Book Excerpt
Just a teaser... the first few pages of chapter 1 of Identity Crisis! Enjoy!
Chapter 1. Two Men
1 Corinthians 15:44-49 says, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."
There are only two men who have ever lived: Adam and Jesus. We need to understand this before we go any further so I'm going to spend some time on it.
The word "Adam," according to Strong's Hebrew Concordance, is H121, "Adam," and means "the name of the first man, also of a place in Palestine: - Adam." It is from H119, "Adam," "To show blood (in the face), that is, flush or turn rosey: - be (dyed, made) red (ruddy). A is the 1st syllable in the Hebrew alphabet and denotes first or starter (It's why we call God "father", "Ah" or Abba). This syllable is present in all the Hebrew personal names of God.
This is important right off the bat because there is a principal in the Bible where things are established in the natural, then in the Spirit. The natural man, Adam, came first. He was God's show blood, or first blood. Jesus is God's last Adam, or last blood.
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). Right away we see a key: God made man a living SOUL. The word "soul" is H5315 in Strong's and it means, "Properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): - any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature." Basically the soul is your mind, will, and emotions, your thoughts and desires. This is important to understand because people preach that Adam was pure, but he wasn't. What he was was innocent. He didn't have knowledge of Good and Evil, and that's how God wanted it. But his human nature was selfish, and fleshly. He was literally created out of the earth and epitomized everything that represented.
Now before I go on I have to explain something: Man is a three part creature: Spirit, Soul, and Body. In the Bible, the woman is a spiritual representation of your soul, and the man represents your spirit. David identifies this in the Psalms, chapter 34 verse 2, "My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." This isn't a slight against women, it is what it is. So when we talk about Eve we aren't talking about a woman, per se, but about the soul.
When the serpent entered the scene he didn't go after Adam, the spirit, he went after Eve, the soul. And what he did was he made her question who she was. He says in Genesis 3:5, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
The thing that Eve didn't understand is that they already WERE like God. They were made in His image (Genesis 1:26)! Right then and there she should have squashed the serpent by saying, "I don't need to do anything to be like God. He made me in His image!" But being the soul, she was willing to believe what the world was telling her.
This is the number one problem in all of human history, all the way up until today. Instead of listening to God, we listen to the devil, the prince of the world. We listen to the old man, Adam, and who HE says we are. And we listen to the world, and who IT says we are. All of these lies try to make you think you're less than what you really are.
Ready? What you really are is the Son of God!
But as long as you don't realize that, and more importantly, don't BELIEVE that, then satan doesn't have to worry about you. What you believe dictates how you act. Here's an example: I'm a pastor. I believe I'm a pastor, so I act like a pastor. If I don't believe it, it's not any less true, but I won't act like it.
If you believe you're a sinner, you're going to act like a sinner. If you believe you can't be perfect, you won't be perfect. If you believe you can't be holy, you won't be holy.
On the flip side, if you believe your sins are forgiven, and not only forgiven but taken away, then you'll act like they're forgiven and taken away. If you believe you're righteous, you'll BE righteous. If you believe God loves you and called you to be conformed into the image of His son, then you'll act out of that belief.
I'm going to really dive into all this stuff, but since this is just chapter one I'm just throwing it out there. If you can get past chapter one we'll really start going down the rabbit hole.
Adam is the first man. The living soul. He was lied to, and tricked into thinking he had to do something in order to be like God. Eating the forbidden fruit speaks of a performance-based religion. If you behave a certain way then you'll be good enough. If you follow this rule you can achieve your destiny. That's not the truth though. The truth is, you being a Son of God has NOTHING to do with who you are and what you do. It has EVERYTHING to do with who He is and what He did!
Jesus is the last Adam. The second man. Born of the Spirit. God's ONLY begotten Son (John 3:16). Where the first Adam was created LIKE God, Jesus IS God. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The difference between Adam and Jesus is this: Adam didn't know who he was, and Jesus knows exactly who He is. Adam was looking for an identity, and Jesus always had His. When satan tried the same tactics with Jesus that he used with Adam, Jesus was able to prevail because He knew who he was.
Matthew 4:3-4, "And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
"If thou be..." Satan was using his favorite trick, hoping to make Jesus question who he was. Jesus had just fasted for forty days. He was hungry. Satan saw weakness and attacked it. If thou be the Son of God, miraculously feed yourself. And of course Jesus could have done this. He could have easily turned the stones into bread. But that wasn't the point. The point was that Jesus IS the Word. He knew what the Scripture said, and He believed it. Even though in the natural He was hungry, in the spirit He trusted in His Father.
Nothing satan could say or do was able to shake Jesus' faith. He had absolute knowledge of who He was.
Jesus is the only man who ever kept every single one of the laws of Moses. Jesus is the only man who ever lived that never sinned. 2 Corinthians 5:21 bears this out, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The reason He was able to do this is because of the Holy Spirit that lives within Him. He is the only man who could pay the price that we owed for sin. He is the perfect, spotless Lamb that was required to do away with, not only the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. Jesus came to earth as a man, and died as a man, so that we could live... as Him!
(This is where it gets exciting)