The Bible: In the Light of Our Redemption

Printed in U.S.A.

Copyright 2022 by

KENYON’S GOSPEL PUBLISHING SOCIETY

ISBN 978-1-57770-089-0

E. W. KENYON

Author

(1867-1948)

Lesson

Lesson I THE REASON FOR CREATION

Lesson 2 THE CREATION OF MAN

Lesson 3 MAN’S TREASON AND RESULTS

Lesson 4 THE REIGN OF SPIRITUAL DEATH

Lesson 5 MAN’S NEED OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Lesson 6 MAN’S NEED OF A MEDIATOR

Lesson 7 THE PROMISED INCARNATION

Lesson 8 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

Lesson 9 GOD’S COVENANT PEOPLE

Lesson 10 THE DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT

Lesson 11 COVENANT PEOPLE IN THE WILDERNESS

Lesson 12 THE LAW AND THE TABERNACLE

Lesson 13 THE TABERNACLE (Continued)

Lesson 14 THE PRIESTHOOD

Lesson 15 OFFERING

Lesson 16 THE GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT

Lesson 17 SYNOPSIS OF OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS AND HIGHLIGHTS OF ISRAEL’S HISTORY

Lesson 18 THE INCARNATION

Lesson 19 THE LIFE OF THE INCARNATE ONE

Lesson 20 REDEMPTION

Lesson 21 OUR IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST

Lesson 22 GOD’S TWO CREATIONS

Lesson 23 THE NAME OF JESUS

Lesson 24 THE WORD, GOD’S REVELATION TO MAN

Lesson 25 THE PRESENT MINISTRY OF CHRIST

Lesson 26 HEALING

Lesson 27 THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

Lesson 28 THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST (Continued)

Lesson 29 THE LAW OF THE NEW CREATION

Lesson 30 THE LOVE LAW

Lesson 31 THE HOLY SPIRIT

Lesson 32 THE HOLY SPIRIT (Continued)

Lesson 33 THE HOLY SPIRIT (Continued)

Lesson 34 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

Lesson 35 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST (Continued)

Lesson 36 TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE

Lesson 37 MAN’S NEED OF A REVELATION

Lesson I

THE REASON FOR CREATION

MAN IS confronted with an unexplained creation of which he, himself, is a part. This creation and the iron hand of fixed laws that govern it, reveal to man a Master Designer. By that we mean that the Creator designed Creation that it might fulfill a certain purpose, the reason for its existence.

The purpose in creation seems to be to provide a suitable environment for man. In fact, if we take man out of creation, creation with its resources and its beauty has no reason for existing. If God created the universe as a home for man, He must have had a reason for creating man. Man, in every age of history, has sought in vain for this reason, the reason for his own existence.

Skepticism was born because man was unable to find a reason for creation. The first tendency of science was to become atheistic and materialistic, giving only a mechanical explanation of the universe. However, today, as scientists are delving more fully into the mysteries and wonders of creation, many of them have become God-conscious. They are realizing that behind creation there is an intelligent Creator. However, science has not been able to find Him, or His purpose in creation with just Sense Knowledge . . . knowledge derived from the five senses.

Man’s inability to know God is due to the fact that God is a spirit, and that man has no contact with Him. In his own spirit nature, man is alienated from God; and every contact that he has with the universe, or reality, he has through his central nervous system and his five senses. Through these five senses (namely, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell) man has not been able to contact God. He has learned a great deal about physical nature which is indifferent and many times cruel toward human life, but he has not been able to find God personally, or His reason for creating man.

By this we can see that man in himself cannot find God. God must reveal Himself to man, and God has done this very thing. He has given a revelation of Himself to man. He had to give the revelation upon man’s level so that man would be able to contact it. We call this Revelation Knowledge. It is obtained through our recreated spirits from the Word of God.

The second chapter of I Corinthians, which tells us of this revelation, gives us the following illustration (I Cor. 2:11) : For who among men knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the spirit of God. Man, limited to his sense knowledge, is unable to know the inner thoughts of a man. There is a veil of flesh that he cannot penetrate with his sense of sight, hearing or touch. However, a man, by the medium of words, may convey his inner thoughts to another.

