What Really Happened In The Garden

& Why All The Fuss About Unity?

© Phill Butler 2009

A brief review of the Genesis 1-3 Events; the Destruction and Redemption of Relationships; the implication for the Church globally – today.

1. God lives in community outside of time (cf. Genesis, Job, Daniel, Ephesians, and other passages)

2. In Genesis 1-3:

God using the plural pronoun from his community and relationally-based nature, said, “Let us make man in our image.”

Having made Adam, God perceived that Adam was incomplete alone in the garden and so created Eve: to provide ‘community,’ companionship, and, clearly, critically needed, complementary elements that made man’s experience more fully human – meaning more like God’s character.

Satan challenges God’s integrity suggesting God is holding back – not telling the full story and failing to give them full access.

Adam and Eve’s decision to listen to and believe Satan rather than listening to and believing God (a lie vs. the truth – the lie so frequently sounding more appealing than the truth) leads them to take matters into their own hands.  (This is why God places Pride as the chief of sins – it is by far the most dangerous).

3. Once they made their decision and took their action the primary elements of all of creation went unbalanced – community, transparency, trust, and a sense of identity and wholeness were all destroyed;

· Relationship with God was destroyed: “Adam where are you?”  (The distance in Adam’s hiding said it all).

· Relationship with myself was destroyed: “I heard your voice and I was filled with fear”  (God’s spirit had departed; Adam was vacuous and empty – St. John saying, in the presence of God “Perfect love casts out fear.”  God had departed Adam’s spirit.)

· Relationship with others was destroyed: “She took the fruit, I’m not responsible.”  “Why are you asking me about my brother?  I have no idea where my brother is.”

· Relationship with the created order which was to have been nothing but joy, productivity and creative fulfillment was destroyed:  “You will toil with the sweat of your brow.  Childbirth will be accompanied by pain,” etc., etc.

· Relationship with eternity was destroyed: Two trees existed in the garden; the tree of knowledge of good and evil from which Adam and Eve had eaten.  And, the Tree of Life.  They are driven out of the garden with an angel/sentry placed at its entrance and it is specifically explained this was done so what they would not be able to gain access to the Tree of Life.  Otherwise, there would have been no hope for redemption.  The only option being an eternal, outbound trip into darkness and separation from God.

4. The glorious full arc of redemption is symbolized by the three trees of the Scriptures:

· The Tree of Life in Eden

· The Tree of Calvary in the Gospels (strangely, hauntingly symbolic that Jesus’ sacrifice for us which, in the long run, give us access once again to the Tree of Life takes place on a tree!). Further, we know that Jesus went to the cross because of His inclusivity not His exclusivity.

· The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem:  (Rev 22:2 “On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month…” And that great passage which articulates the inclusivity of God’s grace and the real unity of all men/women in creation, Rev 5:9 “…you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them a Kingdom of priests…” Note: diversity of human nature flows in to a single role in The Kingdom context.).

So, the Gospel, in fact the whole Biblical narrative is, essentially, about the destruction and redemption of relationships.  Sin, so often used as a short-hand term, is only the many-faceted means by which Satan continues to divide believers and their relationship with the Father.  Jesus came to radically change all that; to destroy the bonds of pride, selfishness, fear, isolation, etc. – all of which are symbols of living in isolation rather than authentic relationship.

This is why, of all the options he possessed, in the final hours of the final days of His life before the cross, the ONLY prayer we have of Jesus where we actually have recorded what He said is that great prayer of John 17.  And the only plea to the Father is that His people will demonstrate the power of His life, death, and resurrection in their RELATIONSHIPS.  He gives “the world” no other test regarding the authenticity of His life and mission!! Is it any surprise that the lack of tangible, visible unity in the Church globally is the principal roadblock to spiritual power, credibility for the message, and great spiritual breakthroughs with tens of millions turning to Jesus?