First and second Adam
Man lost his original state as well as his ability to reunite with his Creator. No matter how much the fallen soul longed to, it could not reunite with God, because they were now of two different natures, and therefore incompatible. God is light and holiness, and man is darkness and sin.
Only God as Creator could repair what had been broken, and bring to life what was now dead. God had to create a way for the soul man to be once again formed into its original design. This way it could be reconnected to the spirit of man, and have the ability to receive the flow of eternal and divine life.
This is what Jesus came to do in the world; restore what had been lost. He had to become flesh and soul in order to destroy the kingdom of darkness, sin, sickness and death as a man.
Having done so, he sat on the throne of glory in the heavens as the second Man reuniting human nature with the divine.
He had to retake the position of government and dominion over all the earth, but this time, holding the title of King of Kings and Lord of lords.
Romans 5:12 – therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus spread to all men, because all sinned.
1 Corinthians 15:21 – for since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:45 – and so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
The kingdom of God is spiritual
The first Adam lost his access to the kingdom of God, which is a spiritual dimension. Jesus, the second Adam, came to bring his father’s kingdom so that man, unite it with the spirit, could once again enjoy it.
Among the many truths that Jesus came to establish, there are 4 that I believe are fundamental in regard to this topic.
3 – Heaven and earth came back together in Jesus
Ephesians 1:8 – which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in him.
As we’ve just read, it was Jesus’ will to bring back together all things; those who are in heaven as well as those on earth. This took place when Jesus died on the cross and resurrected, having fulfilled everything that had been written.
This means there was no longer a division between the two dimensions. In Jesus, man is once again in the same condition as the first Adam, having access to everything that is in heaven and on earth.
The key here is to understand what it means to be, in Jesus, since this is a spiritual position in which someone has been covered, submerged and filled with the spirit of God.
As Paul the apostle said in acts 17:28 – for in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
What Jesus did was to bring the spiritual reality of heaven, and make it accessible to us again.
Hebrews 4:16 – let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The throne of his grace does not simply refer to receiving grace from him, as merely a way of speaking, but it refers to entering into a real dimension and receiving from him.
To you think that we have the ability to enter the heavenly dimensions is inconceivable to the natural mind because the fallen soul cannot perceive such greatness, but the redeemed spirit can.
First Corinthians 2:14 – but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
In order to understand this, we must look at the second truth, which I want to emphasize.
B – We must be born of the water and of the spirit
Being born again has become a cliché and a common phrase in Christian vocabulary. Unfortunately, in most cases, the depth of this vital truth has been lost.
The spirit is in a state of death or sleep because of sin and is awakened and engendered when we come to Christ.
John 1:12 – but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name: who were – engendered – not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
There is a difference between being engendered and being born.
It is like when a child is conceived in the womb. The child is already live and exists, but has not been born into this world. The child must be submerged in amniotic fluid for 9 months, before he is born. During this time, the fetus is being nourished by the waters he is immersed in. He is in the process of being formed, so that at the given time, the baby can function, see, hear, feel and move in the New World he is about to be born into.
The same thing happens to our spirit. We are engendered by the divine seed, which is Jesus. Then it is our responsibility to remain in the waters of the spirit of God, which is achieved through – worship and intimacy with the father, son and Holy Spirit, who gave us the living Waters to drink.
John 4:14 – but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up and everlasting life.
John 4:24 – God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Through sanctification and washing, through the study and meditation of the word of God.
Ephesians 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify in cleanser with the washing of the water by the word.
C – Those born of the Spirit have entered the dimension of heaven
When Jesus introduced the theme of a new birth in the spirit, he was referring to entering the heavenly realm.
Being born of God is not being a church member or reading Scripture. Jesus clearly taught us what those born of God are like, and stated their characteristics.
They have the ability to see the kingdom of God because they have entered in, and they have become like the wind, not knowing where it comes from or where it is headed.
Let us consider this concept from a deeper angle in order to grab hold of the heavenly truths that Jesus wanted to relay to Nicodemus.
John 3:3 – Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:5 – Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit.
Our spirit, which had been asleep, received the life of Jesus after we repented of our vain lifestyle and we knowingly invoked his name. Now our spirit must be formed, and the areas we have never used or even knew existed must be awakened.
That is why it is so important to know our spirit and understand how it works, so we will know which parts must still be developed.
Jesus, the son of God, lived as a true born again – being here on earth, knowing and moving in both dimensions at the same time. When he told Nicodemus that those who are born of God are like the wind, he was referring to the ruah, the spirit of God within the spirit of man.
wind is the only element that moves independently from the earth, because it is not from the earth; it is from the Spirit. All the other elements such as earth, fire and water are connected to physical matter, but the wind is not.
