“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Genesis 1:27
From the creation of man to this very day, even though man sinned in the Garden of Eden to become a sinner, the greatest and most important consideration of all is this: God is man’s Creator, Sustainer, Keeper, Provider, Life-giver, Judge, and Keeper. God is, and has always been, man’s greatest subject of consideration, for there is no circumstance, time, or place, that God is not there, knowing, seeing, waiting to intervene in response to the heart that truly seeks Him.
Before man sinned, his relationship with God was not separated into the two categories of the “secular” and the “spiritual,” that which was of God and that which was not. In the sphere of man’s existence, which was massive in scope, wonder, blessing, and goodness, all that pertained to man was in relationship with God, in conformity to Him, being at perfect peace with Him. Man was not “sanctified” at that moment, as there was nothing to be sanctified FROM. He belonged to Christ wholly. Christ was everything, its meaning, and sustenance. When man sinned, there was interjected into that realm of his existance, another element, a foreign one, that did not have its origin and essence in God. It is true that Satan was a creation of God, however, beyond the mystery of how it all occurred, he was rejected by God, removed from that exalted position of authority that God had given him in the spiritual realm, to eventually be cast upon the earth as a fallen angelic being. When Satan came to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden, in an effort to get to Adam, he brought with him an element that was foreign to the experience of Adam and Eve, one that had its origin and essence in a thought: independence and rejection of that which was holy. From that day forward, since Adam succombed to the temptation, man has known suffering and death, the result of sin. The sad history of the world, with its endless violence and wars, lying, killing, and destroying, has been the result of Satan’s lie, that man could live and become like God, IF ONLY he would be independent from God. It was because of this lie that Christ, even before the foundation of the world, was destined to be nailed to a tree outside of Jerusalem, there to take upon Himself the sin of the world, so that again, man might be restored to a right relationship with a holy God, and know something of the blessedness of true communion with Him. How then, can we say of man’s existence, that it is ALL spiritual?
The decendants of Adam, except One, has followed Adam in being born with his sinful nature. In the Garden of Eden, for a time, Adam knew nothing of this sinful nature, and its acts. All was spiritual in the most blessed sense, for all was blessed of God. After the fall, all remained spiritual, but not in the blessed sense as before the fall. The word “spiritual” is not only applicable to that which pertained to Adam before the fall, but also after. That which is OF God is spiritual in its nature, purpose, and blessing. That which is after the fall, IN ADAM, is condemned by God, the wrath of God being directed constantly and completely against it. Before the Fall, there was the free receiving of the blessed life of Christ in its fulness, not so after the Fall, for the capacity of sinful man to know God no longer existed. In spiritual blindness and helplessness man has wandered this earth in search for the Light, Hope, and Life that he knew before the fall. It has been a spiritual quest, for the whole existence of man depends upon its outcome. It was when man was still a sinner, constantly defying God, that God, in love, provided the perfect solution in Christ for man’s spiritual, eternal need.
Dear Father, Sanctify us wholly today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.