So God, in His desire for man to know Him, has formulated His inner thoughts and purposes into words, which man can see with his sense of sight, and hear read or expounded, with his sense of hearing. I Cor. 2:12, 13, But we receive not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God: that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the spirit teacheth: combining spiritual things with spiritual words.

The Bible is God’s revelation to man, and because we have no other channel through which we can know God or contact Him, we turn to that revelation to find out what He has told us of His reason for creating man.

The Earth Is the Reason for the Heavens

Our earth is so small in comparison to the vast number and sizes of the heavenly bodies, that the study of it would be utterly absurd, if it were not for the fact that it is the only planet known to be inhabited by human life.

The first chapter of Genesis reveals that the earth holds a place in the plan and purpose of God that amazes one.

Genesis 1:14-19 declares that the earth is the reason for all the heavenly bodies that swing in their orbits through dark, illimitable space.

Science does not deny the fact that there is not a planet, sun, moon, or star in all this vast universe which does not have its influence upon our earth.

Our sun is approximately ninety-three million miles away, yet it causes climatic conditions of heat, light, rain and winds, which make this planet capable of sustaining human, animal and vegetable life.

The little earth ball, with its precious freight of human beings, flies softly around the sun amply protected in its transparent case of atmosphere.

To refer once more to the Scripture: To let them be for signs and for seasons.

We know that the tides of the oceans and seas are influenced by the heavenly bodies. We know that heat and cold, drought and storms, are the direct results of planetary influences. Storms can be predicted for certain localities on this continent by the position and influence of certain planets. We know that frosts and heat waves are predicted months ahead by the sure knowledge of planetary positions.

From these deductions we see clearly that the planets are placed in the heavens to give us seasons, to be signs, and to be continual companions and servants, always ministering to the earth.

The heavens are earth’s only perfect timepiece. No watch or clock man has ever made can give us perfect time, but He who knows the path of the stars, knows that every star, sun, or planet will pass a certain given point in the great, unpathed space on schedule time.

The star may not have been seen for thousands of years, but it will appear at the crossroads of the Heavens, not one second ahead, nor one second behind its schedule.

Oh, the wonder of the Architect, the marvel of the Creator, the might of the Sustainer of this great universe. How thrilling it is that this earth of ours, so small that one thousand of them could be lost in the sun, is yet the center and reason for the universe.

The Reason for the Earth Is Man

If the earth is the reason for the stellar heavens, what is the reason for the earth?

Genesis 1 gives the account of Creation. Creation consists of a series of acts by God. These creative acts culminate in the creation of man. When man was created, God’s creative activity came to a rest.

Man was the goal of the whole creative movement. Science must here agree with the Biblical account of creation in the placing of man at the summit of creation. He was the last and the highest of God’s works.

The earth has no reason for existing outside of man. Unconscious nature cannot enjoy its beauty, contemplate, nor use what it has produced.

Only when God placed upon this earth a man created in His image, was there a reason for the vast universe which had been created. God had endowed this man with the capacities to enjoy the beauty of His workmanship, and to utilize its resources.

Isaiah 45:18, For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, formed it to be inhabited. The Word declares here that God created this earth to be inhabited by man. In His creative acts He met every need that man would have in his life upon earth.

Ages on ages He wrought in storing up treasures of all kinds of wealth for his man. He filled earth’s bosom with deposits of iron, copper, silver and gold, and with uncounted varieties of metals, chemicals and forces.

He covered the face of the earth with mountains, valleys, ravines, plateaus and prairies, lovely rivulets, streams and rivers, and with many beautifully colored flowers that thrilled with joy the heart of God’s man. Fruits and vegetables supplied food for man. The Great Architect of human need and joy knew man’s needs, while yet unborn, and in creation’s wondrous plan, these needs were met.

Man is the only creature who can enjoy its beauty or use its resources.

