The Spiritual World
The Spiritual World
Written by rrlogan
Posted on Friday, April 4, 2008 at 08:54 AM.
Chapter 4
Man's Separation from God
Before man's first act of sin, the eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man was spiritually pure. There was no evil in the soul of man. We know what happened to Adam and Eve in the physical world when they sinned. God drove them out of the Garden of Eden partly as punishment, so that they would no longer enjoy the ease and pleasures of this Paradise God had created for them, but also to keep them from eating from the tree of life. God even placed a guard, an angel, in the Garden of Eden to keep Adam and Eve from the tree of life because He could no longer trust man to be obedient. We had failed in our worship of God.
In the physical, God was able to forgive Adam and Eve. He is the author of the physical. He can do whatever He wants in the physical world. ThatÃâs why He clothed Adam and Eve before He sent them out from the Garden of Eden. He did what He could for them in the physical. He forgave them in the physical and He clothed them because He had compassion for them. Adam was ashamed and hid himself from God. God accepted AdamÃâs regret. He forgave them in the physical. Adam and EveÃâs forgiveness in the physical was because of their shame and their regret. God is the author of the physical and could therefore set the penalty they owed for their sin in the physical and the penalty was the loss of Paradise. By removing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, they paid the penalty for their sin in the physical.
Spiritually, however, Adam and Eve had no way to atone for their spiritual sin against God. God could forgive the spiritual sin but He could not take away the penalty for the sin and be done with it because God is spiritual. God is everlasting and unchanging. God would have to compromise Himself to change the nature of sin, the penalty of sin, or the results of sin. It would be like one of us condoning murder. If our best friend or child committed murder we could decide in our own minds to forgive them for the act of the murder, but we could not take away the penalty they would have to pay for the murder. Even if we had the power to take away the penalty for the act of murder, we would have to compromise our own values and the values of our culture to do it. We would have to compromise ourselves.
You might ask, ÃâWell, isnÃât God also the author of all that is spiritual too? And if He is, canÃât He do whatever He wants in the spiritual realm just as you say He can do anything He wants in the physical realm?Ãâ I canÃât answer this because itÃâs like asking which came first the chicken or the egg. What we know about God from the Bible is that He always was and always will be.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelations 1:8 (KJV)
God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He always was and He always will be the Almighty. God is spiritual. Did He create Himself and all that exists in His presence which is spiritual? The best answer we have to the question, ÃâDid God create Himself?Ãâ is no. There was no beginning to God and certainly no end. He always was and always will be. Therefore, there was no creation of God. The point of this is that God created the physical world. He is the author of all that exists in the physical realm. Therefore, He can move mountains and part seas. What He can do in the spiritual realm we donÃât know. Perhaps He can do anything, and I would expect that He can. But, because He is spiritual, He would have to change Himself, but God is unchanging. For I am the LORD, I change not; Malachi 3:6 (KJV). God will not change His spiritual realm because He would have to change Himself, He would have to compromise Himself to do it.
By Adam and Eve committing the original sin, they opened the door to allow sin in manÃâs soul. There was no way to close this door. Their eyes had been opened and now sin would live in manÃâs soul from generation to generation. Eating the apple was a physical sin, but disobedience of God was a spiritual sin. All Satan could do before the fall was tempt us in the physical realm. We could have resisted the temptation, but we didnÃât. Now, Satan also had access to a spiritual part of us, our soul, the part that God gave us of Himself, the part that makes us different from all other creatures, the part that combined flesh with the Spirit of God and created a living soul.
So, Satan and his minions have been free to roam the earth seeking whom they may devour as the apostle Peter says it in 1st Peter 5:8. God told Cain before he slew his brother Abel that if he does well, if he does not sin, God will accept him, but if he doesnÃât do well, if he allows spiritual temptation to overcome him then sin lies at his door waiting for him.
You see, we all have sin waiting at our door. Satan and his minions are roaming the earth speaking to us in our spirit, tempting us to do anything we are willing to do that is a sin against God. Satan hates us because God loves us. We are just pawns to Satan in the spiritual realm. We are just a means for Satan to rebel against God. As stated before, Satan is just an evil spiritual being, but he can be evil for all eternity with no harm to his adversary, God, unless he has some way to commit acts of evil. Satan knows that God loves us so much that when he attacks us he is attacking God because God lives in us.
So, Adam and Eve and all generations to follow were destined to die a physical death for two reasons; a physical reason and a spiritual reason. Physically, Adam and Eve never ate from the tree of life that would have given their bodies the supernatural ability to live forever. Spiritually, they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so their spirits now had a spiritual knowledge that they were never intended to have and they received that spiritual knowledge through disobedience of God. Adam and Eve sinned against God, but because there are spiritual laws just like there are laws of nature, spiritual laws that say a spirit can not cease to exist once it has been created, Adam and Eve could not die a spiritual death in the sense of a cessation to exist, but they would suffer a spiritual death as defined as a spiritual separation from God.
If Adam and Eve had also eaten from the tree of life they would not only have spiritual knowledge of good and evil with sin embedded in their souls forever, they would have also become physically immortal with no way for God to restore them to spiritual communion with Him. This problem would have to be remedied in the spiritual realm because there was no way to do it in the physical realm. So, God was quick to get Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden before they ever ate from the tree of life. If they had eaten from the tree of life Adam and Eve would have been destined to live on the earth forever, separated from GodÃâs spiritual presence forever.
The penalty for sin is hell and death. Hell being a place of punishment and confinement of the spirit and the soul and death being spiritual separation from God. There would have been no way to ever pay the penalty for sin as long as Adam and Eve's immortal bodies were trapped here on earth forever. No. God would have to return man's body back to the earth so that his soul could be released from the physical world and become purely spiritual. Now, this was only part of the solution. God still had to find a just way to pay the penalty for his sins.
