And so Adam refused to eat from life… but he’d rather eat from death! And he wasn’t deceived in that choice… He deliberately chose it for reasons I just said – that he would have dominion. Remember Paul said, ‘knowledge puffs up but love edifies’– Knowledge puffs up… and this is what Adam was seeking… to raise himself up over Eve… perhaps even the Serpent… But the truth was he was already raised up because he was created in the image and likeness of God and he was given dominion over all creation, including Satan, Lucifer, the Serpent. Adam had that dominion and he gave that Dominion away because he foolishly was not happy with how God had made him compared to this shining cherub talking to his wife.
You know the old comic strip? Where the skinny guy on the beach with his, with his wife, he’s got no muscle, he’s really skinny… and and then The Bodyguard ..the uh surf Lifesaver.. walks past and his wife is looking at him.. big muscly ‘Bronzed Ozzie’ …and his wife is looking at this guy.. and the poor guy… he uh beats himself up… and begins to do weights and try to become like the surf Lifesaver to win his wife’s attention… I believe that’s exactly what was going on there in the garden.
And Adam despised himself in a moment… and wanted to be like the glorious surf life saver cherub- Satan- the The Shining cherub who came from the presence of God… he wanted to be like him… he reached for something higher — not realizing that he was the Pinnacle of God’s creation—( well I believe he did realise it) but he deliberately chose for what he could see… he wanted to be like the devil… and God wanted him to eat from the Tree of life that he might be like Jesus Christ..
Jesus said in John 6 -‘ the words I speak to you are life.. the flesh profits nothing.’ he said ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life indeed.. will not die..’ Jesus is that tree of life in human form… and of course to receive his life… we must believe on Jesus… believe the gospel, that he died for our sins and was raised up on the third day… that he ascended on High. We must believe in Jesus Christ and receive him as our only life…
We walk by faith and not by sight …and so the curse meant that Adam would rule over his wife.. And Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that the husband is to love his wife… the opposite of ruling over ….the husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church and laid down his life for her… Hallelujah!! Not just once! This is the character of the Husband.. our husband Jesus… always laying down His life for us… that we might walk in his resurrection… and in his life… always laying down his life for us to lift us up.. because we are his Church, his bride,… and the wife is to honour her husband.
But when the husband rules over the wife it’s a sign that they are living under an old Covenant – first Covenant mindset of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil… which means they have taken a vow, sworn an oath in their marriage… they swore an oath ‘to do the best they can to love one another… be faithful.. blah, blah, blah!’ That very oath is an old Covenant oath. Jesus said- Do not swear at all.. let your yes be yes and your no be no …anything more than that is of the evil one. The evil one knows if he can get the Christian to live under an oath he has got him walking in death and the curse becomes active in his marriage and in his life. If you’ve sworn to follow Jesus…’ I promise I will do this Lord’ ‘I promise I will do that Lord’ then friend you’re a mortal- you cannot keep your promise… but what you have unwittingly done, is given the enemy ground to cause the curse to devour your marriage and your life and your calling – everything!
He’s (the Serpent)not stupid. Adam knew what he was doing… and because of it husband’s rule over… and because of it… the church has the mindset that we’re going to rule over people in the Kingdom… this is not the case… instead we are going to lay down our life for the people of the Nations… that they might know our wonderful husband… that they might come to the Lord… and they will honour the Lord as they see us loving them and laying down our life for them — not ruling over them! Hallelujah! So because Adam was not deceived… he chose that whole world of iniquity for us… but we know that that Jesus has reversed it… and yet we need to come out of that old Covenant mindset… and find ourself firmly fixed in Grace… because there’s nothing we can do to add to the work Jesus did for us… the more we try… the more we disqualify ourself From Grace… Be blessed— I want to talk more about this.