In the Garden

[ybrown]

Is it possible that Adam and Eve could have not sinned and simply have lived forever in the Garden?

[krazeeboi]

That wasn't God's intentions, I'll put it like that.

[ybrown]

krazeeboi said:

That wasn't God's intentions, I'll put it like that.

I agree. What are your thoughts on Gen. 1:26? I've been taking a closer look at how it ties in with God's plan.

[krazeeboi]

Are you referring to God's stated purpose of the creation of mankind, i.e., having dominion?

[ybrown]

krazeeboi said:

Are you referring to God's stated purpose of the creation of mankind, i.e., having dominion?

I’m looking at the image part. It seems more prophetic than anything else. If you have thoughts on the dominion aspects I’d like to hear them too.

[krazeeboi]

As for the image part, here's a commentary from the NET Bible that I am largely in agreement with:

In the Book of Genesis the two terms ["image" and "likeness"] describe human beings who in some way reflect the form and the function of the creator. The form is more likely stressing the spiritual rather than the physical. The “image of God” would be the God-given mental and spiritual capacities that enable people to relate to God and to serve him by ruling over the created order as his earthly vice-regents.

[keita]

I've often wondered if Adam actually knew that he and she were "made in God's image, after His likeness". What do you think?

Hmmmm, when I consider "His image" and Adam's being made in it, what I see foremost is LIGHT.....

[krazeeboi]

I'm not sure if Adam and his wife knew that per se, but the delegated authority God gave to them was known and they experienced the benefits of that authority.

[auneeqsol]

To answer the question that was asked....I would say yes it was very possible because obedience is a choice, but I would rather say that God already knew that man was going to come up short in that particular hour so he made provisions for them already. And because we know that God doesnt tempt man with evil, we can conlclude with that fact that it was the enemy who tempted them and that if they would have made the choice to hold fast to what God had said, then obedience would have prevailed. But the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world because God knew that we were going to mess up.

[nina2]

I’m looking at the image part. It seems more prophetic than anything else

To me, it is having God's nature and essence "stamped" in us. It is being holy, wholly holy, including the body.

Fast (very fast) forward from the Garden:

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord,

5:23 because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body.

5:24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

5:25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her

5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word,

5:27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

5:28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

5:29 For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church,

5:30 for we are members of his body.

5:31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

5:32 This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

5:33 Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

[keita]

nina2 said:

...Fast (very fast) forward from the Garden...

On our way, let's make time to stop off at this "garden":

...But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. (John 20:11-18)

where, in the victory of the "second Adam", and via "another woman", much is fulfilled and restored to "as it was in the beginning"...

[krazeeboi]

Keita: I'd prefer to say the "last Adam."

[keita]

Amen, bro kb! I receive that correction.

("the last Adam"; "the second man" 1 Corinthians 15:45;47 )

[ybrown]

Good replies, but I see that we're still going back to the same ideas about Adam. Let me ask it this way: Do you think Adam was created perfect?

Is the First Adam (before sin) the image of God that we are being made into, or is it the Last Adam's image? Do you think the two images are one and the same?

[livinganewlife]

this is good and i will be back later to discuss.....