Created Monday, October 10, 2005, uploaded Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007

I would have preferred to simply call this an article on the principles and reasons of ransom and atonement. The reason I see those principles as absolutely essential to a proper Christians understanding is that because they are not understood, people can believe that Jesus, while on earth, was both fully God and fully man. This is a blatant contradiction. True, there are scriptures that call Jesus God but not in an absolute sense. It is with some exceptions and reservations that such names are given. Jesus could not be fully God in form or being and still yet be a man.

Many say that he could be both and write the whole thing off as a mystery. Well, mystery is one way of putting it but contradiction and denial is another way. Either we are misunderstanding the intent when Jesus is called God, not seeing that there are both relative meanings of that name and also absolute meanings as well.

Yet oddly enough, when you point out names like "son," firstborn, or only-begotten, those they say, are relative terms and not absolute definitions. So they do recognize both relative and absolute meanings of words and that such a concept is not unreasonable when they want to use it.

But they think a mystery, a contradiction really, is preferable to a more reasonable idea that Jesus was "God" in some aspects, but not absolutely God, the Father in heaven, but only God in that he was appointed by God and given all God's authority and power while on earth and due to receive this and more after going back to heaven as well as having been the instrument by which the Father chose to create all things after His first born son was created.

So how do we settle this stalemate? I believe this idea of Jesus being fully God as well as fully man should solve much of it. For Jesus could not be both for a lot of very good reasons apparently missed by most today. Jesus could not even be half God and half man. So I take up this idea, which really is nothing more than a precise understanding of what ransom and atonement are all about.

I believe that a big problem that most Christians have is in understanding the true nature of the sacrifice of Jesus and the requirements of a sacrifice that would pay for sins and ransom us from sin and make atonement for the sin we inherited.

So I thought I would spell it all out in careful detail, in the perhaps vain hope that someone might care about logic and good sound reasoning and understanding in their beliefs. So here I go.

Adam was created free from defect. To that extent he was perfect. But absolute perfection he was not, he was not complete or completed. For while he was free from defect, he did not fully appreciate his need to obey his conscience and obey God, as would become evident not too long after his creation by God. But he was originally free from sin and would continue to live for as long as he was fully obedient to God. Any little disobedience at all would cause Adam to begin the aging process, which was really the dying process. This is clearly what God meant when He had warned Adam that in the day that Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and bad, he would die, more precisely, that he would begin to die. His final outcome was assured and it was death.

When Adam sinned, he had done so before he had any children. If he had fathered any children before he had sinned, they would have been without defect and would have had the opportunity to live as long as they remained obedient in al things to God. But as it turns out, children only came into being after Adam's sin, so that they inherited this death like aging process that would eventually bring their lives to an end and all after them to an end.

The big difference between Adam and his children was that Adam had once had a choice, an opportunity, to live forever if he wanted. His choice to obey or disobey was his to make. He could have kept living if he had wanted to. But his kids, on the other hand, had no such choice or opportunity. They were what we could call, victims of circumstance. Adam made their choice for them. Really, when you think about it, we all often make choices for our kids without even realizing it. So really, everyone ought to give more consideration as to what choices they make for their children.

But aside from that, God had a problem in that humans could, despite an inborn conscience telling them not to, disobey God, not fully realizing (But at least partially realizing) what they were putting into effect when they disobeyed. Had they been able to understand all the terrible things that would happen to mankind and the world as a result of one little sin, they might have made a better choice. Then again, maybe not. But if the right choice was to be made, it would be most likely made by having a full knowledge and appreciation of what their sin would lead to.

But let's be clear about Adam and Eve. They may have lacked experience but God gave them and all humans a conscience. A conscience would give them a stern warning, a great sense of discomfort if they were to even contemplate doing wrong in disobeying God. We can be certain of this for when God's voice was heard in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve covered themselves and hid themselves. They felt extreme shame and knew quite well that they had done wrong. No one needed to tell them what they had done. To choose to violate their conscience is no good excuse.

