The reason there can be only one God, and why Christ, who is also God, has always known and accepted his place in relation to the Father, is that the Father is ultimately the one who keeps this universe on track and running smoothly. When it comes to engineering, there is none like the God of Heaven,
When designing something new, the Father has taken the responsibility for seeing the end of a creation from its very beginning, before it is even begun. When he places a new solar system online, he knows exactly how it is going to affect the other planetary bodies already there, for eternity. In an area of the universe meant to sustain life there can be no paradoxes, no twisting or compression of world lines in space. There are vast secrets that that can be found between the particles that make up atoms. From those secrets God has extracted the power to change the shape of worlds and to move stars. He can even consider moving entire galaxies. He has explored other realities and other space. He is able to adjust the frame of time and to find meaning in the level of fate.
The engineering foresight for us to simply place something into Earth orbit is extremely complex. Once the object has reached orbit the logistics alone keep NASA busy. Since the beginning of space flight they have had to keep track of everything that is orbiting this planet so that whatever they launch into space does not collide with a satellite, or a wrench an astronaut accidentally lost that is traveling over seventeen thousand miles an hour, or any other number of objects with the potential to cause devastation to a delicate object meant to take intricate measurements, or sustain human life while in space.
I say all of this because before the Earth and all of its inhabitants were created, there was a plan already in place to make it possible for Adam and Eve to continue living and eventually re-inherit eternal life, should they decide to rebel against their Creator and listen to the lies of the enemy of God.
Adam and Eve were not around when the rebellion in Heaven first took place. They never had the opportunity the rest of the universe had; to see how the rebellion against God's ways came about, to watch and understand all of the events that were a result of that rebellion and how everything used to be, as compared to how they were at the time of their creation.
If Adam and Eve had withstood the temptation to believe Lucifer’s lies they would have forever been placed beyond his reach and deceptions and they would have continued to live in eternal perfection. All of their descendants would have been born with perfect human natures as well and they would have continued to live perfect and eternal lives. That unfortunately is not what happened, as we well know. However, God was willing to give them a choice for redemption and here is where the interesting part that many people misunderstand begins.
Christ was “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." – Revelation 13:8. Christ had made the decision, before the world had been created, that if Adam and Eve were to turn their allegiance and the stewardship of the world over to Lucifer and decided to go their own way instead of God’s, then he, Christ, was willing to take their place in death. Because of Christ taking their place in death they could continue to live forever if they accepted the substitution that Christ would offer and if, from then on, they would chose to live in obedience to God. The Earth that God had created would also continue to remain in his domain.
"Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of he son is Mine; the soul who sins (rebels against me) shall die." – Ezekiel 18:4. Disobedience required the death of the offender. Death, because of disobedience, is one of God’s rules in this universe of his. If you want to go your own way, you have to give back everything that God gave to you and that includes the life he gave you.
Life 101 teaches us, that if you take life away from a living, breathing creature then death is the result. Death is a natural consequence of rebellion in this creation and there is nothing you or I can do to change it. Of course you do have the option of bringing yourself back to life after you have died. If you can bring yourself back to life then you can continue to live as you wish...well, you would also have to create another universe for yourself to live in because as far as I know this universe belongs to God. Creating another universe would be only a minor inconvenience though; if you could bring yourself back to life, then you should also be able to easily create another universe for yourself.
God made you and me just as he made everything in the heavens above and on the Earth we stand on. Creation gives him the right, the sovereign right, to do whatever he pleases with it and to make any rule he cares to make for the inhabitants who live there to follow. I’m not going to argue with him.
In God’s behalf though, I would like to point out that there is not a selfish, self-centered part you would be able to find in his entire character. Everything that God asks of us is ultimately for our best good and for the best good and benefit of those who live around us.
All of God’s creation lives in complete, selfless, love and harmony when things are done his way. Love and harmony are a natural result of life when it comes to God’s ways. It is like floating down a river when you are living in a state of perfection and doing things God’s way. There is no effort to it at all.
The reason it is difficult now is because there is an enemy of God who is at work in this world and he is continuing to do everything in his power to disrupt God’s little world called Earth.
This enemy is always near and is constantly using all of his influence to get us to do those things that are against the will of God. Now you know the real reason why there is so much pain and suffering in this world. It is not because God is responsible for it all. It is because we decide to follow the other leader and are refusing to do things God’s way, which is the best way. God, being true to his character in granting all life free will, is letting us have our own way; as a result we are harvesting the results of our own selfish actions.