The Reason for Man Is the Father-Heart of God

We have seen that the earth is the reason for the stellar universe, and that man is the reason for the earth. Our problem is not yet solved, however. What is the reason for man? Until we know why God desired to create man, we do not know the reason for creation.

Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The word God in the Hebrew is Elohim. This word is plural, revealing the Trinity at work in creation.

John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:16 reveal that Christ had a major part in the great acts of creation.

Psalm 104:30 and Genesis 1:2 show the Holy Spirit’s work in creation.

The Trinity lies hidden throughout the Old Testament. Many Jews who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour have testified that one of the factors causing them to realize that Jesus was their Messiah, was that they glimpsed, hidden in the Old Covenant, the Trinity.

Israel, however, did not know who composed the Trinity. Not until Jesus Christ, the Living Word, was manifested in flesh, did man know that the Trinity consisted of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In His ministry of teaching, Jesus Christ revealed the Father-God.

On several occasions in the life of Jesus Christ, the Trinity is manifested to man’s senses. One time is at the baptism of Jesus, recorded in Matthew 3:13-17.

When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, descending upon Christ, while the Father spoke in a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Matthew 28:19 reveals the Trinity as being the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

From this we can understand that in the beginning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth.

You see, He was in the beginning a Father-God. In eternity He had a Father-nature. We can understand a father’s love and desire for children. Our civilization is built around this fact, for the home is the basic unit of society.

Ephesians 3:14-15 reveals that the human father is just a type of the Father-God. The human father’s love exists because in eternity God was essentially a Father-God.

It is natural that the Father-heart of God should long for sons and daughters. This yearning passion took form, and God planned to create a man who would walk with Him as His child.

Ephesians 1:4, 5 (Rotherham), According as He made choice of us in Him before the founding of the world, that we might be holy and blameless in His presence. In love marking us out beforehand unto Sonship through Jesus Christ for Himself.

Before He created a world, in His dream plan, man was marked out for Sonship. He was to hold the place of a son in the Father-God’s love. He was to be the answer to the Father’s hunger for children.

Other scriptures that reveal that man was the reason for creation are: Romans 16:25 and I Corinthians 2:7. These scriptures reveal that man was chosen for the place of a son first, then God created this universe to be a home for him.

In our Bible Schools we have listed the attributes of God: His Omnipotence, His Omniscience; but we have overlooked the fact that He is first a Father-God.

The reason for creation is the Father-heart of God.

A few scriptures that reveal the Father’s care for His children are: Matthew 7:11; 6:8; 6:25-32; John 16:27; 17:23; I Peter 5:7; Philippians 4:6, 7, 19 and John 14:23.

Satan has been very subtle in blinding our minds to the Father-nature of God. The average Christian has had no real consciousness of God as being his Father. This ignorance has been due to the fact that our minds have not been renewed by the Word of God. Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:23. Here we see the importance of the study of the Word.

Sense Knowledge has taken the place of the Word of God in our lives. Jesus Christ has been manifested to man’s physical senses. I John 1:1, 2, That which we have handled concerning the Word of Life. Jesus Christ took upon Himself a human body through which He was manifested to man.

Man’s mind derives its knowledge through the senses of the physical body. The Father has never been manifested to these senses, as He is a Spirit being; therefore man’s mind can form no mental picture of Him.

When a man has been born again, past sense knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ has taken the place that the Father should have had in his life. Because man could form a mental picture of Christ, he has developed the habit of praying to Christ, praising and worshipping Him alone. The renewing of the man’s mind by the Word of God, brings a consciousness of the Father to him that revolutionizes his life.

The Attributes of God

In this revelation, the Father nature of God has been revealed to us at creation. There are two other laws of His being revealed here: one is that He is a Faith God, and the other, that He is Love. Love caused Him to create a universe, and He created it by Faith. He works by Faith in His Word.

In the first chapter of Genesis there are six creative faith statements. Hebrews 11:3 reveals that God created this universe through faith in His Word. It was through His spoken Word that creation came into being.

QUESTIONS

Give and explain the two kinds of knowledge.

How has God met man’s need of a Revelation?

What Scripture reveals that the earth is the reason for the heavenly bodies?

