He came into the world for the purpose of dying. For Him now to pray not to die physically would defeat His purpose in coming to earth and becoming incarnate.

Philippians 2:8

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

This verse says Jesus became incarnate in order to be obedient to the point of death.

Hebrews 10:5‐9

5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come In the volume of the book it is written of Me To do Your will,

O God.’” 8 Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offering, burnt offerings, and offering for sin You did not

desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He

may establish the second.

In the Hebrews passage the writer states that God did not find complete satisfaction in animal sacrifices and offerings made for man’s sins according to the Law of Moses. God’s wrath against man’s sins could be eternally satisfied only through Jesus’ sinless death as planned from eternity past.

3. Jesus’ total obedience required His death.

Hebrews 10:8 states that it is obedience that pleases God. Jesus’ total obedience included His obedience in going to the Cross. His whole purpose for becoming incarnate was to die as fallen man’s substitute. Therefore, the cup He asks not to drink is not physical death.


The Second Suggestion: Jesus’ dying prematurely

The suggestion states that Jesus is agonizing over the possibility that His body might give out prematurely before He could get to the Cross.

Problems with this suggestion:

1. All premature attempts have failed.

2. Jesus was in total control at His arrest and death.

1. All premature attempts have failed:

There were a number of occasions when Jesus’ enemies tried to kill or have Him killed prematurely. All attempts failed because His hour had not come. Consider just a few of those occasions when premature death was attempted but failed:

a. Herod tried to kill Him at Bethlehem.

b. The citizens of Nazareth attempted to throw him off a steep cliff.

c. Several times men took up stones to stone Him.

d. Jewish leaders hired Judas to betray Him so He could be killed away from the crowds.

All previous attempts to have Jesus put to death prematurely have failed and there is no danger of His premature death happening in Gethsemane either.

2. Jesus was in total control at His arrest and death.

When the arrest party arrived in Gethsemane with Judas to take Jesus into custody, look at what He said:

Matthew 26:52‐54

52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

53 “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels.”

54 “How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus?”

John 18:2‐6

2 And Judas, who betrayed Him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with His disciples. 3 Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and

Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. 4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them?

“Whom are you seeking?” 5 They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who

betrayed Him, also stood with them. 6 Then, when He said to them, “I am He,”– they drew back and fell to the ground.

It is obvious that the arrest party was not in control! The Jewish leaders were not in control nor were the Romans, not even Satan. Jesus was in total control even at His arrest and demonstrated His control by forcing the entire Roman cohort (400‐600 men), every Jewish leader, and Judas to fall to the ground beneath Him (v. 6). Jesus’ arrest, His trial, and His crucifixion happened because He allowed it.


All of this took place to fulfill prophecy and God’s Eternal Plan. Jesus was in total control during His crucifixion and at the moment of death:

Luke 23:46

And When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.”

Notice that at the moment of His physical death Jesus was still in total control of everything and that He commended or released His spirit into the Father’s hands. That is why the Apostle John records that “He dismissed His spirit” (John 19:30).

Another proof of Jesus’ complete control even in death comes from what Jesus Himself said:

John 10:17‐18

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.” 18 “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to take it again. This

command I have received from My Father.”

At no point in His life could Jesus have been killed or have died prematurely. In fact, based upon His own testimony no one really killed Jesus because He said “no one takes it (my life) from Me.” Therefore the second suggestion regarding the cup Jesus does not wish to drink also fails.

This leads us to the important question that we must now answer!

What Is The Correct Meaning Of The Cup?

The cup that Jesus agonized over represents His having to taste “spiritual” death. Jesus fully understood that without the shedding of His blood (physical death) there could be no once and for all atonement for the sins of fallen mankind and He did not shrink from this purpose for His life. But physical death was not the cup that He prayed not to have to drink.

