CHOICES

  There have been several movies made about choices. With every step in life, there exists two choices. Each choice has different outcomes. If things are done differently, the outcome would have been different. Our choices provide our destinies.

  This moment, I have two choices; to write or not to write.  I write because of two previous choices; because I read the Word, or I did not. I read the Word because I had two choices; to arise from my bed or not; ad infinitum.

  Life is the most imperative choice in my existence. I could not choose mortal life, but God and my parents did. God conceived me, then Dad did. Mom received me, then God did. We all are elected. Why is that so? “For God so loved the world that… you should not perish” (John 3:16). That you never perish, God perished Himself. That was His choice, His decision, and His grace.

  “Should not” is ambiguous. It is not even in scripture. The Greek actually is written, “apollymi me apollymi” meaning “die not to die”(Strongs’s Dictionary). It is neither should, shall, nor will. Of course, none should die because of choices. Some shall die, but they need not, albeit some will die. Conversely, all should live, some shall not live, and some will live; depending on their choice to live or die.

KEY VERSE: ¹⁶ …Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷ 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. (Gen 2:16-17)

  Therein are choices: (1) To eat or not to eat what is forbidden, and (2) to die or not to die — apollymi me apollymi. Hidden within the key verses is the most famous choice in the Bible — to die or not to die, or conversely, to live or not to live. God’s hidden Words therein are that none should perish, knowing full-well that many shall perish, and many thereafter will perish.

  Angels are immortal with one contingency; that they are allegiant to God. That is known because rebellious angels shall be thrown into the bottomless pit to perish. Angels who honor God are immortal. When God said that Adam was created in “our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26), He was not referring to the angels, except for that one aspect; obedient angels are immortal, but their “image” is nothing like Adam-kind.

 With Adam and Eve, given two choices — to eat or not to eat, there was a consequence for each choice: to die or not to die (apollymi me apollymi). As such, disobedience results in the choice between life and death, or to perish or not to perish. Death can indirectly be chosen over life. The question remains, What is death?

  Apparently, Adam thought death was the flesh perishing. Eve ate, and her flesh did not seem to perish. It began to wither that moment but undetectably so. Eve shall die thereafter… some time in the future she would die. Time, then is the coordinate for death. “Withering” is the process of dying. The medical field calls that slow process "apoptosis,” ironically “like a leaf falls off a tree.” (National Genome Research Institute). Eve began to die, ironically, like a leaf falls off a tree. She is as a tree, not as God, and Adam, once he ate, was like a dying tree as well.

  Infants have no choice. The norm for them is to be born robust. They are quite alive, but soon after, their cells begin to die. “We are programmed to die” (TheScientist.com). Sin programmed all to die, and the “programmer” is Satan. God’s “program” is DNA which scripture indicates, was “entirely good” (Gen 1:31).

  Like a computer virus, iniquity (immorality) is the spiritual virus that the “hacker” Seraph programmed into Adam. Adam was programmed to be Satan’s son as he tricked Adam into emancipating Himself. By the Way, the “patch” for that is a “reprogram” that Jesus called, “born again” (John 3:7) until regeneration (reprogramming) is compete. ironically that occurs at death when Satan’s DNA withers and dies. That is why “To die is gain” (Phil 1:21) because Satan can no longer “hack” God’s reprogramming.

  Hidden in Paul’s words is a choice. The full passage is “To live is Christ; to die is gain.” That points right back to the key verses! The Tree of Life is Christ. The choice was the Tree of Life to live or the Tree of Knowledge to die. Adam and Eve could freely eat of all the other trees, including the Tree of Life, and live. They could “eat” of Christ. The Tree of Life provided manna from heaven as did all the other trees. The Forbidden Tree only provided withered fruit. Of course, like Eve, it was spoiling as well. We learn from scripture that the fig tree withered. Rather than the “Parable of the fig Tree,” better nomenclature is perhaps “Parable of the Tree of Knowledge.”

  Dying doesn’t seem to be disparaging in scripture since to die is gain. However, it is conditional. A choice must be made: the Way of Christ or not the Way, but those two ways are the Law of God or the law of sin, to wit: “I (Paul) thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom 7:25).