Explain as fully as possible why man is the reason for the earth’s existence.

What is revealed in the word Elohim?

Give several Scriptures that reveal the Father-nature of God.

What is the reason for man? Explain your answer.

Why is it that many Christians do not have faith in God and His promises to them as their Heavenly Father ?

Give two attributes of God’s nature that are revealed in creation.

Lesson 2

THE CREATION OF MAN

WE HAVE seen in our last lesson that man is the reason for creation. In the light of this tremendous fact, we turn to study the man whom God created to meet the cry of His being for fellowship.

Genesis 1 gives the account of the preparation God made for man before He created him.

First, He planned a universe for man, and in the heart of that universe He purposed a home.

When Love laid the foundations of this mighty universe, he planned and purposed it all to be the home for His man.

Genesis 1:25. At the completion, God put His stamp of approval upon it. It will meet man’s every need. The home is now ready for man.

Genesis 1:26. God now makes the solemn declaration that He wishes to make man in His own image.

Knowing that fellowship is the reason for man, we can easily understand that man could not meet the reason for his very existence unless he were created in God’s image.

In order to partake of God’s life, he must be in God’s class, in God’s realm. He must be made in the image and likeness of his Creator.

He must be created as near like Deity as possible, in order to be God’s child and heir.

Man, a Triune Being

Genesis 1:27 records the creation of man in the image of God. Adam was the first man. Genesis 2:7. Through his sin came the fall of man.

Man, after the fall, in his condition of spiritual death, could not know what the image of God was, without a revelation from Him.

John 4:24. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate One, revealed that the Father was a Spirit Being.

I Thessalonians 5:23. Paul in his revelation disclosed the fact that man is a triune being, consisting of a spirit, soul and body.

The spirit is the real man, created in the image of God.

The soul includes the reasoning faculties.

The Father-God created man in His own image, a spirit being, with a soul and body.

Man’s soul and body fit him for his life upon this material universe which has been created for him.

The real man is spirit. Man was to walk in fellowship with the Father-God in His realm, which is the realm of the spirit.

Your body is not you. Your mind is not you. You have a mind which you use. You possess a body which you use. Your mind and body are merely the instruments of your spirit, the real YOU.

The man who is spiritually dead does not realize the fact that he was created in God’s image, to walk with Him.

This is due to the fact that all the natural man is able to know about reality, he gains through the five senses belonging to his physical body.

These physical sense organs of the human body can only receive a stimulus from like substance, matter. Therefore, man’s senses can perceive only for him a physical or material realm.

There exists, according to the Scriptures, a spiritual realm as well as a physical.

The Father, the Holy Spirit, the Angels, Satan and Demons, are all Spirit Beings. Our physical senses do not contact this spiritual realm.

Ephesians 6:1-20 reveals the spiritual warfare surrounding us, from which our sense organs receive no stimuli.

We are not aware, through any physical contact, of the presence of the Holy Spirit or Angels.

Read John 16:7-15; Hebrews 1:14; John 14:23; I Corinthians 3:16; I Peter 5:8; Mark 16:17; I John 4:1-6; and James 4:7.

Because the doctor, with the point of his knife, has not been able to locate the spirit of man, the materialists and atheists have said that the body is the whole man.

Romans 1:18-25, 28. Man has refused to have God in his knowledge, because he has not been able to see Him with his physical eye, hear Him with his physical ear, or touch Him.

A fish might just as well say there is nothing outside of water, as for a man, limited to Sense Knowledge, to say there exists nothing but matter.

We conclude that man is primarily a spirit being, created to walk with the Father-God on His level. We realize that when He created man, God had no body; yet man’s fellowship was perfect and complete with Him.

This reveals that man’s body was subordinate to his spirit, and that his spirit was to dominate.

Man’s spirit was to rule his mind and his body.

The body exists only for the spirit and soul of a body.

The spirit operates through the soul or intellect, and these in turn operate through the physical body.

At death the man and his soul leave the body. When man has left his body, the body has no reason for existing; therefore, dissolution and disintegration set in at once.

