I want to discuss briefly all that Christ accomplished for us by the shedding of His blood and the spiritual benefits we enjoy before God today because of that sacrifice. The first area is that of THE FALL OF MAN.

THE FALL OF MAN

In the beginning, man was created both male and female, and both of them participated in the Fall (Read Genesis 1-3). That Fall came because Eve yielded to the temptations of the serpent. God had said to our first parents,

Gen 1:26 . . . Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

God also put them in charge of the Garden of Eden, with this warning and command,

Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God had spoken clearly, but when the serpent approached Eve, he said to her,

Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Man was supposed to have "dominion . . . over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Gen 1:28), but when Satan spoke through the serpent, Eve did not put him under her feet, but allowed him to tempt her to doubt what God had said. She then offered the fruit to Adam and he ate, too. This remains man's problem to this day, and the only way to overcome the evil one is to hold to God's word. As a result, man separated himself from the fellowship of God, and every man born into this world is now born in that condition.

So man's first sin was disobedience or rebellion against the known will of God and they sinned against Him. Man was now unrighteous before God, unholy, spiritually dead and spiritually bankrupt. At the moment they rebelled in their hearts and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, man began to die physically as well. In fact God had to drive man out of the Garden so he would not live forever in that condition:

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

So, man became a sinner who commits sins, and placed himself under the judgment of sin, whose wages are death, both physically and spiritually. He and he alone had let sin and death into the world:

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Jesus reversed this by shedding His blood on the cross after walking through this earth perfectly, never having sinned. Then God, being just, raised Him from the dead and now offers man cleansing of his sin, a new nature, justification and freedom from condemnation and judgment:

Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Notice that one man fell, so God considered it just for one man to be able to reverse what the first man had done. That man was Jesus Christ, who was and is God in the flesh.