Christ God's Mystery

Christ - The Mystery of God Introduction

God created man in his likeness, His image, and His nature. a righteous person without sin. The man listened to Satan’s lie choosing to disobey God thus ceasing to be a righteous person and breaking the intimate relationship he enjoyed with God, his creator. But God had a plan to restore man to the original state and relationship with HIM.

Thousands of years later, God revealed His plan (The Mystery) to Paul. “…to present to you the word of God in its fulness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles to glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27)

God began to reveal “His mystery” gradually, beginning with His promise to Abraham, that through him all people would be blessed. He later told David, a descendant of Jacob; “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me.” (2 Samuel7:16)

Jesus, a descendant of David, was born by the action of the Holy Spirit. He offered His sinless life to God as the only “atoning sacrifice,” necessary to make restoration possible. God accepted His offering by raising Him from the grave and thus freeing man from the dominion of Satan. This sacrifice of Jesus was the plan, the “mystery”, of God to obtain victory over Satan, sin, and death.

Forgiveness of sins was first offered on the Day of Pentecost to all who accept Christ’s call to repent and seek forgiveness by being buried (baptized) into His death and resurrection to a new creation in the Kingdom of

• This offer of forgiveness is available TODAY to all who hear and accept the Gospel message of Jesus, the

Mystery of God.

Chapter 1

Promises to The Patriarchs Creation of Man

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1-3)

While John 1:1-3 states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Comment: The only thing man knows about the beginning is what God has chosen to reveal to him. Theories of "learned men" are unproven, often contrary to what has been revealed and many contradict beliefs and theories of other “learned men.”

The last day of creation as recorded in Genesis 1:26-27 is “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the

earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Comment: This creation was different from all His other creations as man was made in God's likeness, in His image. Man is not an exact copy of God. Man was created flesh and blood while God is spirit.

Adam and Eve

God put Adam and Eve in the midst of the rest of His creation to rule over and have dominion over it. He told Adam to work it and take care of it. “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” (Gen 2:16-17)

Comment: God gave man the ability to choose. He was told to work by tending the garden and not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were also to replenish the earth after their kind. Therefore, Adam had a choice, to obey or not to obey.

The Devil took on the form of a serpent to tempt Eve. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)

Comment: The temptation process: - “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:14-15)

Sin has Consequences

To Eve, the fruit was pleasing to the eye and desirable to make her wise but disobedience has consequences and, in some situations, sin may not be found out until the judgment when one faces God. In this case, the consequence was immediate. They were removed from paradise to a land of toil and pain. God said to the serpent “‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ To the woma,n he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain, you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.' To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it’, ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; ‘through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’” (Genesis 3:14-19)

Comment: With this sin, both Adam and Eve were separated from God and in need of being reunited with

• This reconciliation would require a perfect sacrifice for their sin of disobedience. That perfect sacrifice is apparently a reference to God becoming human to be the atoning sacrifice for their sin and all others to come.

Cain and Abel

In Hebrews 11:4 we read that Abel's offering to God was by faith. Now actions of faith are based upon knowledge and love. So, Abel's action and attitude pleased God whereas Cain's did not. God said of Cain's offering “if you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7)

Comment: Perhaps what Cain offered, or his attitude was unacceptable, or both. He may have not offered the best he had, he may have offered something not authorized or he offered exactly what was required but offered out of duty or command not from an attitude of love. Whatever the situation, God was not pleased and Cain knew why. The consequence of his actions was the earth would not yield its fruits for him and he would become a restless wanderer.

Comment: Adam and Eve’s greatest pain may have been when Cain killed Abel. Sin was present before the murder as Cain's heart was not pure and godly. Their pain must have increased when Cain departed becoming a wanderer. (Genesis 6: 1-3, 5-8)

Noah

“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)

God told Noah what he must do to save the righteous people from perishing in the impending flood. No doubt these instructions appeared to be unusual but very explicit. Noah may have even questioned how a boat made only from one kind of wood exactly so long, wide, and high with only one window and door could save him and his family. However, he began building immediately warning others of the consequences of their rebellious and sinful lifestyle. After the ark was completed Noah and his family entered the ark and God caused the animals that breathed air to come into the ark. After God closed the door, He opened the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven to flood the earth. After days and months, the waters abated. Then Noah, his family, and the animals came out of the ark.

Noah immediately built an altar, offered a sacrifice, and worshipped God. This offering pleased God “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. Never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’” (Genesis 8:21-22) God also gave man some more instructions.

• “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you • Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give

you everything,

• But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
• For your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal.

And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.

• Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.
• As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” (Genesis 9:3- 7)

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:28-32)

Comment: Note the parallel in Noah’s time, the 1st century, and today’s situation:

a. The people were sinful and we are sinners – Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

• They were about to die and we may also – John 8:24a “I told you that you would die in your sins.” c.

Noah was told what to do to save the righteous and so have we - John 8:24b “if you do not believe that I (Jesus) am (the Christ, the Son of God), you will indeed die in your sins.”

• All the people of Noah’s time had a choice to make and we also have a choice – 2

Corinthians 6:2b “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Comment: In only six chapters of the first book of the Bible we have seen three situations where people disobeyed God's commandments, substituting them for their own desires; one disobeyed because it was pleasing to the eye and something to be desired to make them wise, one disobeyed by presenting an offering, an act of worship, that was not pleasing to God and one group disobeyed as the thoughts and intent of their mind was evil continually. God was displeased in every case, judging their actions against His standard, against His Word. A righteous God, their creator, established the consequences He considered appropriate for their action.