![]() Sin hinders everything now, especially man’s experience of God’s presence. For Adam, perspiration and thorns will impede the promise of place. For Eve, pain overwhelms the promise of a people. These curses cut right to the heart of who they are and what they were made to do. Sin undermines humanity’s mission and the experience of God’s presence.īut there is a problem, isn’t there? Adam and Eve replace blessings for curses when they eat the forbidden fruit. Likewise, God’s presence was to spread to the rest of the earth through Adam and Eve’s exercising dominion (Num 14:21 cf. As the first couple’s family expands, so too will the garden’s borders and, with it, God’s presence. Adam and Eve are to do this in Eden, the epicenter of God’s relational presence in creation. They are to “be fruitful and multiply” in order to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” (Gen 1:28). Humanity’s mission and the presence of God are inseparable. In the book of Revelation, Eden has returned and expanded into new heaven and new earth where all of God’s people enjoy his presence eternally. All of heaven has collided with the whole earth to make a perfect sanctuary for God to dwell with man (Rev 21:1-4). In the book of Genesis, Eden is the first couple’s home but, more importantly, it is God’s sanctuary-the garden temple where the Creator and his image-bearers relate (Gen 3:8).įast forward to the end of our Bibles and we see a very similar picture but on a much larger scale. The story of Scripture begins and ends with the presence of God. Read on your preferred digital device, including smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Take a 1-minute survey to join our mailing list and receive a free ebook in the format of your choosing. Get a free copy of the ebook ‘What Is the Gospel?’ by telling us a little bit about yourself! And though these divine realities are certainly not at odds, the biblical story does turn on God’s being manifest with his people in Eden, the tabernacle/temple, the incarnation of Christ, and the new heaven and new earth. We talk about God’s presence being inescapable and that he is “everywhere present” (Ps 139:5-12 1 Kings 8:27).īut it seems Scripture is more concerned with his presence manifest in relationship and redemption. There is a difference between saying “God is everywhere,” and saying “God is here.” The former is the default category for most Christians. The Bible emphasizes God’s manifest presence, not only his omnipresence. It is the holy and righteous One above who restores the broken and needy below. ![]() God does not come to us needy and wanting, but rather he comes to “revive the spirit of the lowly and the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15). God’s transcendence distinguishes him from the created order and puts things in their right perspective. ![]() No, God draws near out of the abundance of who he is. ![]() The Lord doesn’t relate to this world because he lacks something within himself. In other words, there is no deficiency in God that creation satisfies. But to understand God in full we must recognize that his drawing near to creation stems from his being distinct from creation. The Lord is “God in the heavens above (transcendent) and on the earth beneath (immanent)” (Josh 2:11). God is immanent because he is transcendent. This article is part of the 10 Things You Should Know series.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |