The Life Promised
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
So, I recently told my wife Neva that I think this is the first time I’ve ever looked forward to the Spring. And that’s not because I’m down on Spring in any way; I don’t mind it. But there’s never been a big benefit to me. I don’t crave the sunshine. I’m generally just as happy working out inside as I am outside. The only season I tend to look forward to is the fall, when things cool off and it becomes more tolerable being outside.
But this year, things are different. This year, I have something to look forward to. And that something can be found right here in this little container. These are my tomato plants, which I will soon move over into our garden. Within a couple months, these will be a few feet tall and supplying us with beautiful, ripe tomatoes.
Last Spring we set about creating a garden in the backyard of our new home. This was the first time either Neva or I had a garden of our own. We enjoyed it, and we learned a lot. This year, we know it will be even better. Our raspberry plants are actually going to fruit. Our strawberry plants, which are already flowering, will be more bountiful. Our tomato plants, which I know how to properly water now, will produce earlier in the season.
So I am excited about what is to come. But my excitement is not only based on the future. It’s based on what I know to be true about my garden and why it exists. This garden exists because I am tired of being jealous of other families with gardens. This garden exists so my family and my neighbors will be fed with delicious fruits and vegetables. This garden exists for our family to work it, to keep it, to take pride in it, to enjoy it.
And, more than that, my excitement comes because I know what happens to gardens. They die. There is a limited window for their growth. Coming out of winter, this season of death for my garden, knowing the purpose of this garden, knowing the future of what is to come; it is these three perspectives together which create a sense of excitement, purpose, and energy for me right now.
Our passage this morning, of course, is about a very different kind of garden. And this garden gives us very different lessons about life, lessons that are much more profound and necessary for each and every one of us. But, like my garden at home, what we know to be true about this garden makes a great deal of difference for the life we live right now.
What was the purpose of this garden? What was Adam’s purpose in it? What kind of life was promised to him?
What went wrong? What kind of death came as a result?
Is there any hope for the life and purposes, once promised in the garden, to continue? What excitement for the future can we have, right now, if any?
How we answer these questions makes a great deal of difference for us, right now, today. Some of you are here and you’re wrestling with meaning and purpose in life. You’re wondering whether Christianity settles anything for you, whether there is rest for your deepest aches. I think this text will give you some answers.
Others of you are deeply burdened. The weight of sin and sorrow feel too much. You want encouragement to keep going, to keep following Jesus, but you don’t know how. You wonder whether there is any reason for hope or excitement in the future. Lift up your eyes, brothers and sisters, for Christ’s power is breaking into the present. He is making you, along with the rest of his creation, new.
The Life Promised
The Life Promised
Now, the first thing I want to draw your attention to is the life that was promised to Adam. Look at verses 15 through 17. I think we tend to rush to questions about the tree. Why was it there? What kind of tree? Was it an apple or an avocado? Why was it such a big deal? (I’m partial to the avocado theory).
These are good questions, important ones, complex ones, so I’m really glad Pat will answer them for you in a few weeks. But what I want to draw your attention to is the life that God is promising to Adam. Because in this promise of life, you and I discover the kind of life that you and I were made for, that we long for, that we ache for.
You see, implicit in this warning of death is also a promise of life. God is entering into a special relationship with humanity, beginning with Adam, called a covenant. In this relationship there are were promises of life to Adam conditioned on his obedience. If Adam would stay close to God, he would enjoy a beautiful and abundant life.
Our passage shows us there were at least four parts to this life promised to Adam, this life that you and I are made for.
First, it was life in intimate relationship with God. Look at verse 15. Adam was in the garden to work and keep it. Pat will talk more about this next week. But suffice it to say this language of working and keeping the garden is priestly language. Adam was promised a priestly life, always in the presence of God, always dwelling with him, always enjoying him and walking closely with him. In this life, there never would have been questions about who God is, suspicion about his character, or fear of his judgment. There was only warmth, goodness, delight, beauty.
Second, it was life in harmony with creation. Look at verses 19-20. Adam lived in harmony with creation. He did not exploit it. He did not pollute it. He did not kill animals until they faced extinction. Vegetation was always lush; it never suffered from fungus or root diseases. Adam respected creatures, and they respected him. There was no fear of spiders or sharks. There were no mosquitoes. There was no fear of tornadoes, floods, or city-destroying earthquakes. There was no disease. Creation was always good; it was good for humanity, and we were good to it.
Third, it was beautiful life in relationship with each other. It’s not good for man to be alone, God said. So first, he begins the human community with this marriage of Adam and Eve. They would always have each other; they would always fit perfectly together. The honeymoon phase would last forever; they would never get annoyed with each other. They could always appreciate each other’s strengths and overlook their weaknesses. Their words and actions would always give each other life. They would always seek the good of the other; they would succeed together. There would always be respect and dignity within the relationship; there would never be a temptation toward unfaithfulness. Cold distance would never enter the relationship; they would forever be in unity, just as they were purposed.
