Genesis informs us that “God created humankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them” (1:27). Furthermore, in relation to being created in the image of God, so as to bear that image in and for the whole of the creation, the language of covenant is employed when we read that “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it!” (1:28a) What follows is rounded off with “God saw all that He had made---and it was very good!” (1:31a)
So humankind (Adam) is given a charge by God. We could easily say that God loved His good creation (world), so He created a son (Adam) in His own image and sent that son into the world with a specific purpose. What was that purpose? It was to rule and steward and subdue and represent the Creator to the world, but ultimately, there was something that lay under all of that. The foundation on which those purposes rested was belief. It was trust. “The Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (2:16-17a). This was a commandment and a test. God loved the world and sent His one and only son into the world, and set up a perimeter to see whether or not His commandment would be followed, and if He would be believed. Of course, we know the sad result of the commandment, which was that it was not something to which Adam adhered.
We well know the corollary to God’s commandment to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was “for when you eat from it you will surely die” (2:17b). Adam had been offered up the fruit of every tree of the garden, save one. One of those trees was the tree of life (2:9). When Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden after violating God’s clear commandment (thereby finding themselves outside of God’s purpose for them), careful attention is paid to this tree of life. It is of special concern to God, and we find that “When He drove the man out, He placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:24). This was because God had said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (3:22). Clearly, God did not want His now fallen image-bearer to live forever in a state of corruption, so He made a move to limit access to the tree of life. Apparently, the fruit of this tree was designed to render possible such an eternal existence.
Eternal life, therefore, must be understood to be a part of God’s intentions for the beings that He created in His image, as well as the creation over which that being was set in rule. For man, this can be extrapolated from the existence of the tree of life. For the creation, this can be extrapolated from the fact that all of creation fell from a state of eternality of life when Adam fell. The Apostle Paul makes explicit reference to this type of understanding in the eighth chapter of Romans, when he writes that “creation was subjected to futility---not willingly” (8:20a), and that it also awaits a time of restoration when it “will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children” (8:21). If only Adam had believed God---trusted, relied upon, adhered to the commandment while believing in the associated promise---neither he nor the creation would have experienced decay and death. If he had believed, he would not have perished.
We are now able to connect some of the dots, discovering part of what is being communicated in the Nicodemus/Jesus dialogue, interpreting John 3:16 in light of the experience of Adam, as revealed in the Hebrews Scriptures, as told as part of Israel’s historical self-understanding and as part of God’s overall purposes for mankind, to which Jesus appeals in order to legitimate His mission as that of the promised and long-awaited Son of Man. God indeed loved the world that He had created and set in order. He loved it so much that He made a being in His own image---a son---and placed that being in the world. As part of His creation, He also loved this son. He gave that son responsibilities and a commandment, asking that son to believe in Him, so as to be able to faithfully and rightly perform His duties in the world, before God. If that son did in fact believe in the God that had created Him and given him his position, then we would have eternal life. If he did not believe God, then the result of that dis-belief, and the forsaking of His expressed purpose in and for the world, would be that He would perish, as would the much loved realm over which he had been set. He would be exiled from that place of purpose, forfeiting access to that which granted eternal life, and thereby losing eternal life itself. What ultimately perished was trust, and therefore his union with his Maker, which was the source of that life. Quite naturally then, to perish at the hands of death was the only logical result. Such was the history of God’s initial sending of His son into the world. This provides a portion of the much-needed framework for an understanding of Jesus’ mission.
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