Why Banned from Eden…

 

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22–24)

Joking, I say that “normal” is only a setting on the dryer, but reading this changes my understanding. God put humanity in a perfect place with a joyful task to take care of it and total innocence of guilt. Normal is Eden. Not anymore, but one day normal will be heaven. What keeps anyone out of both is lack of faith and disobedience to God. This is why Adam was sent out of Eden, no longer tending a perfect garden but working in an imperfect world, still with beauty, but marred by sin. Why? What is the reason for this consequence? 

God put guards at the garden gate because He didn’t want humanity to live forever in a sinful condition by eating from the tree of life. Instead, He sent them into a ruined world where they would learn how much they needed to obey Him. It took a long time, a lot of impossible rules, and a great deal of humiliation. Learning the way back would require the work of angels and a flaming sword, but becoming the people of Eden involved more, such as forgiveness, redemption, and the reverse of the curse of sin and its power. Sin messed with loving God and gave us a stubborn, “I can do it myself” way of life. Dealing with it required sending His Son and putting Him to death in our place, death on a Cross.

I’ve been a Christian for nearly sixty years and still fight that “I can do it myself” thinking. Even though it messes up life by putting wedges in relationships, robbing me of joy, and other undesirable events, sin’s power is persistent. Knowing better is not enough. I need the grace and power of the Holy Spirit every moment. New habits. Total and persistent obedience. Constant reminders of what God says vs. what I want. 

I can blame ADHD for being easily distracted to this DIY attitude, but the real reason is sin. I can say my ‘good’ deeds are “working the ground” but if they are not for God's glory but for my own needs and satisfactions. The Bible is clear: “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)

Faith in Jesus Christ reverses the curse. It makes us citizens of Eden and even though we are not back there yet, we get glimpses, a taste of it: 

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:22–26)

Salvation from sin through faith in Jesus Christ changes the curse to an incredible promise and a future reality, not yet seen but nevertheless very real. Oh Jesus, what is abnormal now will become normal, life eternal with You — being in that perfect place for eternity. You could have banned us forever, but in mercy and grace You have become our living hope.

Who is Jesus?

A family member has memory problems, but she has one thing firm in her mind. We were singing carols and she said, “If a person truly believes, they must realize that Jesus is God.”

Her once-clever mind did not make this up. This is a revealed truth. However, many people, even some who go to church and claim to have faith in Him do not agree. Neither did the Pharisees:

“Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘“The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’”? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?’ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” (Matthew 22:41–46)

The very moment Christ came into my life, I knew He is God. Someone advised me to read the Gospel of John five times, then Romans twice. In reading John, this truth was affirmed repeatedly, beginning with:

“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 was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1–5)

As today’s devotional writer says, people will acknowledge that he was a prophet, a religious teacher, a good man, who promoted morality and truth and justice. Some say His moral life, self-sacrifice, self-denial and devotion are good examples for us. One of the Pharisees agreed . . .

“Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’” (John 3:2)

In the conversation that followed, Jesus made it clear that no one could see or enter the kingdom of God unless they were given a new life from God. He is so far from what we are that we cannot grasp His identity or figure out who He is even if another person tells us. We need that revelation from the Spirit of God through reading and hearing the Word of God.

“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He (Jesus) was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16)

He is more than a baby born in a manger, more than a good teacher and a good example. He is the God of gods, Lord of lords . . .

“. . . and from the Jews, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:5)

He came to seek and to save the lost, to redeem us from our sin. He was sinless, establishing righteousness as a human being so His righteousness might be imputed to believers by God the Father who sent Him to be our substitute, to satisfy the wrath of God against sin and justify all who believe. He did just that, declaring, “It is finished” as He died for our sin.

After a day of gift-exchanges, too much wonderful food, and never enough fun and laughter with family, I feel sated, totally satisfied and blessed. All of it was good, yet all of what I feel is focused on this God-man, this Savior who took my sin on Himself and gave me life and the capacity to enjoy it.

