Obedient unto Death (Genesis 2:16, 17, 3:6, Philippians 2:8)

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

In the two passages from Genesis we find that command that God gave to Adam, and Adam's response to it. It was a fairly simple command on the face of it. It would seem that the keeping of it would be fairly simple, too. "Do not eat of that tree." Also, the result of eating from the tree is quite clear. There was nothing in the tree of itself that was of any particular harm, except this one thing, God said to not eat of it. "For in the day that thou eat thereof, thou shall surely die." Nothing could be more plain. But then came a fateful day. On this day, a conversation between a serpent and the woman took place. The serpent flat-out lied to the woman, telling her that she would NOT surely die if she ate from that tree. And, she "... did eat, and gave to her husband with her, and he did eat." God is not a liar. In the day that they ate thereof, they did indeed die. You might say, they were disobedient unto death. The death that they died that day was far more awful than any physical death that they might suffer. It was a spiritual death. The part of them that had communion with God died. That spiritual deadness has been passed on to all of us. We are all born dead.

In the passage from Philippians we are told of the solution to the above problem. God wanted to have fellowship with His creation, His people. But they were all dead. Spiritually, they wanted nothing to do with Him. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, there has been an insatiable desire in the human heart to DISobey God: to have its own way. So, God Himself took the form of a man. God was made in the image of man. The reason for this was to make mankind right in God's sight. In fact. mankind has no other way to be made right in God's sight. And having come in the form of a man, Christ became obedient to God. "I do always those things that please the Father", Jesus said. He became obedient unto death. In His death, Jesus was punished for the sin of mankind. God's wrath was poured out on Him, so that it need not be poured out on us. In His resurrection, God, through Jesus, is now able to restore that dead part, that part with which we are born dead, that part through which Adam and Eve once had fellowship with God, and reestablish communion, fellowship, with His people. What can we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Adam was disobedient unto death, Jesus was obedient unto death! Praise the LORD for His obedience.

HJK