The early part of: The Holy Spirit's Sphere of Freedom
We cannot appreciate fully what Jesus Christ has done for us redemptively without understanding one of the main reasons for Mankind's creation in the first place: God loves freedom!
And freedom is a quality which God Himself exercises when He determines do something and then does it - "Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever pleases Him... "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted" (Psalm 115:3 NIV; Job 42:2 ESV). Adam was created in a sphere of freedom so that he could freely express two qualities, which God values highly: Trust that is voluntarily exercised and love that is freely expressed.
Without a sphere of freedom these two qualities cannot exist. God has created animals, fish, etc, that inhabit planet earth, but these creatures are governed by an innate instinct which is built into their essential nature. Adam, on the other hand, was created with a freedom to choose the direction of his behavior, which was not coerced or manipulated in any way. He could determine within himself whether to walk with God in a loving-trusting relationship or to misuse his freedom and not trust God's warning and act in a determined choice of disobedience - "The LORD God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (literally, 'dying you shall die')" (Genesis 2:16-17 NIV).
God so values freedom that it is this quality within Mankind that highlights the image and likeness of God within us.
The first Adam's lineage: Weber's Third New International Dictionary defines freedom as: "The quality or state of being free and the ability or capacity to act without undue hindrance or restraint." God created Adam without undue hindrance or restraint so that he could make his own personal choice either to obey God by freely exercising trust in God's word and warning thereby expressing his love toward God by his obedience. Or he could freely express his disobedience by misusing his freedom and thereby freely exercise actions against God. And as we know Adam misused his freedom by disobeying God, and he and his descendants after him have been entrapped in a sphere of sin, guilt and death ever since - "Therefore, just as sin (a self-centered, self-gratifying life away from God and the things of God) came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12 ESV).
After Adam's misuse of freedom he and Eve had children, but the Scripture records that his offspring were not birthed in the image and likeness of God, but in Adam's own likeness of sin and death - "This is the written account of Adam's line (Heb: toledot, from 'yÄlad' meaning 'to bring forth' or 'generations'; the meaning of toledot does not focus so much on the actual birth, but on what something became, literally, 'This is the written book of what Adam's descendants became'). When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, He called them Man (Heb: 'ÄdÄm, a personal name as well as the crown of God's creation). When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image (of sin, guilt and death); and he named him Seth (and as Adam's likeness unfolds in his descendants it states) and Adam died... Seth died... Enosh died... Kenan died... (here is the beginning record of Adam's descendants in his likeness)." (Genesis 5).
The historical record of Adam's descendants birthed in his likeness is one of sin and death where the sphere of freedom in the things of God has been lost!
Another Man's lineage: But wait a minute! There is another human lineage recorded in the Scriptures, and it is a record of freedom restored - "The first man (Adam) was from the earth, a man of dust; the second Man (Jesus, the Son of God) is from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:47 ESV).
There are only two written records in Scripture of two entirely different men, and these two written records also reveal what those birthed in the likeness of each man became. Those that followed Adam were, and continue to be, born in his likeness of sin, guilt and death - "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a).But those born again by the Holy Spirit after the likeness of Jesus Christ have his life regenerated within them, and are given His righteousness and holiness as well - "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord... (and Spirit-birthed believers) are created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Romans 6:23 ESV; Ephesians 4:24b).
This new birth generated by the Spirit of God is what Jesus told Nicodemus about - "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again (Gk: dei humas gennÄthÄnai anÅthen, literally, 'You must be born from above'; the new spiritual birth comes from God not man).' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the (Holy) Spirit" (John 3:7-8 ESV).
The Apostle John explains that the Spirit of God is the Source of a sinner's new birth - "Jesus came to His own (creation), and His Own people (the Israelites) did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed (Gk: tois pisteuousin, literally, 'to the ones having an active-obedient reliance') in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (Gk: all' ek theou egennÄthÄsan, literally, 'but out of God were born')" (John 1:11-13 ESV).
Kenneth Wuest's Expanded Translation of the Greek reads - "Into the midst of His own possessions He came, and His uniquely-owned people did not take Him to themselves. But as many as appropriated Him, He gave to them a legal right to become born-ones of God, to those who place their trust in His name, who, not out of a source of bloods, nor even out of a desire of the flesh, nor even out of a desire of a male individual, but out of God were born." 1
Adam's misuse of freedom bore the penalty of death just as God had warned him. He was disconnected from the Source of life, and lost the sphere of freedom where God's love, peace, and joy reign supreme. Yet because God so highly values freedom where love and trust can flourish, and - "being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (as Adam's descendants) in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ-by grace (God's unmerited favor) you have been saved (from the sphere of sin, guilt, and the judgment of death)... For by grace you have been saved through faith (Gk: dia pisteÅs, literally, 'by a fixed-undivided confidence and an unshakeable-secure hope' in Jesus death and His resurrection to new life). And this is not your own doing; it is the (free) gift of God, not a result of (meritorious) works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9 ESV).
Your identification through faith with Jesus' death and resurrection issues forth in the Holy Spirit's regeneration of your spirit and places you into the sphere of God's wonderful freedom and love!
Death becomes an open door: In Jesus Christ we have this confidence that when physical death takes hold of our earthly bodies, we will go directly into the Presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ - "We are confident, yet, well pleased to be absent from the (earthly) body and to be present with.
