Eden

Worldbuilding

In 1933, C.S. Lewis wrote to his friend Arthur and told him about a new story that J.R.R. Tolkien had been sharing as a part of the regular Inklings meetings the two were taking part in. The story that Tolkien was sharing had its start in January of 1930, when the story started with the sentence, “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.”

But this new book about Hobbits was not the beginning of what would become one of the most popular fantasy series of all time in the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien loved languages and studying how those languages came to be. In 1917, Tolkien started writing stories laying out a history of Middle Earth. He developed languages for this world, including the elvish language. By the time Bilbo Baggin’s story was told, a whole fleshed out history existed that would only be hinted at and glimpsed in the novels to come. This process is called worldbuilding, and the very best authors follow a very similar process to flesh out fantastical worlds that feel lived-in. Without this backstory, themes explored in Lord of the Rings would have been flat.

Of course, as C.S. Lewis would observe, all stories told are themselves but an echo of one true Story.

Christmas Worldbuilding

In the same way that Lord of the Rings did not exist in a vacuum, neither does the story of Christmas. John 1:14 tells us that

John 1:14 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Some have said that the Incarnation is the greatest miracle found in the Bible. God became flesh. This great miracle did not happen in isolation, but instead was the fulfilment of God’s promises. For this week, and the next two weeks, let’s explore the development of the great theme of God dwelling with us in God’s Word.

Eden

As we consider the foundations of the Christmas story, let us begin at the very beginning of history itself, in the story of Creation and the Garden of Eden

Creation Under Attack

Why do we start here? Isn’t the creation story just a made up myth? There have been attacks on the creation account told in the Bible from both outside and inside the church over the past century. The enemy, working from the outside, knows that to destroy the doctrine of creation is to call into question the entirety of God’s revelation. Almost all of us in this room have likely had to at some point battle with the athiest doctrine of Evolution in our education.

Enemies Without

If you have not, your children or grandchildren certainly will. Hypothesis will be presented as facts, and gaping holes in the macro-evolutionary theory will be conveniently ignored. Students are presented with seemingly only a few choices. Some will be persuaded and begin what will likely be a path towards abandoning their faith. Some will argue back in class, inviting ridicule and persecution upon themselves, while standing fast for the faith. Most will probably take the path I did, privately disagree, but regurgitate the teaching on the tests to get a passing grade.

Enemies Within

While the attacks upon the doctrine of creation from without are the more obvious battle. Perhaps the more insidious attacks upon creation have been from within. For several generations now, attempts have been made to somehow harmonize the teaching of the Bible with scientific hypotheses.

All of these attempts have in common the attempt to suggest that somehow the historical teaching of the Bible can be discarded while somehow preserving the spiritual truths of the Bible. These attacks on creation continue even to this day. A popular apologist, and the author of the book we used as a seminary textbook for Apologetics, William Lane Craig, just this year published a book undermining the reliability of a real, historical, Adam. He spends almost 300 pages trying to insist that his naturalistic understanding of the creation story doesn’t undermine his Christian beliefs, but largely his arguments are under-baked, and fall flat.

He argues that,

“while the doctrine of original sin depends crucially on the fact of a historical Adam, Christianity need not embrace the traditional doctrine of original sin, but may content itself with affirming the universal wrongdoing of human beings and their inability to save themselves.”

Despite the fact that Craig argues himself in circles, he completely forgets that it is not only the doctrine of original sin that gets lost when you chuck the doctrine of creation, but indeed the entire foundation of God’s revelation culminating in the birth, death, resurrection, ascension and coming return of Christ is destroyed.

Creation Defended

For those that don’t know, Grace has a series of position statements that have been adopted by the elders. One of those statements deals with the doctrine of creation. Let me read it for you the first part of this statement.

We believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We hold a high view of creation, while recognizing that throughout history, believers have adopted a variety of interpretations regarding the details within the opening chapters of Genesis.

Without insisting on a particular scientific view, we believe the sovereign and eternal God created by His Word all that exists within this universe, that at the end of six morning-and-evening days, this creation was perfect and complete, and that the rebellion and disobedience of the first man resulted in the corruption and ruin of that perfect creation.

Further, we believe that after the Fall, God launched His plan of redemption by which He is reversing the curse of disobedience and bringing believing people back to a restoration of the initial goodness of creation.