The cup Jesus was agonizing over was that He must experience “spiritual” death on Calvary before He experienced physical death. Physical death was revealed in the Bible as essential for atonement but His spiritual death was never revealed in Scripture as a necessary condition for man’s redemption. Therefore, tasting spiritual death was the cup that Jesus was agonizing over having to drink. However, Jesus’ overruling desire was that He do His Father’s will regarding the drinking of the cup.

You learned earlier that the first consequence of Adam’s fall was not physical death. Adam lived physically for hundreds of years after his fall. The first consequence was spiritual death. God had warned that: “in the day you eat, you will surely die.” Therefore, the first consequence of man’s salvation must involve the restoration of that Life which was forfeited by Adam when He fell, Spiritual Life. Jesus had to taste death in both of its forms‐both spiritual and physical–to redeem man from his slavery to his sin nature and restore Spiritual Life.

Why was Jesus’ tasting spiritual death such an agony for Him? It is difficult for us to understand and fully appreciate His agony because we were born spiritually dead and separated from God. But from eternity past, Jesus had only known a continuous fellowship with His Father without separation. For Jesus, separation from His Father–tasting spiritual death–was the worst possible agony He could imagine or endure.

You can see from 2 Corinthians 5:21 in our illustration of Jesus on the Cross that “being made sin for us” meant that Jesus obediently incurred in His sinless humanity what had already occurred in the fallen descendants of Adam–spiritual death‐separation from Spiritual Life.


The Father’s answer to Jesus’ prayer was that it was His will for Jesus to drink the cup of spiritual death. Jesus desired not to drink it but His overriding desire was to do His Father’s will in complete obedience. Jesus’ spiritual death was always part of God’s Eternal Redemptive Plan. As you can now see, the Garden of Gethsemane was a real battleground for Jesus. It was the battleground where He learned and offered total surrender to the will of His Father.

Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as the last Adam and the Second Man. Why? The first man or first Adam learned disobedience in the Garden of Eden and brought spiritual death. The last Adam or second man, Jesus Christ, learned total obedience in the Garden of Gethsemane, which qualified Him to drink the cup of God’s wrath as our Substitute. His obedience in drinking the cup of spiritual death provided the basis for the restoration of Spiritual Life to Adam’s spiritually dead descendants like you and me.

Before you proceed to Calvary and see specifically what Jesus accomplished, you should answer the questions in Exercise 8.

Exercise 8 The Garden of Gethsemane ‐ Issue Two 1. What is the first suggestion as to the meaning of the cup and why does it fail? ___________________

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2. What is the second suggestion as to the meaning of the cup and why does it fail? _________________

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3. What is the correct meaning of the cup? _____________________________________________________

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4. What was the first consequence of Adam’s sin? ______________________________________________

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5. What must be the first consequence of Man’s salvation? ______________________________________

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6. What happened in the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Gethsemane? __________________________

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When and How Did Jesus Drink the Cup?

You previously looked at Jesus’ first three hours on the Cross‐when He suffered the wrath of men. You then stopped and revisited His hours of agony in Gethsemane. Now you can focus your attention on the second three hours of His suffering as He experienced the wrath of God.

Read the following Gospel accounts of the second three hours of Jesus crucifixion carefully noting the bolded points. We will then explore all that transpired between Jesus and the Father in the darkness during those specific three hours on the Cross.

Matthew 27:45‐50

45 Now from the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour(3:00 pm) there was darkness over all the land.

46 And about the ninth hour (3:00 pm) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” That is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling on Elijah!” 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed,

and gave it to Him to drink. 49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” 50 Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit.

Mark 15:33‐37

33 Now when the sixth hour (noon) had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34 And at the ninth hour ( 3:00 PM) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Look, He is calling for Elijah!” 36 Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to

drink, saying, “Let Him alone, let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.” 37 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.

John 19:28‐30

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”

29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.

30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”

Luke 23:34, 44‐46

34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” 44 And it was about the sixth hour(noon) , and there was darkness over all the earth until the

ninth hour (3:00 PM). 45 Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commend

My spirit.”


