eden

5

G OD’S FINA L IN T EN T

The New Jerusalem

For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous That, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through right- eousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:19, 21)

When we lef t Eden, we lef t a fruit-filled paradise ani- mated by a cosmic river and graced by the Tree of Life This paradise, which was once the shared dwelling place of God and humanity, is now defended against Adam’s race by means of cherubim The city of man and the kingdom of God are now separated; Adam and Eve now live in ex- ile from their heavenly father How will this wretched state of affairs be righted? What is God’s plan of redemption? Or should we say, what is God’s final intent for humanity?

T H E ICONOGR A PH Y OF EDEN: OF CH ERU BI M, T R EES A N D R I V ER S There are many ways to approach the questions voiced above, but the one I like best is to ask these questions by tracing the iconography of Eden throughout redemption’s story Let’s start with the cherubim, the fear- some creature armed with a double-edged sword, stationed at the entrance of the garden Who (and what) is this dire creature?

Cherubim. In the Bible we find that cherubim appear only in particu- lar contexts After Eden, the first reappearance of the cherubim is the

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 0 8 . I V P A c a d e m i c .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 1/20/2023 2:31 PM via COLUMBIA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY AN: 577682 ; Sandra L. Richter.; The Epic of Eden : A Christian Entry Into the Old Testament Account: s3260518.main.eds

120 The Epic of Eden

divinely dictated design of the tabernacle in Exodus 25–26 and Exodus 36–37 Here on Mount Sinai, God instructs Moses to build a habitation for the Holy One among his people

“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them” (Ex 25:8) The text tells us that the reason God wants this sanctuary is “so that I might live among them ” Do you hear the echo of Eden here? This will be the first time since the garden that God has dwelt with )Ada4m. Perhaps I am overly sentimental, but I hear in this passage the longing of a father for his children Whereas with the Fall humanity was forbidden from God’s presence, with the Mosaic covenant God commands a meet- ing place so that he may cohabit with his children once more In order to help get our bearings for the following discussion, I’ve included figure 5 1, which provides the footprint of the sacred tent-structure we know as the tabernacle, and figure 5 2, which is an artist’s reconstruction of the same

Notice that whereas the Holy Place and Holies of Holies were con- cealed under tent curtains, the outer court of the tabernacle (where the al- tar and laver were located) was open to the sky The outer court was open to worshippers, but only priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place The innermost sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was only visited once a year by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement This is where God lived and where the Ark of the Covenant was housed

And according to God’s instructions, the curtains of the Holy of Holies (where God actually dwelt) and the sacred veil that divided the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place (the place in which the priests served him) were to be decorated with cherubim

You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful craftsman You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, their hooks also being of gold, on four sockets of silver You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring in the ark of the testimony there within the veil; and the veil shall serve for you as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies (Ex 26:31-33; cf Ex 36:8-13; 1 Kings 6:32-35)

The Ark of the Covenant, which housed the tablets of the covenant within the Holy of Holies, is also adorned with cherubim

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God’s Final Intent 121

You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, cover- ing the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the

Altar of Incense

Holy Place

Holy of Holies

Outer Court

Altar of Burnt

Offering

Table of Showbread

Laver

Golden Candlestick

A rk

o f t

he C

ov en

an t

N

S

W E

Figure 5.1. The footprint of the tabernacle

Figure 5.2. An artist’s reconstruction of the tabernacle (copyright 2003, The New Life Mission)

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122 The Epic of Eden

cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you (Ex 25:18-21; cf Ex 37:1-9; 1 Kings 6:23-29; 8:6-7)

Very interesting to us is the function of the ark’s golden cherubim

There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel (Ex 25:22; cf Num 7:89; 1 Sam 4:4, 6:2)

So what in the world are cherubim? Obviously the Israelites knew what one was, or these texts would have been unintelligible to them When we search the Scriptures, we find that Ezekiel and John the Revelator actually describe these creatures One of Ezekiel’s descriptions reads as follows:

And this was their appearance: they had human form Each of them had four faces and four wings Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf ’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze Under their wings on their four sides were human hands As for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle Such were their faces (Ezek 1:5-11; cf Rev 4:5-11; 2 Sam 22:11; Ps 18:10-11)

Ezekiel’s fearsome figures are not at all like the chubby, flying babes so popular on postcard art today And when we broaden the circle further we find that these creatures, so mysterious to us, were actually well known to the ancient Near East In Mesopotamia, Egypt and Canaan we find repeated presentations of huge, intimidating creatures with the wings of an eagle, the face of a man and the body and feet of either a lion or a bull Their composite bodies have been interpreted by modern scholars as pointing to “a union of the highest powers (strength, speed, sagacity)” of the human and animal kingdoms 1 Examples of such composite creatures include the sculpted column bases guarding the entryway to Barrakub’s palace in Zin- jirli (Neo-Hittite, late eighth century b c ), the winged Sphinx well known in Egyptian art and architecture, and the enormous winged bulls and lions stationed outside the throne room and palace entrances of the great Assyr-

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God’s Final Intent 123

ian monarchs 2 According to Othmar Keel, these creatures served as semi- divine guardians: “The emplacement of guardian genii was motivated by the belief that they would repel, or even kill the wicked, and thus protect the holy precincts from defilement ”3 Stationed at the entrances of palaces, throne rooms and temples, these creatures were intended to intimidate visi- tors and to make them think twice about doing any sort of damage or show- ing disrespect to the king/deity or his palace/temple And so they did And when you stand in the British Museum next to one of the winged lions of Ashurbanipal and your head barely reaches its knees, you quickly come to understand why these things were used as royal and sacred sentries!

Why is all this significant to us? Because the cherubim of the biblical text also show up at the entrance of a throne room, and they too were intended to defend the Great King from any who would attempt to enter unworthily Indeed, the cherubim stationed at the entrance of Eden and embroidered on the curtains of the Holy of Holies let us know that Eden and the Holy of Holies should both be understood as the throne room of God And this throne room is now defended from ’Ādām by the armed sentries of heaven

And what of the cherubim that adorn the ark (Ex 25:18-25)? Turning back to archaeology for a moment, we find that one of the most amazing portrayals of cherubim coming out of the ancient world is the frequent Late- Bronze/Early Iron-Age depiction of cherubim thrones 4 One of these is carved into the tenth-century-b c limestone sarcophagus of Phoenician King Ahiram of Byblos 5

In this sketch of the carved panel of the sarcophagus, Ahiram is por- trayed as seated upon his cherubim throne, participating in a banquet There are ten similar images from ancient Canaan 6 When we recall that Exodus 25:18-25 commands Figure 5.3. King Ahiram’s sarcophagus

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124 The Epic of Eden

Moses to position two cherubim above the ark, and that God’s plan was to meet and speak with the Israelites from that spot (“from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim,” Ex 25:22), and that Yahweh is repeatedly described as the one “enthroned above the cherubim” (2 Sam 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chron 13:6; Ps 80:1; 99:1; Is 37:16), it seems that archaeology has provided us with a picture of what the Bible is describing These analogues show us that the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant were to serve as the actual throne of Yahweh, and the ark as his footstool (1 Chron 28:2) And Yahweh, like all kings, intends to utilize his throne room as a place of audience with his people Thus the cherubim of the ark and of Eden are best understood as Yahweh’s watchers, his sentries, his armed guards But the distinction between Eden and the Holy of Holies is that whereas )Ada4m was driven from Eden with no hope of reentry, the Holy of Holies is designed to function as God’s outpost in )Ada4m’s world Here, although guarded by his cherubim and set apart by means of the mediation of sacrifice and a priestly staff, God once again dwells among his people

Longitudinal Section

Floor Plan

Jachin

East

Boaz

Holy of Holies Holy Place

Vesti- bule

Figure 5.4. The footprint of Solomon’s temple

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God’s Final Intent 125

Trees. When Israel became a settled people under David’s monarchy, they began to think in terms of a more permanent sanctuary So with God’s direction, Solomon built the temple Formatted and decorated in the same fashion as the tabernacle, we find the same floor plan, furniture and appliances, as well as the same decorative motifs But here the cur- tains are replaced with walls and roofs, dimensions are amplified and the adornment is far more elaborate