Wind comes from a heavenly place. Scientists are able to measure its intensity and direction, but do not know what it is or where it comes from.
Psalm 135:7 – he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain; he brings the wind out of his treasures.
Those born of the Spirit have been formed inside of God and he blows them and leads them as he wills. They are in heaven and on earth at the same time and that is why they can see the kingdom and move in it.
John 3:12 – if I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the son a man who is in heaven.
Notice that Jesus said this before his death and ascension into heaven. He is telling Nicodemus that being born of the Spirit gives man access to heaven and it is possible to be in heaven and on earth at the same time.
Every awakened and vivified spirit understands this. If the spirit is being formed and is growing on the inside, it will long for the moment of its birth more than anything else. However, a slumbering spirit will see this as something humanly impossible.
The reality of the kingdom of God is visible, audible and palpable for those who are born of God. The seed of the Almighty has been formed inside them and is manifesting in their way of being and acting.
First John 3:9 – whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
This is the true condition of a spirit that has been awakened and quickened by God and has been born into the kingdom of God.
D – The kingdom of God is invisible and can only be discerned spiritually
The kingdom of God is a kingdom of the spirit.
This dimension is different from that of the earth. Its wisdom and ways are higher than those of the material world. Therefore, only an awakened spirit can enter it and understand it.
First Corinthians 2:6 – however, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age new; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
The world and its ways of analyzing things, it’s wisdom and its goals are very different from God’s.
Israel’s princes, its priests, scribes and doctors of the law in the time of Jesus did not know the things of the spirit. There wisdom and understanding had a carnal logic, because their spirits were asleep in the same manner as the first Adam. So when Jesus told them that his kingdom would not come visibly and would not be located in a particular place on earth, including Jerusalem, they were offended and disqualified him as a potential Messiah.
Luke 17:20 – no when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, see here! Or see there! For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.
The wisdom of God, by the Spirit, is the one from heaven, because it is the unlimited mind of Christ. God designed for us to know his mysteries and his inscrutable thoughts, so we would be covered with his glory.
First Corinthians 2:9 – but as it is written: I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
The awakened spirit of a son of God is by nature a researcher. It is not passive and it is not waiting for others to provide answers. He knows that he can know all things in God, and does not stop until all his questions are answered.
One of these great questions is the central concept of our study, what is the spirit of man like, and how does it operate?
First Corinthians 2:11 – for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.
Our spirit is the one that knows everything concerning who we are as sons of God. In knows the identity of who we truly are as men made in the image of God.
Our soul does not know the things of man. Our carnal mind does not have this knowledge nor can’t understand or decipher it.
Psychology and psychiatry with all its great doctors cannot understand who man truly is or how he functions. Many of them believe we come from a monkey. That is why, when they come across a complex mental disorder, they solve it by filling up the patient with medication.
How could Nicodemus understand that Jesus was in heaven and on earth at the same time or that someone could be like the wind?
Jesus spoke in the language and wisdom of the spirit because his words were spirit and they were life.
John 6:63 – it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and their life.
He came to his own, yet his own did not receive him because they loved their souls in darkness, along with their logic and doctrines, more than the light of the spirit of life. The words of Jesus however, remained on the earth eternally, so that his spirit would vivify anyone who receives them.
It is in our spirit where we understand everything that has been given to us by God. We do not live waiting for the moment of our death to understand how we are made, instead, he manifest and reveals this to us.
First Corinthians 2:12 – now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The spirit has a very special way of expressing itself. It uses different words given by the Spirit; because the spiritual reality has different physics, and dynamics that does not exist in the material world.
This is why the carnal or soul driven man cannot understand what we are discussing; to him it sounds like something out of this world.
Then he refers to it as being crazy, not possible, sounds like New Age or that is fantasy. They even blaspheme against the Holy Spirit criticizing what they do not understand.
First Corinthians 2:14 – but the natural, non-spiritual man does not accept are welcome or admitted into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the spirit of God, for they are folly – meaningless nonsense – to him; and he is incapable of knowing them – of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them – because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. But the spiritual man tries all things – he examines, investigates, inquires into, questions, and discerns all things – yet is himself to be put on trial and judged by no one – he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can properly discern or appraise or get and insight into him.
First Corinthians 2:16 – for who has known the mind and the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
The natural mind cannot understand God’s thoughts nor can it discern the believer who has reached a level of maturity as the result of having been born of the Spirit of God.
This spiritual stature is the fruit of our spirit being fused with God Spirit, and in this manner, he places in us the mind of Christ.