Now, let's see if we can make some sense out of such a statement—that God prepared from the beginning of the creation, say for example, kindness, moral cleanliness, and faith in God that we as His workmanship are to do.

First of all, where did unkindness, immorality, and lack of faith in God originate?

Before the creation of the physical world it appears there was a rebellion in Heaven. Satan and those who followed Him decided they would do as they pleased without obeying God.

I would suggest that kindness and all other works of righteousness, moral cleanliness and all other works of holiness, have always been in the Nature of God.

It may be true that the angels knew little or nothing of unkindness because they had never experienced anything other than kindness. Perhaps they had no name for kindness because they had never encountered the opposite; no name for moral cleanness because they had never encountered the opposite; no name for obedience because they had never encountered disobedience.

This may or may not be true. We do know two things:

Before Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they had no real knowledge of righteousness or unrighteousness.

God however knew good and evil.

Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever." (Genesis 3:22—NIV)

Whether the "Us" included creatures other than the Godhead is difficult to determine.

It seems that Satan was the first to disobey the Father. Out from his disobedience flowed murder, moral filthiness and all the other sins. Sin always originates with disobedience to God.

The fallen angels now were eternally bound with unrighteousness, moral filthiness, and disobedience to God. They could not change no matter how hard they tried, just as we cannot really change without help from God through Jesus Christ.

God then decided to teach the angels who did not rebel, and to judge the angels who did rebel, by giving them audio-visual lessons operating by means of the dust of the ground that God termed "man."

God created man from the clay and at the proper time wrote the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are a judgment against Satan and the wicked angels. All of the commandments have to do with relationships—with God and with other people.

By means of the commandments and statutes of the Law of Moses, God defined righteousness and holiness. God emphasized obedience by testing Abraham, and later Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Now the angels and man have a lexicon of behavior, a dictionary of good and evil. Apparently no such lexicon existed prior to the creation of man, except in the Personality of our Creator.

Prior to the giving of Divine grace through Jesus Christ, prior to God's lifting us to His right hand, prior to the issuing of the Spirit of God, prior to God making us His workmanship, we had a lexicon but not the wisdom or power to do much about it, at least not to the extent demanded of those who would be God's sons and kings, who would be at His side and lean on Him forever.

But now through the manifold working of the new covenant, the issuing of resurrection grace and all that goes with it, the Divine Nature and power of God are making it possible for us to do the good works that God before ordained we should perform.

To be continued.