In 1 Kings 6 and 7 we read a description of the temple

Then he [Solomon] carved all the walls of the house round about with carved engravings of cherubim, palm trees, and open f lowers, inner and outer sanctuaries He overlaid the f loor of the house with gold, inner and outer sanctuaries For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive wood, the lintel and five-sided doorposts So he made two doors of olive wood, and he carved on them carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open f lowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees So also he made for the entrance of the nave four-sided doorposts of olive wood and two doors of cypress wood He carved on it cherubim, palm trees, and open f lowers; and he overlaid them with gold evenly applied on the engraved work (1 Kings 6:29-35)

Figure 5.5. An artist’s reconstruction of the temple

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126 The Epic of Eden

So as in the tabernacle, we encounter cherubim in the temple But now another motif of Eden has been added—trees, f lowers and fruit Appar- ently this place in which God and his people cohabitate is designed to turn the heart toward Eden (1 Kings 6:29, 32, 35; 7:15-26, 36) 7

Rivers. Our next stop is Ezekiel 47 This chapter is embedded in the prophet’s larger vision about the rebuilt and restored temple (Ezekiel 40–48) Whereas Ezekiel had lived through the period of the exile in which Jerusalem was captured and the temple razed, in these chapters he is seeing with the eyes of vision the restoration of this beloved temple at the end of all things 8 In his vision, the temple has subsumed all of Jerusalem; the entire city has become the temple And the temple is now a perfect square (Ezek 48:35) This becomes very significant when we remember that the only part of Solomon’s temple that was perfectly square was the Holy of Holies Thus, in Ezekiel’s vision, the Holy of Holies (the place God actually dwelt) has enveloped the city of man “He said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever’” (Ezek 43:7) In sum, Ezekiel’s vision of the “rest of the story” is God and humanity dwelling together within a city that has become a temple

Then suddenly in Ezekiel 47 we are introduced to something wonder- fully new—a river It begins as a trickle in the Holy of Holies but eventu- ally becomes a raging river f lowing east through the desert toward the Dead Sea The river transforms the deserts of Judah into a garden, and even turns the Dead Sea (which can support no marine life) fresh

Then he said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah; then they go toward the [Dead] sea, being made to f low into the sea, and the waters of the sea become fresh ” (Ezek 47:8)

The supernatural nature of this vision becomes fully apparent when we read the next verse For although this river will transform the heavy, mineral-laden water of the Dead Sea so that it will support “very many” fish (Ezek 47:10), it will not turn the marshes of the Dead Sea fresh This is because those salt marshes were an important source of income in Ezekiel’s day! So this river brings all that is good and nothing that is evil Rather,

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God’s Final Intent 127

this river is a river of life: “everything will live where the river goes” (Ezek 47:9l cf Is 66:12)

So what does this have to do with Eden? You may recall that Eden was characterized by a cosmic river that split into four and “watered the entire garden” (Gen 2:10) In Ezekiel’s heaven, this river does the same Origi- nating in the throne room of God (i e , the Holy of Holies), it brings life back to a fallen earth Pause for a moment over Ezekiel 47:12

By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail They will bear every month because their water f lows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing

Hmmm when did we last encounter a Tree of Life?

T H E NEW J ERUSA LE M This brings us at last to Revelation 21–22, the end of the story

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or cry- ing, or pain; the first things have passed away ” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” (Rev 21:1-5)

What John is describing here is what Christians call “heaven ” But unlike the images common to our imaginations—disembodied spirits, clouds and wings, harps and chubby cherubs—the biblical author is describing heaven as a new earth The garden has been restored, the primordial deep (“chaos”) has been defeated, and Ezekiel’s city/temple is being lowered from the heavens to serve as the residence of the redeemed 9 Hear the voice from the throne ringing out into the silence and grief of )Ada4m’s wasted world: “I am making all things new!” (Rev 21:5) The Creator speaks and the earth and its inhabitants are finally free (cf Rom 8:21)