It was and is important to trust God when He says not to do something. Sometimes He will tell us stuff we may not immediately understand, some things that we might need a lot more knowledge to fully grasp and appreciate why He requires something. So we have to be willing to trust Him in the present, sometimes without full knowledge or understanding. In time we will acquire that knowledge, you can be assured. But trust in between, for the present, is important. But certainly having knowledge and experience gives people the best chance of making the right decision, though often they still make the wrong choice anyway, and then hope for the future is gone.

But God had a solution. Adam's children had no hope or choice. They could look forward to nothing but death. But if they were given a hope, a promise of a chance to live forever, due to the ransom of their souls, on the grounds that they would obey God from here on in to the best of their ability, then God could bring them back from a no hope situation where only death was certain and not very desirable.

But in making them wait, God had 4 goals to accomplish. First, He wanted to show mankind just how bad things would get once someone sinned. Eventually, mankind would bring their entire race and all the world into ruin and destruction. The kids needed to learn this so that once they were given a 2nd chance, after the resurrection, they would make good use of it and remain obedient or at least have the best understanding possible so as to encourage them to make the right choice.

But a 2nd objective was for God to prove that what He said was true and would happen. God had been challenged by one of His heavenly spirit sons as to His predictions of things and perhaps His motives. So God does not silence the accusations or the challenge but agrees to let the facts play out for themselves to see who is right and who is wrong and why.

3rd, in order to fulfill God's desire to have a planet full of people who willingly obeyed Him because it was the right thing to do and also the thing in their best interest, He needed people who had absolute faith and confidence in Him and would not doubt Him when He told them something that their lives depended on or required them to do. How does God insure that? How about if He required that if needed, people be willing to die and wait for Him to being them back to life after all issues had been settled.

While it should not take that much to put trust in God, it is still no small thing to ask a human to trust and allow their life to pass away (due to being killed for not disobeying God) in obedience to God and have Him later bring them back. But any who would willingly do that certainly have what it takes to make the right subjects to inherit and live in God's kingdom and make sure that what Adam did never happens again.

4th, the proper sacrifice had to be prepared and introduced. And there is our dilemma. What is a proper sacrifice to pay for and ransom the children of Adam. God gave Adam choice and told him of the consequences of the wrong choice. There is little more you can do. But if Adam's kids were to be rescued, what excuse would God, in all His magnificent justice, have, to intervene.

God gave Adam, with no strings attached, a choice and responsibility. Adam threw them away as he had a right to do. And he has to live with the choice he made. God was not to blame and had no justification to intervene. Adam had a right, yes, an absolute right, to destroy the hope of life eternal for his offspring. Of course, that is a terrible thing to do but he did it and had the right to do it. God was innocent and Adam had a choice, a choice given by God to Adam to do as he wanted, though with consequences.

Now however, if the scales of justice were to be violated, God had an obligation that He laid out for Himself to balance those scales that were tipped. Wouldn't it be a shame if God were to send, to create, another sinless man on earth! Doesn't He have a right to try again? What would happen to that man? Well, whether Adam had fathered children before he sinned, or whether God makes more after, one thing is certain either way. Those who have no hope will be jealous and full of envy and will resort to killing those who are upright, innocent, and blameless, not to mention, youthful, beautiful, and with the prospect of living forever before them, that is, they still have hope and not fear of a future time when their life would end.

So God will introduce another perfect life to remain obedient, even if threatened with death and killed for his obedience to God. That would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt his faithfulness and loyalty to God and his (Jesus') righteousness, too. That is important, for only those who remain obedient no matter what are truly without sin, perfect sacrifices, free from any defect or blemish of any sort, fully complete and completed.

