Believers today are being challenged
and exhorted to develop a better self-image, and to exercise more
self-love. It is our intent to present both the
unscriptural, and the scriptural aspects of this important facet of the
Christian life.
If I have anything prominently before
me except the Lord Jesus, that thing, however good it is, becomes a screen for
something of myself, and where there is any self- consideration, the region of
spirituality is lost. It may be an amiable thing, but because it is of man and
not of God, it is not spirituality. --J. B.
Stoney
Fall Of The
Fall
There is a growing number of
Christians for whom the fall has fallen. To the degree that the believer
weakens his concept of the fall, he weakens his Christian life and service.
Error concerning the fall results in error concerning the two Adams; and error
concerning the two Adams results in error concerning one’s spiritual growth and
outreach.
Totality Of The
Fall
Scripture leaves no doubt as to the
totality of the fall. It was utter, and irrevocable. God made it very clear to
Adam that if and when he should sin, he would surely die. And the day that Adam
disobeyed God’s single stipulation, he died spiritually--he died unto God. And
all the race of mankind died unto God in Adam that day.
"For as in Adam all die" (1 Cor.
15:22). As a result, "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment." "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation" (Heb. 9:27; Rom. 5:18). "As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one." "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God" (Rom. 3:10, 23).
Without question Adam was originally
created in the image of God. "And God said, Let us create man in our image,
after our likeness...."So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him" (Gen. 1:26, 27).
But when Adam died to God, his
God-like image perished with him. "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not
always strive with man, for that he also is flesh" (Gen. 6:3). "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). "Among whom also we all had our manner
of life in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others"
(Eph. 2:3). "For to be carnally (fleshly) minded is death....Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither,
indeed, can be. So, then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom.
8:6–8).
The extent of the apprehension of the
depth and utter ruin of the first Adam nature caused by the fall, determines the
extent to which the new life in Christ can be brought to full growth in the
believer; for just so far as man clings to one supposed "good thing" in him, so
for the power of the Cross is nullified in his life, and so far the growth of
the new life is constricted in him.
Freedom from the dominion of sin is
the message of the Cross, but it can only be realized in experience up to the
extent of the believer’s recognition of the fall, and a consequent offcasting of
the fallen life of the first Adam at the place called
Calvary.
Anomaly
Those who slight the fall refer
consistently to the image of fallen Adam as "marred," or "blurred," or "in need
of restoration." They dare not consider Adam’s image a total ruin because they
are seeking its restoration, its reformation. For them it is back to the
unfallen Adam, via Christ!
There is a strange anomaly at the
core of the Reformation realm. On the one hand they go to the extreme of
teaching that the fall was not beyond recovery of the original; while on the
other hand they go so far as to insist that man is so dead in sin that it is
impossible for him to believe--"total depravity."
These Calvinists insist that the
Spirit must first regenerate the dead-unto-God individual, thereby giving him
life in order that he may believe unto life. This the Covenant theologians
refer to as "monergistic regeneration: the faith which receives Christ for
justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God, bestowed by spiritual
regeneration in the act of effectual calling." --J.I.Packer
"Faith Cometh By
Hearing"
The Scriptures present the reverse of
this theory. "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). First
believe, then receive. John writes, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on
him that sent me, hath everlasting life" (5:24). First hear, then believe, then
receive. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God; and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25). As a result of
hearing, the dead are given life.
James, Peter, and John all clearly
testify to the fact that life is entered into by believing, by faith. James:
"Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth (1:18). Peter, "Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God" (1
Pet. 1:23). John: "But these are written, that ye might have life through his
name" (20:31).
God commanded Israel to choose life.
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both thou
and thy seed may live" (Deut. 30:19). Concerning this plea to choose life, Dr.
L.S. Chafer wrote:
God having designed that man as
creature ... more»
--
Every honest believer who knows anything at all about the extensive and
all-important Romans Seven experience, realizes that the sins in his Christian
life are identical in character to those he experienced prior to salvation.
They are "the works of the flesh," the same all-too-familiar traits of the
person of the first Adam.
