The Kingdom of God: 3 | perfect people

The first Paradise

Since we know that the full picture of God’s eternal Kingdom is expressed through the idea and imagery of ‘Paradise’ [mfn] See previous post: The Kingdom of God:2 [/mfn], let’s take a moment to consider what Eden, the first paradise God created for us actually reveals about God, his Kingdom and his perfect design for the best possible human experience.

Genesis 1 poetically retells the story of creation, of God speaking, and through his speech creating the world. Scripture tells us that God is one [mfn]Deut 6:4[/mfn], it also tells us that it was Jesus, the King, who created all things and by whose word all things are held together [mfn] Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:1-3 [/mfn]. God created the most beautiful universe and placed the jewel that is the earth in perfect orbit of the sun, right in the goldy-locks-zone, not too hot and not too cold; just right! Throughout this creation song we’re repeatedly told that after creating each stage of the physical world, God declares that it was ‘good’. Good, good good! The Hebrew word for good here is ‘tob’, it means delightful, pleasing, pleasant, pure, clean [mfn]Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Logos Edition[/mfn], like the smell of freshly baked bread or the sight of the suns first morning rays illuminating the dew on the mountains; it was good. Then God creates man and woman and places them in the Paradise Garden he planted for them,

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

Original intentions for the ‘good’ life in paradise

Everybody wants the good life, the problem is not in the desire but in the definition. God alone, as creator, has the right to define what he considers to be good and not good. In fact this is the one thing that he reserved for himself in the Garden, Adam and Eve could eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil[mfn]Gen2:15-17[/mfn]. This is how God distinguished himself as God and Creator, and Adam and Eve as created beings. To God alone belonged the right to decide what was good and what was evil. This ‘knowledge’ was not for mankind to debate and decide like we do now, but was for God make known to us as he so desired. By eating from the tree in the fall, Adam and Eve wanted to usurp that right from God and decide for themselves – mankind has been trapped in this cycle of sin ever since (hence we needed a Saviour, but thats another series).

The point is, we were designed for the Good Life, but we do not know how to define what ‘good’ is.

We get it wrong all the time and we don’t like it when someone confronts or challenges us on our version of ‘good’. The proof is in God’s opinion on the matter, he says in Isaiah 5:20 that people get it so wrong that we often call evil good and good evil! The only safe way to define the good life is to look at how God reveals it to us in the Garden before the fall. So let’s consider how Genesis 1:26-29 shows us the good life God intended, that we lost, and the Christ has redeemed and is preparing for us in eternity.

1. made in God’s likeness

People were made to reflect and reveal the nature of God, we were made to be like him, not in divine nature or quality, but in character and personality. He did not make us to be gods, but to resemble his heart, and to be of the same mind.

This alone shows us so much about the good life and about the Kingdom of God. Imagine all people everywhere treating each other as God would, speaking as God would speak, being generous, patient, kind, nurturing, honest, faithful… it would be paradise right!? It would be a world without sin, just as the world once was, where not only would we have perfect union and fellowship with God, but with each other too. To be in his image is to represent him, that is to re-present him in all we think, say, feel and do. This was good.

This means that when a person thinks, speaks, feels or acts in ways that God would not, then we must consider that not good. Just consider the many things listed in the New Testament that we are told are not meant to part of our way of life in 1 Timothy 1:9-11; Romans 1:28-32; 1 Peter 2:1; Colossians 3:8; Ephesians 4:31; etc, these things (and far more) are plainly listed as sinful behaviour that not fitting for the Christian. In short, it’s not ‘good’ because it does not represent God which is our first and primary purpose in life.

Whatever does not reflect and represent the likeness and nature of God’s character is not good and not part of the good life God created us for.

2. Dominion over the created world

The second thing we see is that God gave man [mfn] which here means mankind, which is never translated as humankind. Some people reject this on the basis of feminism or being politically correct, saying that the word ‘man’ should be removed from being descriptive of the species. This is naturalist nonsense. The English word ‘human’ means ‘to come from man‘ and the Hebrew word for man is ‘A-dam’, hence the first man is named Adam (this adds a great depth to the revelation of Jesus being the second or the last Adam in 1 Cor 15:45). Finally, we keep the word ‘man’ to refer to our species simply because God called us man and not homo sapiens, not people, not any other PC word, but man and mankind.[/mfn] domion over the rest of creation. It’s no accident of evolution or time and chance that manking is at the top of the food chain and has dominated the landscape. Originally, this dominant position was ‘good’ and was meant to be used to steward and care for the earth. You don’t have to look far to see we’ve not done a good job of taking care of things though. We’ve used our position to do a lot of mazing things, yet we’ve also used our power to waste, pollute and damage much of the earth as it groans[mfn]Romans 8:22[/mfn] under the weight of being cursed[mfn] Genesis 1:17-19[/mfn] and mismanaged.