And this beautiful life in relationship was to be extended to their kids. It would have existed among their friends. There would be no gossip. No insecurity. No backstabbing. It wouldn’t have been hard to have friends in your 30’s. There would have been no racism, no gender discrimination, no ageism. There would have been no need for therapy, because our relationships would only strengthen us, not wound us. Adam would have had the relational life we were designed for: beautiful, perfect, unity.
Fourth, Adam would have had life within himself. He, along with Eve, felt no shame. There was no guilt. No shame. Adam never wondered if he was enough. He wasn’t meant to. In harmony with God and with others, He always knew he was exactly who he was supposed to be. He wasn’t self-conscious about his body image, he didn’t overthink the awkward thing he said to a co-worker. He didn’t struggle with his identity; he never felt trapped in his body. He exercised perfect humility; knowing exactly who he was and what he was for.
What kind of life was promised to Adam in this covenant relationship? A good life. A full life. A beautiful life. A perfect life.
What does this mean? At some point in our lives we need to wrestle with the big questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What am I for? How we answer those questions can often set the trajectory for the rest of our lives.
In some sense, wrestling with the claims of Christianity means you need to assess whether the answers Christianity gives to these big questions makes sense of your lived experience. Now, we can’t have all our questions answered, and that’s where faith comes in. But there are some big questions that Christianity does answer, that are knowable, that do matter.
What questions might this text answer for us? Well, let’s start with this:
Why do you ache? I don’t mean in your body, in your joints. I mean deep down here, in your soul muscles, why do you ache? Why do you long for more? Why is it that no amount of relationships, of possessions, can satisfy you? Why do you feel frustrated with a sense of purposelessness? Direction? Why are you agitated? Frustrated?
Some say we should look inside ourselves for answers to our deepest longings and desires. I think most who try this path end up burdened and burned out from the pressure to create and fulfill themselves. Others say we merely need to take our cues from the natural world to find our purpose and direction. This too comes up empty. Left to ourselves we find only loneliness, meaninglessness; we are dissatisfied.
Derek Thompson had a great article in the Atlantic this week titled the True Cost of the churchgoing bust. Thompson, himself an agnostic, writes about how we are only beginning to come to terms with the loss of historic, religious faith in our society. We are lonelier, more depressed, and less engaged for the common good than any other generation in modern history. He concludes his article saying, “It took decades for America to lose religion. It might take decades for us to understand everything that we’ve lost.” We lack the resources to fill our deepest aches; we don’t even know why we hurt and long for more.
Why do you ache? Here’s what Christianity says: You ache because the life we experience now is not the life we were made for. And deep down in your soul you still know that to be true. You know this isn’t everything. You know that something has gone wrong. You know this isn’t how things are supposed to be.
And you’re absolutely right. You look here in Genesis 2 and you find the life you ache for is the good life promised to Adam. That’s what we were designed for.
What Kind of Death?
What Kind of Death?
Which leads to the second thing I want you to see here. What kind of death faced Adam upon his disobedience?
When this series moves into Genesis 3 in a few weeks, we’ll see how and why things went wrong. For now, I just want you to see that they did, and the result was catastrophic. Look in your bulletin at the additional texts. You’ll see both in Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 that Paul says that when Adam sinned - when he broke this covenant relationship with God - sin entered the entire world, and death along with it. And so sin and death came to all people.
This death is a complete undoing of the life promised, the life we were made for. Where there was once fourfold blessing, there is now fourfold death, beginning in the death of our relationship with God. Adam and Eve will be sent out from the garden and away from God’s presence. Where once God’s presence meant warmth and delight, it now means fear, exposure, judgment. Rather than life forever with God, we face death, first of the body, then in the soul, apart from God.
Where once we had harmony with creation, we now are frustrated with it. Natural disasters rage against us; animals rebel against our corruption; viruses war against us.
What about relationships? Need I say any more? They’re shattered. They hurt. Our families are troubled. We’re lonely. Our marriages struggle. We’re distant from our children. Our friends betray us, they move away, or our friendships grow cold. Our hearts close toward others out of fear of being wounded again.
Major J Jones, he was a scholar of the black church, based down in Atlanta, he once said that the relationships we are built for are those that our founded in a kind of love that will only seek the good of the other. In these relationships, our highest objective is the good of the other. Its a selfless devotion to the other. That’s what we’re made for. Because of sin, that is what is now impossible to achieve.
And within our self? The twentieth century psychologist Carl Rogers once said, “The central core difficulty in people, as I have come to know them, is that in the great majority of cases they despise themselves, and regard themselves as worthless and unlovable.” This self-loathing, this death we carry within ourselves, is a burden we all run from and yet can’t help but carry.
This is a hard teaching to accept. It’s hard to get our heads around, and its even harder to move our theories down into our hearts. For many of us, this doesn’t feel fair that we would be responsible for Adam’s failures. I get that. Let me push just a little on this. I don’t think we would have as much of a hard time if we were in a culture that embraced greater solidarity among people - solidarity in our families, our cities, our country, and so on. As it is, we live in a very hyper-individualistic time and place, so it is difficult for us to grasp to what extent we are connected or responsible for others.
