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Freedom And Disobedience

The progression from the creation account through to the completion of the commandments of Christ show that man has been given a growing set of commandments from God over time. One could ask whether man was free with the one commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and is more or then less free under Christ: The giving of commandments to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Israel and finally through the prophets leading up to Christ that fulfilled them all (all commandments as well as the prophets), would seem to state that God has been clamping down on our freedom since the earliest time.

God in the time leading up to the flood stated that His spirit would no longer strive with man and He would limit man's lifespan. Whereas God could no longer consider such men as "family", God began to give more commandments, yet only in the form of successive covenants (agreements with man). To Noah God forbade murder and the shedding of blood. To Abraham God gave a commandment of faith - "be thou perfect and walk before me" that Abraham would believe on Him, and ask of God directly according to need rather than God leading him.

The covenant with Moses' mediation to Israel is clear in the scripture in its severity, to separate the people of Israel from disobedience in the same black and white manner which distinguishes the saved and not saved of Christ's body, His elect.

Christ teaches that the truth will make us free; clearly we were not free under the condemnation of the law, if we were to know the Father as perfectly as Christ knows Him we would not have chosen to sin, but we can believe that fact only upon the person of Christ.

The law is such that the man with virtue will keep the commandments without a problem. Indeed the scripture states that the man who does those things written in the law shall live by them, and shall be a survivor of this world; Yet the OT also provided forgiveness in the form of sacrificial offering and was not a completely grace-free system.

The God of the bible gave commandments as they were required, to prevent evil (as the synthesis of good and evil); One could dispute the law of God for its severity of punishment, yet there was no requirement for the sinner to live amongst Israel in the bible, he could sell up and leave if he wanted to live in Babylon or Greece. Israel was strictly the land of God that He gave to the people that would keep His law. There was every option to keep the law or not, as long as one was not so full of pride to declare themselves (living in the land of the people of Israel) chosen by God if they were so sinful. If they didn't like it, they could get out.

The same ejection occurred to Adam and Eve from the garden and they were prevented from eating of the tree of life (the redemption of Christ) that would give them eternal life; They would have to live out their curse without forgiveness, not to have the clean state of God himself.

Likewise the blasphemer is ejected from the body of Christ without forgiveness for rejecting every correction of the Holy Spirit.

God however, is patient and slow to anger, but He is a God of judgement, He did more than expel men from the flood, He destroyed them from off the face of the earth. Likewise at "the last day" it will be just as it was in the days of Noah, and the ungodly will be destroyed from the face of the earth also. They will not know until it comes upon them. (Though they have all been warned in some manner.)

In comparison to the Ark, in which Noah and his family were preserved in the person of Jesus Christ: we see that in the last days the person of Christ has the only name in heaven and on earth by which men may be saved.


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