The Fall

​

Man was created uncorrupt, free from prejudices, sinful lusts, and all evil; a miniature of God in soul and spirit faculties and had a physical body in His likeness. Man possessed extraordinarily enlightened spiritual and mental capabilities, and had spiritual and physical eternal life.

​

Genesis 1:26-27 — Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

​

God planned to share the love He had within Himself through a relationship with His created likeness. Therefore, He gave man free moral agency in order for the relationship to be truly mutual. He didn’t want man to love Him because they had to, but because they chose to. In order to have true freedom of choice, God presented one simple law that could be broken. He gave man access and authority over everything on earth, with the exception of one tree.

​

Genesis 2:15-17 — The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

​

Earth was Satan’s dominion before the creation of man. During that time Satan, full of pride in himself, developed a desire to be like God. He led a rebellion of angels to overthrow Him, but was struck down by God, his creator.  Even though Satan’s authority was stripped from him, he and his army still resided here on earth.

 

When God gave man dominion over the earth, Satan immediately sought to undermine that authority out of hatred for God and jealousy towards man. God gave Satan permission to present man with an opportunity to act in his God-given authority and free moral agency.

 

Man chose to entertain the counsel of the serpent which cleverly caused them to question God’s authority and true intensions. Satan had convinced man that the tree was God’s source of power and that He was selfishly keeping it for Himself (God had already given them authority and immortality). Satan wanted Adam and Eve to fall just as he wants you today. Satan did this by convincing them to disobey and overthrow God. Man voluntarily forfeited his authority by selfishly following the advisement of the serpent rather than the words of Almighty God. God made his commandment clear to man and His word never returns void. Man brought the penalty of physical and spiritual death upon himself by blatant disobedience.

​

Genesis 3:1-6 — Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” And the woman said to the serpent “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of it’s fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

​

Man was created with power to prevent all of this, and with free choice in the matter, he or she is still held solely responsible to God for choices made. Adam and Eve chose to forfeit eternal life in God’s perfect love and their positions in His eternal plan to live separated from Him by selfishly serving themselves. It was no more Eve’s fault than Adam. They both were listening to the serpent at the same time. Adam was present when this interaction took place. Since man no longer held a position of authority, all of their offspring (including you and I) have been made subject to sin and death. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

 

Romans 3:23 — For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

 

​

​

The Salvation of Man

​

Yet, this was not the end of God’s plan for mankind. Though man was deceived by Satan and rejected the responsibility given, God still loved and He desired to redeem all of mankind. Just as one man, Adam, condemned man through one act of disobedience, so could one man, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, redeem man with one act of righteousness!

 

Romans 5:17 — For if, because one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man [Adam], much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

​

John 3:16-18 — For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

 

Just like Adam and Eve, we all have a choice to make. We can choose as they did to entertain Satan and serve ourselves or believe in the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on your behalf. Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life. 

​

Luke 24:47 — And that repentance for the forgiveness of sons should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

​

Romans 10:13-15 — For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have no believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

​

Ephesians 2:8 — For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

​

Titus 2:11 — For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

​

​

​

Evidence of Salvation

​

Every single child of God has direct inward and outward evidence of salvation. It’s beyond important to first examine a person’s inward and outward evidence before accepting their counsel. If there is no clear evidence of God in them, then their counsel did not originate from Him. We must carefully guard the Word in our hearts to keep from Satan’s deception.

​

The Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit as inward evidence.

​

Romans 8:16 — The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

​

The outward evidence is in our behavior. First let me abundantly clear - you cannot fake the likeness of God. Those who only imitate righteousness and holiness think that those around them can’t tell. This cannot be further from the truth. It is blatantly obvious to both the worldly and the godly when a person isn’t a true child of God. You can reference this topic in more depth in the first Back to Basics session.

​

Titus 2:11-15 — For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

​

​

​

Going Forward

 

We live in a time where society is entertaining the counsel of the same demonic forces as around six thousand years ago. Satan’s tactics haven’t changed, and we shouldn’t be surprised by the reaction of those who are deceived. Don’t allow this to discourage you! Man has something today that Adam and Eve’s didn’t have – The Church! Our God and Savior Jesus Christ redeemed mankind and restored our dominion over all things on the earth.

 

It’s time to outwardly show everyone surrounding us every day that we serve the living God! That a life in Christ truly does completely change a person, bringing consistent peace and joy beyond understanding! Just as Satan twisted God’s word and deceived man, we can speak truth and life to our fellow man and set them free. Church, you have dominion over the earth! Act like it! You will take part in restoring someone to what God created them to be! As you continually learn to live a holy life, God’s Word tells us that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of the people around us so they will hear the life words we speak to them. We willingly abandon our responsibility as redeemed man if we don’t carry out this incredibly important work.

 

 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” The deeper we study and the more time we spend building our relationship with Him, the more that flame will spread in our spirits until it can no longer be contained inside us. This is when the power to witness by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is manifested. Jesus said in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” You will become a wildfire of wisdom and discipling those around you will come naturally.

 

The mission of Convergent City Church, along with the worldwide Body of Christ, is to equip our people for the spreading of this knowledge, which has the power to rip the chains of sin and death off the people around us and igniting that same flame in them!