From noon until almost 3:00 p.m. Jesus suffered the “wrath of God” as your Substitute and mine for our sin or lawlessness against God. Notice carefully the following five points that are brought out in the Gospel accounts of this second three hours that Jesus spent on the Cross at Calvary:

1. Jesus addressed God as His “Father” before the noon darkness (Luke 23:34).

2. Darkness covered the whole earth from Noon until 3:00 p.m. (Luke 23:44‐45).

3. In the darkness Jesus addressed the Deity as “My God” in His fourth word from the Cross (Matthew 27:46).

4. Jesus’ cry of victory when the darkness ended (John 19:30).

5. Jesus again addressed God as “Father” after the darkness ended (Luke 23:46).

1. Jesus addressed God as His “Father” before the noon darkness. Jesus called God “Father” before the three hours of darkness. But this paternal relationship between the Father and the Son will change during the next three hours.

2. Darkness covered the whole earth from noon to 3:00 p.m. From the sixth to the ninth hour Jesus drank the cup He wished not to drink. Jesus experienced spiritual death (separation from God) to appease God’s wrath on our sin. The physical darkness illustrates the three hours of His spiritual death. He became by choice what we had become by birth–spiritually dead and separated from Spiritual Life.

3. In the darkness Jesus addressed the Deity as “My God.” In that darkness after suffering hours of God’s wrath (spiritual death or separation) for our sin, Jesus spoke His fourth word from the Cross. His cry of “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) was in fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, which was a recognized Messianic Psalm by the Jewish world. This is the only time during His earthly life that Jesus ever addressed the Deity as “My God.” Jesus addressed God 170 times in the New Testament as “Father,” 19 times as “My Father” and 2 times as “Abba Father.” So 191 times the word is “Father,” but never “God.” This is the one and only time Jesus addressed the Deity as “My God”! Why?

During those three hours of darkness Jesus was not in a paternal relationship but a judicial relationship. He became sin for you and for me! He drank the cup of spiritual death (spiritual separation from God) so that we as the fallen heirs of fallen Adam could be forgiven and have Spiritual Life restored.

His cry in Matthew 27:46 was in actuality a plea for help, asking God not to leave Him in that state of spiritual separation. Was His cry answered? Yes it was! The only way that God in Heaven could communicate to His Son on the Cross that His substitutionary death for us was satisfactory and accepted was to give Him back what Adam had lost–Spiritual Life.

At approximately 3:00 p.m., Jesus was raised spiritually from the dead while still physically alive in His body and hanging on the Cross. The restoration of Spiritual Life meant that Jesus had triumphed over spiritual death or the first consequence of Adam’s fall. The darkness departed to signal that Spiritual Life had now been restored and that the three hours of His spiritual death had ended.

4. Jesus’ cry of victory when the darkness ended (John 19:30). As soon as Spiritual Life was restored, Jesus knew that His redemptive mission was accomplished. His victory cry was: “It is finished! ” Notice that He did not say “I am finished,” but it is finished. The it Jesus was referring to


was the fulfillment of the Eternal Divine Redemptive Plan whereby Spiritual Life could now be restored to fallen Adam’s fallen heirs. Jesus’ sinless and substitutionary death was and is the only satisfactory grounds for God to grant you and me redemption and to allow us to be raised spiritually from the dead while we are still in our body on earth.

Did you notice that His cry of victory was before He physically died? His physical death was absolutely essential for our redemption (atonement) because “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” But it was Jesus’ spiritual death (drinking the cup) and His spiritual resurrection that corrected the first consequence of the fall of Adam and Eve–spiritual death.

5. Jesus again addressed God as “Father.” (Luke 23:46): This verse affirms that Spiritual Life had been restored because Jesus could once again address God as “Father.” Jesus then commended or released His spirit into His Father’s hands and tasted physical death.