But, how can we be sure that another perfect human would be obedient to God, even in the face of torture and death? That could be tough and quite uncertain. Well, God thought He had the perfect solution. But not only Him. His son, also, through whom God chose to fulfill the rest of His creation by letting His son do the rest of the creation for Him, also supported the solution that would insure faithfulness in the life introduced as an intended sacrifice. It should be first of all, voluntary. But how can someone know ahead of time that they are to be born and what for. Well, that could only happen if they had been alive sometime prior to being introduced on earth.

God's son, who we know as Jesus, knew what the situation called for and he loved what was both his and his Father's creation, these creatures God called man. Jesus decided that it would be a lousy job to give anyone else so he volunteered to do it himself. You know what they say, it's a lousy job but someone has got to do it. Jesus is not one to pass the buck. He believes in leading by example. So Jesus agreed that he should be the one, when the time came, to leave heaven and the spirit realm and all his glory that he had up there, and humble himself and become a mere man of flesh.

Surely, if anyone could do it, it would be God's only son. Further, who better to represent God than the one who would know Him better than anyone else ever could have? No one in heaven or anywhere else could claim to know God as well since Jesus was the first creation of God, long before any other creation was to come along. Jesus was the very best choice for the job. So not only would he be a good sacrifice, but also a good teacher and revealer of the things of the heavenly Father.

And if Satan could tempt and corrupt Jesus, then the issue would surely be settled in Satan's favor, once and for all, for how could anyone imagine anyone that could do better than God's first born and only begotten son, the beginning of all creation. It was the perfect and ultimate way to settle this score once and for all. Jesus would rise to the challenge. Winner takes all.

Philippians 2:5 For let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, 6 who subsisting in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men 8 and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross. 9 Because of this also God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus "every knee should bow," of heavenly ones, and earthly ones, and ones under the earth, 11 and "every tongue should confess" that Jesus Christ is "Lord," to the glory of God the Father. [Isa. 45:23]

Oh, but wait a minute! This has to be a fair fight, right? Do you think Satan is going to let God intervene without good excuse, that is, properly justified reason? No way! Adam's sin has to be paid with exactly the same thing as was lost and in the exact same way. So OK, what was it that was lost and how? Do you remember?

Adam was a man/flesh. He has appetites, drives, desires, and instincts that all help to guide his behavior but that can all be used to tempt and corrupt him as well. The desire to live can even be used against him. He can suffer both physical and psychological pain. He can even be captured, imprisoned, tortured, die or be killed. And of course, he has free will.

Let us contrast this with a spirit, often called angels and sons of God as well. Spirits do not die. Even demons do not die. Only God can end the life of a spirit. Spirits can not feel physical pain for they are not physical creatures. They can take on a physical appearance or a physical body but are not held or trapped by it. They can dissolve it and be gone. There is no imprisoning a spirit. There is no way to torture them if you can not hold them. They are not driven by fleshly appetites and drives. Spirits do not eat, or drink, or have sex or any other thing that man/flesh does. They are completely immune to the influences of the flesh.

Just to make a few key distinctions, spirits do have some of what we might calls drives, things that motivate them in certain directions and please them. But these are more related to mental/psychological drives such as the desire for meaning and purpose in their focus and activities, or the desire to perform to their best and gain respect among their peers, perhaps. But they do not have fleshly drives as we do. That is why it was not proper for those angels who came down from heaven to breed with earthly women in Genesis 6. But lets be clear about why they came.

The Bible says the women were appealing to these sons of God. But I do not believe it was an appeal the way men might think of appeal as in beauty and sex. I think it was the woman's more reverential adoration of those with status and power, a sort of devotion, that appealed to these spirits/sons/angels of God. Look at how women throw themselves at music or movie stars with complete abandon. This appeals to those who like worship. Worship of these fleshly creatures God calls man, seems to be something that spirits can be drawn to. They like or desire that respect and attention. Heck, even we humans tend to like it. Yes, it would seem that spirits do have egos that can be tickled, so to speak. This is what likely caused Satan to rebel against God, thinking that he could do things for man even as God did, and could and should receive the same sort of gratitude and reverence just as God received.

