Page 25 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

purpose of the Godhead that these three parts of the human nature, though differing
from one another in function even as the persons of the Godhead, should express the
tranquil unity that is its own elemental character. This highly refined oneness could

only be communicated from the Superior to the inferior trinity through a channel of
inflow, which was provided in the spirit of man (I Cor. 2:10-12). The divine objective
in the created trinity of unity, beauty, and glory could only be achieved in-so-far as the
lesser merged itself in complete yielding to the Greater. The glory which the Deity

desires to transmit to the creature (Isa. 43:7, John 17:22a) could only be inwrought
and reflected by the Energizer of the Holy Trinity in the spirit of man. This primary
relationship in unity and glory between creature and Creator is echoed in the oneness

of husband and wife (Matt. 19:5) and in the organic mutuality of all the redeemed
(John 17:11, 21-22). Plainly then, in assigning to Adam and his helpmeet this
dominion over every part of the earthly creation as the federal head, it was the plan of
God that the unity of the Divine purpose in the glory and preeminence of the Son
should find a counterpart in every gradation of the cosmic order.

“And God blessed them.” Indeed, what could be more blessed or felicitous than
that state of affairs, when these first parents ruled as God‟s regent king and queen by a
spiritual government of uncompelled and voluntary submission to the sovereignty of

the higher Power? They held it in trust from the King of kings. Trust invariably
involves responsibility, and their responsibility was to maintain without alternation the
constitution of government, which was one of obedience and faith. This obedience
was in no sense onerous. In fact there was only one way that it could be departed

from—a deliberate and open-eyed act of defiance.

As long as that spiritual order was maintained there was complete joy, beauty, and
unity between the Creator and His creation in all its parts. None of the ills which

presently beset us on all sides were present—extremes of temperature producing
discomfort and sickness, troublesome and harassing insects, violent and carnivorous
animals. No selfishness or rapacity, disorder or lawlessness, invaded the sweet
tranquility of that domain into which the Creator God frequently came to hold

communion and converse with His image-creatures. “To every beast of the earth, and
to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is
life, I have given every green herb for meat.” Conscious life was sustained by

unconscious life. The wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the calf and the lion,
the cow and the bear, dwelt in love and amity in that pristine condition of our earth,
even as they will when the last Adam restores that unity and order “in the dispensation
of the fulness of times.” Where life, which in its essence is communion and fellowship
with Him Who is its source, is universally present, decay and death are unknown.

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