The Artisan Post

The Garden of Eden was created for a “passing through”…… it was created ripe for disruption.

If you’re a Christian and believe that Almighty God created the heavens and the earth, then this is for you. If you don’t believe that, you can analyze your own beliefs here; but please feel free to read on.

As Christians, when pondering the challenging times we live in, we often make the mistake of thinking we need only go back to how it was in the beginning. You know, back to that blissful Garden of Eden, where man and woman walked and talked with God and everything was delightfully undisturbed. I even saw a song about this recently, “Back to the Garden” by Shelly Johnson. If only man (and woman) hadn’t disrupted things and eaten of the forbidden fruit! If only we could turn the clock back.

Well, I’m here to remind you that we don’t want to go back nor turn the clock back! Not for any of what seemed so blissful.

Everything forward is what’s in God’s plan, and is so much richer. Adam was created to be redeemed, as were we. He was not created to remain in his natural state.

In order to be redeemed, one needs a Redeemer. Jesus Christ is that Redeemer — our Redeemer — and was declared such before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:20).

And a Redeemer needs a people to redeem.

And we as believers, within the plan of God, were predestined to be redeemed… and this also before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-14). To receive redemption and a filling with Christ was and is within God’s plan, allowing for a closer walk with God than Adam ever had: God in us, rather than only beside us, and we in Him.

Consider this… that the Garden’s disruption was actually by design, by God’s very good plan for His Kingdom and His glory, for His people and His creation.

So we don’t want to go back. God’s plan moves forward, not backwards. The Garden of Eden, (and by extension this world), was created for a “passing through” – a place with purpose, but not created as a place meant to remain – and it was created ripe for disruption. Much more was in God’s plan to come through and after the Garden, but never to return to it or stay in it. And likewise, much more is designed to come as a result of this world and of its passing.

Lets explore this a bit more.

Even though the Garden appears at first glance to be a place of serenity, it actually had much potential for disruption within its design. Sin, Satan, and death were all “hanging over the Garden” as it were; they were looming. But all within God’s very good design.

And notice too, that God is the one who introduced a first command, as well as the possibility to break it, in Genesis 2 where God says, “you are free to eat from any tree… but you are not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

Breaking a command is equal to sin.

So we could say that God introduced the possibility to sin. He is the righteous law giver.

And he created Adam with the possibility to obey or not to obey.

Strikingly, God is also the one who introduced death, when He further said, “….the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Up to this point everything had been created very good – very good as in line with God’s very good plan – and then God includes introducing the possibility to die. Death as a possibility would be the result of sin, or command-breaking. Paul says in the new testament, “The wages of sin is death….but, (notice the connection to the eternal plan of God) but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

Death may not appear as very good, but death was in God’s plan of how evil would ultimately be defeated – even before evil was unleashed!

Death – the cursed result of sin… but death… also the very gift of God in Jesus Christ who gave His life by death for sin for all who would believe in Him.

So looking back in Genesis 2 we see that God, in His sovereignty, incorporates evil into his very good creation. And we see that God introduces commands that have the potential of being broken. And we see that God introduces death as punishment for breaking such commands.

So evil’s potential, sin’s potential, and death’s potential, were all present in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis 2. And chapter 3 further reveals that there was the presence of that ancient serpent, the devil (see Rev 12 also).

All these things give much evidence that the relationship with God in the Garden of Eden was created ripe for interruption, for disruption. It was the early stages of what was to come… a “setting the stage” for the further unfolding of the Redemption story, not by happenstance, but by God’s very good and perfect plan.

As Psalm 139:16 attests to, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

And as the sacrificial blood of Christ attests to in 1 Peter 1:19-20,

“…Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world.”

The Garden of Eden was a garden meant to pass through. A place where evil would be introduced, disrupted, and unleashed so that God through Jesus Christ could crush it for good, and forever. And while doing so, display a sacrificial love and grace so vast and other-worldly, so divine, that we’re left awestruck and can only but declare that it must be God. That He would go through such great lengths to expand His love and glory in creating, redeeming, and gathering a people for Himself throughout all of history forward into eternity.

So remember, this world too, is a passing through. It’s purpose is to be the realm in which all the works of evil and the devil will be destroyed and done away with forever (1 John 3:8). This clears the way forward for us, as we journey towards a new world…a new heaven and new earth… wherein sin, Satan, and death will be present no longer. And God’s redeemed people – all those who come to faith in Jesus Christ – will celebrate and glorify God forever.

So this too, is the realm in which your decision to believe or not believe has eternal consequences.

There is no going back. Not to the Garden (why would we want to), so we best not limit our thinking in that way.

But more importantly, there’s no going back on your decision regarding Jesus Christ after you die. You cannot return to this world and change your mind. So the decision to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the one who can save you from sin and eternal death, is the decision I’d want you to seriously consider today.