Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command. Did these people not do evil if they broke no prescribed commands of God? No, in fact, in the time of Noah, we see God repenting that He made mankind. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7) The nature of man in those times and in our time inclined towards violating God’s nature of goodness and righteousness. But since God had not given his commands, telling humans what was right and wrong, sin was not charged against anyone’s account. They were following their natural endemic nature that could not be separated from their Adamic inclinations. If you are “blue” in nature, how can you be condemned for being "blue." But, we find that Adam’s seed within them brought chaos and destruction into the world. Consequently, God decided to get rid of mankind, regardless of its “color,” for He regretted his creation. Only Noah found favor with the Lord. Even though Noah was made up of the same DNA, God desired to give him a chance. He was a man of faith who believed in God, wanting to please the creator of all things. Was Noah different from all the other people who were destroyed? No, after the flood recedes, God says: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though EVERY INCLINATION of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21) In Noah’s salvation from the flood, we see the nascent plan of God: to save mankind from the ravages of Adam’s nature. God, who cannot tolerate aberration, who is the exact God, the perfect God, who places everything in order, had a plan to save a wayward people. Nature is exact. We have the exact amount of oxygen in the air for all species to exist. God placed the earth the exact distance from the sun so that we can have life on this planet. God is the exact Creator, but mankind is not exact. By not being exact or perfect, mankind brings destruction, self-interest, lust, and corruption into the realm of God’s creation. Sin must be dealt with, order must be restored. When God says, never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done, He is at the portal of his salvation plan for mankind. Not only will He make them as He is, but He will bring them, the disorderly ones, into his own household as adopted brothers and sisters to his Only Begotten Son: Jesus Christ.
Noah was a man of faith. Faith in God is the genesis of a new life, a new creation. Jesus exclaimed, “You must be born again.” Before faith could be realized in its fullest extent, the written law had to come into existence. The law denotes or measures mankind’s waywardness, points out how far mankind falls from God’s nature of perfection. As Paul so clearly indicates, What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7) Without the law pointing out our true nature, we exist with a self-worth that is not accurate when we are measured up with God: his holiness, his exact nature of goodness. We have no avenue to God’s perfection unless we fully understand our need of a Savior, and that comes from unadulterated faith in his works and not our own. As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, we are saved by grace through faith and not by our works that we might boast. To the Galatians, he said the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Paul indicates further in Romans 7 that the law literally puts him to death, or points out his hopelessness of pleasing God or being like God. The written law that was given in Moses’ time brought condemnation, not release from sin. The law delineated sin and brought each member of the human race into judgment. The problem with the law is that it does not just reveal mankind as “blue,” it reveals that we are the wrong color in reference to God’s holiness and perfection. We know God is good and his law is good, but we are not. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. (Romans 7:14) We realize we cannot attain to that goodness by our own efforts, for the law constantly points out our waywardness, either in our actions or in our spirits. If reflective, we are constantly living in condemnation, evaluating our lives as somewhat good but not totally good, as God is. Without complete holiness we are enemies of God, for any blot or tittle of waywardness in our lives will be our judge as if we violated everything that is good. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. (James 2:10-11)
Today’s verses confirm that death reigned in the human condition before the law was present in written form. Death reigned because man’s DNA was of Adam, the first man. He broke the only commandment God gave him, not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. One commandment, one violation. In other words, one could say to break God’s one command meant complete rebellion. He did not have many commandments to break. If so, he might have broken a few of them, but obeyed others, so the final result would not have been so bad. But Adam had only one commandment, and he broke that one. God took Adam’s action seriously, for He had given Adam great freedom in the Garden except for the one instruction, one command. Because of Adam’s rebellious nature, his unwillingness to rest in God’s creation, known as the sabbath rest, he was driven out of the Garden. God placed him in a finite state, where death would reign, where sin now existed. We who are alive in Christ, do not have death reigning in our lives. We have the nature of Jesus Christ in our lives through the blessed Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Paul told the Romans that through Christ’s death, we were set free from sin. He went on to say, Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. (Romans 6:8) At the end of life’s journey, our biological flesh will die because our bodies are not eternal. Our minds and attitudes are not eternal, but the Spirit of God is eternal, and He makes us alive forevermore. Our thought processes might degenerate. Our bodies will fail, but God is the greenwood in each of us, restoring us to himself by his eternal Spirit, dwelling in us by faith in the One who pleases him: Jesus Christ. We are not alone, existing in a finite state; no, we have an eternal living Spirit within us. We are known by God as new creatures. Our home is with him. He knows us by name. Sin entered this world by one man: Adam. But we are now under the authority and likeness of the new Man: Jesus Christ. Rejoice in Christ’s work, for we are no longer slaves to sin. Do not let the evil one bring you into condemnation. When you fail, look to Jesus Christ your Savior. Consider the old man dead, look to the living. Do not concentrate on your sins, but concentrate on the work of God in you, Jesus Christ the hope of your salvation. He alone is worthy to please God. Hide IN HIM and in his goodness, not yours. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)
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