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128 The Epic of Eden

Healing has come; mourning is passed; death is no more This is the New Jerusalem, purified and whole And with the New Jerusalem comes the Presence, “and God Himself shall be among them” (Rev 21:3; cf Rev 21:22-27) Glory to his name

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the heal- ing of the nations There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever (Rev 22:1-5)

This New Jerusalem (what we know as “heaven”) is all that the city of man in Eden was meant to be In fact, it is Eden—a fruit-filled paradise animated by a cosmic river and graced by the Tree of Life Here, once again, the unhindered presence of God and the unhindered maturation of a sinless humanity coexist The most significant difference between the New Jerusalem and Eden is that there was no city in Eden; )Ada4m had not gotten that far But now the city built in our fallenness has been redeemed and restored God and )Ada4m live under the same roof once again Moreover, the icons of Eden are now multiplied and expanded The Tree of Life lines both sides of the river in the New Jerusalem, and now the tree and the river bring healing to a wounded race All of this because what had been the “outpost” of God’s presence has become the whole Whereas the Holy of Holies had served as a small-scale locus of connection, a “bubble” in )Ada4m’s world in which the two dimensions of God’s place and humanity’s place could be the same place, in the New Jerusalem the two dimensions are rejoined:

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will

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God’s Final Intent 129

never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev 21:22-27)

This city will need no temple, because it will not need to house God, he will live there Its gates will never be closed because there will be no enemies to threaten it And who will live there? “Those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life ”

And where are the cherubim in the New Jerusalem? As there is no longer any need to defend the throne room of God from )Ada4m (“they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads”; Rev 22:4), we find no cherubim here either God has taken back the garden, Adam’s children are home, and the seven days of Genesis 1 have been put back in their proper order

G OD’ S F I NA L I N T EN T So what is God’s final intent for humanity? As is obvious from tracing the iconography of Eden through redemptive history, God’s original intent is his final intent Eden was the perfect plan, and God has never had any other His goal was that the people of God might dwell in the place of God, enjoying the presence of God This is all our heavenly Father has ever wanted for us And everything that lies between Eden’s gate and the New Jerusalem, the bulk of our Bibles, is in essence a huge rescue plan In fact, we could summarize the plot line of the Bible into one cosmic ques- tion: “How do we get )Ada4m back into the garden?” In Genesis 3 human- ity was driven out; in Revelation 21–22 they are welcomed home

My years in the classroom tell me that at this point some readers are asking, “Wait, I’m confused Then where is heaven?” Heaven is the same place it has always been where God is More specifically, heaven is the place where the people of God dwell in the place of God with full access to the presence of God But this insight must be balanced by the fact that )Ada4m is a creature; humanity was not designed to f loat about in the heavenlies as is so often portrayed in popular theology No, )Ada4m was designed for Eden And the new heavens and the new earth (which are the new Eden) is where God intends for us to spend eternity Because

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130 The Epic of Eden

of this, Eden-past is actually our best picture of what heaven-future will be This portrait of heaven should help out a lot the next time your seven- year-old asks you where relatives go when they die