Notice that Jesus was in total control at His death just as He had been at His arrest. He bowed His head and He dismissed His spirit. This affirms that at no time could Jesus have died prematurely, He was always in total control. Jesus did not drift to disaster; He was in total control as He accomplished His mission.

Let’s now illustrate Jesus on the Cross:


Before you move on to consider the events following the Crucifixion of Jesus, please take as much time as you need to reconsider what you have learned and then answer the questions in Exercise 9.

Exercise 9 At Calvary 1. How did Jesus address God before noon? ____________________________________________________

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2. What happened at the noon hour?___________________________________________________________

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3. What did the darkness represent? ___________________________________________________________

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4. What was Jesus’ relationship to God during the second three hours? ____________________________

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5. Explain “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”______________________________________

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6. How did God answer Jesus’ cry for help? ____________________________________________________

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7. What was Jesus’ cry of victory, and what does it mean to you? ________________________________

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8. What was the first consequence of man’s fall? ________________________________________________

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9. What was the first consequence of man’s redemption? ________________________________________

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10. Why did Jesus have to die physically? ______________________________________________________

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What Happened After His Crucifixion and Death?

You have now seen that Jesus tasted spiritual death and spiritual resurrection while He was on the Cross. But Jesus also tasted physical death while He was still on the Cross. His physical death means that His immaterial self separated from His material body. As soon as He was released from His physical body through physical death, Jesus immediately went into the center of the earth to the place of the righteous dead that was known in the Old Testament as Abraham’s Bosom and also as Paradise. You will remember that Jesus told the repentant thief who was crucified beside Him that day: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise!” Jesus’ departure into Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom will set the stage for the fourth event or His bodily resurrection.

But before you look at that fourth event of His bodily resurrection, you should quickly review the first three events that you have already covered:




4. Jesus Physically Arose From the Grave.

Our fourth point in God’s Eternal Redemptive Plan tells us that Jesus’ body was buried in the borrowed tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea. On the resurrection morning Jesus left Paradise, entered the tomb where His body had been laid by Joseph and Nicodemus, and Jesus experienced His physical resurrection. With His physical resurrection Jesus had now tasted and triumphed over both forms of death: spiritual death and physical death!

What significance does the physical or bodily resurrection of Jesus have for you? It proves His claims and demonstrates Jesus’ total victory over death in all of its forms–spiritual and physical. Jesus’ physical resurrection also proved that God was totally satisfied with His substitutionary death for you. If God’s righteousness had not been totally satisfied by Jesus’ substitutionary death for you, God would have left Jesus in the grave!

For the forty days following His resurrection Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs and taught His disciples in preparation for their ministry following His soon departure back to His Father. When the forty days had ended, Jesus ascended out of their sight from the Mount of Olives and returned to Heaven to be seated at the right hand of God. Jesus is now seated, not because He is tired, but because His work of redemption is totally completed on your behalf. It is finished!

God has mercifully and graciously accomplished for you what you could never have accomplished for yourself–the forgiveness of your sins and the restoration of Spiritual Life (L)!

You have now learned the answer to our Question 4 ‐ What Did God Do? Having now seen what God did to provide the solution to fallen man’s dilemma of spiritual death and bondage to his sinful nature, it is now time for you to understand and consider carefully what God is now so patiently waiting to see from you!


CONCLUSION: WHAT IS GOD’S DESIRE FOR THOSE “IN ADAM”?

HOW SHOULD YOU RESPOND TO GOD’S LOVE

You have now come full circle back to the beginning point where we began this entire study on Why did God create a man? You have learned that Adam and Eve exercised their choice to reject God’s rule and declare their independence from God. You saw that they suffered the consequences of spiritual death and bondage to the sin nature followed by physical death. As a physical descendant of Adam and Eve, you too have inherited those consequences.