Some folks get a little hung up on the sentence in there, “without insisting on a particular scientific view.” What we’re talking about there are several different ways that folks have held to the Biblical doctrine while attempting to explain the astronomical, geological and archeological discoveries being made. For example, one view holds that the flood not only was a worldwide catastrophe, but that God’s judgement actually altered some of the fundamental scientific laws like the half-life of carbon. There was a great documentary that used to be on Netflix called, “Is Genesis History?” that explores this theory. I think you can rent it on AppleTV

Personally, I hold to a little bit of the that theory, with a whole lot of what is called the “Ideal Time” theory. Essentially, if you were to meet Adam on, say, day eight, you would clinically conclude that he was likely in his middle ages, giving his physical and mental development, when he was actually only a couple of days old. In the same way, rather than create the universe from a big bang beginning, and then working out the process over billions of years, He just started in the middle, with the universe, the solar system, and earth appearing to have undergone the processes suggested by the scientific laws He established in the universe, but in reality, the universe is actually just a few thousand years old.

But I majorly digress before I’ve even really started. However you put together the story of Creation, what is important is that you understand that this isn’t just a story or a myth, but it is foundational to understanding the world we live in and to see God’s plan of redemption worked out through His Son Jesus Christ.

Relationship Created

With that presupposition of the creation account in Genesis being a true story laid, let us begin in Genesis 1 and 2.

Genesis 1:26–31 (CSB)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

There is a lot here to unpack, and if you look back in the sermon archives, Pastor Bill worked through these creation passages several years ago in his series on the book of Genesis. What I want to focus on this morning is on the relationship between God and the man that he had created.

In verse 27 of chapter 1, the text tells us why God’s relationship with man is different than that of the animals and plants and indeed all other living things including the angels. It says that God created man in his own image.

This final creation bears the very image of God! In chapter 5 of Genesis, it reminds us,

Genesis 5:1–2 (CSB)

On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.

This image bearing has implications of why the life of each and every person is precious. When establishing His covenant with Noah in Genesis 9, which itself is a sort of re-creating event, God reminds them,

Genesis 9:6 CSB

Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed, for God made humans in his image.

How we treat our fellow image bearers is also important. James reminds us that we commit a grave sin when we curse our fellow image-bearers.

James 3:9–10 CSB

With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.

A person could spend a whole sermon series or a class exploring the implications of the imago dei doctrine. It is not an understatement to say that much of Ethics fundamentally is dealing with Imago Dei implications.

God didn’t just create another creature when he created Adam and Eve, He poured out his image on them. Lest you doubt how precious this is to God, spoiler alert, but those made in His image were precious enough to Him to send His Son to die a cruel death on a cross that they might be reconciled restore the relationship He created in the garden.

What was this garden like?

Genesis 2:4–9 (CSB)

These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation. At the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground.

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, God set aside this garden for the man, and later woman that He had created. This was a paradise, unmarred by sin. Romans 8 tells us that creation was subjected to futility and is now groaning together with labor pains. In the garden, this had not yet happened, and it was still as God declared, “very good.”

More than that, in the garden, Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of God. God was with them in the garden. After they ate the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3 says that:

Genesis 3:8 CSB

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

God was not only present with Adam and Eve, but has a basic expectation of that relationship. We see this in the next verse:

Genesis 3:9 CSB

So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

There is something immediately off at the absence of Adam. This means that God and Adam and Eve had regular fellowship with God. When all was right in this perfect garden, Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence and fellowship of God. God was with them. He dwelt with them in the garden. Unfortunately, that perfect relationship did not last.

Relationship Broken

Genesis 3 tells us how this perfect relationship was broken.

Genesis 3:1–7 (CSB)

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.

So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve violated the only command that God had given them.

The consequences of this sin are immediately apparent. The very first consequence is the broken relationship with God.

Genesis 3:8–13 (CSB)

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Instead of fellowship with God, Adam and Eve now have conflict with God. Consequences follow. Eve is cursed to pain in childbirth and a fractured relationship with her husband. Adam’s sin has cursed the very ground, and now the remainder of his days will be filled by painful labor until he returns to the dust of the ground.

And then, God lays out the final consequence for their sin,

Genesis 3:23–24 CSB

So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

God drove them out of His presence. No longer would they enjoy the fellowship of God’s presence. They were expelled from the garden to toil for the rest of their lives. Not only them, but their offspring, and their offspring. Matter of fact, every human inherits that sin from their father. Do you have a father? You inherited that sin, straight from Adam. You inherited the image of God, and you inherited sin and death. Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:12 CSB

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

1 Corinthians 15:22 tells us that in Adam, all die. This is the condition of all people. No one born of Adam is in right relationship with God. Ephesians 2:3 says:

Ephesians 2:3 CSB

We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Relationship Broken

This is where the story of Eden ends, right? Well, the story of creation is pretty depressing, and it would be a whole lot more depressing if the story ended there. Instead, the groundwork has been laid. In the story of Eden, we see a picture of how things are supposed to be. How they were created to be. We inhabit a broken universe.

