Did Jesus evolve?

Many years ago when God called me, my wife and I joined a small church.  Coming out of a background of zero knowledge of either God or the Bible, some things puzzled me.  How could I be sure the Bible was the words of God?  Another  problem was… Jesus.  It baffled me where He came from?  Later I just decided He must have fallen out of heaven.  Or He evolved.  

With time came more insight.  God already introduced His Son in the first few chapters of Genesis 1-11:9.  Personally I doubted if the Garden of Eden and Satan’s entry into it could be explained by evolution.     

Besides that, Jesus was part of the eternal Triune God.  The reason for Him to become Son of Man made sense:

• Sin and rebellion entered the world through the deceit of the devil,

“You will not surely die, ‘the serpent [Satan] said to the woman.’” Genesis 3:4.  

Satan deceived Adam and Eve.  Expelled from the Garden, sin became part of life.  Cain, their eldest child, became the first ‘convert’ of Satan.  God warned him, 

‘But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door.  It desires to have you, but you must master it.’  Genesis 4:7b

Cain could not master sin.  Humans cannot resist the cleverness of the devil.  

• God came to the rescue.  Someone, in the image of man, would be our Deliverer,

‘He [Seed of the woman, Jesus] will crush your [Serpent’s, Satan’s] head and you will strike His heel.’  Genesis 3:15b

Jesus would be the Saviour to redeem us from the power of the devil,

‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.’  1 John 3:8

God already hinted at the Great Escape from the dungeons of the devil in what He did for Adam and Eve, 

‘The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.’ Genesis 3:21

God Himself made the clothes and dressed them.  It is a remarkable reference to salvation through the shedding of blood – a vivid picture of God’s grace and mercy. 

The lesson for me? 

Jesus did not fall out of the air.  He did not evolve.  God in His wisdom planned it all before creation,

‘He [Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.’  1 Peter 1:20

Glory! 

Eternal life through the tree of life

Jesus made a remarkable promise to the church of Ephesus, 

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’  Revelation 2:7

We read about the Tree of Life next in the future New Jerusalem,

‘Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life….’  Revelation 22:1-2

So according to Jesus, the New Jerusalem is the Paradise of God.   God introduced us to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, 

‘Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man He had formed….  In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’  Genesis 2:8-9

What are the similarities between the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem?  They are the only two places mentioned in Scripture where God and man were in close fellowship with no sin that interfered.  In the first instance of the Garden of Eden, 

‘…the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day….’ Genesis 3:8 

That was the time they daily conversed with God.  Then, after an interlude of thousands of years, God finally accomplishes His goal, to be among His beloved people, 

‘…I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them.  They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God.’ Revelation 21:3

That will be the eternal situation in the New Jerusalem.  Those whose names are written in the Book of Life will always see God’s face.  They will love and cherish Him and have fellowship.  And the source of sin, that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, will be confined in hell.   He will no longer be able to harass God’s people.  And, in case we forget, at God’s right hand sits our beloved Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, the cherished Son of God. 

How to know if the Eden event really happened.

It is fascinating when one looks at what happens in the ‘Church world’ these days.  There is a general denial of many aspects of the Bible.  One is that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are myth.  For example, the talking serpent and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, is supposed to be a fairy story.  

#  Was the tree real?  

• Genesis 3 tells us that a crafty serpent asked Eve, the wife of Adam, ‘Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?’  Eve replied that they could eat from all the trees.  Yet they were forbidden by God to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  
• The serpent answered her (Satan spoke through the serpent, Revelation 12:9, ‘…the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan’), ‘You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  Genesis 3:4  He convinced her, she ate from the fruit and Adam did likewise.

#  What did it imply to eat the fruit of that tree?  

• God, as Creator, reserved the right to decide what is right and wrong for people.  When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they in essence declared that they would now decide for themselves what is good or evil.  God’s opinion no longer counts.
• Now, the interesting question is whether this event did happen?  We can only affirm it if we witness the tendency of man and woman to decide for themselves about what they think is right or wrong, and if they do not take God’s Word into account at all.  Of this there are many examples.  Marriage is one.  God’s desire is one man and one woman.  Today the ‘variety’ of marriages seem endless.  It is man to man, woman to woman, man or woman to a variety of men and/or women.  What about abortion or transgender issues?  The majority just decide and drown out those who say God must be known. 

Conclusion

These days anything goes.  Especially if it is against the Bible.  It is testimony to the truth of the Eden encounter between Satan and man.  We have all the more reason to believe Scripture is accurate and reliable.