So if Eden and the New Jerusalem are God’s original and final intent for humanity, what of all that lies in between? Take a look at figure 5 6 This simple little chart offers us a synopsis of redemptive history The tree in the top left-hand corner is our icon for Eden Start here Although designed to live out their lives in Eden, humanity chose rebellion instead The result was the Fall with all of its horrible repercussions Like a rock climber having fallen from a great height, )Ada4m now lies broken and bloody on the ledge of the cliff—too far from top or bottom for a simple rescue It will take a series of rescues to bring this climber to safety Let’s pursue this metaphor for a moment A climber who has experienced this sort of accident is too injured to do anything to help himself; he is prob- ably unconscious So someone is going to have to rappel down that preci- pice to reach him in his need That someone will need to do emergency first aid, brace the climber’s neck and strap his battered body into a litter so that he can be hoisted back up or down the face of the cliff But this is only the beginning of the rescue An airlift will be needed to get this man to a hospital Emergency surgery will be necessary to stop the bleeding, remove the irreparable organs and splint the bones And now the real vigil begins Placed in ICU on a respirator and IV, will our climber recover? This is only a metaphor, but it’s one that has a lot to teach us because the rescue of )Ada4m is much the same The Bible teaches us that redemptive history did not happen in one fell swoop Rather, God has been leading humanity back to Eden by means of a sequence of steps, a series of rescues, a series of covenants To mix metaphors, with the covenant of Noah the paramedic successfully reaches the fallen climber; with the covenant of Abraham triage is done and the climber is lowered down the cliff; with the covenants of Moses and David the airlift is accomplished and surgery begins; with the covenant of Jesus the surgery is successful and the vigil begins—will our rescued climber endure to the end?

The rest of this book is dedicated to detailing each of the covenantal administrations of this great rescue plan As promised, we will find that the “general law” that will organize the facts for us is covenant Each step

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God’s Final Intent 131

of the story, each stage of the rescue may be organized under one of six covenants Let me summarize The first post-Eden covenantal adminis- tration is with Noah This covenant reestablishes contact between Adam’s race and Yahweh, and it speaks to all creation Thus we will speak of Noah’s covenant as a “cosmic” and “re-creational” covenant The Abra- hamic covenant begins the hard work of restoring a people for God’s own possession Do you remember our little triplet? The people of God dwell- ing in the place of God with full access to the presence of God The Abrahamic covenant addresses the first two components of this equation by promising Abraham offspring and land: the people of God (Abraham’s offspring) and the place of God (Canaan) The covenant with Moses comes next When the New Testament writers speak of the “Old Covenant,” this is the one they mean This covenant takes up the lion’s share of the Old Testament, and in it the promises offered to Abraham are fulfilled But they are fulfilled only in a typological fashion We will get to the idea of “typology” later; for now understand that under Moses the people of God

Eden New Jerusalem

New Covenant (Jesus)

Davidic Covenant

Mosaic Covenant

Abrahamic Covenant

Noahic Covenant

Figure 5.6. A synopsis of redemptive history

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132 The Epic of Eden

are the citizens of the nation of Israel and the place is the real estate that belongs to that political entity Moreover, under this covenant, for the first time since Eden, the Presence is restored to the people God dwells among his people by means of the tabernacle and then the temple Although in a limited (typological) fashion, under Moses the people of God dwell in the place of God with access to the presence of God David’s covenant will add to this picture the capstone of a human leader whose first ambition is to lead his people in their service to God David is, in essence, the ideal vassal And unlike Adam, David welcomes the seventh day into his king- dom Thus David becomes the prototype of the coming Messiah who will be the ultimate human mediator, the perfect vassal, the Word incarnate With Jesus comes the new covenant In Jesus, the types of the Mosaic and Davidic covenants are fulfilled in an “already” and “not yet” fashion The “already” is what we live today: restored but waiting, free but bound, born again yet still experiencing death The “not yet” is what we live for This is the promise of the New Jerusalem in which the people, place, and pres- ence are restored in full and forever—where death has been defeated and the curse forever repealed

In its simplicity, figure 5 6 illustrates that Eden and the New Jeru- salem are the bookends of redemptive history God’s original intent is his final intent, and everything that lies between is one extraordinary rescue plan To use another metaphor, the rescue plan is much like a series of overhead transparencies In the days of overhead projectors, when I needed to illustrate a region of Israel in my classes, I would start with a backdrop transparency showing the topography of the land; I would then overlay that with a second transparency illustrating the national boundaries of the region and then overlay that with a transpar- ency showing the towns and highways in which I was particularly inter- ested Thus, whereas each transparency was correct in and of itself, the picture was not complete until each had been laid upon the other This is redemptive history as well Each of the stages in the story brings )Ada4m one step closer to full deliverance; each serves to re educate humanity as to who the God of Eden was and is But the picture is not com- plete until the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, God reestablishes his dwelling place among humanity, and humanity is home

