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Why were humans created? To relate to God. That is obvious. Every Christian knows that. Though some say we were created to worship Him, or to be companions with Him, they are all correct in that we were created simply to relate to him, that is, to have relationships with him.

However, on a secondary level, humans were also created to relate to each other. There is something inbred in us such that God could not seem to do without creating a “helper” for Adam. Why? Because there is something inbred in us such that Adam could not do without human companionship.

In the garden, in perfection, in “reality”, humans walked in perfect harmony with each other and God. Not that we were one big mass of energy as some religions might say, but that we were individuals who walked in perfect love for one another and for God and were perfectly unified-being individuals-as something akin to that one mass. This was our “first state”.

 

Now in that garden, in that perfection, we were a perfect image of God and His nature having done no evil-that is, having done nothing contrary to the nature of God. No evil was done because we knew no evil. We only knew what God had given for us to know and we did what God had given for us to do. It was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that gave us the knowledge of, thus the capacity for, evil.

It was through this that we were removed from the garden, having lost that perfect unity under (the nature of) God. It was here that the first covenant was broken (of course, this was not a true covenant as it had never been initiated, but it was sort of an unspoken law that humans and God were to be in unity under His nature). This was our fallen state.

 

With Abraham, God made a new covenant to bring humanity (or at least some portion of it) back into their lost state. God made a promise that through Abraham, a nation of God followers will come and through that nation, the reunification of God and man.

Now, some say that that at Sinai, a newer covenant was made, but that is simply not true. The Law was not given as a new covenant, but as a place holder for what was to come in the existing covenant. It was never meant to be followed; it only served to show us what we were to be. It was an image of God that the people could align themselves to, but our sin nature will always prevail over our will to be perfect.

Then, with the coming of Christ, the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled, hence the words of Christ, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the word of the Prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill, for neither the smallest letter or the shortest stroke will pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.” These words were spoken just before Christ began teaching the internalization of the Law, that is:
Law: Do not murder; Christ: Do not be unnecessarily angry.
Law: Do not falsely swear on yourself, but swear on the Lord; Christ: Be honest
Law: Do not commit adultery; Christ: Do not desire that which is given to another
Law: Reciprocity for justice; Christ: Forgiveness for justice
Law: Love your neighbor; Christ: Love
In finishing, Christ spoke “So be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

So we see that Christ is our bridge affecting our trek back to our first state before we fell. Through Christ, three things occur:
1. Mankind is forgiven
2. Mankind is given a way to be resurrected into “newness of life” following our death brought on by sin (all must die for sin, only those who die and by their faith in Christ are instantly resurrected as new creatures are given new bodies in “The Resurrection” while others die along with their bodies and are eternally apart from God).
3. Mankind is given the Holy Spirit to bring us-the new us-into unity with God and each other under His nature (this, of course, is the Church).

 

Thus we find that salvation is not about making something new of us, but returning us to what we were. Killing the fallen man and bringing a new man-one in the first state-to life. Through this, we have inbred in us the Spirit of God and the Law of God revealed in His nature which we know by the Spirit. Hence the words of Paul in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 which states that the those who do not condemn themselves in what they do in good conscience are blessed because they do so in faith while those who condemn themselves in what they do are damned because whatever is not of faith is sin.

Knowing this, early Christians had a saying, “All things are lawful to me.” They used this to justify doing whatever they pleased. Paul corrected them in 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23 saying, “All things are lawful to me, but not all things are profitable…I will not become enslaved to anything…not all things edify.”

Furthermore, James says that evil exists where there are selfish ambitions and jealousy. Even calling such a mindset that would boast in such attributes “earthly, sensual, and demonic”.

So what is wrong would be identified by answering “yes” to any of the following:
1. Has the Spirit spoken against this in my conscience?
2. Will this hurt anything?
3. Will I become enslaved to this?

This internalization of discernment of right and wrong is consistent with the words of Christ when asked what the greatest of the Mosaic Law was. Christ replied, “The greatest is that you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second greatest is like the first; it is that you love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets.” On two occasions (once to a scribe and once to a lawyer), Christ made it clear that the Kingdom of God, eternal life, is found in such love.

 

So now we have (1) the internalization of the Law through the Holy Spirit’s revelation in our conscience of the nature of God and (2) perfect love for God and one another affecting (3) the expediting of the coming of the Kingdom to our lives through faith.

 

This is salvation. This is the Church. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. This is real life.