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, thank You. Thank You for all Your goodness to Your children, to our lives together and to our ability to love and enjoy each other. Yet I thank You most of all for You. I can see You in Aslan as we watched Chronicles of Narnia movies, and in the faces of all who love You as we sang carols and held candles at church, and even in the abundance of gifts and food and fun — for You are the source of all that we are and have. Thank You for coming here to give us a deeper understanding of what God is like, and most of all, for living and dying and rising again that we can have Your life through Your gift of faith. What a joy You are — thank You!

Demonstrations of God’s power

Reader’s Digest Condensed Books once filled a shelf in my library. I’ve not read them in a long while, but thought today how the Bible is a bit like a condensed book. It tells of the mighty works of God, leaving out all non-essentials.

What this “edited” version does is give the impression that God did a lot back then, but isn’t doing much right now. If I start to think that way, I have to remember the silent years, about 400 of them, between the Old and New Testament, and the many verses that say certain kings ruled x number of years, and there is nothing told about those years. Even in the life of Christ, it tells of only one incident out of the first thirty years of His history on earth.

For some reason, today’s devotional verses remind me of these things. They are about the power of God…

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. (Psalm 33:8–9)

Apart from the time factor, the work of God is seldom globally visible or spectacular. Throughout biblical history, there were relatively few and short time spans of miracles such as those in the days of Elijah or Jesus. God overcame enemy forces, but in several thousand years, those accounts are relatively short also. This is important to my faith, lest I start thinking that God is not doing anything anymore.

For instance, after the resurrection of Christ and His ascension into heaven, God created the church. It has lasted in spite of enemies and persecution, and is still growing. This demonstrates God’s power because every person that becomes a Christian was once involved in some sort of God-defying sin. Besides that inner obstacle, the leaders of the world have always resisted Christianity for fear their empires would be in danger or impaired. Satan resists it too, trying to stop the growth of the Christ and the effectiveness of its people.

God’s power shows in the way God began His church also. The first disciples were illiterate fishermen, a publican, and a tentmaker. They had no authority to force people to obedience and were without eloquence to persuade others with their doctrines. Yet Christian teaching prevailed and the gospel spread rapidly through all the then-known world. This was possible only because God was speaking too, and whatever He commands stands firm.

By God’s power, the church has been preserved, defended and supported. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Great and flourishing earthly kingdoms rise and fall. The strongest of them wind up broken in pieces, yet the church has been preserved. God displays His power in against the rage and malice of all attackers.

Most of all, God’s power is shown in the conversion of sinners. He overcomes the lusts and stubbornness of the human heart, demolishes the strongholds of sin and makes the most obstinate and rebellious people yield to Christ. This is a greater power than anything man can do, for no man can do this. It is greater than creation, for when God made the world, He met with no opposition, but the opposition of a sinner and the Devil resist Him with everything they can.

Another example is the story of Jonah. Some say it must be fiction because of those three days in the belly of a fish. To me, a greater wonder is that the entire wicked city of Nineveh repented from sin and were saved because of the “turn or burn” preaching of this reluctant prophet!

Indeed, conversion shows God’s power. He makes a blind sinner see, causes deaf ears to hear His voice, and raises the dead in sin to eternal life. Each disciple of Christ is a mighty work of God, and this work is still happens in great numbers daily. Because of the power of God, the changed life of sinners is also a work that stands firm for all eternity.

The power of truth

In ancient times, funerals were performed by Egyptians who strongly believed in an afterlife. They thought that a deceased person crossed over to the land of the dead and continued ‘life’ there. For that, they needed to recognize their body so they could be reunited with it. Therefore, the body must be preserved as long as possible, leading to elaborate embalming. Then deceased person might have been buried in a tomb with all their possessions for use in their afterlife. 

Other cultures had different ideas about death and the afterlife, if they believed in one. However, the people of God had been promised life after death. Job knew that after he died, he would, “in my flesh see God.” Yet the Israelites did not embalm; their deceased were buried as soon as possible.

This was true when Jesus died. I’ve not had time to research this, but it seemed that in His time, the event of death was a bigger issue than focusing on the body as the Egyptians did. Still, the body needed to be taken care of, and oddly enough, His mother and family did not do that, but a prominent member of society.