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God’s Final Intent 133

Another way to picture this story is illustrated in figure 5 7 Here you see the ever-expanding embrace of redemptive history Whereas in Eden all humanity was welcomed into relationship with God, with the Fall, that relationship was broken With Noah, one man and his immediate family reenter God’s plan With Abraham, an extended family that even- tually becomes a tribal confederacy is welcomed home With Moses, an entire nation experiences the grace of God Finally with Jesus, as in Eden, every son of Adam and daughter of Eve is offered the opportunity for relationship with their Creator

A final illustration of the trajectory of redemptive history is found in figure 5 8 Here a simplified timeline is offered According to the Bi- ble, human history begins with Eden and may be tracked and organized around the six covenantal administrations until it finds its great culmina- tion in the New Jerusalem in which “there will no longer be any curse” (Rev 22:3) This is the big picture, and it is in every way amazing We are

Noah one man

Eden all

people

Israel (Moses)

the Church

all people

one nation

Abraham

one family

Figure 5.7. The people of redemptive history

Adam Abraham Jesus

Noah Moses [David] New Jerusalem

Figure 5.8. The timeline of redemptive history

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134 The Epic of Eden

headed back to Eden, with all of heaven urging us on! To use a New Tes- tament metaphor, the table is prepared and our Father awaits our return

CONCLUSIONS In sum, redemptive history is all about fixing what went wrong in the garden What went wrong in Eden is what must go right in redemption; what was done in the garden must be undone in Christ In the garden hu- manity made a choice for autonomy That choice cast the entire cosmos into disarray Moreover, that choice birthed in our race the power of sin which has been passed down to every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve Thus you and I stand guilty on two fronts: (1) we are guilty be- cause our forefather represented us in a sinful choice; but (2) we are also guilty because we have followed our forefather in that choice with our individual choices Thus we need to be delivered on two fronts as well First, we need a representative who will stand in for us in making a dif- ferent choice; and second, we ourselves need to make a different choice But as we do not have the power on our own to free ourselves from our depraved state (inherited from Adam and Eve) and make the right choice, we need to be somehow lifted from our depravity long enough to say “yes” to God

How in the world will God save his people from this impossible state of affairs? Glory to his name, the solution to all of this and more was ac- complished in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Although there are volumes that could be written, the essential points are these When Jesus came to this fallen planet as the “Last Adam,” he was born in the same state as was the first Adam, sinless As a result, he had the same op- portunities and the same weaknesses as our forefather in the f lesh Thus, when Jesus successfully resisted Satan’s temptation to throw off the Fa- ther’s authority and use his own authority as he pleased (Mt 4:1-11), and when he chose to participate in the crucifixion by taking the wrath of God upon himself on our behalf, he did two things One, he proved that the first Adam could have succeeded in his charge Two, he bore in his own body the curse of Eden, so that the children of Adam would not have to And when Jesus rose from the grave, he defeated death; he eradicated the curse of Eden And because Jesus was both human and God, his death

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God’s Final Intent 135

and resurrection was of such a nature that it could be vicariously applied to all of Adam’s children Thus Jesus became that right representative of our race who made the right choice In his victory over the grave, this same Jesus suspended the power of death in our lives such that you and I could be given the same opportunity given to Adam and Eve the chance to choose Thus, when you said “yes” to God at that altar rail years ago, or last week as you knelt at the side of your bed, what you were doing was “undoing” the choice of Adam in your own life Whereas Adam said “no” to the sovereignty of God, you said “yes ” What is the prayer? “Jesus, be lord of my life ”

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom 10:9)

Saved from what? The curse of Eden with all of its ramifications In sum, in the work of Christ, the rebellious heart is softened, the choice is “un- made,” the broken relationship is healed, the curse is lifted, and the lost inheritance regained All this because the second time around, Adam did not fail

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Cor 15:22)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come But the free gift is not like the transgression For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ So then as through one transgression there

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136 The Epic of Eden

resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous (Rom 5:12-19)

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul ” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45)

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