The Power of One

I’m not even sure where to begin this morning.  I’m feeling many things, but mostly I feel God laying themes of “ONE” and “oneness” on my heart, not only in reference to God’s divine nature, but in the way He has expressed it in the creation of mankind.  Lord Jesus, give me the words to try to explain, in some small measure, such a delicate, complex, interwoven, and yet SIMPLE concept.  How can anything but GOD be COMPLEX and SIMPLE at the same time?  Even Paul wrote of this to Timothy: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness….” (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV)  

I was reading in Romans 5 this morning. This passage in particular arrested my attention: 

Romans 5:12-14 KJV

¹² Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

¹³ (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of

him that was to come.

What really struck me—and maybe I’m just slow on the uptake, so forgive me—is how it says that sin entered the world by ONE man.  You’re probably thinking, “Well, duh…” but hear me out.  We know it all had to do with the original sin in the Garden of Eden, but did you notice, that this passage attributes this to Adam’s charge?  Here is another:

Romans 5:19 KJV

¹⁹ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

One man’s disobedience.  What about Eve?  Didn’t the serpent speak to Eve?  Doesn’t she get any of the blame?  There’s no mention of her here.  Come to think of it, I don’t think there is ever a mention of her again, outside the first few chapters of Genesis.

Here are a few of the things that struck me as I studied:

• ·      During the creation story, God creates the earth, light, dark, sun, moon, and stars, the ocean, and all the creatures of the sea in the first five days.  He uses nothing more than His spoken Word, but with His spoken Word, we see evidence of the endless variety and creative ability of God.
  ·      On the sixth day, he creates the animals: ²⁵ And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 25 KJV)
  ·      Next, God forms man. (Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:7)
  ·      Then, God plants a garden, and puts man there. (Genesis 2:8, 15)
  ·      God tells him he may eat freely of every tree—EXCEPT the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  He tells Adam, “In THE DAY thereof that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”  We know he didn’t actually die that day, but God was telling him that in the day that HE would eat of the tree, his fate of death would be sealed.  (Does anyone else notice here that the “death sentence” rests on Adam’s actions?  Not Eve’s?  She had not yet been created—but she already existed in the plan of God, so He full well knew what would happen.  Did He not hold her accountable because she wasn’t there when He said it?  But Adam bore this responsibility?  Wow.  I’m trying to wrap my brain around this whole sequence.)
  ·      God then makes the statement, “It is not good that man should be alone,” (Genesis 2:18) and decides he needs an “help meet.”
  ·      Now, this really fascinates me:  instead of making woman immediately, God brings all of the ANIMALS before Adam!  Man then proceeds to name the animals. (This must’ve been a really LONG day!)  However, Adam is unsuccessful in finding someone he would consider a helpmeet.  (Genesis 2:20)
  ·      God puts Adam into a deep sleep, and then removes a rib from his side.  He uses the rib to form the woman.  When God later brings the woman to Adam, he calls her Woman, “because she was taken out of man.” 
  ·      This next statement in Genesis 2:24 really gets me: ²⁴ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  First of all, it’s Adam speaking here.  When this passage is read, standing alone, I always pictured this statement as being spoken by God himself, but it actually appears to be spoken by Adam, the very next breath after naming woman.   He speaks of a man leaving his father and mother to cleave to his wife—but they were the first man and the first woman, and there were no fathers and mothers yet!  I find it fascinating that this seems to be both directions for mankind, AND prophetic.
  ·      In Genesis 3, we read the account of the serpent tempting Eve. It is interesting to note that the serpent couldn’t DO anything TO Eve, and he couldn’t MAKE her do ANYTHING.  The only thing he could do was to plant THOUGHTS, which were intended to cause her to DOUBT God’s Word.
  ·      The woman was obviously close to the Tree—because she could SEE it.  The Garden, according to scripture was immense.  There’s only ONE tree they’re supposed to stay away from, and where are they?  Where they can see it.  “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat…”(Genesis 3:6a)  If she had just made it a policy to stay away from temptation, she would have saved herself a lot of trouble!
  ·      But still, this didn’t fall completely on the woman!  The rest of that same verse notes: “…and she did eat, and gave also unto her husband WITH HER.” Adam was right there, all along!  And Eve might’ve claimed ignorance, because she wasn’t there when Adam was instructed by God, but Adam had no excuse.  