God had a plan, a way for man to be reunited with God spiritually and it had to be a plan that was fair and just and did not contradict spiritual laws. Adam had given Satan access to his soul and there was no way to take it back and remain just, but was there a way, even though man was now a sinner, for God to forgive manÃâs sin and also for God to pay the penalty for sin required by spiritual justice which would purify manÃâs soul and make him Holy again so that manÃâs soul could be restored to Holy communion with God? Forgiving the sin was not the problem. God already had the authority, the power, and the justice to forgive sin. Jesus began forgiving sin the day the Holy Spirit descended on Him and gave Him that authority from God. The problem was paying the penalty for sin. Satan controlled the penalty for sin because Satan controlled the keys to hell and death. Satan was given the keys to hell and death when he was cast out of heaven, out of the spiritual presence of God. At that time there was no earth, there was no physical universe, only the spiritual realm of God and the hell God created outside of His spiritual presence to send Satan and his army.
Hell is a spiritual place of separation from God. There was no other place for Satan to go other than hell if he could not be in the spiritual presence of God. So, Satan was given the key to the bottomless pit (Revelations 9:1) which is hell, and commanded by God to go there and leave His spiritual presence, which is spiritual death. Again, not death as a cessation to exist, but death as a spiritual separation from God. ItÃâs like sending your child to their room for punishment. You tell them to go to their room and close the door, but you donÃât lock them in there. Your child obeys because you have authority over them. So, what is your childÃâs punishment? Confinement and separation from you and the rest of the world; the realm that you control for that child.
Satan was confined to hell until the earth and the universe were created. He was confined there because the only other place that existed was the spiritual presence of God which he was not permitted to go except by permission from God. Once the earth was created, Satan now had another place he could roam that was not in the spiritual presence of God except when God manifested His presence to man. Although there were times when God manifested His spiritual presence on earth, as when He spoke to Abraham and Moses, the godhead of our triune God, that is, God Himself does not dwell on the earth. He sent His son, Jesus, a part of the triune God to live on the earth for a time, and He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell on the earth with us today, but God, Himself, the godhead of our triune God, does not dwell on the earth with us today as the Holy Spirit does or as Jesus did when He was manifested in the physical realm here on earth except in the concept that a part of God dwells within each of us because He gave us a part of Himself at creation.
You might ask, ÃâI thought everything was in GodÃâs realm?Ãâ Yes, everything is in GodÃâs realm but not necessarily in GodÃâs spiritual presence. Hell is in GodÃâs realm, but God's spiritual presence, that is God Himself, is not in hell, nor is He on the earth. The Holy Spirit, a part of the triune God dwells on earth with us now, but not God Himself. There were times when God manifested Himself on earth when He spoke to the prophets, but He does not need to do that anymore because the Holy Spirit is here with us all the time. People ask, ÃâHow come we donÃât see or hear from God anymore like we used to in the time of Moses and Abraham?Ãâ The reason is because the Holy Spirit is here with us now. We just need to learn how to communicate with Him.
The battle Jesus fought in the spiritual realm brought changes to our relationship with God because that battle restored our spiritual right to commune with God in His spiritual presence. WeÃâre going to explain more about this in the next chapter. One of the biggest changes that occurred in the spiritual realm is the requirement on us of faith. Did you know that the word faith only appears in the Old Testament of the King James Version of the Bible two times, but occurs more than 200 times in the New Testament? Do you think faith became more critical to our spiritual life after Christ? I would say at least 100 times more critical. Not that faith wasnÃât important in the Old Testament times, but faith is obviously much more a factor in our relationship with the triune God today.
How could Jesus descend into hell to battle Satan if Jesus is God? Yes, Jesus is a part of the triune God, but Jesus was spiritually separated from God during that battle. This was the whole point of the crucifixion which weÃâre going to get into as soon as we get through this foundation of why and how these events had to occur.
Why could Satan leave hell and roam earth? Because he had the key to the bottomless pit. He was given the key to open hell and confine himself there. His penalty for rebellion was not necessarily confinement in hell but was separation from God. God created hell inside of His realm but outside of His spiritual presence for Satan and his minions to have a home, a dwelling, a place of punishment to send them that was not within the spiritual presence of God. Satan could come and go from hell because he had the key to hell, but there was no other place for him to go until earth was created. ÃâWhat is the significance of Satan possessing the keys to hell and death?Ãâ The significance is that possessing the keys to hell and death is spiritual control of the penalty for sin. Although our triune God could forgive sin, He could not deny the penalty for sin and remain spiritually just. ÃâWhy didnÃât God just take back the keys to hell and death?Ãâ Well, He did and weÃâre going to explain how He did it in the coming chapters.
ÃâWhat about the story of Job? How could Satan come along with the angels to present themselves to God if his penalty for rebellion was separation from God?
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. Job 1:6 (KJV)
The reason Satan came into GodÃâs presence with the other angels is because God summoned Satan for a Holy purpose. That too is another story, but the point is that even though Satan controls the penalty for sin which is hell and spiritual death, which keeps us spiritually separated from God because remember: GodÃâs spiritual presence is not in hell nor is it on earth except in those times that God, Himself, manifests Himself on the earth, Satan is still under GodÃâs authority. Satan must come when he is called. God used Satan for a Holy purpose in the story of Job.
ManÃâs status is not the same as SatanÃâs because Satan has the spiritual right and authority to claim our souls if we have not been righteous; if we have denied God and His sovereignty, if we have denied Jesus or failed to receive forgiveness of sins and His payment for our sins, or if we have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. As long as Satan is not bound and secured inside of hell, he can roam in and out of hell anywhere that is not in the spiritual presence of God. His penalty for rebellion was the same as our penalty for sin, spiritual separation from God. However, manÃâs penalty for sin goes one step beyond the fallen angels because we have something they donÃât have. We have a soul. When manÃâs soul is condemned to hell because of sin, we do not have the spiritual authority to roam outside of hell as Satan and his minions do because Satan has authority over a soul condemned to hell, not because God gave him that authority, but because we gave Satan that authority by denying God.
