THE FOURTH CREATION 

(An Overview)

About six years ago, this writer began his own private study in the book of Genesis. Writing some of his findings, he called his essays “Ramblings in Genesis.” Shortly thereafter, he was invited to teach an undenominational Bible class in “Rossmoor,” the retirement community in which he lives. Between fifty and sixty persons, on average, come to the class. When called upon to teach Genesis, he used these Ramblings as an important part of his lectures, and they were well-received.
In planning for future sessions of the class, it was noticed that the study materials used by the class had no studies in either "Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians" or in the "Gospel according to Luke." So the writer undertook to prepare a ten-lesson series on Ephesians, calling his study course “Exploring Ephesians.” In his own study-preparation for the course, this writer found several areas in which he found himself disagreeing with the commentaries available to him. Among other items, he discovered what he considers to be the central theme of the Epistle, toward which the earlier portion of the Letter led, with the remainder of the Epistle interpreting the theme and drawing practical lessons therefrom. Again, this series of lessons was well-received by the class.
A year later, the writer prepared a similar study-course for Luke, this time covering a series of twenty lessons. Again the course was well-received by those who attended the Bible class. In this course, this writer found what he considers to be a remarkable relationship between an eight-chapter portion of the Gospel of Luke with the theme of Ephesians.
After three and an half years this writer resigned his teaching of the Rossmoor class, and has subsequently been installing this material, along with other of his own writings, on his own web-site, entitled “www.factsandthoughts.com”. Now it seems good to this writer to outline this central theme which seems to bind together Genesis, Ephesians, and Luke, along with certain other writings. This may and should help the average reader to see easier this relationship, give him or her a new insight into an important aspect of the Gospel story, and encourage a further study by others. Furthermore, the writer can testify that this theme has strongly impacted the writer’s thoughts about his own faith.

I. SPECIAL THOUGHTS GLEANED FROM “RAMBLINGS IN GENESIS.”
The first chapter of Genesis shows not one, but three, and not more than three, acts of God in creation. Most people seem to miss this. “To create” and “to make” are not the same thing. "To create," which is to produce something the like of which had not previously existed, can mean “to make” something; but “to make something” is not necessarily to “create.” We must strictly observe this distinction. The three acts of creation are (1) the creation of the material universe, i.e., the two heavens and the earth, vs. 1; (2) the creation of intelligent self-moving life, vs. 21; and (3) the creation of the human being, both male and female, and fashioned in the “image” of the Creator, “The Omnipotent One,” vs. 27.
In the second chapter of Genesis, we find “how” The Living Omnipotent One went about creating the Human Beings (both male and female), and the initial arrangements for their well-being, before The Living Omnipotent One retired for His sabbath siesta.
It was during this sabbath that the Human Beings, both female and male, succumbed to the wiles of the Serpent-Tempter and sinned. When the sabbath ended and the Living Omnipotent One returned, He pronounced judgment on the Serpent-Tempter, on the woman, and on the man. The judgment included the promise of a coming “Seed of the Woman.”
The writer’s interpretation involved his suggesting that the “sin” was like a virus, an incurable virus, an (ultimately) fatal virus, which “infected” both the man’s body and the body of the woman. Furthermore, probably the sin-virus infected the male sperm, so that all descendants of the male would be born infected. Therefore we can say that “we are not sinners because we sin; but rather we sin because we are sinners (born sinners).” However, since the woman was “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20), somehow her female ovum was sealed-off from the infecting sin-virus as long as the woman remained a virgin. This could be the explanation of how the virgin-born Jesus was sinless.
Moreover, man (“adam”) having been formed out of the “dust” (“adamah”), evidently the curse placed on “man” was primarily placed on his source, the “adamah.” It would seem to appear that this curse somehow affected both the first creation (the material universe) and the second creation (the “self-moving” creatures of the animal world) as well.

II. THE IDEA OF A “FOURTH CREATION” SET FORTH IN EPHESIANS.
This writer, in his own study, thinks he has perceived that the central theme of Ephesians is found in the tenth and fifteenth verses of the Second Chapter of the epistle. It is a “new creation”, and is always “in Christ.” In fact, the expression, “in … (Jesus, Christ, Lord, Him)” is found at least fifty times in the short Epistle. It is not that each believer is a separate creation, but rather that all believers are a part of the one new creation. Since there were three “creations” in Genesis, then we have named the “creation” in Ephesians to be a “Fourth Creation.”
This one Fourth Creation involves the uniting of Jew and Gentile, of men and women, of parents and children, and masters and slaves. Although
“one” we are diverse. As members of this Fourth Creation, we have mutual relationships and responsibilities, both in our relationships with others who are a part of this Creation, and also toward the outside world, and even in our duties in the spiritual war that surrounds us.
The suggestion is hinted that in the new regime, God is reversing the order of creation He followed in Genesis. The Fourth Creation is a new man, corresponding to the third creation of Genesis; when Jesus returns will come a Fifth Creation, restoring peaceful relationships in the “self-moving” animal world of the Second Creation; and finally, in the eternity to come, there will be “New Heavens and a New Earth,” corresponding to the First Creation of Genesis 1:1. Of course, these, being future, are only hinted at.