Satan was not about to let this experiment play out so God could prove His point before Satan had a chance to prove God wrong or prove God was of the wrong motivation. So Satan rushed to judgment, not trusting in God or understanding the subtleties of what God had set up with these fleshly creatures. Satan thought he knew enough already and would have no problem proving his point. But he ended up being wrong and throwing away his life, which one day will be ended. In doing so, he helped to end the life of 2 human beings as well. But Satan never was a respecter of life, anyway. He only ever cared about himself and his own ambitions, regardless of who he might have to kill to accomplish what he wanted.

Now Adam was flesh. He could have his appetites and desires used against him and he could disobey and die. Any one that was to serve as an atoning, compensating sacrifice for the sin of Adam had to be flesh like Adam and had to be able to be tempted with the desires of the flesh and yet not give in to those temptations and sin, and to be tested to the point of death without sin. And he had to actually be able to die and not exist afterward as any dead flesh truly does not exist afterward.

If Jesus was to accept the job, he would have to give up his spirit existence in heaven and all the glory and status that went with being up there in his elevated glorious position as God's son and creator of all the things that came after. It was a lot to give up and knowing he was going to face an incredible amount of disrespect, ending with torture and an agonizing death, was not exactly something to look forward to, either. And he was going to have to die and trust (show faith) that God could and would bring him back to life.

But yet, I suspect Jesus could barely restrain himself because he truly did love these fleshly creatures that he had designed in his image and the image of His father. He knew that he was best qualified to be the one to be tested by Satan to see if he could be broken and compromised, finally disobeying God and failing to atone for the sin of Adam.

On the other hand, if Jesus as fully flesh were able to remain faithful to God's commands all the way to his death, then Adam's sin would be atoned for, paid for in full, the sin completely nullified. God would now be fully justified and enabled to step in, to intervene, in order to balance of the scales of justice, which got thrown out of balance, as only when a righteous man's blood was spilled/sacrificed. To re-balance those scales, God would need to give Jesus his life back, either on earth as a man or in heaven as a spirit and then replace the seed/lineage of Jesus, which he would have had a right to as a man.

Rather than returning to earth as a man to breed, Jesus chose Adam's seed/lineage to substitute as his own. But of course, to be his own, it would be required that they be given a choice to be bought to perfection so that they would have the choice that any of Jesus' very own offspring would have had. So God has to give us a chance and choice to be brought back to perfection by being willing, to the best of our ability, to choose to obey Him now. If we lived up to that choice to the best of our ability, then we could have the opportunity to be remade in perfection and have the choice of continuing to obey and live or refuse and begin to age and die just as Adam had.

However, what some seem to miss, is that while the blood of Jesus did allow absolutely anyone to be bought and saved as a descendant of that seed of Adam, it still required them to be obedient to God to the best of their ability. It would be understood that this obedience would only be relative obedience and not absolute obedience as fallen sinful flesh was not capable of absolute total obedience to God. Only perfect flesh could do that. But as long as they tried to the best of their ability, and God knows what that level is, varying with each person, then they demonstrate the desire to want to obey God.

It is the desire to want to be able to obey God that is important. Then when the sin has been finally removed from us, we will, if we continue to choose to obey, live forever, being quite capable of remaining faithful and obedient to God.

On the other hand, if, despite all we have been offered, we decline the chance to obey God, then we have had a choice and have other options and have declined them. Without Jesus' sacrifice, we would not have had another choice or option for God would have no obligation to rescue Adam's seed from the choice Adam made for them. Jesus gave us choice and an option. For really, what is freedom if it is not choice and options. If given choice and we refuse it, well it is our right but we have to live with the consequences and can not claim to be a victim of circumstance at that point. Jesus wanted to give us all a chance. So now we have it. Don't throw it away because you only have one chance.

1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already.