They are not the manifestation of some residual sinful habits,
left behind by a long-gone, eradicated, Adamic source. And they certainly
aren’t countered and replaced by the development of "good" new habits. Imagine
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our indwelling Christian life, having to develop
habits!
Every believer who knows the liberating Romans Eight life, "the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (v. 2), realizes that the
righteousness manifested in his Christian life has its source in the indwelling
life of the Last Adam, "the fruit of the Spirit." "That the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
The nature is the essential character of a person, a
life, the quality or qualities that characterize a person. The traits, the
attributes, comprise the nature of a man—whether it be the first Adam man, or
the Last Adam Man. We have the life of Adam, hence his sinful nature; we
have the Life of the Last Adam, hence His new and divine nature. The
Christian has two (2) life sources within, and the manifestation of their
natures is the undeniable evidence thereof—"the works of the flesh," and "the
fruit of the Spirit."
To mention but a few of the more prominent present-day
eradicationists—the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones (via his voluminous writings), John
MacArthur, David Needham, Charles Solomon, John Stott, Charles Stanley, Bill
Gillham, and Bob George.
Further Personal History
-- Positionally free from the
Adamic life through my death unto sin in the Lord Jesus, the Father was at
liberty to identify the essential me with His Son; and in His resurrection I was
recreated "alive unto God" in Him. When He arose, as the beginning of the (new)
creation of God (Rev. 3:14), I arose with Him in "newness of life"—a totally new
creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
When the Lord Jesus, now Head of the new heavenly creation (the
Church), ascended to the right hand of His Father, He took me with Him. The
Father, having re-created me in His Son, raised me up and made me to sit
together in heavenly places in Him. "And hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). Abide
Above!
I was positionally separated by death via the Cross from the first
Adam, to be recreated in union with the Last Adam in His resurrection and
ascension. Old Adamic things positionally passed away in the death of
Calvary. In my condition, they are (slowly) passing away as I
grow spiritually. Actually, finally, they will totally and
eternally pass away at my death or at the Rapture--whichever comes first. "Even
so, come Lord Jesus."
There I am in my glorious position, "hidden with Christ in God"
(Col. 3:3). In the Lord Jesus I am a new creation, I am accepted in the
Beloved, complete in Him, sanctified in Him, perfect in Him. With that
position, who can question his unconditional eternal security?!
All of that, and much more, has been held in spiritual
escrow for me ever since the One who is my life ascended to the right hand of
the Father. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ"
(Eph. 1:3).
All had to be completed positionally before a single
Christian and the Church could be brought into being, because Christianity is
founded upon and springs from the finished work of Christ. "And ye are
complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power" (Col.
2:10).
The Condition Factor
-- Born into the world in the life
and image of the first Adam, I grew up a condemned sinner, "dead in trespasses
and sins" (Eph. 2:1). In His foreordained time and purpose the Father called
me, and by His grace and the Spirit-caused conviction of sin, I responded in
unconditional faith—responsibly accepting the Lord Jesus as my own Saviour.
At that moment the Holy Spirit, by His indwelling, brought me the
life of the ascended Lord to be my Christian life. Then and there I was placed
in my position as a new creation in the Last Adam. Nevertheless, the old Adam
life continues to indwell my body of mortal flesh.
In the Spirit’s time I came to know of the positional truths of
the Word concerning me—from Romans 5:12 on throughout Paul’s Church Epistles. I
saw that I had judicially died to sin on the Cross, crucified with the Lord
Jesus (Gal. 2:20).
In time, and years of that, I learned via Romans Seven not to
struggle against the fleshly life of Adam within, but to count by faith upon the
positional truth of the finished work of the Cross. "For in that He
died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.
Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin, but to be
alive unto God in Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Rom. 6:11).
Likewise reckoning upon my position—"alive unto God in Christ
Jesus"—the Holy Spirit centers my heart and mind upon the One who is my
Christian life. As I behold Him by means of the Word, in personal fellowship
and worship, the Spirit of Christ causes that completed life to manifest the
"fruit of the Spirit." With ever increasing growth I am conformed to the image
of the Son. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, ... more»
