Back to Eden

In The Beginning...

Genesis 1:26–31 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

On the first page of the Bible, we see something, and we see it very clearly.

We see that man is exactly where he is supposed to be.

We see that man is immersed in life.

In these verses we see that man dwells exactly where they are supposed to dwell.... They are dwelling with God in his creation.

Because they are dwelling with God, they are immersed in life. Life surrounds them, and they don’t have to worry about death.

As we know (all too well), this all changed when man sinned.

When man sinned, they were no longer where they were supposed to be.

Because of man’s sin, we were expelled from God’s presence.

Where are we supposed to be? We are supposed to be with God, but after sin, we were separated from God.

When man sinned, they were no longer immersed in life.

After our fall, maintaining, and creating, life became difficult. Do you remember the curses?

By the sweat of your brow you will create life from the ground.

In pain you will create life from your womb.

After the fall, man’s ability to create and maintain life was diminished because we were separated from God’s life giving presence.

summary

So in the beginning, man was where he was supposed to be, and man was immersed in life… This all changed with the fall.

This is something that we see throughout the Bible story.

In The Middle...

Genesis 50:26 ESV

26 So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Does Genesis end on a high note or a low note?

Genesis ends on a low note…

At the end of Genesis, we see a reversal of the garden… We see the exact opposite.

At the end of Genesis:

Man is not where he is supposed to be (specifically, God’s people are in Egypt, and that’s rarely a good thing in the Bible).

Man is surrounded by death.

So, where Genesis begins with man in God’s presence surrounded by life, Genesis ends with man away from God and faced with death...

We continue to see this throughout the story.

Genesis ends with death, and Exodus starts with the same death.

Deuteronomy ends with death, and Joshua starts with that same death.

Joshua ends with death.

So over and over again, we see that God’s faithful servants die.

Abraham died

Joseph died

Moses died

Joshua died

etc.

But this all changes at the end of the story.

In The End (In the last days)...

The end of the story is what the Bible calls the last days, and the interesting thing is that we are in the last days right now.

The last days started with Jesus and his Kingdom.

… and what we see in these last days is something groundbreaking.

Jesus a servant like...

It’s interesting to me that the gospels compare Jesus to so many old testament leaders.

Jesus is the New Moses

Jesus is the New Joshua

Jesus is the New David

To the person who is reading the gospels for the first time, they expect Jesus’ story to be similar to these men.

Moses did good things, but he died.

Joshua did good things, but he died.

David did good things, but he died.

So, when they get to the part of the story where Jesus dies, it’s just normal… Since the beginning, death has been a part of the story.

But as they continue to read, something different happens. Jesus doesn’t stay in the tomb. He is resurrected.

This is a groundbreaking event… Death has been in control since Adam and Eve, but Jesus defeats death and never dies again.

This has important implications for us. Here’s what Jesus’ resurrection means for us.

It means that we will one day return to God’s presence.

It means that we will one day be immersed in life… never to die again.

1 Corinthians 15:51–58 ESV

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Is there any wonder why this news is called the good news?