God tells us in Revelation 1:8(NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” Our Heavenly Father has no end, and He is glorious. He wove His glory into everything that He created, and this includes the first man, Adam. God is holy and before he sinned against Heavenly Father, Adam was holy too. They enjoyed wonderful fellowship together and having this splendid relationship with humanity was God’s desire thousands of years ago, and it is His desire today. He is love and loving us is His great desire. It stands to reason that He would want us to learn to love like Him, so that we can share a relationship with Him that is filled with His holiness, glory, and love.
We’ve been trained by the world and its systems, and the world’s training leads us away from God. It doesn’t teach us to have faith in Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. Once we become saved through Jesus Christ, and allow God’s love into our hearts, we must change the way we think. God instructs us in Ephesians 4:23 to renew our minds to His Word because we must be retrained to live through the example of Jesus Christ. Our blessed Savior walked in God’s love and always did what pleased our Heavenly Father. We must do the same.
2Timothy 3:16(NLT) says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” The Bible is the Word of God, and in it, we learn about God and what He accomplished for us through Jesus Christ. We also learn about God’s love and how His love operates. In other words, we learn that God’s love isn’t like the love that we human beings express through our emotions. We fall in and out of love all the time, and we place various limitations and conditions on the love we give. God’s love isn’t like that. His love is perfect! And there is an order to how He does things.
For instance, examine God’s gift of free will. God is love and He loves everyone, but everyone does not love God, and He will not force everyone to love Him. From this, we learn that love does not restrict choice. God’s love gives us liberty because He wants everyone to be free. 2Corinthians 3:17(NLT) tells us, “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Freedom for every human being is God’s original intention. Its how He wanted all human beings to live, and His desire and Will regarding our liberty is expressed in the gift of free will that He’s given to every human being.
God is not pulling our strings as we move about like puppets. Genesis 1:26 tells us that we are created in His image, therefore, we are all self-governing. Through our actions, behaviors, thoughts, and feelings, we are continually proving and displaying our choices about who we are at the very core.
God’s Word doesn’t tell us how long Adam and Eve enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of perfect fellowship with God, but we know at some point they abdicated love’s way and chose darkness. They sinned against God by bowing to the devil and his lies. This enormous offense against God’s sovereignty cost them everything, but the greatest loss was their holiness and relationship with God. The act of their disobedience caused them to die spiritually. Their bodies and souls were alive, but their human spirit died and was no longer alive to God. They were in a fallen state of existence, because their sin brought them to the depths of bondage and darkness.
Adam and Eve were cut off from life in the Spirit, and God made sure they could not find the path in their broken state. If they had, they might have eaten from the Tree of Life and lived forever in darkness and in bondage to satan. Heavenly Father loved us too much to allow that to happen. Genesis 3:22-24(NLT) tells us, “22 Then the LORD God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” 23 So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Our Heavenly Father always had a plan of redemption through Jesus Christ for our restoration. Our blessed Savior didn’t come immediately after Adam and Eve sinned. There was preparation that had to take place. Romans 5:6(NLT) tells us, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” The path of life was closed because of Adam’s sin, but Jesus Christ opened the path for humanity again. He declared in John 14:6(NLT), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” The world teaches that there are many paths to God, but this is the exact opposite of the truth that our Master Jesus has taught us. He is the way to God’s heart, and he is the only way. He is the Prince of life, and through him, we can live an eternity in our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Jesus Christ, The Prince of Life!”, written for 4theChristianman.com. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.