Glory in a Garden

I remember watching Judge Wapner on “The People’s Court.” It gave rise to an entire genre of small claims court TV. The best part about watching them? You get the chance to try and be a judge! While many of us may like being the judge, no one wants to be the person on trial. Yet, we sit on trial every day in the courtroom of human opinion, and we long for a positive verdict to be handed down by a jury of our peers.

Daily we argue our case for People’s acceptance and appreciation. We long to hear the affirmation of others, the “yes” and “amen” of others’ affirmations, and dread a “no” answer. And along with the desire for approval comes an equal fear of rejection. Nobody wants to be rejected. Some may know how to accept it more than others, and maturity as a believer can certainly diminish our enslavement to it, but I don’t know of anyone who goes out of their way to make people reject them.

Adam and Eve, they were the crowning achievement of creation, right? Consider how amazing this actually is. After God creates the stars, moons, and galaxies…after He sets sunsets ablaze with phenomenal beauty…after He paints the grass with the wildflower and scents the flower with her perfume…the strength of a grizzly…the size of a blue whale…the beautiful fury of an untamed seas…He says, “Gen.1:26 “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.”” The crescendo of creation is the creation of man.

Man bears the image of God.

God commissions man to represent Him as he rules over creation.

Man relates to God in a unique way, enjoying an up-close-and-personal relationship with God. And, man found his significance, purpose, and joy in belonging to the One who made him.

Think about this: I wonder if Adam and Eve glowed! Moses did from being in the presence of God in Exod.34:29-35. If Moses reflected the glory of God, how much more would Adam and Eve reflected His glory in pre-sinful state, walking daily with YHWH?!

After all of creation, what happens? It’s like God steps back, takes a look at all that He has done, and what does He say? It is “very good.”

God sets His affections particularly on this part of creation, and in the process, He gives man glory and a place of prominence and purpose over and above the rest of creation. I mean just think about this — I think the measure of praise can be directly linked to the person giving praise. A guitar players compliment to another guitar player means a little bit more than the compliment of someone who has never played before. And here’s God, giving the affirmation after man’s creation — “very good.”

You can understand the psalmist a little better when he says: Ps.8:3-8 “When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.”

So, Adam and Eve lived in the delight of God. Gen.2:25 “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.” They had nothing to hide and nothing to prove. We were made to live in the privileged place of intimacy with God.

But, we know the story, right? What happens next?

If Genesis became an epic movie, the soundtrack here would surely turn from a happy, upbeat, major-key melody to a sad, drudgery of minor tones. Satan comes in, seeking to discredit God and convince Eve that she was missing out on something. She could become like God if only she would take of the forbidden fruit and eat.

“Eve began to believe that she could have a glory — a glory of her own — that surpassed what had been bestowed upon her.” At the heart of this temptation was the pursuit of independence from God and a rebellious glory of her own.

Did you ever consider that Satan’s promise was fulfilled, right then and there? He was right, their eyes were opened. They were, in a sense, like God. Suddenly they knew well both good and evil — “God was good, and they were evil.” The ones who were once held their heads high with the crown of “very good” now hung their heads low from the weight of the crown of shame.

Adam and Eve would now know sin, and surely sin does what it does to everyone ever since — it turns us inward and bends us toward serving self. The woman would desire the husband’s position, and the husband would rule over his wife. The call to rule over creation would be met with a creation now in disintegration, crying out for rescue. Filling the earth and subduing it would be a painful and sorrowful process. And, man would suffer the most inglorious of all events: death. “The very ground that Adam was to subdue as God’s representative would now subdue him as he returned to the dust from which he had been formed (v.19).”

Yes, man is still valuable…still the crown of creation…but the relationship man was made to live in had been permanently marred.

This is the world we were born into. This is the condition we find ourselves. We are made in God’s image. There is intrinsic worth and dignity. We are not cosmic accidents as the atheists would tell us, lucky enough to crawl and evolve out of the primordial ooze. We are not wastes of space. But, what we were initially created to be was tragically lost by our first parents, and we share in their guilt as we have all sinned, constantly falling short of God’s glory.

“As His image bearers, we were made to walk with Him in intimate friendship, but we are alienated from Him. We were made to hear the commendation of God spoken over us, but we are condemned before God. The beauty we were made to reflect is obscured by our inner corruption. And the greatness of ruling over creation with God is frustrated by our weaknesses, suffering, and death. Our greatest need is to have that glory restored to us. Deep down, it is the unnamed ache of every life. We need to have His commendation over us, His image renewed in us, and greatness reclaimed for us.”

The legitimate glory hunger in every one of us is to be restored to a glorious image and crowned with honor by God. Every glory hunger pang we have that expresses itself in a yearning for approval, acceptance, and achievement, it all betrays a great pain present in all of us. The desire to be seen and visible and valuable, it all arises from a legitimate place…a yearning for the commendation “very good” from the One who created us.

Honestly, have you every paused to wonder why every little boy asks, “Dad, am I strong enough?” and every little girl, “Daddy, am I pretty?”

All of our longing for approval in the court of public opinion indeed spawns from a legitimate place, but all-too-often comes out through illegitimate and idolatrous expressions. Instead of yearning and striving (and resting through Christ) for our Father’s commendation, we look to others for our “very good.” We sew metaphorical and mis-shapen fig leaves to cover our lack of glory in an attempt to hear the praise of others and replace that glory.

In case we need more convincing, Vassar reflects on the fact that Genesis 3 led to Genesis 11. What do we find in Genesis 11? Literally it’s a people striving to make a name great for themselves, to build their own lasting legacy apart from the God who created them. They’re striving for their own glory.

In the movie Rocky, Rocky Balboa knows he can’t stand against the champion Apollo Creed. He tells Adrian, his future wife, that he wants to be still standing at the final bell, to go the distance against Apollo, because if he can still be standing at the end, he’ll prove to everyone that he’s not “just another bum from the neighborhood.” Sadly, our quest for our own glory is very similar. We want to prove to everyone else that we aren’t just another “bum in the universe.”

Well, it what seems like a rather dismal pronunciation of a chapter, Vassar concludes that there is hope! Even in the judgment of Adam and Eve, God does not leave the two hopeless. God will make a way to renew us…to renew His commendation over us. He will heal the marred image that we all bear, and He will reclaim the lost greatness for His crowning creation. But, our reaching for glory will never bring this about. It was our reaching that put us in this predicament in the first place. Instead, God Himself will come to us, and our restored glory will be His work, not ours, and we will finally glory in Him, no longer in self.