Once a condemned soul goes to hell it can not leave, that is, not until they are summoned by God for final judgment which weÃâve got a long way to go before we get into that. Why? Because once a soul is in hell, there is no other place it can go. A perished soul canÃât go back to earth and it canÃât be in the spiritual presence of God. Now, since Satan has authority over souls in hell, it may be possible for Satan to allow a spirit to return to earth, or for Satan to send a spirit back to earth for his own purposes. Satan may have that authority. If thereÃâs anything to the stories and reports we read or hear about involving sightings of the dead, this could be an explanation. IÃâm not saying these stories are true, IÃâm just saying that if they are true, this could be an explanation. Why does Satan have this authority in the spiritual realm? Probably because Satan was a leader in GodÃâs realm at the time of his rebellion and I suspect God would have to compromise Himself to remove Satan from a position of spiritual authority. Remember: God is spiritual. He would have to change Himself to change the way His spiritual realm works and God is unchanging.
God needs a reason to claim our souls at the time of our physical death to remain spiritually righteous Himself. He has no reason to claim anyone who has denied Him. Hey, if you donÃât want any part of God, why would He want you? He still loves you and He gives you a lifetime of opportunity to come to him, but after physical death He canÃât justly claim your soul if you have denied Him. Again, thatÃâs spiritual justice and He would have to compromise Himself to claim an unrighteous soul.
So, God could claim the soul of a righteous person; anyone who believed in Him and believed in His sovereignty and made atonement for their sins in the physical world through sacrifice, or through shame, or through repentance; He could forgive their sins if they sought forgiveness, but He still could not pay the spiritual penalty required for their sins to allow them to enter into His spiritual presence justly because Satan still controlled the keys for hell and death, the keys for the penalty of sin. By forgiving their sins He could keep them out of hell, but they could not enter into His spiritual presence unless the penalty for sin was paid.
God needed a way to pay the penalty for sin that was spiritually just. How could He do this and still remain a just God without compromising Himself in the process; without compromising righteousness and justice? You see, Satan now had the spiritual right to take the soul of an unrighteous person away from God. Satan had the spiritual right to claim any soul that was perverse and disobedient to God and God, because of justice, would have to let them be taken by Satan into hell. Our God is a just God. If God were to compromise Himself our whole existence would collapse. If GodÃâs righteousness were to collapse, His omnipotent authority to sustain the creation of His faith would also collapse. What would happen then? SatanÃâs rebellion would become successful and the order and relationship God created in the universe would collapse into chaos. Now, you have to understand that this is SatanÃâs ultimate goal; to rise above our GodÃâs authority and destroy what He has created and ultimately to make God subservient to himself. Why would Satan even think this is possible unless it really is possible? Why would Satan believe he could ever have sovereignty over God unless it was attainable? So, how could this be possible? ItÃâs possible by God giving up sovereignty. How could God give up sovereignty? By compromising Himself; His righteousness and His justice.
If, however, God had a just reason to claim a personÃâs soul because of the righteousness of that person, He could claim that soul for Himself. The Bible tells us that most men were evil and full of sin on the earth. But, there were some that remained righteous even in the influence and temptation of sin roaming the earth. Being righteous doesnÃât mean they were sinless. Sin is embedded in us from birth. Only Jesus, through His Holy conception by the Holy Spirit was born sinless. Righteousness then and today can be identified by the will of each personÃâs heart. Although we can not be perfectly righteous, the intentions of our will can be righteous by believing in God and in His righteousness even though we sometimes fail by sinning. As long as our will remains righteous in intent by believing in God and in His sovereignty, God can justly claim us. It is only when our will chooses to deny God and His sovereignty that He can not justly claim our souls. This is the clear distinction between our souls being claimed by God or by Satan at the time of our physical death. Yes, thereÃâs more to it than this which weÃâll get into later. But, for now, we need to understand that the most basic building block between heaven and hell is the distinction of whether we accept God as truth or deny God as false. All of Christianity resides on this building block.
Okay, that being said, man still had a problem. Although at the time of physical death God could claim the soul of a person with a righteous intent so that Satan could not take that soul into hell to pay the penalty for the sins that had been committed, we still could not justly commune with God in His spiritual presence face to face because the penalty for our sins was still there and unpaid. Man nor God had any way to pay that penalty yet. Why does it matter whether the penalty for sin is ever paid? Because of justice. Remember: our God is a just God. He would have to compromise Himself to be unjust and allow man to restore his relationship with Him while his debt for sin was still owed to the entity that controlled the penalty for sin, that entity being Satan. If He were to compromise Himself, He would have to give up His sovereignty of all that exists and Satan could then claim sovereignty of all that exists. God is the author of order and relationship. Satan is the author of chaos. Our world has order and relationship because God is sovereign. Our world would become chaos if Satan were to become sovereign.
Satan still possessed and controlled the keys to hell and death. As long as Satan could justly demand a penalty for sin he could keep man separated from God. What would have to happen to correct this problem in the spiritual realm is God would have to take back possession and control of the keys to hell and death, and again, He would have to do it in a way that did not compromise His justice. He had a plan to do this but it would take time to fulfill. For the time being, that is the time following AdamÃâs sin, God needed a place where He could send souls that had remained righteous by the intent of their will. He could justly keep them out of hell because their hearts were righteous even though they were not sinless, but He could not restore their right to commune with Him in His spiritual presence until the penalty for their sins had been paid.
So God created a place for righteous souls to go after physical death. Now, once again, by righteous I mean men and women who believed in GodÃâs righteousness and sovereignty. God could justly claim these souls and protect them from paying the penalty of their sins, which was eternal %%ation in hell, because their intentions were righteous. Even so, He still had no way to justify the payment for their sins so these souls could enter into His spiritual presence. He created a place called Paradise until His plan to take back the keys to hell and death could be fulfilled. This spiritual place called Paradise is not the same physical place called Paradise which contained the Garden of Eden and the tree of life. This spiritual Paradise was a holding area; a spiritual place between heaven and hell where souls could exist in the spiritual realm without existing in either hell or in GodÃâs spiritual presence which we call heaven. Even Jesus called this holding area Paradise when He told one of the criminals being crucified with him on Calvary, after this criminal asked Jesus to remember him in the after-life, that he would be with Him in Paradise before the day was over. How many souls were there? We donÃât know, but we do know Abraham and Lazarus were there and we know from this place called Paradise that you can see into the pit of hell because Jesus gives an account, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, of a rich man in hell who calls up and speaks to Abraham in Paradise.