You have also discovered that God’s gracious Redemptive Plan provides Adam’s fallen descendants with another opportunity through the “good news” of the Gospel. How we respond gives God our personal answer to His gracious offer to restore Spiritual Life to the lifeless and to allow us to begin a daily fellowship with Him. God had to take and did take the first step by providing forgiveness and restored Spiritual Life and He now patiently awaits our response. God’s offer of Life through Christ provides you with the opportunity to receive God’s Genuine Love.

Look at what the New Testament says about God’s desire for fallen humanity:

I Timothy 2: 3, 4, 6

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. . .

I Timothy 4:9‐10

9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. 10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the

Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Acts 17:30‐31

30 “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,

31 “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Acts 3:19

“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Your receiving God’s gracious offer of eternal Spiritual Life “in Christ” must be based upon your believing the Truth about Jesus’ claims and what He has accomplished for you as presented in God’s Word. To receive you must believe:


• That when Adam fell spiritual and physical death entered human experience.

• That as Adam’s physical descendant you inherited the consequences of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12).

• That you personally entered life spiritually separated from God, that is, spiritually dead and in bondage to your sin nature.

• That Jesus’ death and resurrection as your personal substitute has made it possible for God to give you an opportunity through hearing the Gospel to receive the gift of Life in Christ.

What did Jesus say about your fallen condition and mine, and His purpose in coming?

John 10:10

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 3:14‐16

14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in

Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 5:39‐40

39 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”

40 “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

John 6:32‐33

32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”

33 “For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus came so that you might have Life. Who needs Life? Dead people! Notice what Jesus said about those who would reject Him and His offer of forgiveness and restored Spiritual Life.

John 8:21,24

21 Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Jesus did not say they would die for their sins, He said they would die in their sins. No one since Adam and Eve fell could possibly die for their sins. Why? Because we are all born dead! The Apostle Paul affirmed this truth in his letter to the Gentile believers in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:1

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

God’s purpose in providing salvation through His Son’s death and resurrection is not primarily to enable you to escape Hell and go to Heaven when you die. The Gospel is God’s good news about restoring Life to the lifeless now! Jesus said: “I have come that you might have life.”


Look at how the Apostle John explains what it means to be a Christian:

I John 5:11‐13

11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, That you may

know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

John clearly says that God has given eternal life to those who receive His gift. But notice that eternal life is not a feeling, nor is it a place that you go when you die. And Eternal life does not begin when you physically die. John tells us that eternal life is a Person! John very clearly states that “he who has the Son has life” and “he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Becoming a Christian according to the Apostle John is simply believing the Gospel and receiving Christ+0!

John reaffirms that your salvation involves receiving a Person–Jesus Christ:

John 1:12

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

John makes it clear in his Gospel account that your proper response to the Gospel involves more than just believing about Jesus or simply giving mental assent to some creed or doctrine about Jesus. Salvation does not the result from participation in sacraments and ordinances. The Gospel is not about believing or practicing “something.” It is about believing and receiving “Somebody” into your heart–Jesus Himself! That is why John clearly says, “He that hath the Son hath life.”

Jesus also places the emphasis on your personally receiving Him:

Revelation 3:20:

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Did you notice how many times Jesus used the personal pronoun “I”? The “I” means that Jesus Himself stands at the door and knocks. What door? The door Jesus is knocking on is the door to your heart, the door to your immaterial soul that was made in God’s image. And just as when someone knocks on the front door to your house, their knock basically tells you two things:

Someone is outside the door

Someone wants to come inside

Jesus will never try to force the door to your heart open; that would be Smack Love. To beg you to open the door would be Candy Love. God desires that you respond to His love with your Genuine love of believing in Jesus and receiving the gift of life through Him.

Your “yes” to Jesus’ knocking involves two things on your part and one thing on His part:

Your Part:

Hearing His voice: meaning you have listened and you understand that you are a guilty sinner by physical birth and by choice. You acknowledge to Him that you understand your


existing spiritual death or separation and that you understand His gracious offer to forgive you and restore Spiritual Life and fellowship.

