And The Truth Shall Set You Free

For a bookmark in my Bible I use a chart similar to the one shown. Every once in a while when I glance at it I’m reminded that Adam was alive and could have talked with Lamech who was the father of Noah. Adam walked and talked with God, and after Adam and Eve sinned God clothed them with leather garments, showing him and his descendants God’s plan for redemption, fulfilled thousands of years later through the Lamb of God, Jesus.

Through faith Able presented to God a pleasing sacrifice (Heb. 11:4) of the first fruits of his flock, but Cain missed what God desired (Heb.9:22) and became angry and crestfallen. God talks to Cain and says; "Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, well not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is (a demon) crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." We see that Cain did not master it, he did not respond to the leading of God (through the Holy Spirit) and that the prediluvian world as well became progressively evil, resulting in God sending a world wide flood. Yet there was always a testimony to truth available (in this case Adam’s testimony of all that God spoke to him about) and some in each generation who through faith could see and understand the truth.

Holy scripture gives us help in hearing God communicate to us today. Hebrews 4:12 says; "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Well, what does "word of God" mean? John starts with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" and goes on to say "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." So John says that "The Word" is Jesus, and in scripture we find in every book, in one form or another, a testimony about Jesus.

Who was it that talked to Adam and to Cain? In that same chapter in John it says about the Word; "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John says here that it is Jesus who is the creator. It must have been Jesus who formed the dust into man and breathed life into his nostrils and Jesus who walked with Adam in the garden and talked with Cain. And it is being "in Him" where we have (eternal) life and where we come to know truth ("the light of men").

"Faith, then, comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ." Rom. 10:17.