Yom kipper 20105/18/2023 ![]() ![]() It is here that we discover how God will choose one family to be the very instrument through which “every tongue, tribe, and nation” ( Revelation 5:9) will be brought back into God’s presence to continue the work which Adam was intended to fulfill before his betrayal. Genesis 12 provides for us a more detailed glimpse into the salvific intentions, which up to this point in Scripture have only been alluded to. It is precisely at this point in the story that grace emerges and provides the backdrop against which God’s merciful redemptive plan is set into motion. And if God would have preferred such a course of resolution, no man could have cried, “unfair!” After all, does not the potter have a right over the clay ( Romans 9:19-22)? To this conclusion, however, the Maker was not so inclined. Man’s greatest need now becomes the necessity to be brought back into God’s presence where we were always meant to be, but now there is an unassailable barrier of sin that separates us from God ( Isaiah 59:2).Īt this point in human history, we must confess that God would have been justified to eradicate humanity from his good world. Humankind’s Desire Is to Renew Relationship with Godīut because Adam represented all of man throughout all of time, when he was driven from God’s presence, so were we driven from our Maker’s side. Because God is holy and perfectly pure, the Bible says he “drove the man out” ( Genesis 3:24) due to Adam’s sin. It is critical to our understanding of atonement to grasp the full measure of Adam’s choice and its implications on all of humanity in every generation. As a result of Adam’s mutiny, all of creation is cast into a dark curse ( Romans 8:20), and God’s good world plunges into a bottomless chaos from which only the Creator will be able to rescue. Adam decides that he is more capable than God of defining what is good from what is evil ( Genesis 3:5). It is no coincidence that the trajectory of God’s creative work begins in a garden but culminates in the “holy city” ( Revelation 21:2).Īlas, this divine program seems to run aground on the shoals of human rebellion as Adam and his helper listen to the hissing voice of the usurper rather than the loving voice of their Maker. 2:15) implies the development of culture in such areas as art, music, government, technology, agriculture and so forth. Not only were the borders of the Garden of Eden to be ever-extending, but humankind was to image their Creator by undertaking the responsibility of causing creation to flourish. God’s good design involved placing his mark on a people who would experience intimate fellowship with him as they worked alongside the Designer to saturate the universe with his glory ( Habakkuk 2:14).įrom the very beginning, the eternal plan was for image bearers ( Genesis 1:26) to represent God and his mission. In the beginning of God’s story, we are told that God created a good world ( Gen. What Does the Day of Atonement Mean in the Bible? Rather than being an obscure and isolated Old Testament principle, atonement becomes a visible display of God’s fierce commitment to redeem his people and through which the future redemption of God’s people is to be comprehended. ![]()
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