2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

1 Corinthians 15:21 For since death is through man, also through a Man is a resurrection of the dead; 22 for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Acts 17:30 Truly, then, God overlooking the times of ignorance, now strictly commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He set a day in which "He is going to judge the habitable world in righteousness," by a Man whom He appointed; having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead. [Psalm 9:8].

1 Peter 3:18 Because even Christ once suffered concerning sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to which was borne at the proper time.

Note in some of these scriptures quoted that Jesus is referred to as a man and put to death in the flesh. He was then made alive in the spirit. He was alive in the spirit only after having been dead. Before that, he was not a spirit but a man. These scriptures make this clear. Indeed, John points out the apostasy of the deceiver and antichrist who denies Christ having come and been, in the flesh. The liar says Jesus was half God or even fully God as well as man. This would be the ultimate lie. One can not be both. Spirits and Gods can not die. Jesus truly did die. He absolutely was flesh!

Now it is true that Jesus had been given authority over all things while a man on earth and had the power of God at his disposal. In this respect, a relative one, he could be called God, since he was the perfect image and representation of God in fleshly form and was given all authority of God by God, his Father. But Jesus was not a spirit and had left that behind to come to earth as a man so he could also be the perfect sacrifice for Adam.

Adam was flesh who started out without defect and had the chance, the opportunity, a choice, to obey and live forever or not and die.

Jesus needed to be flesh without defect, who also had the chance to live forever but would have it denied him by being killed while remaining faithful to God. This would pay for and atone for the sin of Adam passed on to the offspring of Adam. It does not pay for Adam's sin/choice that resulted in the loss of Adam's life. Adam had a choice and threw it away. He does not get his life back. Jesus did get his life back but he did not get his chance to father offspring in his name as would have been his right. So it is the inherited sin of the offspring of Adam that Jesus bought and paid for.

What Jesus could not be in any way while on earth, was a spirit. Spirits do not have to experience physical pain and suffering. They can ignore or escape it. Spirits do not die and need no resurrection as a result. Spirits would or could avoid the agony and suffering that flesh would be forced to endure, tempting a man to compromise, in order to end the suffering and agony. If Jesus had in any way been part spirit or all spirit masquerading as flesh, he would not have paid the legitimate necessary price/sacrifice required by justice.

God, and you can bet, Satan, especially, would never allow justice to be cheated. Besides, Satan's challenge to God was that he could break anyone. He would not let Jesus or God cheat. If Jesus could not endure torture or death without disobeying God, Satan would prove to be right, win his bet, and God would have failed to be right and honest. Or if Jesus had to cheat/lie/deceive to pull it off, Satan would still win. Perish the thought.

Satan was not right and justice was not cheated and Jesus did pay the full and legitimate price required by law and justice for a man of flesh to be tried to death and remain sinless! Again, God can not die and neither can spirits, even bad spirits. Jesus could not have been half God or even more far fetched, fully God, in an absolute sense, for God can not die. Only flesh and blood can die and only real flesh and blood can be a sacrifice of atonement for Adam. Jesus was resurrected as a spirit, but was allowed to have his offspring also continue on earth by adopting Adam's offspring to substitute for his. Everything is right once more.

So now God can fully authorize His son to finish all the work God had intended for him before he was even born. Now, there is just one small matter to finish. We have to see and witness the final and ultimate result of mankind's rebellion from God in the Garden of Eden, when man will bring a horrible destruction upon himself, the likes of which has never been seen before or will ever be seen again. Jesus will actually have to step in to cut it short or no flesh at all would be saved. But because of those bought and loved by him, those days will be cut short.

Then begins the resurrection and rehabilitation of mankind to perfection with the help of that spiritual bride of Christ's brothers who will rule with him as kings and priests over all the earth, to give us the chance to choose life eternal. Don't pass this opportunity by, whatever you do. There won't be another.

Here is sort of the real meaning of patience and long-suffering. I just want to re-emphasize how important it is for us to recognize that sometimes, for a period of time, some things that God might insist upon may be beyond our understanding as to why He insists on them. In time, it will become clear but maybe not immediately. We need to grasp some earlier, more basic knowledge before higher knowledge becomes understandable to us. It is quite easy to illustrate.

