Lesson 1-A The Eternal Covenant Purposed

1/22/2013

Lesson 1- A

                                           The Eternal Covenant Purposed

                        Hebrews 13:20; Titus 1:1-2; 2 Timothy 1:9-10

Scripture begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). In His word God shows us that in the beginning of time He was there (see Jn.1:1-3). There was a purpose to marking out a period of time in eternity - for a creation.

                                                                                                                                               

In the simplicity of the first statement concerning Himself, God shows Himself to be eternal and preexistent to the time which He began. Also He showed Himself to be self-existent and sufficient for the things which He purposed and which He had planned for the period of time marked out in eternity.

We have God’s word for it that there are three personal beings in one essence God (see Is.48:16-17; Mt.3:13-17; Rom.1:20; Heb.9:14; 1 Jn.5:7). The Hebrew word for “God” here in Genesis chapter 1 is Elohim, the Mighty One. Elohim is a plural word. The Hebrew has a singular and a dual plural and a more than dual plural.

Elohim is more than dual plural. No number is given, but as we continue to study Scripture we learn that there are three persons and only three persons who are personal beings of Deity. Not one of the beings is begotten. Each one is eternal, self-existent and preexistent to the beginning of time.

A person has an intellect, a mind with which to think thoughts and learn wisdom and take in knowledge and reason for oneself. Also a person has emotions with one’s own personal feelings and desires. Each person has his own personal will to make choices and carry through decisions of the choices.

With God, the three personal beings are of one mind, with one desire, and all of one will. God, in essence Deity, has a mind, but He does not learn. He is omniscient - all-knowing (Is.40:13-28; Rom.11:34).

We might ask ourselves, Why did this one God with three personal beings begin something by creating the heavens and the earth? What did He have in mind for His time, space and matter? As we read further in chapter 1 of Genesis, in verse 26 we read, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” The plural word Elohim is used here also, and the pronouns “us” and “our” are plural. However the word “image” is singular.

We understand that God purposed to have other personal beings and that He created them, and that He created them male and female (Gen.1:27; 7:2). God shows us that the purpose of the created heavens and earth is for an environment for His created mankind (see Is.45:18).

In the Pentateuch, the first five books of Scripture, written by Moses, God shows us how in six days He ordered His time, space and matter into the right environment for the man He created (see Gen.1; Ex.30:8-11). God shows Himself to us in His word, in His works and in His ways.

God is eternal - circular - without beginning or end. God is Life - eternal life (Jn.1:4). He is; that is, He has being. God is Light, eternal light. In Him is no darkness at all (1 Jn.1:5). God is Love - eternal love (1 Jn.4:7-9).

In His very being God is spirit (Jn.4:24). God is an immaterial, invisible being of spirit. Spirit does not have an image, He yet purposed to make man in His image. This meant He must make an image for Himself.

Only an omniscient, all-wise, all-knowing God could conceive a plan to have man in His image, after His likeness. Only an omnipotent, all-powerful God, who is also omnipresent, could carry the plan through.

Eternal God, personal being in very essence eternal Deity cannot reproduce His very essence. “Eternal” is “without beginning or end.” God could and did share the very essence of His spirit being with His mankind.

Man, each one a personal, living being, would be a thinking, feeling, choosing living being. And each one would come into being in time. Each one would have a beginning. Man also would, as a spirit being, be invisible and immaterial, without image.

There must be an image for God and man to share. The image must be corporeal. An image can be seen and touched. God chose a body for an image. The first body image must be created. There is no eternal image. A personal being can be put in a body as a dwelling place. The body will clothe the inner personal being of mankind. The clothing of the body would make the invisible person dwelling in it visible.

The living soul of spirit being in the body would animate the body. The speech and action of the body would make known the invisible personal being who is doing the thinking and feeling emotion and making choices. These are all carried out in the speech and the activities of the body and are also shown in body language.

In eternity past, before God began to carry out His plan in time, He formed the plan and designed man in His image, and made His Eternal Covenant with Himself with hope of life everlasting for His man (Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10; 1 Pet.18-25). The created body for man is the first step in the image of God. The image of God must be of eternal life.

There need be only one created body for man. Seed is put in the body of man to reproduce after his kind, bodies of human flesh. The seed would contain a germ cell of life to bring forth a like body of the life of the germ cell in the seed (1 Cor.15:38). This is true in the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom, as well as the creation of humanity.

It is especially illustrated in the vegetable kingdom. The seed for a body can be a seed coat containing a germ cell of life, or a bulb, or any part of a living plant from which a new plant will grow. The germ cell is needed to bring forth the new body after its kind of life. Life must come from pre-existing life and like reproduces like kind.

We see this in the creation of God’s first man. Jehovah God Himself formed the body for the first man. He formed it from the dust of the ground and breathed into the nostrils of the body the breath of life, and man became the soul of life, a living soul (Gen.2:7). “Breath” is the key to the life of the soul, the personal being of man. In Proverbs 20:7 the same Hebrew word for “breath” in Genesis 2:7 is translated “spirit.” “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah.”

