"We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life!"

(Romans 5:10 GNB)

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In part 2 we witnessed the introduction of Adam and Eve to the experience of death, having been deceived by the devil to pursue their own agenda, just like he had his. Having died a spiritual death and become corrupted by the devil's sin nature(dead in sin). Click here to read part 2, if you missed it.

God had to keep Adam and Eve away from the tree that would give them eternal life, to prevent them from living eternally, in a fallen corrupted state, while He implemented His solution to the sin and death problem once and for all.

1. "GOD said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never--this cannot happen!" So GOD expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they'd been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life." (Genesis 3:22-24 MSG)

To summarize what has happened so far. Adam was made in Gods image and with His nature. He had the very nature of God in Him, but by believing and obeying the devil, He died(became separated from God’s life) and by converse took on the Sin nature of the devil and became His bond servant. The devil thereby achieved his agenda and became the god of a God-independent world system.

1. "In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger." (Ephesians 2:1-3 GNB)

2. "Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey---either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God. But thanks be to God! For though at one time you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed with all your heart the truths found in the teaching you received." (Romans 6:16-17 GNB)

3. "For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," (Ephesians 4:22 MKJV)

4. "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." (John 8:24 KJV)

5. "..the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power. The devil said to him, "I will give all this to you, if you will bow down and worship me." (Matthew 4:8-9 CEV)

Abnormal use by the fugitive

Never created, only perverts

All that was made for us to enjoy

To satisfy the Lusts

Of the great big "I"

Leaving destruction in its wake

While failing to deliver on its promises

Return to original purpose

By a loving Creator

To be filled with His love

As He always intended

To richly enjoy, all He did provide

His blessing with out sorrow

That satisfies and overflows

The abundance with which we love others

Hell and the final death was reserved for the devil and all those that were under His authority(those who fell under His deception and hence shared his nature). Man with a sin nature was destined to share the devil's destiny unless God did something about it.

1. "The Devil who deceived them will be hurled into Lake Fire and Brimstone, joining the Beast and False Prophet, the three in torment around the clock for ages without end. ..Then Death and Hell were hurled into Lake Fire. This is the second death--Lake Fire. Anyone whose name was not found inscribed in the Book of Life was hurled into Lake Fire." (Revelation 20:10-15 MSG)

2. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell." (Matthew 10:28 GNB)

3. "and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels, with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might, when he comes on that Day to receive glory from all his people and honor from all who believe. You too will be among them, because you have believed the message that we told you." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 GNB)

God had an eternal purpose, which appeared to have been derailed, by the introduction of sin and the resulting death and corruption. Such could not abide in God’s presence let alone spend eternity in a love relation ship with Him. To add to that was the fact that they were now in league with God's enemy and destined to face with him a tormenting second death. Things were not looking good. The human race was now dead spiritually and heading for final showdown with death. They were in need of saving from death and restoration to God’s eternal purpose of a love relationship with Him for all eternity.

1. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" (Hebrews 12:14 KJV)

2. "We were God's enemies.."(Romans 5:10 GNB)

3. "You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in--first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it." (Romans 5:12-14 MSG)

God, not one to be caught unawares, was well ahead of the situation.

1. "For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." (Hebrews 4:12-13 MKJV)

2. "You were rescued from the useless way of life that you learned from your ancestors. But you know that you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don't last forever. You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb. Christ was chosen even before the world was created, but because of you, he did not come until these last days." (1 Peter 1:18-20 CEV)

In part 4 we will take a look at God’s announcement of His plan to fix the problem permanently.

Selah

(To be continued..)

click here to read part 4

To view others instalments in the series, click here