Surely nearly anyone can appreciate that without an elementary education or instruction, it would be difficult to begin a college education or be a mechanic and fix a car. Even more so to be a doctor or surgeon. Anyone can do it with time and money, but not without some basics first. Especially as a doctor, one requires the ability to read and write, understand math, then basics in biology. Eventually, with the elementary basics down, one proceeds to medical school and if they are going to be a surgeon, will learn with models and cadavers how to recognize and handle the insides of a human body with accuracy and precision.

There are many occupations that require a lot of progressive knowledge leading up to a complete collection of skills and knowledge that will let them do very complicated tasks. But for anyone who can do these very complicated jobs, they were not born being able to do so. It took time to learn the various things that finally enabled them to do the more complicated jobs.

Mankind and society as a whole also function like this. Human society learns and progresses as the population grows and experiences new problems and challenges with its growth. And as their population and collective experience and knowledge grows, so do the specialization and technological advances, which in turn, produce more situations that must be coped with and understood. Each technological progress such as the ability to travel, first by horse, then by boat, late by train, and now by air, brings new situations and changes to human society that they must learn to adapt to, exploit, and control.

Much of what we call innocence is really ignorance. As we gain knowledge and often, experience others hurting us or preying on us in someway, we grow wise, sometimes as individuals, and as a group or a species as well. And while we learn the hard way from abuse, we also learn good things as well. We become more sophisticated and more accomplished. We leave the ignorant ways of the child behind and become more capable and wise adults, at least in some ways.

God needed society to progress to a certain point before they could really appreciate why His seemingly overly restrictive laws on sex were necessary. Being that it seems so wonderful and pleasurable, we often have troubles understanding why God limits this activity to only one partner who must remain our only partner. But a bumper crop of disease and juvenile delinquents should make it a little more understandable as to why God does as He does. Hopefully we have also come to understand sexual feelings and behavior a little better, although this could be challenged. I have addressed numerous sexual topics on this site.

And there are many other things that may have required or yet still require more knowledge than we have yet acquired. If we learned anything from Satan and the history of mankind, we will know that we need to wait and trust in God. Or we can be stupid and ignore God and die. It's your choice.

One last point I wanted to make was the unique opportunity of timing that existed in the Garden of Eden just before the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan. Satan struck early, just after the creation of Eve, when she was relatively naïve, ignorant, and at her most vulnerable. Satan is not a nice or fair guy. He will do what he has to, to prove his point. It is all about him and to hell with how it affects anyone else. There are a lot of people like that, too.

For starters, it shows us that ignorance, which some call "innocence," is not a good thing. It can get people killed. The quicker you can teach young "innocent" ignorant minds, the safer they will be, and the happier they will be as well, since they are less apt to be victims and more likely to have an easier time of life. We hate to see children grow up, get sophisticated and smart. We want them to be cute adorable innocent kids who are always vulnerable in and in danger. Certainly, young kids bring out the most tender and protective emotions in us. But we need to give this more thought and realize that knowledge is not harmful or dangerous! It is vital and life saving! It is life!

Kids are designed to be cute so that we look after them in their vulnerable years. But they are not intended by God to stay small, ignorant, and vulnerable. If we really love them, we will teach and instruct them and make them wise to all the ways of the world that we live in, as soon as possible, not wasting even a second of time.

Back to Satan. Satan, in not waiting till Eve was more knowledgeable and sophisticated in her reasoning power, insured his success in causing her to disobey God. Paul says that Eve was deceived but Adam was not. Satan did not try to fool Adam. He used the love, Adam's love, for Eve, and therefore, use the leverage of Adam's wife to get Adam to cave in. Satan uses whatever he needs to, to get the job done.

