Sabbath: Introduction – Rebellion and Redemption
Somehow, and we don’t know exactly why, sin arose in God’s perfect Creation, and that sin became the starting point for what we understand as the great controversy. One thing, though, we do know, and very well too: as human beings, we are caught in the middle of this controversy. It’s a battle that none of us escape.
It wasn’t, though, supposed to be that way, not in the beginning. Creation was “very good” and “blessed” by God. Although the Lord was recognized as the Sustainer of this perfect Creation, He gave Adam and Eve the responsibility of taking care of what He had made for them. The great controversy came to earth when Satan deceived Adam and Eve with flattery and deception, diverting their allegiance from God to himself. Had they remained faithful to what God had told them, had they obeyed His simple commands, the world as we know it, with all its miseries, trials, and suffering, would never had arisen.
“Satan’s efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men to cherish a false conception of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love; his endeavors to set aside the divine law, leading the people to think themselves free from its requirements; and his persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions, have been steadfastly pursued in all ages. They may be traced in the history of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and reformers.”-Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 12, 13.
In answer to this tragedy, God, who had foreseen all this happening “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), put in place His rescue plan. It’s what we know as the plan of Redemption. This Redemption is prefigured in the account of God meeting with Abram in Genesis 15, when He passed between the animal pieces. The ancient ceremony was an assurance to Abram; and thus, to all of us that God is personally involved in providing a solution to the problem caused by sin.
Yes, God has pledged to bear in Himself the full responsibility for all human rebellion and to suffer the consequences for every evil we have committed. Only in this way could God restore His relationship with the human race, relationships between humans, and humanity’s relationship with the rest of creation.
It is in this overarching context that we see Satan’s insatiable passion to deface creation and to obliterate God’s people. His strategies are revealed in the Bible, were good and evil are played out between siblings, in families, and in besieged nations. It is seen in times of oppression, famine, slavery, and exile; in frustrated attempts to rebuild after disaster; in divided loyalties and the enticement of idolatrous practices.
Throughout Scripture, God is constantly defeating Satan’s purposes. Jesus’ coming as Immanuel, “God with us,” recovered the territory stolen from Adam and Eve. Jesus succeeded where Adam failed. In His ministry He showed His authority over creation and the forces of evil. Just before His return to heaven, He recommissioned His followers and at Pentecost empowered them to extend the borders of His heavenly kingdom.
Jesus has won the decisive victory at the cross. The challenge has always been where we place our loyalties, on the side that has won or on the side that has lost. Though the choice should be easy and obvious, because the controversy still rages and the deceptions are ever-present, the battle for our hearts and minds continues. Our hope and prayer, then, is that this quarter’s lessons will reveal some of these deceptions and thus help us not just to choose Christ but to remain with Him because, as He has promised, “‘He who endures to the end shall be saved’” (Matt. 24:13, NKJV).
David Tasker, field secretary of the South Pacific Division, has a PhD in Old Testament, and has been a church pastor in his native New Zealand, mission president in Solomon Islands, and lecturer in Biblical Studies at Pacific Adventist University (Papua New Guinea), and Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (Philippines). He and his wife Carol have two married sons (Nathan and Stephen) and three grandchildren.
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Thanks God for this amazing Quarter lesson . Interestingly and happy to learn this hope many question I have will be answer through this lesson
If Adam and Eve had not sinned, is it reasonable to think that of the untold number of people on this planet someone else would not have sinned? It seems more likely that If, Lucifer had not been cast to this earth, their would be more of a chance that sin may not have occurred. However if sin began in Heaven why would we think earthly inhabitants would escape. We were created a little lower than the Angels. As the lesson points out we do not know. I fear that questions will outnumber answers. Only one "Jesus", lived the perfect sinless life. That was only by means of His relationship with the Father. Speculation and conjecture usually find their way into the details of the great controversy. I look forward to Holy Spirit guided insight.
The author asserts that “had they obeyed His simple commands, the world as we know it, with all its miseries, trials, and suffering, would never had arisen.” I believe the author is correct. God created a single representative man, Adam and out of Adam his wife Eve. If Adam passes the test, his progeny inherits the success, the blessings, the righteousness... His seed would be eternally secure and at peace with God! Rom 5 might have stated instead something like “as in Adam all are at peace with God today”. We were present in Adam when He rebelled against God (Heb 6:6-10). We inherited his failure and his nature.
The second Adam, CHRIST, praise God, for whom and by whom are all things, (Heb 2:10; Col 1:16; Rom 11:36) came and vanquished the same being who led Adam into rebellion. However, we usually are not confident to assert the eternal security and salvation of those BORN OF HIM - like the Scripture does: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God... For WHATEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMES THE WORLD; and this is the victory that overcomes the world - our FAITH.”(1 John 5:1-4)
Are they not eternally secure from birth to eternity because they are born of Christ?
If the question is: If I believe in Christ that He is the Son of God, will also love Him because He is the Son, then the answer is yes per 1John 5:1. It doesn\'t say we will never sin. It says keeping His commandments is a display of our faith. All the other texts say that Jesus is the answer to our sinful condition and not of ourselves. The speculation that there would never be sin in this world \"IF\" Adam and Eve had not sinned would mean that everyone else that ever lived on this earth would remain sinless, doesn\'t seem reasonable, with Satan roaming the earth. Adam and Eve only had one commandment to obey while in the garden.
