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One Perfect Life
The Complete Story of the Lord Jesus
By John MacArthur Thomas Nelson
Copyright © 2012John MacArthur
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4016-7633-9
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Jesus Christ—the Preexistent Creator and Savior
Gen. 1:1; John 1:1–5a; 1 cor. 8:6; eph. 1:3–5; col. 1:15–18; 2:9; 2 tim. 1:9; titus 1:2; heb. 1:1b–3a
GEN in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. JN in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.
1COR There is one God, the father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live, HEB whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, COL is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. JN In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. COL For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
EPH Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2TIM who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. EPH He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved, TITUS in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
CHAPTER 2
The Fall of the Human Race into Sin
Gen. 3:1–12; John 8:44; 1 Cor. 11:3b; 1 Tim. 2:14b; James 1:13–15; Rev. 20:2b
GEN now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. REV that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, JN was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. GEN And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'you shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
1 COR the serpent deceived eve by his craftiness. GEN So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. 1 TIM the woman being deceived, fell into transgression; GEN she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
JAS Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
CHAPTER 3
The Curse upon Creation
Gen. 3:13; Ps. 90:10; 144:4; Eccl. 1:2b; 3:20; 12:7; Rom. 8:2b, 20a, 22; Gal. 4:4–5; 1 John 3:8b
GEN the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" the woman said, "the serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the Lord God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise his heel."
1JN for this purpose the Son of God, was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. GAL When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under ROM the law of sin and death.
GEN to the woman he said:
"I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you."
Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it':
"Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."
ROM For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it. ECL Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. ROM For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
PS Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow. ECL All are from the dust, and all return to dust. PS The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. ECCL Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
GEN And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to k
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Excerpted from One Perfect Life by John MacArthur. Copyright © 2012 by John MacArthur. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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