God’s Salvation Plan
New Creation in Christ
Man was created by God from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7) in His own image (Gen. 1:26), and is a "living soul" with the breath of God who is Spirit (John 4:24). This means that we were originally created as both physical and spiritual beings, bearing God’s divine nature and attributes, covered by God's glory, and living in eternity. God gave us free will so that we could enjoy His love and divine presence.
However, the fall of Adam and Eve allowed "sin" to enter into human nature (Rom. 5:12-14), polluting the original pure human nature like ink dripping into pure water. Humanity fell from God's eternal glory into a fallen world, and sin reigns in human life (Rom. 7:18-23), separating humanity from the Holy One. Consequently, humanity suffers spiritual death and the sinful nature takes over, making us more prone to do evil in this fallen world. There is a constant struggle within our carnal nature as described by Apostle Paul, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” (Rom. 7:19-20). Mortal man cannot inherit the kingdom of the holy God (1 Cor. 15:40,44,50).
All matter and life on earth are bound to time and space, which is perishable, and are looking forward to returning to the eternal and incorruptible world of heaven (Rom. 8:20-21). We will see later in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation that God the Father has prepared for us an eternal new heaven and new earth, and the glory of the New Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Heaven, coming down from heaven.
Living in time and space, fallen human nature cannot get rid of sin by itself, nor can it travel through time and space to return to the glorious presence of God in eternity. God, our loving Father, has not forsaken His children. He designed a plan of salvation and sent His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be the scapegoat in our place, eliminating sins once and for all (Gal 1:4; Heb 2:14) and restoring humanity to God’s original plan and purpose for creation. Through the redemption of the Lord Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God the Father is building the new humanity through born-again Christians in Jesus Christ. At the same time, the life of Jesus is built into the Body of Christ (John 17:21-23). At the appointed time and with the work of the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ will grow up to maturity (Eph. 4:16) and become the glorious Bride of Christ - the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) - the eternal new home for humanity.
God is the LORD of the universe and life. He designed the plan of salvation to bring His creation back to Himself, who can fathom His mystery? The Lord Jesus came from eternity into the human world to atone for the sins of mankind. He descended to Hades after His crucifixion to retrieve the keys of death and Hades (Rev. 1:17-18), and then ascended above all the heavens after His resurrection to fill all things with His resurrected glory and authority (Eph. 4:8-10), making all things one in Himself at the time appointed by the Father (Eph. 1:10). (See The Covenant of Love on Cross)
Beyond Time & Space
Three Heavens & Three Parts of Man
We see this in God’s creation, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1), and "Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it..." (Isa. 42:5). God divided the universe into the heavens above and the earth below by the firmament (Amos 9:6; Ezek. 1:26), and spread out the Sun, Moon and stars in the sky (Psalm 8:3; Isa. 45:12). God dwells in the heaven of heavens (Psalm 68:33; 1 Kings 8:27) and sits above the circle of the Earth (Isa. 40:22).
The Bible records the experience of the Apostle Paul being taken up to the third heavenly paradise (2 Corinthians 12:2-4), and clearly tells us: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12) The ruler of the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places is Satan.
Thus, we can see that our Heavenly Father has long been telling us through the Bible that the three heavens are real, namely: 1) the earthly physical world (the first heaven); 2) the dark spiritual world (the second heaven); 3) the eternal paradise of God (the third heaven).
Although we know that we have mind (thoughts), will, emotions and conscience which are immaterial, most people only see the outer ‘body’ and completely ignore the existence of the inner ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’. God tells us clearly: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (He. 4:12). The apostle Paul went on to emphasise this: “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:23).
Thus, we can see that the Bible also clearly tells us that man consists of three parts: 1) a physical body, 2) a soul that contains thoughts, will, emotions, etc., and 3) a spirit.
- The Body, the flesh and blood, is made from dust and exists in the physical world. It is bound to the earth in space and time (1st heaven).
- The Spirit, the inner spirit man, is of God and exists in eternity. It dwells in the heart, which is a supernatural existence connected to God's eternal kingdom (3rd heaven).
- The Soul, the breath of life, connects the spirit with the body and exists between the physical and spiritual worlds, just like the Garden of Eden, which is the intersection of heaven and earth. It is a supernatural existence between the visible body and the invisible spirit, and is directly influenced by the spiritual world above time and space (2nd heaven).
Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychoanalysis, found that only a small part of what we say and do is controlled by our conscious mind. Most of them are dominated by our subconscious mind, which works on its own, unnoticed by us, but dominates our entire life. The ‘subconscious’ acts on our instincts, and directs our activities through the autonomic nervous system at a level beyond human subjective control. Thus, the life that we think we are in control of is not really under our control at all! In short, the invisible spirits can influence and dominate our conscious and subconscious activities through our souls (thoughts, will, feelings), thereby changing our life activities (words, deeds, and behaviour).