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke 16:19-31 (KJV)
Paradise was a place where God could send righteous souls until He could justly redeem them from SatanÃâs control of hell and death by paying the penalty for their sins. Now, this place called Paradise is technically in the kingdom of God as everything that exists is within the kingdom of God. The souls that were there were under His protection and care, but the souls in Paradise could still not commune with God in His spiritual presence. They had His protection and His intercession, but they could not yet enter into heaven, into His spiritual presence until the penalty for their sins had been paid. GodÃâs plan to redeem these souls would some day be fulfilled.
Now, physically, back on earth, God wanted to give man an avenue to regain or retain his righteousness. Man was destined to sin, but the intentions of his heart could still remain righteous. How could God provide a way for man to make atonement for the sins he knew man was going to commit? God began to accept animal sacrifices as a way for man to atone for his sins. Blood is the life-force of every living creature. Blood-letting was GodÃâs provision before Jesus came to earth for man to seek atonement for sin, but it was purely an act of repentance in the physical world. It had no effect or power in the spiritual world. God was still working on His plan to redeem man spiritually for his sins.
There were times when God was ready to give up on man. In Genesis chapter six, man had become so full of evil that God was ready to just wipe us off the face of the earth, but then He remembered Noah. Noah was a righteous man. God decided to start over. He instructed Noah to build the ark and bring pairs of all the creatures on it so they would be preserved in the great flood. After the flood God seemed to come to an understanding about this creature called man He had created. In Genesis, chapter 8, God said, I will not again curse the ground any more for manÃâs sake; for the imagination of manÃâs heart is evil from his youth. God seemed to come to an understanding of the nature of man; that man has a sinful nature from birth and He realized He was going to have to work with us to try to help us choose righteousness. Yes, God is omnipotent. God knows our hearts, but remember; we were a new creature, a living soul with a will. We were created with an ability to make choices that other creatures donÃât have. Can we surprise God with our choices? No, not really. A better word might be disappoint. We certainly can disappoint God with our choices.
God gave man every opportunity He could to be righteous. He warned us over and over again to resist sin. He blessed righteous men with wealth and possessions, which should have been great examples for us to live a righteous life. When we wouldnÃât listen to His chosen leaders like Abraham and Moses he sent an angel to warn His people, then he set up a system of judges to direct His people, then kings, then more prophets, but Satan was powerful on the face of the earth and manÃâs soul was weak. Our physical nature embraces spiritual sin, almost like they are attracted to one another. God gave us free will to choose our own destiny and too often we choose sin over righteousness. Why? Because our physical nature is so much more evident to us then our spiritual nature. Every person on the planet will agree that they have a physical body, but not every person will agree that they also have a spiritual persona in them.
Our desires, our greed, our selfish nature, which are fed to us through our spiritual half, tempt and drive our physical bodies to attain those desires and fulfill our greed and our selfish nature. We were made this way by God, with a physical half and a spiritual half but we disappoint God every time we choose to satisfy our physical nature rather than to build our spiritual nature with faith and love for Him and for other people. We are designed to seek substance from the earth, our souls crave substance, but too often we choose the wrong substance. We choose the substance of drugs, alcohol, possessions, ##@, status, power, authority over others, and other people instead of the substance God says we must have now to overcome the sin we are born with in our souls.
That substance is Faith. Paul says in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1 that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But, then goes on to say in verse 2: For by it the elders obtained a good report. Paul begins to give examples of men and women of the Old Testament who had obtained righteousness with God through their faith and he is urging the people of his day to also persevere with faith and they too will receive righteousness with God. Then in verse 6 Paul drives this message home about the importance of faith:
Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is God, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)
ThereÃâs that building block again. We must believe that our God is who He says He is and believing in God is believing that He is sovereign in both the physical and the spiritual realms.
So, how could God reclaim His people? How could God redeem our souls? How could God take back SatanÃâs right to claim the souls of man with justice rather than with power that would be unjust? Knowing that we would all forever be born into sin, how could God provide true spiritual atonement for sin, payment of the penalty for sin, and purification of manÃâs soul to make him Holy again? Satan had a spiritual right to claim our souls. Adam gave him that right when he sinned.
Since man chose to give Satan access to his soul by sinning, now God would have to provide a way for man to choose atonement. God did this in the physical by making blood-letting of sacrificed animals manÃâs physical atonement for sin. By this process, man could atone for his sin in the natural and upon his physical death his soul could enter into Paradise. This was still not the spiritual presence of God, but at least it would keep man out of hell. This Paradise was known as the Ãâthird heavenÃâ by the people in JesusÃâ time. The first heaven being GodÃâs spiritual presence, the second heaven being the one He created in Genesis, chapter one, for the earth to exist in, and this third heaven, also called Paradise, being a spiritual place God created where souls could go which was between GodÃâs spiritual presence and hell.
So, now the problem was how could God provide a choice for man where he could be redeemed for his sins in the spiritual realm and then justly have the right to enter into GodÃâs spiritual heaven? Our triune God had a plan. A plan that would require sending Jesus to earth in physical form to do battle with Satan for our redemption knowing that this would mean great turmoil and suffering for His triune part, Jesus. The best way to describe this part of God in our terms is that Jesus is His son. This would be like sending your own son off to fight in a battle that you knew he was going to suffer and die in that battle, but you did it because you loved the people you knew he would save in the battle. Remember, we are created in GodÃâs likeness. There are plenty of fathers and mothers who have sent their sons and daughters off into battle for other people and those children have not come home. We can understand this sacrifice God was making for us because we were made in His likeness.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
So, this verse tells us about Jesus coming to earth because God loved the world and we are of this world, and how man would then be given a choice. If we believe in the kingdom of God, if we have faith in what we cannot see, we will have everlasting life with God in His spiritual presence. Now the plan had to be carried out and when it was completed, Jesus would have authority over hell and death. He would have the keys to hell and death and He will have taken them from Satan.
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Revelations 1:18 (KJV)
(This is an excerpt from our book "The Worship Principle". It's deep, deep stuff. Are you ready to understand more? Go to our website at www.AgapeSolutions.org. This book and our second book "Worthy of Worship" are available there and at many other on-line stores like Amazon, Target, etc. Get it today and learn what God wants to show you about His kingdom.)
