Everyone loves a good mystery with a riveting
plot, hidden clues, a protagonist with challenging obstacles, a disgusting
antagonist, and a surprise ending. After
reading a mini version of *The Mystery of Human Life with
a Thai student last week after a dinner with college students I saw again how the Bible surely contains the best
mystery of all.
Over the years my husband and I have gone up to our university and handed out Bibles and gospel tracts at the Info Fair. Whenever a student would let me talk with them, I would recite some of the verses I knew by heart or share some of the background details from the Bible.
This week I looked up some of the key verses presented in this tract. It's important for people to know that this is not our own word but God's. These verses in the Bible contain the pieces to the puzzle that answers the greatest mystery of all--why did God create us?
And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, Ephesians 3:9
Over the years my husband and I have gone up to our university and handed out Bibles and gospel tracts at the Info Fair. Whenever a student would let me talk with them, I would recite some of the verses I knew by heart or share some of the background details from the Bible.
This week I looked up some of the key verses presented in this tract. It's important for people to know that this is not our own word but God's. These verses in the Bible contain the pieces to the puzzle that answers the greatest mystery of all--why did God create us?
And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, Ephesians 3:9
The first piece of the puzzle is seeing that God made man in His own image for a purpose!
Just like any
great mystery, the Bible introduces in its opening chapters the protagonist,
antagonist, and other key players. The
very first verse introduces God: “In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” The ultimate goal of
God’s creation, however, focuses on His creation of man in Genesis 1:26: “And
God said, Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them
have dominion….” Last of all you can find in chapter 3 the antagonist, the
devil, disguised as a serpent hanging in a tree ready to trick Eve. Have you ever wondered after reading the
first three chapters of Genesis, what’s up with this story? When I read it growing up, I never could put
all the pieces together.
The second piece of the puzzle is seeing that God’s eternal purpose is to get inside of man.
The Bible shows us that God made man with three parts. And
in Genesis 2:7 you can see them: “Jehovah God formed man [outward
body] from the dust of the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, [
All the three parts of our being were made by
God to contact and receive things.
The Bible tells us in Romans 9:21 that God made man like a vessel: “Or
does not the potter [God] have authority over the clay to make out of the same
lump one vessel unto honor…” And vessels are containers; just like a glove is made in the image of a
hand with the purpose of containing a hand, so God made man in His image so that man
could be a vessel to contain His divine life. The clue to seeing that man's spirit was made to contact God's Spirit is hidden in
John 4:24: “God is Spirit and those who worship
Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” The capital S here stands for God’s Spirit, and the lower
case s stands for man’s human spirit.
The third piece of the
puzzle involves seeing what happened to man in Genesis 3.
Now we need to rewind and take a good look at the antagonist in the Bible. At first glimpse we might not fully get what's behind the talking serpent in Genesis 3 who is telling Eve that if she ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil she would become like God.
What was really happening in that garden scene? Who is this serpent anyway? The hidden clues to his origin are brought out in different aspects in both Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:13-19. In a nutshell it looks like this: Long before God created Adam and Eve, this serpent was actually called Daystar or Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12). These verses in Isaiah show that Lucifer wanted to exalt his throne above God’s, and because of his rebellion, God cast him to the earth along with one-third of God’s angels who had followed him in rebellion (Rev. 12:4a). In the Bible Lucifer is referred to as either Satan, which in Hebrew means enemy or the devil, which in Greek means slanderer or accuser.
The serpent in Genesis 3 is none other than Lucifer, and he like all antagonists was up to no good looking for a prime opportunity to spoil God’s plan. Romans 7:18 helps us understand that Satan’s evil nature was inside the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when Eve and then Adam ate of this fruit, the sinful nature of Satan entered into their body. It is evident from human history that sin has damaged all three parts of man, and Ephesians 2:1 shows us that even our spirit was also deadened. In Romans 5:12 the apostle Paul tells us that this sin not only affected Adam and Eve but the entire human race: “Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and through sin, death; and thus death passed on to all men because all have sinned--“
The fourth piece of the
puzzle is understanding why Jesus was incarnated
God knew what Satan
was going to do, but God didn’t give up on His eternal purpose. He knew the only way to bring man back to God
was to send His Son to die for all our sins. And the clue to understanding that
this was part of the plan is found in Revelation 13:8 which says: “...the Lamb who was slain from the
foundation of the world.”
So the Bible tells us that God’s Son was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18) and lived on this earth for 33 ½ years, and then He died on the cross as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). This story is known and loved by many people.
But there's an obscure piece of the puzzle in 1 Corinthians 15:45b that is often overlooked. This verse says "the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." Finally the Lord's life would be able to enter into man's spirit! In the Gospel of John we see that on the evening of the Lord’s resurrection He appeared to His disciples with this purpose: “And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
The fifth piece of the
puzzle is seeing God’s desire that man be regenerated or born again.
When
man opens to receive Christ as the
life-giving Spirit, he gets regenerated as1 Peter 1:3 says: “Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great
mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead,” The Bible is so wonderful because it shows us how to be regenerated—we
just need to repent and believe in the Lord. We can see this clearly in the apostle Paul's word to the Ephesian believers: “Solemnly testifying both to Jews and to
Greeks repentance unto God and faith in our Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:21).
All
you need to do is open your heart to the Lord and pray with a sincere heart:
Lord Jesus, I am a
sinner
I need You.
Thank You for dying for
me.
Lord Jesus, forgive me.
Cleanse me from all my
sins.
I believe that You rose
from the dead.
I receive You right now
as my Savior and life.
Come into me! Fill me with Your life!
Lord Jesus, I give
myself to You for Your purpose.
You can now have the assurance that the Lord Jesus has come into your spirit! And by receiving the Lord you have solved the mystery of your human life!! But that's not the end, there's another very important piece of the puzzle left to discover.
The sixth
piece of the puzzle is seeing that this is just the beginning of experiencing God’s full salvation
The
Bible tells us in Mark 16:16 that it is important for a believer to make a public
declaration through baptism. Our
receiving the Lord is now the beginning of a life-long journey. Every day you
can open your heart to the Lord and read the Bible and pray. This allows the Lord’s life to grow within
you and spread out from your spirit into all the parts of your soul. This verse in 2 Corinthians 3:18 speaks of
this process: “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” And if you read the last two chapters of Revelation you'll see that this transformation causes an incredible surprise ending.I really like this song because it puts together all the pieces of this puzzle concerning God's purpose in creating man; it's called This Divine Romance.
Your new life in Christ
has now begun!
*You can view here the complete version of The Mystery of Human Life published by Living Stream Ministry that this gospel tract was derived from.
Bibles for America Video presentation in 3 parts on the booklet The Mystery of Human Life.
Bible's For America - The God Shaped Vacuum - Our Third Part and the Meaning of Human Life
(This video which shows a puzzle was the inspiration for using puzzle pieces in this writing.)
Blog Update 12-9-18: Here is a story of a student's salvation at a Bible for America's distribution table at a campus- Leading Someone to Christ--A Salvation Story..
Other posts on Reading The Mystery of Human Life:
Sharing the Gospel With the Tract The Mystery of Human Life
How is Man Like A Glove? - Talking with a student at a University, February 2012
Reading the Mystery of Human Life with International Students - July 2012
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