  There again are choices: serve God or serve sin, and by default, serve Satan. Mankind was programmed to serve God with both the mind and flesh (Gen 2:15). Since men are as trees, and death is as leaves falling, then “dress and keep” the Garden takes on a new meaning… to serve and preserve the “trees” that would be seeded by Adam into Eve as his own seed.

  Mankind has three faculties and one power: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30). “Heart” is cognition. Our thoughts are to be on God in all things. Our mind must be on God continually. When Paul said that his mind served God, that is rebirth, because theretofore, his mind was on the Law that was written. 

  However, thereafter his mind was on implied “Law” — the Law of Love. From the time, he was Saul reprogrammed to Paul, and how he looked at the Law was much different. His mind had changed because Jesus had persuaded him. Paul, as all Christians, also serve the law of sin with the flesh. Paul’s mind battled with his flesh, and each time the flesh demands (commands) something, his mind has a choice to make.

  Offered the Bible or television, which would you choose? I make that choice every day and choose God’s Word. This morning I took a rest from my routine. I watched a history program rather than read my Bible. Immediately realizing that I made the wrong choice, I returned to my routine, and herein are the results. I chose God over entertainment, and now I am content.

  Since death is gain, then something about death is rewarding. The contingency is choosing the Way of Jesus over your own way.

  Adam had his way, began to die, and failed to even perceive that he had begun to wither. Aging is indeed a slow process that is almost indetectable. On the other hand, both Adam and Eve experienced guilt.

  Unresolved guilt is the sign that a person is dying spiritually. Although they did not know that their days on Earth had been numbered, they already felt spiritually dead because Satan had isolated them from God. He called them to his (so he thought) tree and God had already called them to come to His. Their decision was to stand under the “Judas Tree” because just as Judas had Satan in him, the Tree of Knowledge had Satan in it.

  How is it known that the sinful pair felt guilt? They perceived their nakedness and hid their shame with aprons of fig leaves (Gen 3:7). They tried to cover their shame. The works of their hands were not efficacious, and when Jesus approached (God was walking), they hid themselves. Did they hide because of their poor aprons, or because Satan had sucked the breath of life from them that God had originally breathed unto Adam, and also with which Adam suscitated Eve?

  With the loss of God’s “Breath,” the two were as dead. Indeed, they had died spiritually! God did not breath life back unto them, but he did the next best thing; He covered them from the elements with coats of skin (Gen 3:21) to keep them safe and preserve them until God breaths life unto them again.

  When will that happen? “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thes 4:16). That will be when God “snatches up” the dust of Adam, and again breathes life back unto Him.

  Death removed the need for the coat to protect Adam’s flesh when he lives again. Why? Because he will have new flesh to contain his soul, Paul wrote there as well, the words “in Christ.” Adam was in Christ. Pre-incarnate (pre-flesh) Jesus provided the two with skins to cover them as a coat.

  Sacred literature reveals that a lamb was killed for the first time to preserve them. Jesus provided innocent flesh that came from His Hands to cover their guilt. He would do the same thing to cover all the guilt of all Adams and Eves thereafter. All have sinned because all are Adams and Eves.

  Adam and Eve finally understood the death of flesh with the killing of the lamb, and they had themselves experienced the deaths of their souls. By grace, God provided a way to revive both — the regeneration of the soul and the resurrection of the flesh!

  Those not in the flesh of Christ are outside it. They are vulnerable to the wiles of the Devil.

  The flesh that Christ provided warded off the barbs of Satan just as those coats of skin with thick wool warded off the backbiting of the Serpent.

  “Born again” is the only “must be” relative to the nature of men in the New Testament (John 3:7). That refers to putting on Christ and a determination to live in Christ. The flesh of Jesus died just as the lamb in Genesis. Those with a new mind desire to put on the coat of skin that Jesus provided when He was crucified. It is a large enough “tent” to cover all that choose to be covered. The choice is yours — to put on Christ or not; to be in Christ and live, or to be out of Christ and die.

(picture credit: Garmnentory; "Karl Donahughe Lambskin Coat")