Hi Mike,

I have been thinking deeply about the creation of Adam. I have come to believe that Adam was created MORTAL and not IMMORTAL. I don’t know what your position is on the subject, but here is why I believe what I do… perhaps you can straighten me out if I am wrong:

God placed TWO trees in the Garden of Eden: The “Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil” plus the “Tree of Life“. God gave Adam ONE command, and that was to “ not eat of the Tree of Knowledge.”

If Adam DID eat of the Tree of Knowledge, God warned that “ dying, ye shall DIE“, or “ ye shall SURELY (certainly) die“). This, to me, is saying that Adam was already dying, even before He ate of the Tree of Knowledge. His death wasn’t yet “CERTAIN”, since he still had full access to the Tree of Life! (But of course, we know that he did not partake of it)

All Adam had to do, was to eat of the Tree of Life, so that he would BECOME “immortal”! Isn’t this why God says that after He ate of the Tree of Knowledge, that He then guarded the Tree of Life, lest he eat of it and live for ever?

I look forward to your response!

God Bless,

J____

Hi J____,

It is good to hear from you again. You are right on about Adam’s original condition while yet in the hand of the Potter:

Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potte r: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay [ is] in the potter’s hand, so [ are] ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

All of God’s “clay vessels” are “marred in the hand of the Potter” while still in His hand. That is because God has not yet finished ‘making man in His image.’ What that verse should read is “Let us be making man in our image.” The first step in that process is to make a “marred vessel of clay”. It was the result of being in this sad, “marred”, naked dusty condition, while yet “in the hand of the Potter”, that caused Adam and Eve to succumb to the lust of the eyes, the lust of the heart and the pride of life before they ever ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1Jn 2:16 For all [ sin] that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Flesh itself misses the mark of the Christ we are now to know after the spirit. So Adam, by virtue of being flesh, is sin and needs a sacrifice for what he IS, before he ever does anything. As soon as Adam does something he is then also in need of another sacrifice for what he did. So God has given us a sin offering for the flesh that we are. But He has also provided a “trespass” offering for what we do in “the body of this death.” Adam sinned because he was in a “body of this death”. He sinned because he was dying. He did not begin dying because he sinned. The lie of the serpent “thou shalt not surely die” has man thinking the opposite of the Word of God to this very day. Adam was dying when he drew his first breath:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Flesh and blood” are synonymous in scripture with “corruption”. Adam was “corruptible and in corruption” from the time he drew his first breath. That is why he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was created with a fleshly mind. Adam was created of the dust. He was created with an earthly carnal mind. He was “a vessel of clay marred in the hand Of the Potter.”

I have written all this years ago in the paper on The Law of Moses Versus The Law of the Spirit.

Go to that paper on the web site. Scroll down about three quarters of the paper to the section entitled ‘Phrase # 7- Under The Law.’ The remainder of this paper discusses the original condition in which Adam was created while yet a “vessel of clay in the Potter’s hand.”

I think you will find that it confirms what you have asked me about in this letter. I would only add that the ‘flaming sword guarded the WAY of the tree of life.” This symbolizes the fact that it is only by going through that flaming fire of the Word Of God that we can partake of the ‘Tree of Life that is in the paradise of God.” The ‘Tree of Life is of course, Christ. And His word burns out of us everything that separates us from Him.

Mike

Part 2

Hi Mike,

Thank you for clarifying this issue regarding the nature of Adam! I loved the bit on us being ” marred in the hand of the potter“. Thank you!

I have a couple “concerns” however. I understand that Gen 1:26 says…

“And God said, Let us make [ Heb: ” Asah” – “be making?”] man in our image, after our likeness”

Perhaps this is saying “let us be making“…

But how about Gen 1:27…

“So God creatED [ Heb: ” Bara“] man in his own image, in the image of God creatED [ Heb: ” Bara“] he him; male and female creatED [ Heb: ” Bara” – not “is making”] he them”

Doesn’t Gen 1:27 confirm that man was CREATED (past- tense) in God’s image? God CREATED (past- tense) Male and Female… God isn’t still “MAKING/ MOLDING” a male version and a female version of man. It was done at the moment of creation, was it not?

Also, Paul seems to completely confirm that man IS (past- tense) the image of God in 1Co 11:7…

“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he [ man] IS the IMAGE and glory OF GOD.“

This doesn’t say that man is BEING MADE in God’s image; Paul says [ or does he?] that man IS [ NOW] the image of God.

Any thoughts on this one?

Thank again Mike!

J____

Hi J____,

The truth is that both the ‘making’ and the ‘creating’ and all other Hebrew and Greek verbs are always in the ‘aorist’ tense. Greek and Hebrew do not speak as we speak. They speak in what we would call the present progressive. They do not use or have a present perfect as we do in English. So God is making man in His image, and a marred vessel of clay is the first step in that process. God is also in the process of creating man and “conforming him to the [ spiritual ] image of his Son. The first step in that process is to make man a marred vessel of clay.

1Co 11:7 is written to Christians who are supposed to be being conformed to that spiritual image. It is stated to those who can receive it in those terms. If we are indeed “seated with Him in heavenly places,” then we are indeed “conformed to the image of his Son. All physical types in the old testament are only true as shadows and types; they are never true in spiritual reality. The ‘bread from heaven’ of Exo 16:4 was not the true bread from heaven even though the Old Testament says that it is.

Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

The reason Christ can contradict the old Testament is that He knew that all of the law was only a “form” and a shadow of good things to come:

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Do you see that “not the very image”? That should read “Not the true image.” The “first Adam is a figure of Him that was to come.”

Christ is the true image of God to which we are to be conformed.

Speaking to the Jews, Paul had this to say of all things in the law:

Rom 2:17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
Rom 2:18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
Rom 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
Rom 2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

The “form” is not the reality. It is but a shadow of the reality. It must never be taken as the fullness of the truth.

Joh 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

What does that verse say for the law. What does it say about the statement in that law that God made man in His image?

I hope this helps you see that all the truths of the Old Testament are true only as shadows of the spiritual realities. They are never to be taken as the fullness of knowledge, the ‘epignosis of Christ.’ That epignosis is only to be found in Christ.

Mike