Throughout the Bible it is about two, the flesh and the spirit.
To explain this spiritual principle, the natural is always used.
Flesh vs Spirit: Biblical Principles
Throughout the Bible it is about two, the flesh and the spirit.
To explain this spiritual principle, the natural is always used.
Think of Babylon and the new Jerusalem or the goats and the sheep and the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
It always shows the difference between living from the flesh or living from the spirit.
Also, the parable of the five foolish girls and the five wise girls shows this as well as the parable of the house built on sand and the house built on the rock.
It all shows the difference between living from the flesh or living from the spirit.
And it’s always about you!
So not about you and your neighbor.
You are Babylon and the new Jerusalem, and you are the goat and the sheep.
And God is removing Babylon in you so that you can grow into the fullness of the pure new Jerusalem.
In the description of the fifth and sixth days of creation in Genesis 1, this is exactly what it is about.
On these days, God makes the animals and man.
A Divine Species: in God's Image and Likeness
Genesis 1:21+25 (NKJV)
God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves,
with which the waters abounded, according to their kind,
and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind,
cattle according to its kind,
and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind.
What stands out immediately, is that all animals are made after their own kind.
What a great contrast that is to humans!
For….
Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)
God created man in His own image.
in the image of God He created him!
You are a divine species, made after the species of your Father, the almighty God.
And….
John 4:24 (NKJ)
God is Spirit.
And….
➡️ God is Spirit. (John 4:24)
So when you live from your true identity, which is that you are of the same species as God, you are living from the Spirit.
Do you see that?
God created you in His image and His likeness, and God is Spirit.
When you believe that this is who you already are and that there is nothing you can do to become this, you are living from the Spirit.
When you think you have to do anything to be in the image of God, you are living from the flesh.
You are then not living in the rest of God but you are then toiling.
This is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve.
The serpent presented to them a wisdom from the flesh, saying:
Genesis 3:5 (NKJ)
In the day you eat of it (from that wisdom), your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.
So this wisdom from the flesh says: if you do, you will become.
But the wisdom from the Spirit says: You are!
You are like God!
You are after His kind!
You are in the image and likeness of God!
The Spiritual Meaning of Adam and Eve
Now look at what happened after Adam lost his true identity and started living from the flesh.
Man was made after God’s kind and not after his own kind like the animals.
However, when Adam starts living from the flesh, he reproduces after his own kind, just like the animals.
For…
Genesis 5:3 (HSV)
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image.
For…
Genesis 5:3 (HSV)
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image.
Adam passed on his identity from the flesh to his children.
We are all born of Adam, therefore we must be born again.
Because….
John 3:5-6 (NAS)
Unless someone is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
For that which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
Whoever is born in the image and likeness of Adam is flesh and whoever is born in the image and likeness of God is spirit.
In other words, whoever takes on the identity given to him by Adam is flesh, whoever believes he is what God says about him is spirit and therefore lives from spirit.
Even though Adam began to live from the flesh, there are wonderful images in the story of Adam and Eve that teach you about Christ and you.
When Adam tried to find his equal in creation, he could not find it.
Genesis 2:20 (NKJV)
Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
He could not find anyone who suited him, for they were all not of the same kind as he was.
They were after their own kind and not in the image and likeness of God.
So when God makes Eve from one side of Adam, Adam is pleasantly surprised.
Genesis 2:23 (ESV)
Then Adam said,
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh!
Now most Bible translations suggest that God took a rib from Adam to make the woman from it.
The Hebrew word often translated here with rib is the word צלע tsela.
Throughout the Bible, this word is translated with side.
Even in Genesis 2, this translation would be a better choice.
Because just like on the second day of creation, we also see a separation here.
For…
Genesis 1:27 (HOS)
God created man in His own image
male and female He created him.
For…
Genesis 1:27 (HOS)
God created man in His own image
male and female He created him.
Then God takes the female half of that human being and makes a second human being out of it.
There is a tremendously beautiful mystery in this!
Adam is an image of Christ and Eve is an image of you.
And just as Eve is of the same body as Adam, so you are of the same body as Christ.
Ephesians 5:23+28-32 (NKJ)
For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church;
and he is the saviour of the body.
So husbands ought to love their own wifes as their own bodys.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Christ and you!
Do you see how beautiful you are?
You are the other half of Christ!
You and Christ have the same body.
That makes you Christ Himself! Of His flesh and of His bones.
And Christ is not after His own kind like the animals made on the fifth and sixth day.
Colossians 1:15 (NAS)
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
Not after His own kind, but after His Father’s kind, after His image and after His likeness.
Spiritual Birth and Sonship
So as Eve was born of the side of Adam, so you were born of the side of Christ.
We see that wonderful image once again at the crucifixion of Christ Jesus.
For that is the moment when the church of Christ was born.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross and had already died, the two others beside him, who were also crucified, were still alive.
To speed up the process a bit, it was common practise to break the legs of the crucified one, so that the person would die sooner.
John 19:32-34 (NAS)
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with Him
but after they came to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
The one thing that always begins with the release of water and blood is a birth.
First comes the head, followed by the body.
When the water and blood flowed from the body of Jesus, sonship was born for you.
For everyone is a child of God, but that is also where it ends for many.
Many remain an infant child all their lives, as Galatians 4 describes, and never grow into the fullness of sonship.
1 John 5:1+4-6 (NKJV)
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 has overcome the world—our faith.
Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to show you who you are.
When you see and understand that, you also begin to understand exactly what Jesus’ death means for you.
And you can only truly believe when you see and understand.
THAT is the faith that overcomes the world.
THEN you are born of God; by the water and blood from the side of Jesus Christ.
And THEN Jesus cries out, like Adam:
Genesis 2:23 (ESV)
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh!
1 John 4:17 (NKJV)
Because as He is, so are we in this world.
