The Kingdom of God: 4 | friends with God

Perhaps the most astounding discovery in the early chapters of Genesis is that God is said to have walked in the garden in the cool of the day [mfn]Gen 3:8[/mfn] and that Adam and Eve could detect his presence so well that they thought they could hide from him. Here we get this amazing glimpse into God’s original design and desire for the people he created, that we would enjoy close, intimate friendship with him.

We’ve already discussed[mfn]in the previous post[/mfn] that God created mankind in his own image, that ‘male and female he created them‘[mfn]Gen 1:27[/mfn], so let’s look at some of the other things God established in the Garden that were meant to provide the framework of his friendship with us.

Blessed

Before God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, scripture says in Gen 1:28 that ‘God blessed them‘. He made them, and he blessed them. The primary posture of God towards people is that of benevolence and blessing. He is good, kind, and loving, bestowing blessing without payment or labor. Adam and Eve are not said to have done anything at all, and God blessed them. This is the first show of God’s grace in scripture, the unwarranted, unearned, and undeserved favor, and kindness of God. All images and ideas of God as a mean, angry, unfair, and tyrannical judge looking to afflict or smite us with punishment and hardship are totally unfounded. He reveals himself to us as he is, first as our creator and maker, then secondly as the one who desires first and foremost to bless his creation. To be friends with God is to be blessed by God.

TRUSTED

The blessing in Gen 1:28 involved the command to be fruitful and multiply, and to have dominion over the earth and its animals. Mankind was given delegated authority to govern and oversee the natural world. Here we see the incredible level of trust that God places in mankind. A relationship without trust can only lead to suspicion, self-preservation, anxiety, and the loss of intimacy. When God gave us dominion over the earth, he was demonstrating the level of trust he was willing to put into the relationship. He entrusted to us his good creation, his beautiful garden paradise[mfn]Gen 2:15[/mfn], the responsibility of caring for the animals and the earth, and the right to take from it all the food we needed.

It’s important to step back for a moment and consider how God created us before he blessed and entrusted us. Throughout Genesis 1 we read that all God had to do to create any and all things, is speak. Time and time again we read, ‘and God said, ‘let…’ Only when it comes to mankind does it change the language so that the Lord says ‘let us make… so God created’[mfn]Gen 1:26-27[/mfn]. Genesis 2:7 goes into more detail as to how God made Adam the first man,

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 

FORMed AND BREATHed into

God chose to create mankind differently from the rest of creation, he didn’t just speak to the dust the way he spoke the rest of life into being, but it says that he formed us. The Hebrew word for ‘formed’ is the word יוֹצֵר (yô·ṣēr)[mfn]Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.[/mfn], which means to form, fashion, or create. It’s the word used to describe how a potter uses his hands to shape and mold the clay on the wheel. It’s the same word the prophet Jeremiah uses in Jer 1:5 to describe how God formed him in his mother’s womb, and that Zechariah uses in Zech 12:1 to describe how the Lord formed the Spirit within each person. We see this beautiful image of God shaping and forming mankind like a potter forms a clay vessel, then he breathes into the inanimate shape, the very Breath of Life itself.

No potter, artist, craftsman, or designer constructs or builds anything without first having a purpose in mind for it. This is an inherited quality. God designed, formed, and fashioned us, in his image, to be endowed with purpose and meaning. It was not accidental, it was not a cosmic coincidence or a chance collision of atoms that went from goo-to-you over the course of millions of years. You are not the random mutation of cells whose origin is obscured from the history books, and whose existence is inconsequential, lacking meaning or destiny, you are the result of a thoughtful, intentional, and purposeful process of divine yô·ṣēr, formed by the very hands and breath of God.

Now this breath is no ordinary wind, or the exhale of God in some arbitrary or metaphorical sense. The Hebrew word that is used to say God breathed ‘the breath of life‘ into Adam is the word נְשָׁמָה (nešā·mā(h)), which in common use does refer to normal breath being blown out, wind, or spirit. The deeper meaning here that nešā·mā means that which is essential to life and a causative agent for an activity of God [and] the inner-most part of a person that can respond to God[mfn]Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.[/mfn]. Is was as though God’s breathe, his Spirit, was the spark of life that caused Adam to not only be formed, but to become a living creature with a spirit of his own – no other creature in creation was crowned with such an honor! We see a reestablishment of Gods desire to be alive with the breathe of his Spirit after Jesus is resurrected,

Jesus ‘breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit…”

John 20:22

God breathed the breath of his Spirit into the first man Adam, then God in Christ breathed the breath of his Spirit into the new race of men[mfn] of which Christ himself was the firstborn, see Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15-18; Revelation 1:5[/mfn], the born again believers.

Reclaiming your form and his breath

The coming of the Kingdom of God is the reclaiming of our being ‘formed’, rediscovering the purpose we were made for, to have friendship with God that is based on trust, for the sake of stewardship and the exercise of his authority[mfn] consider the many parables Jesus taught about faithful servants, shrewd managers, talents, vineyards, etc…[/mfn], and living in the blessing of God which is about having access to his presence, just as Adam and Eve had in the Garden as the Lord walked with them in the cool of the day. The coming of the Kingdom is about making a way for the Lord to be able to breathe upon us, not with wrath and vengeance, but with the outpouring of his Spirit[mfn] See Joel 2 and Acts 2[/mfn] so that we would be empowered to walk in freedom from sin and have an intimate relationship with Him, our Father who lives in Heaven, Holy is his Name. The coming of the Kingdom is about the invitation to once again discover the purpose of co-laboring with Christ[mfn]1 Cor 3:9[/mfn] for which we were loving and intentionally formed and breathed upon for;

for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

Kingship before friendship

We started by talking about friendship. You and I were created for friendship with God. Adam and Eve violated the friendship because they misunderstood that before God blessed them, he formed them; he made them. He was their Creator and King before he was their friend. When they rejected the voice of God and instead trusted the voice of the serpent, they rejected the kingship of God and lost his friendship in the process. In fact, Jesus clearly states that embracing his royal authority is a prerequisite for true friendship with him since friendship with God requires obedience to his commands (see below). By embracing him as King, before friend, we position ourselves to continue to give him the honor, respect, and devotion he is worthy of, and it keeps us in the humble and grateful posture of being the created ones that get to be friends with our Creator and King.

Consider carefully the words of Jesus, ‘Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him...If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love... You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide‘[mfn]John 14:21; John 15:10-16[/mfn]

Psalm 25:4 says The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. This is what Jesus was reminding the disciples of. The concept of fear here is the reverence and submission associated with kneeling before a king. It’s the ‘fear and trembling’ we’re meant to work out our salvation with[mfn]Philippians 2:12[/mfn] and the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge[mfn]Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10[/mfn]. Friendship with God requires submission to his throne, for how can a king be friends with one of his subjects that rejects his royal authority? He cannot. So friendship with God requires our submission to him and subsequent obedience to his commands, just as Jesus stated clearly in John 15. Just how God was able to wind back the clock and offer us his friendship again is the theme and message of the Gospel of the Kingdom, that Jesus died as an atoning, substitute for the penalty and debt of our sins so that God could condemn sin in Christ, and justly offer forgiveness and redemption to sinners.

And now once again, we have been formed (born again), blessed (with every spiritual blessing in Christ – Eph 1:3) also been entrusted with the gifts and grace of the Holy Spirit[mfn]1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12; Ephesians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:1-11[/mfn] and with the Great Commission of going and making disciples of all nations as we proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Jesus[mfn]Colossians 1:13; Matthew 28:18-20[/mfn].