Man's Separation from God
Before man's first act of sin, the eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man was spiritually pure. There was no evil in the soul of man. We know what happened to Adam and Eve in the physical world when they sinned. God drove them out of the Garden of Eden partly as punishment, so that they would no longer enjoy the ease and pleasures of this Paradise God had created for them, but also to keep them from eating from the tree of life. God even placed a guard, an angel, in the Garden of Eden to keep Adam and Eve from the tree of life because He could no longer trust man to be obedient. We had failed in our worship of God.
In the physical, God was able to forgive Adam and Eve. He is the author of the physical. He can do whatever He wants in the physical world. ThatÃâs why He clothed Adam and Eve before He sent them out from the Garden of Eden. He did what He could for them in the physical. He forgave them in the physical and He clothed them because He had compassion for them. Adam was ashamed and hid himself from God. God accepted AdamÃâs regret. He forgave them in the physical. Adam and EveÃâs forgiveness in the physical was because of their shame and their regret. God is the author of the physical and could therefore set the penalty they owed for their sin in the physical and the penalty was the loss of Paradise. By removing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, they paid the penalty for their sin in the physical.
Spiritually, however, Adam and Eve had no way to atone for their spiritual sin against God. God could forgive the spiritual sin but He could not take away the penalty for the sin and be done with it because God is spiritual. God is everlasting and unchanging. God would have to compromise Himself to change the nature of sin, the penalty of sin, or the results of sin. It would be like one of us condoning murder. If our best friend or child committed murder we could decide in our own minds to forgive them for the act of the murder, but we could not take away the penalty they would have to pay for the murder. Even if we had the power to take away the penalty for the act of murder, we would have to compromise our own values and the values of our culture to do it. We would have to compromise ourselves.
You might ask, ÃâWell, isnÃât God also the author of all that is spiritual too? And if He is, canÃât He do whatever He wants in the spiritual realm just as you say He can do anything He wants in the physical realm?Ãâ I canÃât answer this because itÃâs like asking which came first the chicken or the egg. What we know about God from the Bible is that He always was and always will be.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelations 1:8 (KJV)
God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He always was and He always will be the Almighty. God is spiritual. Did He create Himself and all that exists in His presence which is spiritual? The best answer we have to the question, ÃâDid God create Himself?Ãâ is no. There was no beginning to God and certainly no end. He always was and always will be. Therefore, there was no creation of God. The point of this is that God created the physical world. He is the author of all that exists in the physical realm. Therefore, He can move mountains and part seas. What He can do in the spiritual realm we donÃât know. Perhaps He can do anything, and I would expect that He can. But, because He is spiritual, He would have to change Himself, but God is unchanging. For I am the LORD, I change not; Malachi 3:6 (KJV). God will not change His spiritual realm because He would have to change Himself, He would have to compromise Himself to do it.
By Adam and Eve committing the original sin, they opened the door to allow sin in manÃâs soul. There was no way to close this door. Their eyes had been opened and now sin would live in manÃâs soul from generation to generation. Eating the apple was a physical sin, but disobedience of God was a spiritual sin. All Satan could do before the fall was tempt us in the physical realm. We could have resisted the temptation, but we didnÃât. Now, Satan also had access to a spiritual part of us, our soul, the part that God gave us of Himself, the part that makes us different from all other creatures, the part that combined flesh with the Spirit of God and created a living soul.
So, Satan and his minions have been free to roam the earth seeking whom they may devour as the apostle Peter says it in 1st Peter 5:8. God told Cain before he slew his brother Abel that if he does well, if he does not sin, God will accept him, but if he doesnÃât do well, if he allows spiritual temptation to overcome him then sin lies at his door waiting for him.
You see, we all have sin waiting at our door. Satan and his minions are roaming the earth speaking to us in our spirit, tempting us to do anything we are willing to do that is a sin against God. Satan hates us because God loves us. We are just pawns to Satan in the spiritual realm. We are just a means for Satan to rebel against God. As stated before, Satan is just an evil spiritual being, but he can be evil for all eternity with no harm to his adversary, God, unless he has some way to commit acts of evil. Satan knows that God loves us so much that when he attacks us he is attacking God because God lives in us.
So, Adam and Eve and all generations to follow were destined to die a physical death for two reasons; a physical reason and a spiritual reason. Physically, Adam and Eve never ate from the tree of life that would have given their bodies the supernatural ability to live forever. Spiritually, they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so their spirits now had a spiritual knowledge that they were never intended to have and they received that spiritual knowledge through disobedience of God. Adam and Eve sinned against God, but because there are spiritual laws just like there are laws of nature, spiritual laws that say a spirit can not cease to exist once it has been created, Adam and Eve could not die a spiritual death in the sense of a cessation to exist, but they would suffer a spiritual death as defined as a spiritual separation from God.
If Adam and Eve had also eaten from the tree of life they would not only have spiritual knowledge of good and evil with sin embedded in their souls forever, they would have also become physically immortal with no way for God to restore them to spiritual communion with Him. This problem would have to be remedied in the spiritual realm because there was no way to do it in the physical realm. So, God was quick to get Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden before they ever ate from the tree of life. If they had eaten from the tree of life Adam and Eve would have been destined to live on the earth forever, separated from GodÃâs spiritual presence forever.
The penalty for sin is hell and death. Hell being a place of punishment and confinement of the spirit and the soul and death being spiritual separation from God. There would have been no way to ever pay the penalty for sin as long as Adam and Eve's immortal bodies were trapped here on earth forever. No. God would have to return man's body back to the earth so that his soul could be released from the physical world and become purely spiritual. Now, this was only part of the solution. God still had to find a just way to pay the penalty for his sins.
