THROUGH THE BIBLE IN THREE YEARS
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Two little girls had just met at school. One asked the other, "Do you have any brothers and sisters?"
The second little girl responded, "Yes. I have two half-brothers and one half-sister."
The first little girl stopped in her tracks, looked at the other one and asked, "MY! Are you the only WHOLE one in your family?"
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Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
KJV
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Even at the point of creating man, God knew that man, whom He made "whole," would become fragmented due to SIN.
All it took for God to create a beautiful universe was for Him to say, "Let there be...," and it came into existence.
All it takes for God to make a man is a little dirt and a "breath" of God!
Man comes from part of God's creation, but man is the Lord's crowning part of creation.
Man's body comes from the dirt of the ground, but man's spirit (or real person) comes from God's eternal breath.
The body is a temporary tent which only houses the real person (2Cor. 5:1). When the body dies, the person created by God's "breath" returns to God for eternal judgment (Ecc. 12:6-7), because "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." (1 Cor 15:50)
Notice that in our text man became "a living soul." That means he exists for eternity!
God forms man, and gives him life.
Sin deforms man, and brings death.
Schools can inform man, and bring knowledge.
But only God can REFORM a man and make him able to inherit eternal glory!
At the beginning of creation, God formulated a plan. The plan was for redemption's price to be paid, and regeneration's provision to be made. BOTH are "in CHRIST!"
Jesus said that unless a man be "born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) And the Bible tells us that once we come to Christ and are born again, we are "new creature(s)" IN Christ (2Cor. 5:17). That new "creature" is ABLE to inherit everlasting life. Able because God MAKES him able. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2)
Our God KNOWS that "the wages of sin is death" (eternal dying).
But our God LOVES and provides eternal life IN Christ!
Love ya,
Bruce