And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. (Mark 15:42–46)

In those days, a devout Jew highly valued the nation (God’s chosen people), obedience to the Law of God, the temple and their faith in one God. Jesus challenged all four values every time He had anything to do say about Gentiles, told them they missed the major purpose of the Law, predicted the destruction of their temple, and told them He was the “I am.” It is little wonder that they hated and crucified Him. 

But not all rejected His teaching. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the devout that listened to Jesus. He asked for Jesus’ body, and then took care of the burial. Courage was needed since the disciples had scattered, rightly fearing that they would be next to die because they followed Jesus. But this Joseph took courage.

What was it that made the difference? The passage says that he was “looking for the kingdom of God.” In those days, that anticipation meant a restoration to Israel of their former glory resulting in their rule over all oppressors, Rome in particular. Did Joseph believe that? Or did he understand that the kingdom of God was as Jesus said and not about political sovereignty?

Matthew’s Gospel says this man was rich, and also a “disciple of Jesus.” Luke says he was “a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God.” John said that Joseph made this request secretly “for fear of the Jews.” 

This tells me that Joseph believed what Jesus said about the kingdom. He knew that it was about the rule of God and concerned the spiritual condition of humanity, not their physical or political circumstances. By believing this, which was so contrary to popular thought, no doubt he also believed what Jesus said about their religious value system. Like Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea was going against the tide. His life may also have been in danger. Courage indeed!

All of this makes me think of the cushy life I have; no threats from the authorities, no worries that I will be strung up by the thumbs for believing in Jesus. The worst I’ve ever experienced is the wrath and ridicule of ‘religious’ people who think that faith in Christ is about being “good” and about chalking up points with God. My faith in Christ and in the grace of God is a challenge to their value system, something like Jesus’ challenged the ‘devout’ in His day yet I’m protected by ‘civil rights’ — at least for now.

Joseph also points to the power of truth. Jesus embodied it and declared it, and when He did, many believed it and many still do, regardless of popular thought and opinion. Faith in Christ continues today because truth changes lives and gives people courage to go against the tide.

Faith is good, but faith in what?

While living in a smaller city, I participated in a house-to-house survey. We were asking people if they should die that day and stood before God and He asked them, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” what would they say?

Most people claimed that they lived good lives and thought that would be sufficient. While this falls short of the biblical answer, I was not surprised to hear it. Because sin is essentially turning from God and doing our own thing, trying to earn heaven by our goodness is a predictable response.

However, one person said something that I’d not heard before. She said she would go to heaven “because of my faith.” We asked further. She explained that she believed she would be there, and her belief was her grounds for eternal life. She did not mention Jesus Christ or His death on the cross. When asked what would happen if she stopped believing, she said she would not be able to go to heaven. In other words, her faith was the virtue that she depended on for eternal life. She wasn’t interested in what Jesus had done for her.

“My faith will save me” sounded good and took me a few days to sort out what she had told us. The Bible says faith by itself isn’t enough; we must also demonstrate our faith by what we do. Yet that wasn’t the explanation that made sense of her claim. Finally, after study and prayer, I began to realize that faith by itself cannot exist. Faith must have an object, something that is believed in and relied upon. In this woman’s case, her faith was in her faith.

I thought of her this morning when I read this verse: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

God wants people to believe, but the sentence cannot end there. The blank to fill in is “to believe in _________” What does He want me to pin my hopes on? Obviously, in this verse hope is in a promise that God has made and in the fact that He is faithful to keep His promises.

Faith always has an object, a something that is grounds for its existence. Is it faith in a religious organization? In spiritual leaders? In a denomination or a creed? A more important question is asking if those things give anyone an entrance to eternal life.

Another object of faith could be the Scripture. Are we saved by faith in the Bible? I read another passage this morning where Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

It struck me that even though we find out about Jesus through reading Scripture and we know about eternal life and need the Word of life to inform and sustain faith, it is Jesus that gives life and our faith must be in Him, not just in the Bible, or His teachings, or the creeds, or even in His promises.

Apart from Jesus, all these things are just words and dogma. He is the grounds for and the object of Christian faith. Without Him, there would be no heaven, no eternal life, nothing for me to hope or believe in, no matter how much faith I could muster.