God had a plan, a way for man to be reunited with God spiritually and it had to be a plan that was fair and just and did not contradict spiritual laws. Adam had given Satan access to his soul and there was no way to take it back and remain just, but was there a way, even though man was now a sinner, for God to forgive manÃâs sin and also for God to pay the penalty for sin required by spiritual justice which would purify manÃâs soul and make him Holy again so that manÃâs soul could be restored to Holy communion with God? Forgiving the sin was not the problem. God already had the authority, the power, and the justice to forgive sin. Jesus began forgiving sin the day the Holy Spirit descended on Him and gave Him that authority from God. The problem was paying the penalty for sin. Satan controlled the penalty for sin because Satan controlled the keys to hell and death. Satan was given the keys to hell and death when he was cast out of heaven, out of the spiritual presence of God. At that time there was no earth, there was no physical universe, only the spiritual realm of God and the hell God created outside of His spiritual presence to send Satan and his army.
Hell is a spiritual place of separation from God. There was no other place for Satan to go other than hell if he could not be in the spiritual presence of God. So, Satan was given the key to the bottomless pit (Revelations 9:1) which is hell, and commanded by God to go there and leave His spiritual presence, which is spiritual death. Again, not death as a cessation to exist, but death as a spiritual separation from God. ItÃâs like sending your child to their room for punishment. You tell them to go to their room and close the door, but you donÃât lock them in there. Your child obeys because you have authority over them. So, what is your childÃâs punishment? Confinement and separation from you and the rest of the world; the realm that you control for that child.
Satan was confined to hell until the earth and the universe were created. He was confined there because the only other place that existed was the spiritual presence of God which he was not permitted to go except by permission from God. Once the earth was created, Satan now had another place he could roam that was not in the spiritual presence of God except when God manifested His presence to man. Although there were times when God manifested His spiritual presence on earth, as when He spoke to Abraham and Moses, the godhead of our triune God, that is, God Himself does not dwell on the earth. He sent His son, Jesus, a part of the triune God to live on the earth for a time, and He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell on the earth with us today, but God, Himself, the godhead of our triune God, does not dwell on the earth with us today as the Holy Spirit does or as Jesus did when He was manifested in the physical realm here on earth except in the concept that a part of God dwells within each of us because He gave us a part of Himself at creation.
You might ask, ÃâI thought everything was in GodÃâs realm?Ãâ Yes, everything is in GodÃâs realm but not necessarily in GodÃâs spiritual presence. Hell is in GodÃâs realm, but God's spiritual presence, that is God Himself, is not in hell, nor is He on the earth. The Holy Spirit, a part of the triune God dwells on earth with us now, but not God Himself. There were times when God manifested Himself on earth when He spoke to the prophets, but He does not need to do that anymore because the Holy Spirit is here with us all the time. People ask, ÃâHow come we donÃât see or hear from God anymore like we used to in the time of Moses and Abraham?Ãâ The reason is because the Holy Spirit is here with us now. We just need to learn how to communicate with Him.
The battle Jesus fought in the spiritual realm brought changes to our relationship with God because that battle restored our spiritual right to commune with God in His spiritual presence. WeÃâre going to explain more about this in the next chapter. One of the biggest changes that occurred in the spiritual realm is the requirement on us of faith. Did you know that the word faith only appears in the Old Testament of the King James Version of the Bible two times, but occurs more than 200 times in the New Testament? Do you think faith became more critical to our spiritual life after Christ? I would say at least 100 times more critical. Not that faith wasnÃât important in the Old Testament times, but faith is obviously much more a factor in our relationship with the triune God today.
How could Jesus descend into hell to battle Satan if Jesus is God? Yes, Jesus is a part of the triune God, but Jesus was spiritually separated from God during that battle. This was the whole point of the crucifixion which weÃâre going to get into as soon as we get through this foundation of why and how these events had to occur.
Why could Satan leave hell and roam earth? Because he had the key to the bottomless pit. He was given the key to open hell and confine himself there. His penalty for rebellion was not necessarily confinement in hell but was separation from God. God created hell inside of His realm but outside of His spiritual presence for Satan and his minions to have a home, a dwelling, a place of punishment to send them that was not within the spiritual presence of God. Satan could come and go from hell because he had the key to hell, but there was no other place for him to go until earth was created. ÃâWhat is the significance of Satan possessing the keys to hell and death?Ãâ The significance is that possessing the keys to hell and death is spiritual control of the penalty for sin. Although our triune God could forgive sin, He could not deny the penalty for sin and remain spiritually just. ÃâWhy didnÃât God just take back the keys to hell and death?Ãâ Well, He did and weÃâre going to explain how He did it in the coming chapters.
ÃâWhat about the story of Job? How could Satan come along with the angels to present themselves to God if his penalty for rebellion was separation from God?
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. Job 1:6 (KJV)
The reason Satan came into GodÃâs presence with the other angels is because God summoned Satan for a Holy purpose. That too is another story, but the point is that even though Satan controls the penalty for sin which is hell and spiritual death, which keeps us spiritually separated from God because remember: GodÃâs spiritual presence is not in hell nor is it on earth except in those times that God, Himself, manifests Himself on the earth, Satan is still under GodÃâs authority. Satan must come when he is called. God used Satan for a Holy purpose in the story of Job.
ManÃâs status is not the same as SatanÃâs because Satan has the spiritual right and authority to claim our souls if we have not been righteous; if we have denied God and His sovereignty, if we have denied Jesus or failed to receive forgiveness of sins and His payment for our sins, or if we have blasphemed the Holy Spirit. As long as Satan is not bound and secured inside of hell, he can roam in and out of hell anywhere that is not in the spiritual presence of God. His penalty for rebellion was the same as our penalty for sin, spiritual separation from God. However, manÃâs penalty for sin goes one step beyond the fallen angels because we have something they donÃât have. We have a soul. When manÃâs soul is condemned to hell because of sin, we do not have the spiritual authority to roam outside of hell as Satan and his minions do because Satan has authority over a soul condemned to hell, not because God gave him that authority, but because we gave Satan that authority by denying God.
Once a condemned soul goes to hell it can not leave, that is, not until they are summoned by God for final judgment which weÃâve got a long way to go before we get into that. Why? Because once a soul is in hell, there is no other place it can go. A perished soul canÃât go back to earth and it canÃât be in the spiritual presence of God. Now, since Satan has authority over souls in hell, it may be possible for Satan to allow a spirit to return to earth, or for Satan to send a spirit back to earth for his own purposes. Satan may have that authority. If thereÃâs anything to the stories and reports we read or hear about involving sightings of the dead, this could be an explanation. IÃâm not saying these stories are true, IÃâm just saying that if they are true, this could be an explanation. Why does Satan have this authority in the spiritual realm? Probably because Satan was a leader in GodÃâs realm at the time of his rebellion and I suspect God would have to compromise Himself to remove Satan from a position of spiritual authority. Remember: God is spiritual. He would have to change Himself to change the way His spiritual realm works and God is unchanging.
