Christian Living
Before God made Adam and Eve, God said ‘let us make man…..’ (Gen 1:26). ‘So God created man…. Male and female created he them’ (Gen 1:27). When Adam knew his wife, she conceived and gave birth to a baby boy. She then said, ‘…I have gotten a man from the Lord’ (Gen 4:1) this is the reason Jesus said to Necodemus in John 3 that ‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit’. Man will always give birth to man
That which is born of the flesh is flesh is not limited to the physical sameness. It means absolute sameness; exact likeness, agreeing in every way. There are certain natural or inherited traits that bind a child to his parents. When Jesus explained this truth to the scribes and Pharisees, they became angry because he told them that He (Jesus) inherited his characters and nature from God, his father. ‘….Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham’ (John 8:39). He later explained to them where they inherited their evil characters and nature. ‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. For he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not’ (John8:44&45)
The Pharisees, the scribes, the chief priests and others in that category sought to kill Jesus many times before his eventual cruxification, they sought for people who would support them in their lies against him, and they refused to believe in the truth of his sonship of God not because those things were part of the things they naturally inherited from their father the devil. There was no place where they were taught to kill, tell lies and never to believe the truth, but all these things were part of their nature because they are part of the nature of the devil who happened to be their father. Verse 44 of John 8 calls the devil ‘the father of’ liars. His children are liars because he himself is a liar. ‘When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own’. He could not give birth to a truthful person because ‘there is no truth in him’ He gave birth to children made of his own stuff.
When God created Adam and Eve, God affirmed that they were very good (Gen 2:31). They were good because of the stuff they were made of. Man was made by spirit and the word of God (Gen 2:7, John 1:1-4). He became a living soul by the breath of life from God. He was born of God. ‘……Adam, which was the son of God’ (Luke 3:38)
Man was created in God’s image, after His likeness and with God’s nature. He was created physically sound; naturally good and spiritually perfect. God gave the dominion of the earth to man and the responsibility of naming every other creatures of the earth (Gen 1:28, 2:19). Man was like God!
What a beautiful place this earth would have been if man started pro-creating when he was still like God! A world where sickness would be an alien, where there would not be tribal and cultural differences, where no one would be poor, where hatred would not be known, where lies would never be told, where storms would never rage, where heat would never be too much, where flood would never ravage, where no one would be hungry, where no one would be greedy. This world would have been a world with absolute satisfaction, complete harmony and total rest.
What a pity! Man never pro-created before his fall. Genesis 1&2 gives us the picture of a perfect world, with the highest creature made in God’s image after God’s likeness. This perfect world existed for less than a century before Genesis 3 crept in- The genesis of new (evil) birth. Genesis of sin, sorrow, sickness, and sadness. Humn, genesis of this polluted world that is full of evil. What a pity, Genesis of perfection never experienced pro-creation. No child was born in Genesis one and two. The first child ever to be born came in Genesis four, after the Genesis Three fall. Cain came after Genesis three. What a miserable heritage Cain inherited. He came at a time when perfect Adam had become imperfect, when happy Adam had become sorrowful, when the fruitful soil had become cursed with thistles and thorns, when stress-free life had become sweat-filled life. Cain came when Saint Adam had already become slave to sin. Cain came at the wrong time. ‘Adam, which was God’s son’ (Luke 3:38) had lost his sonship before Cain arrived. Cain came when Adam already become an adopted son of Satan the devil.
Genesis chapter 5:1-3 is a summary of Genesis chapter one to chapter four. Gen 5:1&2 describe Genesis chapters 1&2. It tells us about the perfect Adam created in the perfect image and likeness of the perfect God in a perfect world with perfect blessing of God upon them. But verse 3 of Genesis 5 tells us about imperfect child created in the perfect image of imperfect Adam in an imperfect world with perfect cursed from God. Adam was created in the image of God, his father. He lived in that perfection until he lost his sonship in Genesis 3 to the devil, thus becoming like the devil. Adam was already a sinner before he started giving birth to his children. He therefore gave birth to sinners like himself. Adam begat a son in his (Adam) own image. ‘This is the book of the generation of Adam. In the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name, Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his (Adam’s) own likeness after his image … (Gen5:1-3)
Cain, Abel, Seth and other sons and daughters of Adam never experienced the peace, joy, happiness, rest, abundance, etc of Eden. They came after the banishment of their parents from God’s garden. They did not come until their parents were dead (separated from God). They were giving birth to in the land of the dead, full of sweat, labour, thorns, thistles, barrenness, hardship and the likes. Cain became self-centered, wicked and a murderer, not because his father sat him down and taught him how to kill his fellow human being, but because he inherited that nature from the devil, his adopted grand father through Adam his father. Though Abel never committed physical sin before he was murdered by his brother, but sin was in him. His blood cried for vengeance instead of forgiveness. ‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him’ Jn8:44. This trend of wickedness continued and got to climax in Genesis 6. ‘And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born into them… And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart… The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth; ves 1, 5, 6, 11 & 12.
