Looking to Calvary from the Garden

The cross of Jesus Christ and His blood sacrifice was visible from the fall of Adam in the garden of God. The great God; the Father, the Son, and His Holy Spirit, came down to walk in the created world of pristine perfection but something was wrong. The likeness of God in man had been defiled, and the man and his woman were hiding in shame. They could not endure GodÂ’s perfect presence and something of redemption was glaringly necessary. The coats of fig leaves that Adam and Eve had sewed together were completely unacceptable to God. It was manÂ’s answer to his shame, not GodÂ’s, but the Creator God had an acceptable plan. An animal was chosen, maybe the first red heifer, but towering above that sacrifice was the Greater sacrifice. As the animal was dying, and the blood was spilled, a great hill near the future earthly city of God came into view. No doubt the heart of God for His Son experienced His first great pain of our redemption.

The thoughts of God are far superior to the limited minds of men. As the pain of manÂ’s disobedience fell upon the heart of our God, no doubt the Father stretched forth His divine hand to His only begotten Son and touched His heart with a Heavenly satisfaction. The answer for manÂ’s failure must arise from the realm of the Divine, and the eternal Word was willing to be the FatherÂ’s offering. It was settled from the beginning that the Son of God would become one of us and give Himself. The seed of woman must be prepared to pay an incredible price because it was in womanhood that the failure was born. Since sin was born in womanÂ’s failure the answer must also come by womanÂ’s pain. All the glory given to Mary by Catholic theology is totally misplaced. It was in pain that Christ came, not in some glorified woman. Mary was simply the last of the Old Testament women in the line of the righteous seed.

From that moment in the garden, the cross never faded from the realm of mankind nor in the quarters of the Divine. God and man would continue to experience the tension of redemption that could not be known except by blood. Every act of worship by men that God would honor must have that future cross in focus. Womanhood would become a scene of conflict as Satan set his heart to destroy the seed by which the Divine could be manifest in the flesh. From the death of Abel at the hand of Cain, the holy seed would be attacked by manÂ’s continuing effort to worship without blood restriction. This fight to make religion sophisticated has continued even past the great climactic moment of GodÂ’s death on a cursed tree. The Devil and haughty men will fight to the finish to make blood an obsolete approach to the FatherÂ’s heart. It will finally reach its ultimate defeat in the coming revelation of GodÂ’s judgment.

The seed of woman has been attacked by rebellious men, like Cain, and by every demon at SatanÂ’s command. Fallen angels went in unto sinful women and produced Nephilim that so defiled the earth that the Creator had to destroy every human being, except the family of Noah. The entire earth, except this one family, was turned on its head to preserve the seed of the woman. The cross of redemption hung over that great ark of Noah like a sunbeam at midnight. GodÂ’s plan could not be defeated.

When Abraham went into Egypt and doubted GodÂ’s protection of his wife Sarah, God put the fear of righteousness on a godless Pharaoh, who could not touch this woman on whom rested the seed of GodÂ’s great plan. Over and over, from Eve to Mary, there were many moments when the righteous seed hung in the balance. Every time, the hand of God was supernaturally present to preserve that righteous line of woman pointing with grace toward a little hill outside of Jerusalem. The blood offerings of the First Testament were powerless except they pointed to this one tree of Divine death.

From Calvary to the present, and until the finish, it is blood alone that will be sprinkled by spiritual applications in every act of redemption. Upon the Mercy Seat before the Throne of God is the undying blood of the Divine offering, speaking forgiveness and the gift of righteousness. The believer that forgets the work of grace by the offering of blood after conversion is destined to lose the joy of salvation. The great words of Apostle Paul are lifeline words, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3) No wonder the Apostle said “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14) The blood alone is our passport into the realm of our Father and His Son.