Smoodock's Blog

Without exception, every man and woman who ever lived should be traced back to Adam, for his is the father of the human race. The Genesis account reveals that God intended men to live forever. Nevertheless, mankind was given a life-or-death choice. To include God in one’s life would embrace eternal life (the Tree of Life), but to exclude God by choosing independence (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) brought death (Genesis 2). Man chose independence and death (Genesis 3). Whatever God did to Adam in terms of a life-or-death judgment, therefore, would also embrace the lives of all who would come after him (Romans 5:12). As such, Adam defines humanity, he is our life and our truth. Whatever I am, or whoever we are comes, ultimately, from him. Whatever Adam gave up in not choosing the Tree of Life, none of us can inherit from him. He chose death; therefore, death has swallowed up the human race. We all die!

By choosing independence, Adam chose to exclude God from his knowledge (cp. Romans 1:28). Thus, man’s sense of God has been lost, and as such, the best we are able to do to correct that is to embrace superstition, what we think God may be like; but our imagination only testifies of a void in our lives, a void about the truth of God, who he is, and what he desires, concerning mankind. The coming of Jesus fills the void. Not only do we have an example in him of what God is like, and what his intentions are, but his Spirit, which he gives to men, provides that missing sense of God, a sense of his Presence, that Adam gave up (Genesis 3:9, 17-23). With the coming of Jesus, God announces his new creation and mankind’s opportunity to take back what Adam lost in Eden. By choosing Jesus, my Tree of Life, if you will, I can be redefined. Instead of Adam, Jesus becomes my Life, my Truth and my Way or manner of life (John 14:6). By choosing Jesus, God’s original plan for mankind to do good works is fulfilled (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:27).

Therefore, if I’ve exchanged my life’s source from Adam to Jesus, then whoever I was in Adam has changed completely, because I’m actually a new creature (2Corinthians 5:17). To understand who I am, I must come to know Jesus, because all I could ever hope to be is found in him; he is my inheritance (Ephesians 1:3, 11-14), so to live in Christ changes what I am able to do (cp. John 15:1-5).

According to the scriptures, I have the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16). But, what does this mean, and when and from where did I get it? Moreover, this mind is something we receive who embrace Christ, but the world that rejects him is unable to obtain. Indeed, unbelievers are simply unable to even imagine what we’ve inherited in Christ, through the Spirit, he has giving us (1Corinthians 2:9-16). From a worldly perspective Christians are foolish, but they have no understanding of spiritual matters, because they have no connection with God (cp. Genesis 3:23-24).

Through the Spirit of Christ, we have a connection with God, and we need to acknowledge this in our walk with Christ, trying the spirits (1John 4:1; cp. Genesis 2:16-17), and learning to trust his still small Voice within us. Something happened to us, when we began to identify ourselves with Jesus. When we received him, we were forever and irrevocably changed. We have new Life in us. He is becoming stronger and stronger, while our old self in Adam, becomes weaker and weaker (John 3:30; cp. Acts 9:19b-22). What does our new life require of us? I believe that, in Christ, we are required to confess him! He is always near, and his words are in our hearts and on our tongues (Romans 10:8-13). We need to confess him as our Lord in both the things we say and the things we do.

We’ve become new creatures in Christ (2Corinthians 5:16-17), born again (John 3:3; 1Peter 1:23), and the life we live isn’t ours; it’s Christ’s (Galatians 2:20). We are not only God’s workmanship created for good works, but we are his habitation, a Temple or House for his pleasure (Ephesians 2:10, 19-22; 2Cointhians 5:1-4). Together, we (God and his people) build up the Body of Christ. We labor with great care, knowing that no foundation other than Christ can be laid, or else we would defile the Temple of God (1Corinthians 3:9, 11, 16-17). Nevertheless, we are confident, that as long as we abide in Christ (John 15:4, 7), we shall glorify God (John 15:8) in all that I do, because it is Christ in us accomplishing all we need to be, as we work the works of God (Colossians 1:27).

We are no longer Adam’s but Christ’s. We are no longer hindered by the inadequacies of Adam’s life, because we have been enabled by Christ to soar above our old life. Thus, we are no longer identified with Adam, but with Christ. All things have become new. Our identity, our new name is found in Jesus. We are inseparable. What Jesus was, we have become in him. He was the Light of the world, and because he is in us, we have become lights in a dark world in the place where we live. Just as light that cannot be hid in the darkness, we can no longer be overlooked or blend into the crowd. Like Christ, we are loved and hated, sought after and despised, praised and ridiculed. The world didn’t know him, and it doesn’t know us (1John 3:1). There is a price to pay when we become one of his, but the reward is great, no regrets. Praise the Lord![1]

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[1] This study has been updated from the original, as of December, 2024