Genesis 1:27-28,31 (Amplified) says, "So God created man in His Own Image, in the Image and Likeness of God He created him: male and female He created them; And God Blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful (multiply) and fill the earth, and subdue it, using all its vast resources in the service of God and man; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the earth." Verse 31 goes on, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (suitable, pleasant), and He approved it completely. And there was evening and morning, a sixth day."
There are people, including Christians, who believe that God deliberately planned for Adam to fail. We've accepted man's wisdom and theories to interpret God's Plan, because we haven't understood the Plan God has for His children. We don't have any record of how long Adam walked with God or what Adam's lifestyle was before the fall. We don't have proof of how the First Adam walked, but we can watch the Last Adam's walk with God, during His earthly ministry.
Jesus said in John 10:30 (Amplified), "I and the Father are One." We must look at Jesus, in order to know the Original Intent of God's heart. God's Plan for His family has never changed from His Original Intent. What God planned for His family is still PLAN A. None of us, as parents, would ever deliberately set up our children for failure or something that would cause their destruction. We would never purposely devise a situation that would bring death and misery, upon our children.
When God created man in His Own Image and Likeness, He created man to have a free will. Some disagree with this, but then again, we all have our own will and can make this choice for ourselves. If man didn't have a free will, then he be puppets instead of sons and wouldn't be in God's Own Image and Likeness.
We've never seen a man who wasn't controlled by the fall in the Garden, with the exception of Jesus. Some of those we read about in the Epistles were born-again and in the new covenant, but they didn't walk like Jesus did or even as the First Adam did once. Even Paul struggled with his own flesh and the things from before he knew the Lord.
Before going to the cross and dying on it, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:47 (Amplified). Jesus' prayer to the Father, actually reveals man's free will. Thus, He prayed, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but always Yours be done." The Last Adam, Jesus, had a free will of His Own, that He yielded over to the Father's will.
Paul wrote to Timothy in 1Timothy 2:14 (Amplified) saying, "It was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and deluded and fell into transgression." Perhaps the most tragic part of Adam's transgression was, that he transgressed and brought about the fall of man, by an act of his own will.
I believe that Adam loved his wife so much, that he tried to redeem her on his own and traded everything God had given over to him, for his wife. Since God had given it to Adam, he had authority to give in over to the enemy. Luke 4:5-6 (Amplified) says, "Then the devil took [Jesus] up to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time (in the twinkling of an eye) And he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory (all their magnificence, excellence, per-eminence, dignity, and Grace), for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whomever I will."
The transfer of authority and ownership of God's inheritance for His family to satan, came by an act of Adam's will. No parent wishes for our children to be puppets or have no life or place of their own. We nurture them to express and grow into mature people, who have dreams and plans of living excellent lives. God's children were to be raised in the nurture and admonition of God Himself.
God planned for His children to be Blessed and have futures that included enjoying everything He made for them. If you read about this inheritance in God's Word, then you'll find if what what God had created from the very beginning, as His Original Intent. The mess we witness around us, is the result of Adam's turning over his place of authority and dominion to an outlaw spirit, satan. The Curse and the misery we experience today, came from Adam and NOT FROM GOD.
If I love my children and want to see them live happy, safe, peaceful and full lives, then how much more would God, Who is Love, want for His children? We've looked at how God dealt with fallen man and we've failed to see how He longs to deal with those He brought back from the place where Adam caused us to be in. We've come to believe that God is testing and trying us, by the hard times and trials of today's world. We've forgotten (or might never have known) the true Plan and heart of our Heavenly Father. The pitfalls and trials come from the evil one, who is still trying to have us surrender to him.
We can learn things by going through trials and temptations, but God has a much better way of teaching us how to walk in this world. David writes in Psalm 119:105, 130 (Amplified), "Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path." He goes on in Verse 130, "The entrance and unfolding of Your Words give Light, their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple." Listening to God, His Word and His Holy Spirit, is a much better way of living, than trials and hardship, but you have a will of your own, like the first and Last Adam, and you must choose to either listen or don't listen.
David writes about the works of men in Psalm 17:4-5 (Amplified), saying, "By the Word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent, the paths of the destroyer. My steps have held closely to Your paths, to the tracks of the One Who has gone on before, my feet have not slipped." It's no wonder that "David was a man after God's Own heart."
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