It’s not. supposed. to be. like. this.

Why did I spend 10 minutes talking about why the doctrine of creation is so important? Because Genesis shows us what God’s creation looked like when He finished and declared that it was “very good.” Do you know what the fundamental problem with Theistic Evolution, and William Lane Craig’s idea of Adam being a neanderthal myth, and the atheistic idea of some random evolutionary problem? Every single one of these ideas suggests that we are right now experiencing the universe the way it is supposed to be. Baked into the very idea of evolution is death.

If Adam and Eve had never sinned, they would still be here. Evolution assumes adaptation by conflict. The story of creation is so important, because it shows us that there was no conflict. Everything was in balance. There would have been no need for some adaptive process because all of creation was designed in perfection. We, every single one of us in this room today, are experiencing a creation that was subjected to futility. Adam and Eve didn’t just curse themselves, they managed to curse the very ground.

It’s not supposed to be this way.

And God didn’t just leave it this way.

Relationship Promised

In the midst of all of these consequences and despair, there are glimmerings of hope. In Genesis 3:15, God promises an offspring to the woman.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

There is an offspring promised here that will strike the head of the serpent. 1 John 3 tells us that The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.

Even in the darkest despair, there is a glimmer of hope.

In addition to this promise of an offspring, Eden is lost, but yet still there, almost within reach.

Genesis 3:24 CSB

He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Mankind is denied entrance back into the garden of life, but just as the exiles hoped for a return to the promised land, so too does mankind long for that paradise and to enjoy the presence of God. Yet, mankind cannot return to Eden and the presence of God. So instead of us coming to Him, He came to us.

As mankind descends into chaos after the fall, eventually God starts over, destroying the earth with a great flood, and beginning again with a new type of Adam in Noah. We could spend a whole sermon talking about how the flood narrative echoes creation, but we don’t have time today! Anyway, this new Adam fails too. Throughout Old Testament history, man after man fails, showing themselves to be stained by sin.

And so, we read of the story of Abram, and how God calls him out to be a great nation. God promises to make him a nation, and to give that nation a land. More than that, God promises a special relationship with this people.

Genesis 17:8 CSB

And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.”

Note that in the story, there is no suggestion of Abram having earned this favor, but rather, God has initiated this special relationship with this nation that HE is going to create through Abraham. To Abraham’s son, Isaac, God promises more than to just be his God. In confirming the continuance of the covenant started with Isaac’s father Abraham, God promises something even further:

Genesis 26:2–4 CSB

The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring,

I will be with you. God is promising His presence. He is promising to begin the restoration of His relationship with mankind through the descendants of Abraham. And he’s not just promising this restored relationship to the descendants of Abraham, but look, “all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring.” God confirms this promise to Jacob, saying in Genesis 31:3

Genesis 31:3 CSB

The Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.”

God is promising relationship and presence. Next week, we will take a look at how the tabernacle and the temple echo the garden of Eden, indeed, as Eden was the dwelling place of God, so too does God come to dwell among the people in these structures, but that is for next week.

So, as we finish up this morning, let’s consider the story of Eden in light of God’s relationship with those He created in His image and how the story of Adam and Eve is reflected in your story this morning.

Adam and Eve were created to enjoy fellowship with God. So too were you. Every one of you this morning are a precious creation made in the image of God. You were created for relationship.

However, Adam and Eve fractured that relationship. And the consequences for that sin have continued rolling down through the generations, inherited, so that in Adam every one of our relationships has been marred and broken. This isn’t the way it was supposed to be. We have all experienced to some degree or another the brokenness of this world. For some here this morning, you need to be reminded that the world IS broken. For some of you this morning, you might need to be reminded that you are precious.

Because God didn’t just leave the relationship broken. He promised a restoration of that relationship. He promised that mankind did not always need to be apart from Him. You see, because we could no longer go to be with God in the garden, He needed to come to us. First, through establishing covenant relationships with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and so on. He called out a nation so that they might bless the nations. Finally, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, born not of Adam, but of God the Father, to be born, live a perfect life, die on a cross, rise again and ascend into heaven. All so that you might have a restored relationship with God. Do you have that restored relationship this morning? If not, God wants you enjoy fellowship with Him. Earlier, we read the passage in Ephesians that we are each by nature children under wrath. The very next passage has hope:

Ephesians 4:4–5 CSB

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Have you been made alive this morning? If not, let today be the day of your salvation. Believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and was raised from the dead, and confess him as Lord today. If you want to know more about that, after the service, Jim Larkins will be over by the organ, or you can talk to one of the pastors this morning.

Let us close in prayer.