III. THE “IDEAL” MAN, THE SON OF MAN, WHICH JESUS, AS THE “LAST ADAM,” SET BEFORE HIMSELF TO FULFILL. HIS PRELIMINARY TEACHINGS FOR THOSE WHO WOULD FOLLOW HIM. (The emphasis of “Luke.”)
Now, in the time of the Fourth Creation, we find that those who are members of this creation are so because of their relation to Jesus Christ, for it is written that always they are “in Christ.” What is the role, then, that this Jesus Christ plays in this Fourth Creation?
The first man, whom we call “Adam,” was created “in the image of the Omnipotent One,” and to have dominion over the rest of God’s creation. But Adam, by his sin, failed, and so brought ruin upon not only himself but also upon all his descendants and the rest of creation.
So, if God is to start again, He needs a new “adam.” Wherefore the Apostle Paul spoke of Jesus as “the last Adam.” (I Corinthians 15:45.) Jesus Christ had the assignment to succeed where Adam failed. He was to be the “ideal man,” the perfect man, perfect before God. He was to be “the very image of His” (God’s) substance.” (Hebrews 1:3.)
This we see brought out and developed in the Third Gospel, that written by Luke. It is Luke who presents Jesus in His humanness. But it is an humanness not akin to that of sinning Adam, for it is the fulfillment of a perfect, an ideal man.
First of all, God arranged that Jesus begin His human existance as the Son of a virgin, and in an environment of complete poverty, in contrast to that of Adam: a beautiful sheltered garden. “No room in the inn” for Him; nothing said about any “stable,” but perhaps born right outdoors, with the canopy of heaven for a roof; and for want of a cradle being placed in an animal’s feeding trough. Then when after forty days He was taken to the temple for dedication, Mary and Joseph were too poor to afford the required lamb, and could offer only two pigeons. (See Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:6-8.)
Upon being baptized by John the Baptist at age thirty (the age when a man assumed the full duties of his manhood,) Jesus was almost immediately challenged by The Adversary. Through it all He insisted on being treated as “Man” and not as Divine; He faced temptations infinitely more intense than did Adam; He was in an environment totally unlike Adam (not in a “garden” but in the desert, “with the wild beasts”), and He successfully resisted the temptations, even to the point of physical collapse. (See Mark 1:13: “and the angels ministered unto Him.”)
As Jesus began His career of service, He chose as a title the term, “the Son of Man.” But a careful examination of the use made of the term by Jesus would seem to suggest that, especially in the early stages of His career, Jesus used the term not to identify Himself but rather as an ideal which He was setting out to fulfill in His own life. This was God’s ideal, which Jesus was setting out perfectly to fulfill. No one other than Jesus used the term (until the first Christian martyr, Stephen, at a time considerably later than that of the earthly career of Jesus); and Jesus always
used the term in connection with Himself, with but two minor exceptions.
During the first part of the public ministry of Jesus, His primary aim seemed to be to demonstrate to all: the priests, the religious rulers, the Pharisees, to the public at large, and to the disciples, Who He really was. But when Peter finally made the so-called “great confession”: “the Christ of God,” (Luke 9:20), Jesus silenced Him and began to predict that “the Son of Man” was to suffer crucifixion, then rise again. From that time on, the emphasis is upon the coming suffering, as Jesus gradually began to identify Himself more and more with the ideal, “The Son of Man.”
It was during this stage in His career that, according to Luke, Jesus engaged in a long teaching program for His disciples. This begins with Chapter Ten of Luke, and continues to the middle of Chapter Eighteen. Yet this teaching is not in any formal “classroom setting,” but rather grew out of the events of life. From time to time Jesus would confront the Pharisees, the priests and other religious leaders, the multitudes, then He would turn to His disciples and apply to them great moral principles.
It was as though Jesus was preparing His disciples, and through them us who follow Him, how to apply such principles to their coming life as members of His Fourth Creation in Himself, a new spiritual race of mankind. This new life was to be in marked contrast to that of the rest of mankind, the sinful sinning descendants of the first Adam, and was to receive its impetus, its spiritual strength, its purpose, “in Him.”
Many of the things Jesus taught in this nine-chapter portion of Luke are found in other contexts in other Gospels; but no where else are they grouped together in a “course” as they are in Luke. It is part of “the new man,” the ideal, the “new creation,” of which its Founder was Jesus and which includes all who are chosen of God in Him. This is, in total, “The Son of Man,” perfectly fulfilled in Jesus, and ultimately in those of us who are “in Him,” when “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2.)
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This (not so) brief “Overview” may help ‘those of you who grace this web-site with your readership’ to understand what this writer sees as an underlying relationship between the opening chapters of Genesis (seen in “Ramblings,”) the studies “Exploring Ephesians,” and the lessons entitled “Looking into Luke,” as well as the separate essays, “The Son of Man” and “The Name.” May these writings thus prove a blessing and a challenge to all who read and study these parts of the Bible, which the writer believes to be “The Book of the life of the slain Lamb.” (Revelation 13:8.)

INDEX