"The Garden of Eden" by Thomas Cole (c. 1828)
Every man is born, lives and dies. Its a pattern set from the beginning - from Adam, the first man on earth. There is one slight problem with this pattern - it wasn't part of the original design. God created Adam in his own image and breathed in him his own breath of life, a perfect copy of himself, a son who would tend the garden of Eden - the garden of pleasure. However, Satan apparently didn't like his little earthly brother and so he decieved Adam and his wife by the promise of knowledge in exchange for disobeying God. To disobey God is the very definition of sin.
Mark 12:27 "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living" Adam and his unnamed wife at that point ate of the tree and became like god, knowing good and evil (knowing everything?) When God confronted them he didn't execute judgement - he could have destroyed them on the spot and start from scratch! God loved Adam like a son and God knew what would be required to save him before Satan even began to plot against him. Adam was fully aware that he should die on the spot Gen2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This was a warning apparently, as in the end Adam cursed himself with death. I bet he was surprised when God, instead of killing him, decided to make clothes for him and his wife. God chose life where Adam chose death. When Adam saw what God did he names his wife Eve - HVH, meaning "lifegiver". Her name is the name of the LORD without its first letter, Yod which means "hand". The name YHVH can be translated as "hand that gives life".
God revealed his plan of salvation when he slaughtered the animals to cover Adam and Eve. Adam probably deduced on the spot that a life has to be given, sacrificed to cover the corruption of death, but Adam was already dead like a branch cut off from its tree. He knew that he had only a short time before he withered and died and that all his children would have less and less "life" unless God intervened. Before the flood people lived up to 1000 years of age. We're lucky if we hit 70.
Revelation 5:4 "And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon." No man is able to open the book of life -because every man is dead in his sin. No man but Jesus Christ. Jesus is the son of god who became a man. He was born and he died but he lives forever. Compared to him, we truly are dead but because of what he did - we recieve life. Death entered the world through sin, through disobedience of God's word. It is perfectly logical that by obeying God we will be brought back to life.
Hebrews 9:27, 28 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." The bible says that a man can be born again: John 3:3-7 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." The second birth is not a physical birth, we're not reborn or reincarnated or like Nicodemus thought - we don't return to our mother's womb. The second birth is a spiritual birth that comes down to obeying God's word, confessing his truth and by being faithful unto death. The second birth happens in our hearts when we realize the bible is true and choose to live according to its teaching. John 1:11,12 "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" To be born again means to become a son of God. We become sons of God by doing his work - living in truth and teaching the truth.
John 8:40-44 "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
These last few verses are Jesus speaking to the pharisees who claimed to do the work of God and so to be children of God. Wearing priestly robes and quoting bible passages doesn't make you a child of God. Loving truth and loving God with all your heart means you live in truth and are a child of God. John 8:35 "And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever."
"Christ at Simon the Pharisee" by Rubens (c. 1620)