Kenny,
do you believe, based on the verses you've given, that when a person is truly born again, and they have tasted of the heavenly Gift, that it is NOT POSSIBLE for them to fall away and to be eternally lost? Are they "eternally secure" from the moment of conversion ?
To the two on their way to Emmaus, Christ says, “O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken”(Luke 24:25). Took me a painfully long time to begin actually accepting God’s word as He presents it.
God said “For WHATEVER IS BORN OF GOD OVERCOMES THE WORLD”(1John 5:5). Simple enough isn’t it? unless we ‘believe’ something else.
Jesus’ word to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is BORN / BEGOTTEN FROM ABOVE HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD.(John 3:3)
“Now I say this, brethren. that FLESH AND BLOOD cannot inherit the KINGDOM OF GOD, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”(1 Cor 15:50)
God said that He created all things by and for His Son(Col 1:15-20; John 1:3; Rom 11:36; 1Cor 8:6). His eternal purpose and plan was to “unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth”(Eph 1:9,10). So that His Only Begotten Son is Heir to ALL THINGS.
We acknowledge that God created a wonderful angelic being, Lucifer, perfect in form, and gave him some authority over his fellows. What did he do? He coveted Christ’s position and rebelled against God. God later created a wonderful earthly being, Adam, perfect in form, and gave him dominion over the earth. What did he do? He coveted Christ’s position, desiring to be like God, and rebelled against God.
God delivered a people related to Abraham, Israel, and gave them stewardship over His vineyard (Holy Place and city, Jerusalem). What did they do? They coveted the inheritance. “This is the HEIR; come, let us kill him and seize His INHERITANCE. They took him, and threw Him out of the vineyard and killed him.”(Matt 21:37-40)
CHRIST, the exalted and ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD, was sent by God “in the likeness of sinful flesh”(Rom 8:3) He “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, ... He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death... For this reason God highly exalted Him above every name...”(Phi 2:5-11) Christ vanquished the devil and sin. He passed the test as the Second Adam. His progeny is not to be subjected to the same test. They inherit all the qualities of their “Father”. They are modeled according to the pattern of the “Firstborn, the First Fruit”. God would have created 7 billion people or so if he wanted each person to be tested in order to gain eternal life. He created one Man, Adam and through him his progeny would be blessed or cursed. The same with Christ according to Rom 5.
The New Covenant God introduced: Ezek 36 “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but FOR MY HOLY NAME, which you have profaned among the nations ... Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight... I will sprinkle clean water on you; I will cleanse you...I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU AND CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES, AND YOU WILL BE CAREFUL TO OBSERVE MY ORDINANCES. I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh... that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them (Ezk 11:19; Jer 32:39)
They shall be My people, and I will be their God; and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they WILL NOT TURN AWAY FROM ME. I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.(Jer 32:40)
God richly bless Pastor David Tasker for this wonderful and highly inspired lessons while waiting for our Lord's soon appearing.
This quarter's lesson will be an eye opener and inspiring. It is my hope that members will be humble enough to sturdy it faithfully in order to clear all miss conceptions about the character of God.
May His Spirit be our Teacher this quarter Amen.
A very important lesson on faith. The mystery is difficult to grasp unless we are truly close to God.
I was dissapointed that no Bible texts were give for study.
This was the introduction. Continue into the lessons, and there will be Bible texts!
Maybe the author is using the strategy to explain/study something by introducing the conclusion then backing it up with the supporting Biblical evidence. The great controversy between Christ and Satan is a concept that requires lots of study to show this wonderful truth. No single text states what is taught by many text understood together.
What would have happened to humanity and to Adam and Eve if Adam had had a child before sin entered the earth? Would Adam's sin had passed on to his sinless child? Would Adam and Eve have been destroyed so as not to contaminate their sinless child? Or would the sinful pair have been spared to co-exist with their sinless child? Did God, foreknowing that Adam and Eve would sin keep them from having their first child until after sin entered our world? If yes, while might this have been?
From creation,God purposed to redeem man through the rebellion that could be caused by Lucifer.He set a plan for man though of which no man would beware of but THEY in heaven.This quarter's lesson am sure will bring insights for believers who have it half way about God's redemption for man,Amen.
Sorry that my understanding is the opposite of the following understanding "Yes, God has pledged to bear in Himself the full responsibility for all human rebellion and to suffer the consequences for every evil we have committed." My understanding is that God is proving that Adam was fully responsible for his rebellion by his own choice through the victory over temptations accomplished by the Son of God became a human being through birth by Mary. "Adam could neither deny nor excuse his sin; but instead of manifesting penitence, he endeavored to cast the blame upon his wife, and thus upon God Himself: “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” He who, from love to Eve, had deliberately chosen to forfeit the approval of God, his home in Paradise, and an eternal life of joy, could now, after his fall, endeavor to make his companion, and even the Creator Himself, responsible for the transgression. -So terrible is the power of sin." Patriarchs and Prophets p.57-58
i am new in the church and i know nothing about the bible, and with this lesson i have seen how trusting God will help me through all my problems. i wish to learn more and never lose faith in Him...