But if you think about this for a moment, I think we can see a kind of law of solidarity taking place all the time. We love to be connected to others when we benefit from that. Caitlyn Clark is going to be playing for the Indiana Fever soon. We love that she’ll represent us and play for us. When someone in our family leaves an inheritance for us, we love that. But when I suffer under the failures of my parents? My grandparents? When we suffer from the corruption of our politicians? We hate that. Of course we do. And yet in both blessing and curse, we can see that we are in deep ways connected and bound to each other. When someone who represents us succeeds- whether an athlete, a family member, a politician, we benefit. When they fail, we fail together.
On a much deeper level, the Bible teaches that this is what happens in our relationship to Adam. We would have benefited from his success, but we now suffer the consequence of his failure. Sin like a poison, like a plague, like a drought, entered into the creation and brought death where once we would have only known life.
History is replete with attempts to overcome what ails humanity. The philosophers have tried knowledge and wisdom. The stoics have tried suppressing our pain. We’ve tried meditation and letting go of our attachments. Civilization after civilization has tried to conquer or legislate evil away. We’ve tried capitalism. We’ve tried socialism. We’ve tried utopian communities. We’ve tried to remove ourselves from society. We’ve tried diets that could prolong our life; we’ve tried implants to upgrade our bodies. And no matter what we do, we have found again and again that we cannot educate or legislate our way out of sin and death.
It persists. Like the stains my children left in the carpet, we can’t get it out. So what do we do?
We can’t escape this sense that we were made for more, but at every turn we find terror and evil lurking around the corner. Like Adam who first broke this covenant with God, we find that when left to ourselves, we don’t choose any different.
Is there any hope? Is there any reason to have excitement about tomorrow? Not if its just us there’s not. Not if this world is all there is. If there is any hope, it will have to come to us, not from us.
New Life Given
New Life Given
In fact, this is exactly what the Bible says has happened. Jesus has come to us and has brought us the life we know we need, but cannot achieve on our own.
Look again at Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. Paul is making a similar point in both passages. Life was promised to Adam, conditioned on his obedience. He failed, and we failed with him. The life promised, the life we ache for, is now out of our reach.
But the promise hasn’t changed. God’s purpose for us is life. And, knowing that we are unable to get there ourselves, he brings that life to us in Christ. Where Adam failed in his covenant, Jesus succeeded in bringing us life in his new covenant.
By Adam’s disobedience, we have death. Through Christ’s perfect obedience, through his death and resurrection, we have life.
This is why Paul puts Adam and Christ next to each other. In Adam, there is only death. In Jesus, we have life. The life promised. The life we know we want, that we need. It’s given to us, not as a reward, but as a gift. It is not a life we achieve and actualize for ourselves, it is life given to us by grace.
The gospel then, this good news that Jesus has defeated sin and death for us, really presents us with the boundaries around two humanities. One is humanity under Adam, captive to sin and death. The other is freedom and life with Jesus. In Adam we ache, and then we die. In Christ we heal, and we live. In Adam we are bound to the old order of things. In Christ we look forward with excitement to the new world that is breaking in to our lives now.
I love this language you have in 1 Corinthians 15 that describes Jesus as the first fruits of the new creation. Do you know what that means? The first fruits of a harvest are when the first crops begin to appear that can be harvested. The first fruits give a farmer reason to be excited because the harvest is almost here. We have several blooms on our strawberries right now. They’ll be berries soon. It’s coming. I’m excited.
Jesus is the firstfruit. That means resurrection is coming. New life is coming. The future is coming, and its breaking into the present now. Jesus is the picture of what awaits for us, what awaits for all of creation. The life promised and lost has been regained in Christ.
One of my favorite passages of any theological work comes from a little essay by the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck. The essay is simply titled common grace. Toward the end of the essay, he describes this new life Jesus gives in such a profound way that lives rent free in my head. Here is what he said:
Christianity does not create a new world, it makes the world new. It restores what has been corrupted by sin. It atones the guilty and cures what is sick; the wounded it heals. Jesus was anointed by the Father with the Spirit to bring good tidings to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and opening of prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and to comfort those who mourn. He makes the blind see, the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. Jesus is Savior. Totally and perfectly. He did not come just to restore the religious and ethical life of man and leave all the rest of life undisturbed, as if the rest of life had not been corrupted by sin and had no need of restoration. No, the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Holy Spirit extend even as far as sin has corrupted. Everything that is sinful and dead is, for that very reason, the object of the gospel of grace that is preached to every creature.
This is the life breaking in now. And you know what? It’s even better than what was promised to Adam. Because in our sin and death, we know the lengths that God will go to keep his promise. He’ll even die to set us free from Adam’s curse so that we can live in him.
See, this is what it really means to be a Christian. This is what it means to live in Christ. It means we are someone who can still live in the old world with the power of the new one. We still live in a land of death with the gift of life. To be a Christian is to be someone who knows the reality of sin and death, who can still live in this reality, while bringing life.
And so, knowing the life we were made for, knowing what went wrong, knowing that life is still possible in Christ, this makes all the difference in the world for us. Jesus I hope you are beginning to see that, to experience it.
Help us Jesus, to taste, see, smell, this new life you have given to us by your grace. Strengthen us with your power to bring your life into this world of death. Come quickly, Jesus, and make all things new.