When we look at our world today, almost all flesh is corrupt, violence has become part of our nature, and people live in wickedness without restrain. Why is wickedness spreading like summer bush fire? ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passeth upon all men, for that all have sinned… Nevertheless death reigned from Adam…. Even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression…. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemination, For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners… Rom. 5: 12, 14, 18 & 19.
Paul gave the answer to the reason behind prevalence of evil and wickedness in the world. All the earth became sinner because our first parents were already sinner before they started pro-creating. The nature of sin is an inherited nature. That which is born of the flesh is flesh again means that every one that is born of the flesh can not but obeys the desire of the flesh. Flesh desires and manifests idolatry, fornication uncleanness, lasciviousness, witch craft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling and such like (Gal 5: 19-21). This is contrary to what God wants. ‘So then they that are in flesh can not please God’ (Rom 8:8). They that are born of the flesh want to please God but they can not. It is not in their power to please God. It does not matter how a man tries, as long as he is in the flesh, he can not please God. He will always meet himself doing the wrong things. What is responsible for this? Satan and sin nature that reside in him. He is born with the nature of sin. This is what David was saying when he wrote: ‘behold, I was shapen in iniquities, and in sin did my mother conceived me’. (psalm 51:5).
Paul wanted to do the right thing but he found himself doing the contrary. Then he wrote to the Roman church. ‘I don’t understand my self at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong , and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can not help myself, because it is sin inside me that make me do this evil things. I know I am rotten through and through so fear as my old sinfully nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can not make myself do right. I want to, but I can not. When I want to do good, I do not, when I try not to do wrong I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; The sin within me is doing it (Rom. 7:15-20 NLT).
Can you now see why evil is prevalent everywhere? Can you now understand why many are unable to abide by their resolutions? You are not the one doing the wrong things you do. I understand that you even regret every time you meet yourself doing this evil and sin. But because you are born of the flesh, which had inherited sinful nature from Adam, the sin that is within you will still make you do evil.
I know you don’t love doing the wrong things you do. How do I know? Because your conscience tells you that what you are doing is wrong, though you can’t help yourself but do it. When you see a police man take bribe, you complain; but in your own office, you falsify records and steal money. You complain about the PHCN/NEPA official who demanded for bribe from you so as to avoid disconnecting your house from the national grid; but you too demand for gratification before you render your official service in your own place of work. You show displeasure to armed robbery and assassination rate in the world, but you have succeeded in killing many people with your mouth and pen. You defraud your neighbour by committing adultery with his/her wife/husband. When you hear about a rape crime, you rail curses upon the man who perpetrated it; but you too commit sin of exposing your nakedness when the law of God demands that you should not expose it.
The fact that you frown at evil shows that you do not love it, but unfortunately, you meet yourself perpetrating one. This is because you are born of the flesh, and they that are in the flesh can not please God (Rom 8:8). The sinful nature inherited from Adam makes you do it as well as others. (Rom 7:20). No one wants to go to hell after leaving the earth. All want to make it through to heaven and enjoy eternally. But the truth of the matter is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption (1 Cori 15:50). Hence, there is the need for a new birth not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
For any one who had been born of the flesh or of a woman to inherit God’s kingdom and enjoy as a child of God here on earth, the person needs a new birth. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3. For you to be delivered from the work of the devil and dominion of sin (in you), you need a new birth. A new birth under a new parent. A new birth that would impart new nature into you; not after the devil, but after the righteous God.
When a man gives his life to Jesus, He experiences a spiritual rebirth having God as his Father. He is expected to grow in the things of God by studying bible in a bible believing church and through personal bible study. This will enhance mind renewing and impartation of God's character.
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