Having made the first human beings, we have to consider that things on earth probably looked different than they do today. Probably a lot different. This is because sin had not yet entered our world. In other words, everything was perfect in the beginning.
There was no sickness, destruction, or death. No pollution of our planet either. Everything was new and thriving. But by Genesis chapter 3, we see how things began to change drastically.
Man disobeyed God and sin entered the world. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, went from being naked and not ashamed (Gen. 2:25), to naked and afraid (Gen. 3:10).
There is a detail in the text that I want to examine. It’s found in the following verse:
Genesis 3:8
[8] And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. (ESV)
This text tells us that God walked in the garden in the cool of the day. We have to wonder whether this was describing God’s actions literally or figuratively. In any case, this act of God walking in the garden where he had placed the man he created, signals that God wanted a close relationship with man.
God had made man in his image and likeness, and so man was to commune with God in the same way that the Triune God is in perfect community within himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Since the beginning, God has always wanted to be in close relationship with human beings. Sin separated humanity from God. Eventually, God would deal with sin and death definitively in Jesus Christ, who came to earth to renew the world God created.
Jesus came to undo the damage and destruction that sin and death caused on earth. This plan is still being worked out, but God promises to one day complete his work of redemption through the renewing of all things.
We no longer have to be naked and afraid, and have to hide from God’s presence. We can partake in Jesus’s righteous and have a right standing with God. Jesus promises to cover us and not be ashamed of us. Just as in the beginning, we can now be in close relationship with God.
Examina La Biblia 