The life of the soul activates the mind, emotions and will. The life of the soul is the very breath - life - of God Himself. It is spirit life, the life God is, shared with man by the eternal God. It is therefore endless life. The personal being, having come into being of spirit life, will always be.

Man himself, in his very being, was given life from the pre-existing life of God. It is life of His kind - spirit being. Not so the life of the created body. The life of the created body was not pre-existent. The life of the body of human flesh is in the blood (Gen.9:4; Lev.17:11). God breathed or blew the first breath into man’s lungs through the nostrils of the formed body and began man breathing on his own.

The body of the earth is the image of man in human flesh. You see the body. You can touch it. A created body is a thing of time. The body of human flesh will have an end. The personal being in the body has no power of sharing life everlasting with the body. The personal being has life shared with God. God, who shared His eternal life with the personal being of man, must also give life to the mortal body. Life for a body is in the germ cell of life of a seed.

It would take two kinds of bodies of human flesh for the image of the earthy body of human flesh. First God created man in a body of the earth, earthy. It was a male body and seed was put in the body to reproduce after its kind - a body bearing the image of the earthy. The seed, when planted, would bring forth after its kind, a body bearing the image of the earthy - a body of human flesh. For conception of the germ cell of human flesh, the seed must be planted in a body of like kind, a body of the earth, earthy - a body of human flesh.

Therefore God must have a female body, a body of human flesh with a womb, where the seed of man can be planted to conceive life and develop an embryo and bring forth another body of its kind - human flesh. Man’s seed would bring forth either a male or a female body. The seed implanted in the womb of earth would determine which kind of earthly body would be birthed - a male or a female.

All earthly bodies, each birthed a body of human flesh, has one purpose. It is a seed coat for a body in the image of God - the image of the heavenly Lord from heaven (see 1 Cor.15:35-49). At birth the seed coat is not given the eternal life germ cell to bring forth a body in the image of God - a birthed son of God.

For His image, God must have an immortal, imperishable body. The created body will not do. For the image of God, it must be after His kind - a body with life of spirit being. For such a body, God must have a seed. The seed will bring forth an immortal, imperishable body. The immortal, imperishable body brought forth from that seed will have seed in itself - seed for much fruit of immortal, imperishable bodies - flesh and bone bodies bearing the image of God.

For the seed coat God must have a body of the earth - in the image of the created body of human flesh. In that body of human flesh, God would put eternal life, the germ cell needed to raise up the body of the earthy out from the dead, alive, immortal and imperishable (see Jn.5:26; 1 Pet.1:3-5; 3:18).

The earthly body would be a seed coat to fall into the ground and die. The germ cell of eternal life would give life to the body and raise it up born again, with life of spirit being - the life of the germ cell. The body of spirit being raised up out from the dead would be Seed to bring forth much fruit of immortal, imperishable bodies of eternal spirit being to live forever (Jn.12:23-24; 11:23-27; 1 Cor.15:50-57; Phil.3:21).

God being omniscient, through His foreknowledge, could see that if He made beings other than Himself and gave them the freedom of choice, man would choose to lean to his own understanding and choose for himself other than what God had purposed for him.

God’s purpose for the body of human flesh in which He has clothed mankind is to be a seed coat for a forever living body. Therefore the personal being clothed with the body must not think of the body as his. The body is a creation of God, given to the person as temporary covering to cover, that is, to clothe the inner man until he receives the body birthed of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. Therefore, the body is God’s by right of creation (1 Cor.6:19-20). If the personal being does not choose to obey the truth to be born again, he will be unclothed and left naked forever (see 2 Cor.5:1-3).

Once a soul has been enlifed with spirit being and birthed in a body of human flesh and blood, the person will always be. God’s life of spirit being is. Death has no part in life eternal. The death of the body does not end the spirit life of the personal being - the soul. The soul is merely clothed with the body. The person wears the body like a garment.

Also, the person who dwells in the body must not think of the body as him. He is the personal being, the one who animates the body. The earthly body is only for here and now for one’s time upon earth. The earthly body has one purpose - it is the seed coat for a body in the image of God.

Man must, in his lifetime, choose to be born again (see Jn.3:3-8). He must, in the very being of his soul, come to understand God’s purpose for his being and choose to receive the Gift of life everlasting shared with Him in God’s Anointed Son, Jesus, that he might bear the image of God forever.

As the body is given to the personal being of soul to keep and animate in the will of God - so - the soul of life is also given to the personal being to activate in the will of God. Man is to be enlightened as to the will of God in the very spirit of his being.

First man is enlightened through hearing the report of the gospel of Christ, who is the outshining of God’s glory (see 2 Cor.4:4-6; Heb.1:1-3). This light is given through the Holy Spirit shining the light into a darkened heart through a witness to the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. This witness of the report of the gospel is passed from faith to faith. One having heard the report of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation and having believed into Christ Jesus to become the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, passes the report on to others that they might have faith in Jesus Christ (see Rom.1:16-17; 10:13-15).