God needs a reason to claim our souls at the time of our physical death to remain spiritually righteous Himself. He has no reason to claim anyone who has denied Him. Hey, if you donÃât want any part of God, why would He want you? He still loves you and He gives you a lifetime of opportunity to come to him, but after physical death He canÃât justly claim your soul if you have denied Him. Again, thatÃâs spiritual justice and He would have to compromise Himself to claim an unrighteous soul.
So, God could claim the soul of a righteous person; anyone who believed in Him and believed in His sovereignty and made atonement for their sins in the physical world through sacrifice, or through shame, or through repentance; He could forgive their sins if they sought forgiveness, but He still could not pay the spiritual penalty required for their sins to allow them to enter into His spiritual presence justly because Satan still controlled the keys for hell and death, the keys for the penalty of sin. By forgiving their sins He could keep them out of hell, but they could not enter into His spiritual presence unless the penalty for sin was paid.
God needed a way to pay the penalty for sin that was spiritually just. How could He do this and still remain a just God without compromising Himself in the process; without compromising righteousness and justice? You see, Satan now had the spiritual right to take the soul of an unrighteous person away from God. Satan had the spiritual right to claim any soul that was perverse and disobedient to God and God, because of justice, would have to let them be taken by Satan into hell. Our God is a just God. If God were to compromise Himself our whole existence would collapse. If GodÃâs righteousness were to collapse, His omnipotent authority to sustain the creation of His faith would also collapse. What would happen then? SatanÃâs rebellion would become successful and the order and relationship God created in the universe would collapse into chaos. Now, you have to understand that this is SatanÃâs ultimate goal; to rise above our GodÃâs authority and destroy what He has created and ultimately to make God subservient to himself. Why would Satan even think this is possible unless it really is possible? Why would Satan believe he could ever have sovereignty over God unless it was attainable? So, how could this be possible? ItÃâs possible by God giving up sovereignty. How could God give up sovereignty? By compromising Himself; His righteousness and His justice.
If, however, God had a just reason to claim a personÃâs soul because of the righteousness of that person, He could claim that soul for Himself. The Bible tells us that most men were evil and full of sin on the earth. But, there were some that remained righteous even in the influence and temptation of sin roaming the earth. Being righteous doesnÃât mean they were sinless. Sin is embedded in us from birth. Only Jesus, through His Holy conception by the Holy Spirit was born sinless. Righteousness then and today can be identified by the will of each personÃâs heart. Although we can not be perfectly righteous, the intentions of our will can be righteous by believing in God and in His righteousness even though we sometimes fail by sinning. As long as our will remains righteous in intent by believing in God and in His sovereignty, God can justly claim us. It is only when our will chooses to deny God and His sovereignty that He can not justly claim our souls. This is the clear distinction between our souls being claimed by God or by Satan at the time of our physical death. Yes, thereÃâs more to it than this which weÃâll get into later. But, for now, we need to understand that the most basic building block between heaven and hell is the distinction of whether we accept God as truth or deny God as false. All of Christianity resides on this building block.
Okay, that being said, man still had a problem. Although at the time of physical death God could claim the soul of a person with a righteous intent so that Satan could not take that soul into hell to pay the penalty for the sins that had been committed, we still could not justly commune with God in His spiritual presence face to face because the penalty for our sins was still there and unpaid. Man nor God had any way to pay that penalty yet. Why does it matter whether the penalty for sin is ever paid? Because of justice. Remember: our God is a just God. He would have to compromise Himself to be unjust and allow man to restore his relationship with Him while his debt for sin was still owed to the entity that controlled the penalty for sin, that entity being Satan. If He were to compromise Himself, He would have to give up His sovereignty of all that exists and Satan could then claim sovereignty of all that exists. God is the author of order and relationship. Satan is the author of chaos. Our world has order and relationship because God is sovereign. Our world would become chaos if Satan were to become sovereign.
Satan still possessed and controlled the keys to hell and death. As long as Satan could justly demand a penalty for sin he could keep man separated from God. What would have to happen to correct this problem in the spiritual realm is God would have to take back possession and control of the keys to hell and death, and again, He would have to do it in a way that did not compromise His justice. He had a plan to do this but it would take time to fulfill. For the time being, that is the time following AdamÃâs sin, God needed a place where He could send souls that had remained righteous by the intent of their will. He could justly keep them out of hell because their hearts were righteous even though they were not sinless, but He could not restore their right to commune with Him in His spiritual presence until the penalty for their sins had been paid.
So God created a place for righteous souls to go after physical death. Now, once again, by righteous I mean men and women who believed in GodÃâs righteousness and sovereignty. God could justly claim these souls and protect them from paying the penalty of their sins, which was eternal %%ation in hell, because their intentions were righteous. Even so, He still had no way to justify the payment for their sins so these souls could enter into His spiritual presence. He created a place called Paradise until His plan to take back the keys to hell and death could be fulfilled. This spiritual place called Paradise is not the same physical place called Paradise which contained the Garden of Eden and the tree of life. This spiritual Paradise was a holding area; a spiritual place between heaven and hell where souls could exist in the spiritual realm without existing in either hell or in GodÃâs spiritual presence which we call heaven. Even Jesus called this holding area Paradise when He told one of the criminals being crucified with him on Calvary, after this criminal asked Jesus to remember him in the after-life, that he would be with Him in Paradise before the day was over. How many souls were there? We donÃât know, but we do know Abraham and Lazarus were there and we know from this place called Paradise that you can see into the pit of hell because Jesus gives an account, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, of a rich man in hell who calls up and speaks to Abraham in Paradise.