This is why, in my opinion, it says in Romans that, “by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.”  What was Adam guilty of?  Disobedience.  He knew better. He was also guilty of allowing another to sway him, and influence him into something he knew full well was wrong.  Does this mean that, if Adam had stood for what was right, and refused to eat of the fruit, that the woman would have been redeemed?  It does say in Genesis 5:2 that, in the day they were created, He called THEIR NAME “Adam.”  He saw them as ONE.

It's funny, as a teacher, I use a similar analogy.  I tell my choirs and ensembles, "Every member of the team is important.  It MATTERS if one person misses a rehearsal, or chooses to blow off a concert.  We live as a team, and the absence of one can throw the whole team out of kilter."  It's a hard concept to get across in our flaky, come-and-go-as-you-please society.  Loyalty and commitment are lost arts.

This next series of scripture enrages the feminists ideal, because today’s version of feminism would like nothing more than to blame man for all their troubles.  It’s not really equality that they seek.  It’s superiority.  That’s always a problem, when one race, one gender, or one people seeks superiority, because generally speaking, human nature is about being the top dog.  The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:14: ^“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”  The feminist mindset balks at the thought of a woman being deceived.  But that’s not my point here, truly.  It’s the point that sin entered the world through one man’s transgression, because Adam was NOT DECEIVED.  Adam KNEW, and chose to ignore the truth.

Now, lest you think I’m attacking men, I assure you I am not.  Just the opposite.  The scripture I quoted from Genesis 5:2 should make it clear:  “God called their name Adam.”  Do you know that Eve wasn’t even called Eve until AFTER the fall from grace?  Up to that point, she was simply called “woman”.  Their responsibility was to each OTHER.  This is where, I believe, the custom of the woman taking the husband’s surname has come from.  It’s biblical.

This is the main problem with marriages failing in this day and time.  People say they want to be married, but so many enter with an exit plan already in place.  They never see themselves as one.  They see themselves as independent agents that, for this moment in time, will agree to occupy the same real estate.  I know that some people truly do enter the marriage state dreaming of growing old together.  But the immaturity of confusing the commitment and covenant of marriage with the fantasy that everything is going to be sweet and peachy and romantic and perfect all the time, and that passion IS love is simplistic and superficial at best.  In their childishness, they become disillusioned when things aren’t always picture perfect.  They blame the other when things don’t go according to plan, or one makes a bad miscalculation or decision that affects them both.  They consider inconveniences to their own plans to be grounds for ending the relationship, regardless of the others their decision impacts.  “We’ve grown apart.  We’re different people now.”  Well, we are all, in many ways, the sum of our experiences.  If we don’t grow, it’s because we are dead.  When you choose to marry someone, you are choosing to grow together.  You are saying, in advance, “I pledge to you that our paths are now ONE.  No matter what the future holds, we are ONE FLESH.  What happens to YOU, happens to ME.”

Please don’t misunderstand.  I’m not saying anyone in the marriage relationship has to tolerate physical abuse, because you stood before God and made a pledge one to another.  Abuse is a BREAKING of the marriage covenant, because God told man to love his wife as Christ loved the church, which included the willingness to lay down his own life on her behalf.  Having, holding, for better, for worse, in sickness, and in health are all conditions present in a healthy, loving relationship.  Physical abuse is a destruction of the covenant, for it disregards the command of God to love his wife as his own flesh.  Emotional abuse, to me, falls in the same category.  And of course, it should go without saying that adultery is absolutely a breach of covenant.  Forsaking all others…I’m just saying.

Does this mean the relationship is beyond repair?  No—for the God who spoke the universe into existence can certainly heal a marriage.  But how much more powerful is it, if we, from the beginning, see ourselves as ONE FLESH, and do everything in our power to nurture and protect, to cherish and embrace that relationship.  What God has joined together—as ONE—let not man put asunder!

  
Here's the best part, though:  it's by ONE man, Christ Jesus, that we have a way of escape, and hope for tomorrow.  He's the reason we can make a commitment and stick to it.  He's the perfect example of oneness and hope and fidelity.  Let's review:

Romans 5:19 KJV

¹⁹ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Thank God for the second Adam!