But in corrupting them both, as soon as possible, before they had a chance to breed, he insured that he would not have to tempt and corrupt any more perfect people. For the more times and the more perfect people he had to overcome, the more chance he had of eventually having a failure. This way, all possibilities were eliminated, ensuring 100% victory. Further, since no more perfect people were to come along, he also insured that God would have to introduce another Himself. And this would give Satan time to fill the earth with corrupt people who could make life very difficult for anyone who might be introduced by God later, and insure the maximum advantage for Satan in trying to tempt this later would-be savior. Satan was no fool (relatively speaking) and plays a ruthless but highly effective game.

Now on the other hand, think of the opportunity for God and His son. Suppose that Adam had fathered a son before sinning. The son could produce perfect offspring who would have a choice and chance at life. That is great for them, but what about the rest of the offspring who are born to Adam after this 1st son? What chance or choice do they have?

Suppose the offspring of the 1st pure son are killed by the wayward sons of Adam. So many harmed lives and damage. What chance will they have? Will they make the right choice, even though free from defect? It is questionable. And if some did not, then a whole lot of once perfect sons throw away their lives and leave their offspring in sin and death. And with several perfect offspring having sinned, there would need to be several perfect men who would die in their place to save the offspring of those fallen men.

While Satan striking and wiping out the first human pair was to his advantage, it was also to God's advantage as well. For by having the first man fall, all the human offspring ever to come after, could all be bought and ransomed with just one solitary sacrifice of a righteous man and righteous blood. How convenient! So God could let them all get the experience that would prove Him right and enable them to make as good a choice as is possible as to whether they will serve God or not. I dare say God might have said to Satan in a discussion not recorded for us, that if Satan was to attempt a rebellion, he must do it at the beginning with the first couple, before they got a chance to breed, or God would not allow it later. It was now or never. Whether this was the case or not, it was to the advantage of both sides that the attempt be made early before any breeding were to take place.

But before God can rescue the fallen offspring of Adam with the introduction of His son, He needs to make sure enough lessons have been learned and that His son is introduced into mankind in a way that is agreeable to Him and Satan, who both have points to prove to each other and all the other spirit sons of God. And God wants to allow man to progress as far as he can, knowing that total destruction is what will result. Then afterward, God can bring back those who died but were willing to try to obey. They can become the seed of Jesus, of Abraham, and ultimately, of God.

So the Garden of Eden at the very beginning was the best and perfect place for both sides to take action to settle this huge dispute once and for all, with maximum effectiveness and minimal damage to the overall situation involving the human race.

And behind it all are two issues that are critically important for us to understand. One is that Jesus had to be flesh, a man and not in anyway God as regards his form of existence and makeup. He was God in that he represented God and had God's authority and power. But he was no spirit in any way. He had God's spirit on him and over him and in him, but he was not a spirit being. He was absolutely a man of flesh.

Second would be the symbolic nature of blood and why it was so important. It was basically a symbol that represented God as living up to His word and freely giving Adam the ability to reproduce and the responsibility for that reproduction. It would mean nothing if God did not fully give it freely with no strings attached. God would only be required to intervene if justice was violated. It was and in a way that would not would make God look like a softy who would go back on His word and help out, even though He said He would not or a God who would not live up to exactly what He says.

When He does intervene as required, He will give us all just one chance and we had better make that chance a good one for there will not be two chances. I cover this more in my "blood article." If God kept bailing us out of our sin after having told us He would not, then we would not take Him seriously, would we? Of course not. We would see Him as a soft touch who, because of His soft heart, will jump in and bail us out for He can not bear to see us die. Really, we often do that with our own kids. We bail them out of their poor or bad decisions, even though they were warned before hand. God knows He must be firm in order to get us to take His once chance offered, seriously.

So take advantage of this one time offer before it is too late. Join God and become a part of His wonderful plan or eventually die instead. It's your move!

And of course, both this article and the Blood one both have a huge impact on the trinity as well.

The Sacred Symbolism of Blood
The Trinity

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