In the first installment of the series, The Message of the Bible, we were introduced to the unity of the Bible’s message across its 66 books.
In this article, we’re going to examine the first movement of the Bible’s message–the purpose of God in creating humanity. Why do humans intrinsically posses the ability to love, to reason, to hate, to discern and critically think, to move toward or away from–with volition–God and other humans? The reason–that’s how God made humanity–it’s how we move in and out of and deepen or drop fellowship within relationships. Our DNA is forged with a need for relationships, both vertical (with God) and horizontal (with other people). And so, as the Bible unfolds, the reader will clearly witness how both the fostering and neglect of each of these relationships impact them as well as others.
With that said, in order to keep us on the same page I’ll have a chart like the one below to indicate where we are in each of the biblical movements. And so, we begin the first movement with the purpose of God creating humanity–fellowship within relationships.
God has eternally reigned as the Triune God—three-persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) One substance. Thus God has eternally existed in fellowship with Himself. As such, the basis for mankind’s understanding and experience of fellowship is based upon God, who has always and will forever dwell as the three-person one substance Triune God. The term used to describe this tri-union is called the Trinity.
The term ‘Trinity’ is not itself found in the Bible. It was first used by Tertullian at the close of the 2nd century, but received wide currency and formal elucidation only in the 4th and 5th centuries. Three affirmations are central to the historic doctrine of the Trinity: 1. there is but one God; 2. the Father, the Son and the Spirit is each fully and eternally God; 3. the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is each a distinct person.¹
Furthermore, God’s mission and purpose is seen in and through His created order. Since God is eternal, He is therefore the Creator of all things and is also thus the supreme authority over all things. The Bible opens with a display of God’s power, rule, authority, and creativity over His creation. He takes an empty and formless void and therein speaks life into existence. As the Triune God, each of the three persons had a role in the created order: the Spirit hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:1), the Son did the work (John 1:3), and the Father planned the creation (Isaiah 44:24). Thus, the three persons were at one time creating something out of nothing. The term that is used to describe this type of creation is ex nihilo. “Ex nihilo is from the Latin meaning “from or out of nothing.” It is the theistic view of origins that affirms that God brought the universe into existence without using preexisting material.”² Creation is a direct overflow of God’s divine initiative, love, and rule over and for His created order. In other words, the fact that God—the Trinity—created out of nothing displays His transcendence and desire to expand His order and authority through His creation. God did not have to create, because He existed eternally in perfect fellowship and relationship with Himself. However, God chose to express and allow a type of fellowship within a relationship to extend beyond His God-head and into His creation.
Thus, God’s mission and purpose is seen in mankind, who was chosen as the pinnacle of His creation. Mankind was given priority over all other things—animals, plants, galaxies ad infinitum. Accordingly, man’s greatest privilege was that he was permitted to fellowship with the God-head in uninterrupted glory and delight (Genesis 1:26-28). Mankind was able to walk in the cool of the day with God (Genesis 3:8). God allowed both the first man and woman to fellowship with Him. In this fellowship with God, man’s heart and nature were both good, which meant that they were able not to sin. Subsequently, man was a conduit of God’s rule, and was therefore responsible for ruling God’s created order through cultivating and keeping God’s garden (Genesis 1:15). Additionally, as they performed the task of expanding God’s rule through blessing and rule, they were to also multiply in the earth while at the same time avoiding one certain tree. This was the test for the pinnacle of God’s creation. Mankind was given the opportunity to trust God, to rest in His provision for fellowship, and to expand His image through ruling to all of His created order. This was free will in its ultimate state—man could choose not to sin—forever. “Adam, before the fall, was created holy but with the ability either to sin or not to sin (posse peccare et posse non peccare).”³ The fact that man dwelt in this free will is an argument that Augustine made in his conception of the freedom of the will. The essence of man’s relationship with His God was such that mankind could objectively remain in fellowship with Him without sin, forever. Furthermore, God is holy, and He cannot by His nature allow any sin into His presence. Thus man remaining in a state free of sin was the only way by which a created thing could have a relationship with God without immediate retribution. To disobey God would be to sever mankind’s relationship with Him (Genesis 2:17). However, mankind ultimately made the decision to disobey God by eating from the forbidden tree, and as a result both his nature and his wife were changed, their heart’s hardened, and their will was no longer free. “After he (mankind) transgressed, he moved to the state of being unable not to sin (non posse non peccare). The regenerate (i.e., on earth) are able to sin and able not to sin (posse peccare et posse non peccare).”* The fact is, mankind’s heart was riddled with an immedicable corruption when he sinned, and he experienced two things: (1) spiritual separation from God signified by his removal from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24), and (2) the breaking down of the physical body leading to their physical death. It was at this point that sin was introduced into the pinnacle of God’s created order through the serpent who had been given the opportunity to tempt man to distrust of God.
In an act of distrust, man progressed, and the serpent, who is the source of all evil—also known as Satan—was subsequently given the right to rule this new humanity (Ephesians 2:2-3), and physical death was introduced into creation. Everything was changed, but most profound was man’s relationship with God. In this new life—broken and riddled with sin— mankind was filled with tiresome work and heartache, which ultimately lead to physical death. This physical death was brought about because of their sin; however, it was in the midst of God’s judgment upon mankind for their sin that God made a promise. God covered man and woman with a skin of an animal, and then promised to deal with the sin that separates them from Him. The promise points to a day when sin will finally defeated by the Seed of Woman. The serpent was told that his head would be crushed by the Seed of Woman (Genesis 3:15), but that the serpent would bruise the Seed of Woman’s heel. This statement is in its incipient form, but will be further revealed as the biblical narrative continues to unfold.
Initial fellowship within relationships was a gift wrought out of the very nature of the Triune God, but was broken by man and his desire to define good and evil for himself. Sin came as a result of mankind’s rebellion, but it was in this mess that God promised to redeem man back to Himself through dealing with sin and ultimately death through the Seed of Woman.