Opening the door: meaning you choose to respond to His great love, not with candy love or smack love, but with genuine love. To open the door to your heart involves turning to Him, admitting you need Him, and personally inviting Jesus Himself, the Person, to come and live in your heart.

His Part:

Jesus promises, “I will come in,” meaning the Person (Jesus Himself) promises to come to live in your heart.

The fantastic news of the Gospel is that any of us can now respond to His incredible offer with our simple “yes”! The wonderful thing is that Jesus does not say, “If anyone opens the door I will look and if it’s not too bad I might come in.” He says, “if anyone willingly opens the door to their heart–I will come in.” That is the absolute best news any of us could ever hope to hear!

What do you think would happen if someone listened to the Gospel, clearly understood Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and restored Life, and willingly opened his or her heart’s door? Jesus will come in! But why?

Not because that person was righteous or deserved it, He would come in simply because they said “yes” to God’s gracious offer instead of responding with a “no.” But how can we know and be sure that He will come in? Because Jesus cannot lie, and He said He would come in. When we do our part in listening and opening the door, He does His part and He comes to live in us. Christ Himself dwelling in your heart is what makes you a Christian. Becoming a Christian involves believing and receiving Christ+0! You cannot have more than the Person of Jesus Himself actually living in your heart and we need not settle for less!

The Apostle John clearly says in I John 5:13 that he wrote his message so that we who receive Jesus might know that we have God’s forgiveness and eternal life. We need never wonder about our eternal salvation. We can know that we have received Jesus and that we now possess eternal life because Jesus Himself is that Life and He is living in our hearts.

Receiving Jesus is a one‐time experience. Just as you can be born physically only once, you can also only be born spiritually once. The moment Jesus comes into your heart you have eternal life, not temporary or conditional life. Look again at how simple John makes the Gospel:

I John 5:12:

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

What do you think God has been doing for the past 1900+ years since Jesus finished the Redemptive Plan and provided you with an escape from your dilemma “in Adam”?

He has been graciously, lovingly, patiently, waiting, to take note of your answer!

We have prepared Exercise 10 to give you the opportunity to be absolutely sure you fully understand the real content of what we call the Gospel. Take your time and think your way through each question and do not hesitate to ask us for help if there is something that you do not clearly understand.


Exercise 10 The Content of Gospel 1. What happened after Jesus tasted spiritual death and spiritual resurrection?_____________________

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2. When did Jesus experience physical resurrection? _____________________________________________

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3. What were the consequences of Adam’s choice when he said no to God? _________________________

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4. What must you understand and believe to receive God’s gift of salvation? _______________________

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5. What did Jesus say about your fallen condition? _____________________________________________

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6. Who needs Life? __________________________________________________________________________

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7. What are the consequences today of saying no? ______________________________________________

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8. What is the Gospel primarily concerned with? _______________________________________________

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9. List three things that eternal life is not:

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10. Define eternal life: _______________________________________________________________________


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11. Who possesses eternal life? _______________________________________________________________

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12. What is your part in receiving God’s gift of salvation? _______________________________________

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13. What will Jesus do? ______________________________________________________________________

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14. How can you know that He will come in? ___________________________________________________

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15. What did John want you to know in I John 5:12? _____________________________________________

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16. What has God been doing for over 1900+ years? ______________________________________________

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Each of us at this very moment is represented by one the two illustrations below:

Still Dead “in Adam” or Alive “in Christ”

If you reject God’s gift If you accept God’s gift”

Our sincere prayer is that you have already settled or will now settle the issue of whether or not you know that you have accepted God’s gift of forgiveness and Life by receiving Jesus into your heart as your personal Savior. We encourage those of you who know that you are a Christian to affirm your testimony that you have invited Jesus into your heart by placing your initials in the inner circle above of those that are now Alive “in Christ.”