The Will of Man

Another crowning feature which the Father-God gave to His man was man’s will. The will has the power of choice, the ability to choose, to determine one’s actions.

God assumed a great responsibility in creating a being with a will. Yet, no other type of being could have answered the reason for Creation.

Without this will, God’s created one would have been a machine, not a man, a puppet or robot instead of a person.

The desire of the Father is for fellowship. This fellowship must come from man, not as the response to an instinct, but as a result of his deep love, his own choice.

There could be no fellowship with a puppet. Read Luke 9:23.

Obedience to Him is a result of love. John 14:21-24.

The Mind of Man

The Scriptures declare that when man was created, he had a mind, intellectually of such character that he was able to name the entire animal creation.

Genesis 2:19-20, And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens: and brought them to man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever man called the living creature, that was the name thereof. And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of heaven, and to every beast of the field.

When we realize that there are 500,000 bugs, birds, worms, animals, fish and reptiles that Adam named, we can understand that he possessed intellectual capacities that enabled him to rule creation.

We know that the reason for man’s existence is the Father-God’s craving for fellowship.

Therefore, man’s mental capacities were such that his mind could fellowship the mind of his Creator.

Man’s Physical Condition

When man was created, he was planned a perfect human being with an endless human life.

His body was not mortal nor immortal. The word mortal means death-doomed, or Satan-ruled.

Man was an eternal spirit being in God’s class, with an eternal human body.

Adam’s body was perfect, and fit to be the temple of God’s under-ruler.

Man’s Dominion, Authority, and Responsibility

Genesis 1:28. Reading the Scripture through the mind ruled by the senses, we have overlooked the tremendous place man held in the heart of God.

He was the object of the Father-God’s love and affection. It was the joy of the Father to give His man dominion over the works He had created. This man had, by creation, the ability to rule the universe.

Psalm 8:3-9 is a revelation of the creation of the first man as the Father-God desired him to be and to live.

Psalm 8:5, Made him but little lower than God. The King James Version reads angels, but the correct translation is God.

The Hebrew word is Elohim. It is the same word that is used in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning ‘God’ (or ‘Elohim’).

The thought of the Hebrew is just a shade lower than God.

Man was created as nearly like the Father-God as was possible.

Man was to be God’s companion and under-ruler. His dominion reached to the utmost star and planet. His dominion was as far-reaching as Christ’s rule shall be when He shall take over the dominion of the universe.

Hebrews 2:5-8 is a revelation of Adam’s dominion.

Hebrews 2:8 (last clause) reveals that man no longer holds that dominion (American Standard Version).

Hebrews 2:9 shows that the lost dominion of Adam has been given to Christ, by virtue of His sacrifice on man’s behalf.

Hebrews 1:3 gives to us a suggestion as to the way Adam ruled God’s creation. Jesus now upholds all things by the Word of His power.

Adam ruled creation by his word. His voice was like the voice of his Creator in its dominion over creation.

Adam possessed such complete authority over creation that he had in his hands the legal right to confer that dominion to another being.

In our next lesson we shall see that he did this very thing.

Man’s Responsibility

It is impossible to over-estimate the responsibility of Adam.

He was responsible for the heart-joy of the Father-God, for the human family yet unborn.

God could have spoken the entire human family into existence at once, but He did not choose that way.

Genesis 1:28. He made Adam and Eve fellow-workers with Him in bringing the human family into the world.

God gave to man the ability to reproduce himself or beget children. These children were primarily for the joy and glory of God.

Instead of creating the human race by one single word, the Father-God created one man and woman. He said to them, I permit you to give birth to My children, to rear, educate, and care for them, teaching them to love Me, and to respond to My yearning.

So man’s real business was to give birth to God’s children.

This gives a responsibility to man that can only be measured by eternity. Man gives birth to eternal personalities, to children who will live as long as God lives.

Man, then, is the custodian of God’s joy.

We have dwelt in detail on the creation of the human race in Adam, for a very definite reason, the renewing of your mind.

Until the time that we were born again, we lived in the realm of spiritual death. We had