Free will. If you are someone who has decided to leave God out of your life then he will give you that absolute freedom to reject him and his ways. When someone else, who has also decided to leave God out of their life, approaches you with a gun and is determined to put a bullet into your brain, does God have to intercede and save your life? No he does not. You have chosen to not give him that right. Oh, he could intercede, under certain circumstances, but he always allows each individual on this planet to choose their own path and to either choose, or not choose, to allow him to intercede in their lives. You cannot blame God for allowing you, or someone else, to use that personal and sacred freedom of choice in a selfish way and then proclaim that an injustice has been done when things go wrong.
When Christ offered the gift of redemption to Adam and Eve he was offering them his life, and in exchange he was going to die in their place. Christ offered our first parents another chance at eternal life. To their and our benefit, they accepted the trade. They accepted it and promised God that they would continue, from then on, to live according to his ways.
Disobedience to God’s laws result in death; I think we have established that now. In this case, disobedience was going to take the innocent life of Christ who was not guilty of disobedience and the disobedient ones were going to be declared innocent and continue to live the life of the innocent victim of their death. Redemption is quite a trade. Not too many people would be willing to take the place of someone who was an enemy of theirs. In human terms it would be like someone murdering a person I loved and then receiving the death penalty for that murder. I can just about guarantee that I would not stand up in court and tell the judge that I would be willing to take the murders place. I doubt you would either. We would all stand back and watch justice prevail and leave the guilty person to the consequences of their own actions. However, that is what Christ is offering each of use, his life in exchange for our death.
We will see in a little bit how Christ knew what was going to happen to him after he was born into this world in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. Right now though Adam and Eve are going to have to learn what it is like for an innocent victim to die because of their actions.
"The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings." – Genesis 3:7.
Those fig leaf garments were a result of their own efforts to regain their dignity and the life force that they were now aware of; the life force that was slowly draining out of their bodies. Christ told them that it was impossible for them to keep themselves alive or regain their former dignity by their own efforts. This is a lesson for us as well.
Without accepting God's offer of redemption there is nothing we can do to remain alive forever or to make ourselves perfect or acceptable. The gifts of righteousness and eternal life are free. God will not let you pay a penny for something that has cost him dearly to provide. If he did, then we could say, “Look what I did. I saved myself without God’s help.” That kind of attitude is offensive to God when people making that claim are staying alive only because they are graciously being given life.
"For Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." – Genesis 3:21. In order to replace the garments of their own “works” God took the life of innocent animals so the skin of those animals could be used for a covering.
Imagine seeing something killed when you had never seen death before. It was especially hard for Adam and Eve because the animals had done nothing wrong and were in perfect health but those were the consequences of rebellion; first, the serpent having to suffer, now animals being killed so they could be used for clothing. Soon, other animals and humans would be destroyed because they were now subject to the laws of a rebellious world. Everything on this world would feel the influence of the choices that others would make. Choices of those who decided to rebel against their creator. It was tooth and claw time on planet Earth.
Man used to enjoy close communion with the animal kingdom, but God placed a fear, or wariness of man into every creature. It was for every creature’s benefit that God did this because man was soon to become the ultimate killing machine. Nothing in the animal kingdom was safe from the likes of man anymore.
The Garden of Eden was a perfectly landscaped paradise, designed by God and given to Adam and Eve as a gift. If all things had continued as they should have then the garden would have continued to expand outward as the human population of this Earth continued to grow until the entire Earth was a Garden of Eden.
"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever;' - therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken." – Genesis 3:22-24. Adam and Eve were being evicted from the Garden of Eden that God had created for them because the garden contained the Tree of Life.
This tree was something you could compare to the fountain of youth. Evidently, whatever properties were in the fruit of this tree had the ability to prevent deterioration of the human body and to keep humanity young, vigorous and full of life for as long as the fruit was eaten. There is degeneration at work in the human body that medical science is very aware of and there is nothing we can do to prevent it. Eventually every organism ages and dies. However, that was not the case while humanity had access to the life-giving, restorative properties of the tree of life.
Because of their decision to rebel against God’s ways, Adam and Eve were denied the opportunity of eating that life-giving fruit and were moved to a location outside of the garden. They had to begin landscaping the Earth around them into a suitable place to live. In today's human terms they had just gone through a divorce with their Creator and they found themselves out on the street, having to start a new life of their own. Again, tough love.
I would like to continue with the results of the decision that our first parents made when they decided to believe the enemy of God instead of the God of their creation, but a question has been brought up that needs to be answered; a question that was brought up by the father of lies. That is what Jesus called him anyway, I'm not going to argue with him.
God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
When Lucifer was tempting Eve to just have a bite and see, he told her, “You will not die…”.
If you were in a similar situation, whom would you believe? Answer honestly now.