In the course of this study unit in Why Did God Create A Man? some of you may have for the first time clearly understood the real content of the Gospel and realized that becoming a Christian is not about creeds or sacraments, it is not about do’s or don’ts, but about a personal relationship with God Himself through Jesus His Son. You now know that becoming a Christian is not the result of just believing something, it is personally receiving Somebody!

The single greatest issue for any of us to settle in our life is what we will do with God’s gracious offer of forgiveness and the restoration of the spiritual Life that was lost when Adam fell. God offers us spiritual Life and that Life is only in His Son Jesus. The moment we acknowledge our sinful condition and our spiritual deadness as the fallen heir of fallen Adam, turn in humble gratitude to Jesus, and willingly invite Him to come into our heart and take up His new residence, a wonderful thing happens! Jesus Himself–a Person–not a creed or a ritual–but Christ Himself comes to live in us. Jesus’ indwelling your heart is how God restores Spiritual Life to you.

Remember that the Gospel or Good News of God’s gracious offer of forgiveness is not primarily concerned with how good you are or how bad you have been. It is primarily concerned with God restoring Life to the lifeless! In the two illustrations above, the circle on the left represents every person born into this world spiritually dead “in Adam.” We all start there. We are all born spiritually dead “in Adam.”

None of us could ever be good enough to earn or deserve God’s forgiveness. God is not asking us to clean up our act before He will consider our being forgiven. Forgiveness is the result of what Jesus has done in becoming sin for us and is not the result of what we do for God.


The Gospel involves what Jesus has “done” to make us acceptable to God, not what we must “do” to become acceptable. In the quietness of our own heart, each of us can settle this issue forever. We do not have to be in any special place, we do not need to have anyone help us pray, all we need do is turn to Jesus and thank Him for what He has done for us. You simply say “yes” to His offer to forgive you and to restore spiritual life by coming to live in and through you.

Remember, no candy love or smack love, only genuine love can satisfy the heart of God and bring you the peace that passes all understanding. You do not need anyone but Jesus, and He is present with you right now. If you have never invited Him in, He is still standing outside the door waiting for your response. Remember that you can never be worthy of His forgiveness and restored fellowship, so don’t let your feeling of inadequacy stop you. We are all totally inadequate. Simply invite Him into your heart. He knows what you mean when you simply say “yes” to Him. And He will surely come in, just as He promised!

Jesus Himself living in your heart makes you a Christian!

If you have invited Him in, you can now place your initials in the inner circle of the illustration of those who are Alive “in Christ.” However, if you have chosen to delay or to reject the gift of life in Christ, your initials are still inscribed by God in the illustration of those still Dead “in Adam.” You will have chosen to continue to live in spiritual death. Unless you change your mind, you will one‐day add physical death to your existing spiritual death and you will be twice dead and beyond any hope. But that is not the way God wants your life to end!

The fantastic truth of the Gospel is that God is restoring Life to the lifeless! Eternal life and restored fellowship is God’s offer to all those still dead “in Adam” who hear the “good news” of Christ. By definition a gift cannot be earned or deserved. A gift can only be “accepted” or “rejected.”

We hope that before you leave this last page that you will have settled forever the issue of your personal relationship with God the Father through your response to His Dear Son.

God is willing–are you willing?

God desires that you accept his Genuine Love by receiving His offer of life in Christ. He does not want a Smack response or a Candy response. He desires for you to come to Him through Jesus as an expression of your Genuine Love by receiving his gracious gift of life and salvation.

Do you still remember that we told you at the beginning of this study unit that we would later encourage you to return to the first page of Why Did God Create A Man? and re‐read our two contrasting statements? Please take the time now to re‐read those statements and see if you fully understand the Truth of those two statements and whether or not you could explain those Truths to another interested person. You will then be ready to begin your second study unit–Christ+0!


Congratulations! You have finished your first Study in Phase 1 – Why Did God Create a Man?

You are now ready to move to the second study on Christ+0!

study 1: why did god create a man? - amazon s3 of contents introduction: what is the object of the...

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