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Luke 16:19-31 (KJV)
Paradise was a place where God could send righteous souls until He could justly redeem them from SatanÃâs control of hell and death by paying the penalty for their sins. Now, this place called Paradise is technically in the kingdom of God as everything that exists is within the kingdom of God. The souls that were there were under His protection and care, but the souls in Paradise could still not commune with God in His spiritual presence. They had His protection and His intercession, but they could not yet enter into heaven, into His spiritual presence until the penalty for their sins had been paid. GodÃâs plan to redeem these souls would some day be fulfilled.
Now, physically, back on earth, God wanted to give man an avenue to regain or retain his righteousness. Man was destined to sin, but the intentions of his heart could still remain righteous. How could God provide a way for man to make atonement for the sins he knew man was going to commit? God began to accept animal sacrifices as a way for man to atone for his sins. Blood is the life-force of every living creature. Blood-letting was GodÃâs provision before Jesus came to earth for man to seek atonement for sin, but it was purely an act of repentance in the physical world. It had no effect or power in the spiritual world. God was still working on His plan to redeem man spiritually for his sins.
There were times when God was ready to give up on man. In Genesis chapter six, man had become so full of evil that God was ready to just wipe us off the face of the earth, but then He remembered Noah. Noah was a righteous man. God decided to start over. He instructed Noah to build the ark and bring pairs of all the creatures on it so they would be preserved in the great flood. After the flood God seemed to come to an understanding about this creature called man He had created. In Genesis, chapter 8, God said, I will not again curse the ground any more for manÃâs sake; for the imagination of manÃâs heart is evil from his youth. God seemed to come to an understanding of the nature of man; that man has a sinful nature from birth and He realized He was going to have to work with us to try to help us choose righteousness. Yes, God is omnipotent. God knows our hearts, but remember; we were a new creature, a living soul with a will. We were created with an ability to make choices that other creatures donÃât have. Can we surprise God with our choices? No, not really. A better word might be disappoint. We certainly can disappoint God with our choices.
God gave man every opportunity He could to be righteous. He warned us over and over again to resist sin. He blessed righteous men with wealth and possessions, which should have been great examples for us to live a righteous life. When we wouldnÃât listen to His chosen leaders like Abraham and Moses he sent an angel to warn His people, then he set up a system of judges to direct His people, then kings, then more prophets, but Satan was powerful on the face of the earth and manÃâs soul was weak. Our physical nature embraces spiritual sin, almost like they are attracted to one another. God gave us free will to choose our own destiny and too often we choose sin over righteousness. Why? Because our physical nature is so much more evident to us then our spiritual nature. Every person on the planet will agree that they have a physical body, but not every person will agree that they also have a spiritual persona in them.
Our desires, our greed, our selfish nature, which are fed to us through our spiritual half, tempt and drive our physical bodies to attain those desires and fulfill our greed and our selfish nature. We were made this way by God, with a physical half and a spiritual half but we disappoint God every time we choose to satisfy our physical nature rather than to build our spiritual nature with faith and love for Him and for other people. We are designed to seek substance from the earth, our souls crave substance, but too often we choose the wrong substance. We choose the substance of drugs, alcohol, possessions, ##@, status, power, authority over others, and other people instead of the substance God says we must have now to overcome the sin we are born with in our souls.
That substance is Faith. Paul says in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1 that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But, then goes on to say in verse 2: For by it the elders obtained a good report. Paul begins to give examples of men and women of the Old Testament who had obtained righteousness with God through their faith and he is urging the people of his day to also persevere with faith and they too will receive righteousness with God. Then in verse 6 Paul drives this message home about the importance of faith:
Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is God, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 (KJV)
ThereÃâs that building block again. We must believe that our God is who He says He is and believing in God is believing that He is sovereign in both the physical and the spiritual realms.
So, how could God reclaim His people? How could God redeem our souls? How could God take back SatanÃâs right to claim the souls of man with justice rather than with power that would be unjust? Knowing that we would all forever be born into sin, how could God provide true spiritual atonement for sin, payment of the penalty for sin, and purification of manÃâs soul to make him Holy again? Satan had a spiritual right to claim our souls. Adam gave him that right when he sinned.
Since man chose to give Satan access to his soul by sinning, now God would have to provide a way for man to choose atonement. God did this in the physical by making blood-letting of sacrificed animals manÃâs physical atonement for sin. By this process, man could atone for his sin in the natural and upon his physical death his soul could enter into Paradise. This was still not the spiritual presence of God, but at least it would keep man out of hell. This Paradise was known as the Ãâthird heavenÃâ by the people in JesusÃâ time. The first heaven being GodÃâs spiritual presence, the second heaven being the one He created in Genesis, chapter one, for the earth to exist in, and this third heaven, also called Paradise, being a spiritual place God created where souls could go which was between GodÃâs spiritual presence and hell.
So, now the problem was how could God provide a choice for man where he could be redeemed for his sins in the spiritual realm and then justly have the right to enter into GodÃâs spiritual heaven? Our triune God had a plan. A plan that would require sending Jesus to earth in physical form to do battle with Satan for our redemption knowing that this would mean great turmoil and suffering for His triune part, Jesus. The best way to describe this part of God in our terms is that Jesus is His son. This would be like sending your own son off to fight in a battle that you knew he was going to suffer and die in that battle, but you did it because you loved the people you knew he would save in the battle. Remember, we are created in GodÃâs likeness. There are plenty of fathers and mothers who have sent their sons and daughters off into battle for other people and those children have not come home. We can understand this sacrifice God was making for us because we were made in His likeness.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
So, this verse tells us about Jesus coming to earth because God loved the world and we are of this world, and how man would then be given a choice. If we believe in the kingdom of God, if we have faith in what we cannot see, we will have everlasting life with God in His spiritual presence. Now the plan had to be carried out and when it was completed, Jesus would have authority over hell and death. He would have the keys to hell and death and He will have taken them from Satan.
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Revelations 1:18 (KJV)
(This is an excerpt from our book "The Worship Principle". It's deep, deep stuff. Are you ready to understand more? Go to our website at www.AgapeSolutions.org. This book and our second book "Worthy of Worship" are available there and at many other on-line stores like Amazon, Target, etc. Get it today and learn what God wants to show you about His kingdom.)
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