I’m reading a book by Kenneth Copeland called Honor: Walking in Honesty, Truth & Integrity. A thought occurred to me sparked by what I read on pages 56-8 in chapter 4 The Honor That Comes from God Only. Copeland communicates an idea about God, Jesus, and Man that I would like to summarize here along with the scripture he used.
God Grants Man Control of the World
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:28 (KJV)
Knowing that God is honorable is important because it means we can trust His word, the Bible. We can trust that what He has told us through His word in the Bible is honest, true, and is the way things are. God being honorable is important because it becomes a grounding position upon which we can base our faith as we study His word. It is important because He becomes the living embodiment of hope in our lives as we interact with His Holy Spirit as we learn about His life as Jesus Christ.
The knowing that God is honorable takes a little more work. When God created Man He entered into a covenant with His creation. Remember a covenant is an agreement that holds each party to their portion whether or not the other party keeps their side of the bargain. Our side of the covenant was to honor God by submitting to His authority willingly. God’s side of the covenant was to honor our free will to make choices by not forcing us to love Him.
Mankind Grants Satan The Power of Their Birthright
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Gen 3:12-13 (KJV)
God is omniscient, that is He knows everything. So, when he breathed the breath of life into Adam; in fact before he did that, He knew we would betray our side of the covenant. God knew as He created Mankind we would turn away from him, listen to the serpent, and eat the forbidden fruit. How do we know God is honorable? God knew we would betray Him and he created us anyway, then after we did what He knew we would do, He didn’t force us into anything or destroy us. Each time He has planned to destroy Mankind for what we have done He has always created a way to ensure we survived, free will and all.
Why is all this important? Because it is hope-filled. The story doesn’t stop with Adam and Eve betraying God’s trust. Satan knew God had bound Himself to His own rules or he wouldn’t have tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. In this way, Satan became the authority to which Man became subject because God granted dominion of the earth to Adam and Even, but they gave it to Satan when they obeyed him rather than God and ate the fruit. This doesn’t sound very hopeful, in fact it sounds down right hopeless. However, the story doesn’t end here.
Satan Knows He Controls the World
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
Luke 4:6 (KJV)
After living under the weight of our own poor decisions for quite a long time disobeying God’s laws, making war, hating one another God unfurled the master plan. A child was born in Bethlehem of the line of David. Satan knew this was coming and had a plan but he had inferior forces working for him.
The child matured, grew in wisdom and strength, until one day he entered into the fullness of his office on the banks of the Jordan. Satan found him, fought him, and ultimately crucified him thinking he had won. What Satan didn’t know was that this was all according to God’s plan.
Jesus Reclaimed the Birthright of Mankind
18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
1 John 5:18 (KJV)
Jesus lead a flawless life fulfilling every letter of the law. Jesus became the living example of how God wanted Man to live. When Satan crucified Jesus he sacrificed the final sin offering and fell into the trap. Satan returned control and dominion of the world back to God returning the choice back to Mankind in its fullness.
With Jesus as the Christ crucified the final sin offering paid for all of Mankind’s transgressions past, present, and future. With this deed Mankind once again had hope that the choices we make can have an impact on lives around us. We once again could be saved and back in a loving relationship with the Creator.
God did all this without breaking a single rule He had set in place. God kept all the rules to reclaim the creation He loves. He went to this length to bring us back into a position for us to be able to do as we once did so long ago and is described in scripture in first half of Genesis 3:8 talking about how God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. We once again have the ability to walk with God if we make the right choices; perhaps not while we live in this world, but in the one to come. Nevertheless, the soul of man grants us something the beasts, foul, and fish do not have; we have the freewill to make choices because our god is an honorable god.