Rebirth of the Spirit
The New Creation in Christ
God is Spirit (John 4:24). God created man from dust in His own image and breathed into man’s nostrils His own ‘Breath of Life’, and man became a ‘living soul’ (Gen 1:27; 2:7, KJV). The Spirit of God is the divine source of life that fills us with the life and power of God. We also see that the Lord Jesus imparts to His disciples the ‘Breath of God - Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22). This means that a human being is a spiritual soul in a body, while the spirit is the life force that animates the body through the soul.
Thus, our spirit drives our lives. It functions our bodies through our soul, which includes our thoughts, will, and emotions, etc. As the intermediary between heavens and earth, our soul can be enlightened by Holy Spirit or be influenced by evil spirits to confuse our minds and manipulate our emotions. The Bible tells us that our beauty is not of the outward appearance, but “rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.” (1 Pet. 3:4). A man without a spirit is living in spiritual darkness! A man without his soul is like a walking corpse! If a man's soul is out of his body, he is a dead man (Jas. 2:26). As Job said of God, “If He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.’’ (Job 34:14-15).
The spirit of man comes from God. After the fall of Adam, man was separated from God’s ‘Spirit of Life’ by the sinful nature, which was ruled by the devil’s ‘Spirit of Death’. This caused the ‘spiritual man’, who originally had God's eternal life and Spirit, to fall into the worldly ‘soulish’ and ‘carnal’ man ruled by the ‘soul’ and ‘body’ (1 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:5-8). As Paul said:
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:18-20; 24-25).
God has given us free will and we can choose to live as a child of God under the redemption grace of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 8:15 ). Those who do not accept Jesus as their Saviour cannot be born again in the Spirit. They will continue to live as worldly soulish and carnal beings, and be easily infiltrated and controlled by evil spirits at any time. Just as the existence of darkness is due to the absence of light. The devil can take power in human life because of the absence of God's glory and presence! Since we cannot see the operation of the spiritual realms with our physical eyes, human beings are bound and deceived by the devil without knowing it, and are unable to extricate our sinful nature from it. We must understand that the battle between good and evil is not physical, but spiritual (Eph. 6:12). It is multi-dimensional, manifested in the physical world of the earth. Our ‘soul’ (thoughts, will, emotions, etc.) is the main battlefield of invisible spiritual forces!
Thanks be to God, through the redemption of the Lord Jesus, our ‘spirit man’ is born again and reunited with the Holy Spirit, so that all who believe in Jesus are 'justified by faith', become ‘New Creation in Christ’ (2 Cor. 5:17) and reconciled with God the Father (Rom. 8:9-11). This restores man’s intimacy relationship with God and takes back the dominion from Satan! We will rule the whole earth again with the Lord Jesus in eternity. (See Love Through Time and Space)
Pilgrimage of the Heart
The Return to the Glory of God
After the fall of Adam and Eve, God said to them: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”(Gen 3:19). When the Spirit of God left man because of the sin, man lost his divinity and became a carnal being.
However, despite the sinful nature separating man from God and leaving him spiritually empty, the ‘soul’, the bearer of the spirit, has been constantly searching for its Master! Various spiritual practices have been used throughout the ages, but few realise that the ‘human spirit’ comes from the Spirit of God. Man can never get rid of his innate ‘sinful nature’ by practising spirituality. Instead, this can be used by the devil as a gateway for the ‘evil spirits’ to manipulate and influence their ‘soul’ (mind/will/emotion/conscience) and ‘body’ (words and deeds) to follow the desires of the flesh, leading to corruption and death!
Man lives in a fallen world, bound to time and space, where Satan reigns, totally unaware of the existence of satanic forces and the eternal Kingdom of God outside of time and space. When the "spirit of man" is cut off from the Holy Spirit, the evil spirits take advantage and influence our lives. There is no middle ground in the spiritual world, it is either white or black. The only way for us to return to God is through the salvation of our Lord Jesus! As we have said previously, before the fall of man, the spirit of man was united with the Holy Spirit of God, covered by God's glory, and lived in eternity, representing God in charge of the whole earth. After the fall, man was expelled from the eternal Garden of Eden and fell under the power of the sin and death of Satan. The evil spirits manipulate and control our lives through our soul (thoughts, will, emotions) and body (fleshly desires and lusts), and the ‘spirit of death’ rules over mankind.
Thanks be to God, our heavenly Father who loves us has already made provision for us. We saw that in the Garden of Eden, God punished the ancient serpent (the incarnation of the devil) who tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of God, and said to him: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15). In order to redeem the innocent people, God let His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, be born in the form of a human being on the earth where darkness reigns, thereby bringing God’s eternal Kingdom of Light to the earth. Those who accept the Lord Jesus can be born again into the Kingdom of God and regain the presence of God’s glory. In the Garden of Eden, we also saw that God killed a lamb for man’s sins for the first time (Rev. 13:8), and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins to cover their shame (Gen. 3:21). This clearly foreshadowed the slaying of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to take away our sins and shame ( John 1:29; Rev. 5:12), just as the Passover Lamb foreshadowed Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross at Passover. (See Love Covenant-Passover Lamb and Precious Blood on the Mercy Seat). As Jesus himself said:
“I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:46); and
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). This is just as,
“Sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:21)