The fact however is, God gave us dominion and it was good that he did so. His intention is that people, made in His likeness, would exert their power, use their position of dominance, and apply the wisdom of God to nurturing, caring, and stewarding the created world as God intended. This is good, caring for the planet and exercising dominion over it that reflects the creator is good. In the fullness of the coming Kingdom of God which Jesus has declared, we shall once again return to having dominion over the earth as we reign with Christ [mfn] 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 3:21[/mfn],

and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
    and they shall reign on the earth

Revelation 5:10

3. male and female, fruitfully multiplying

Thirdly, in verse 27 we see God do the thing he said he wanted to do in verse 26. He created man in His own image, and he created man in two distinct categories: male and female. In verse 28 he tells them to be fruitful and to multiply.

Right now across the planet, there is much debate over what we should draw upon in order to define sexuality and gender. Biology? History? Brain Chemistry? Sociology? The naturalists and sociologists say that life is lived more in the mind, and how we define things is based on how we perceive and interpret the world around us. For them, the concept of gender is not biological or physical but socially constructed in the mind. This is a complicated way of saying that they believe gender is what you think you are based on how you interact with the world around you. This is in direct opposition to all known human history, medicine, biology, and science, let alone the Word of God.

In scripture, God makes no distinction between gender and biological sex. What he does is create two sexually compatible people, Adam and Eve, and commands them to be fruitful and multiply. This was a good command, given to a couple that God defined as good. Any other description that falls outside this original description of good must be questioned. It is good for one biological man (male) and one biological woman (female) to be united together for life [mfn] Genesis 2:24-25[/mfn].

God makes it clear in scripture that any type of sexual relationship, other than the marriage of a man and woman as declared good in the Garden, is not acceptable to Him and is not considered good, but evil. Lying is evil, betrayal is evil, malice, rage, gossip, pride, lust, greed and so on… all evil in the eyes of God, and so is any relationship that God has not clearly called ‘good’. In the New Testament, Paul is clear that homosexuality (both gay and lesbian) is not okay, it’s not good [mfn] 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; Romans 1:24-27[/mfn]. But God loves such people and sent his Son to die for them, just as he did for me – and that is the point of Romans 2 if read correctly. The point here is not to throw stones or cast judgement, the entire LBGTQ+ community need our love and they need the Gospel of the Kingdom just like everyone else. But we cannot avoid the fact that God’s original design for sexual relationships are heterosexual, that sex was intended for enjoyment within the confines of marriage, and exists for the purpose of being fruitful, having babies and raising families.

2.1 The bigger meaning of marriage

The other major reason that the good image of marriage from the Garden must be our only definition of a good marriage, is that marriage was designed in Eden to be a prophetic declaration of Christ and his Church in the Kingdom come. See Pauls description in the 5th chapter of Ephesians:

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

I won’t try and upack all of this here other than to make a few quick observations. Firstly, Paul talks of a husband and wife. In his world, and at the time of writing, this meant a traditional marriage, one man, one woman. Paul expects that if you are a Christian, your definition of marriage is as such. Secondly, and more importantly, notice verse 32, while he is talking about mutual love, submission and respect between husband and wife, he is really talking about how a ‘good’ marriage refers to Christ and the church. Hence, any other type of ‘marriage’ relationship, that is not exclusively a biological man and woman united until separated by death, cannot possibly refer to Christ and his church, and can therefore not fulfill part of the function of marriage. It misses the mark. The greek word for miss the mark is hamartia, like when an archer misses the target. We translate hamartia; sin. I could go on, but this post is about the good life in Eden, not on the sexuality, gender and so on. So I digress…

I’ll continue in the next post, considering what Genesis 2 and 3 teaches us about the original ‘good’ that God created for us and in us, and how Jesus is reclaiming and restoring these good things that were lost.