The Bible begins and ends the same way, namely, with God living with his people in a garden-temple. This is why the tabernacle and temple, the places where God’s presence dwelt with Israel, were filled with garden imagery, with things like palm branches and pomegranates and a golden lampstand that looked like a tree with almond blossoms. God made us to live with him in a garden.
This plan reaches all the way back to before creation. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are there creatures who live on a planet we call earth? The answer is so that God could live among them. For God to live with humans, he had to first create humans. And for there to be humans, there would need to be a place for them to live. Therefore, as theologian Fred Sanders says, “God’s plan for dwelling in people is not only ‘older than dirt,’ but it’s the reason there is dirt.” The reason why there’s something rather than nothing is because God’s plan is to live with his people.
We have to be careful here. This doesn’t mean God needs people, that he’s lonely and needs friends. God has no unmet needs. He has perfect life and fellowship within himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a beautifully freeing truth. It means that God’s plan to dwell with his people isn’t driven by need but by desire. God doesn’t need to live with us, he wants to live with us.
God intends to dwell with us, promises to dwell with us, and sends his Holy Spirit to dwell with us. But there is a major obstacle between God and us, namely, our sin. A holy God cannot live with unholy people. The way this problem is solved is through atonement. God the Father sends God the Son to die for his people, taking the punishment their sins deserve, and then the Father and the Son send the Spirit to live with all those who trust in Christ.
Do you see the progression and trinitarian shape to God’s plan? The Father sends the Son so that he could send the Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, makes atonement for our sins, so that the Spirit could be sent to indwell us. First atonement, then indwelling. Sanders again says, “The work of the Son functions as a sort of means to an end…the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the goal and culmination of the Father’s plan.” Jesus died so that God could live with us.
Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, our sin moves us out of God’s presence. Instead of feeling at home with God, we feel naked and alienated from God and others. We can’t bear the thought of our lives coming under the holy gaze of God, so we cover ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, we do whatever we can to make ourselves feel safe.
There are actually two ways to cover yourself. You can be irreligious and say, “I can do whatever I want to do and no one can stop me!” This is the prodigal son who left his father to spend all his money on prostitutes (Lk. 15:30).
But you can also cover yourself by being religious and condemning everyone. This was the older brother in Jesus’ parable (Lk. 15:25-30).
The point of Jesus’ parable is that both the irreligious and the religious need to come in to the Father. In the parable, the Father goes out to meet both, because both of them need redemption and covering.
Breaking all the rules and keeping all the rules are two different ways of doing the same thing, namely, covering yourself with fig leaves. We’re all trying to cover ourselves because we want to be in God’s presence but we also have a deep sense of inadequacy. So we cover ourselves with our perfectionism, workaholism, image management, and taking control.
We desperately want to be in the presence of God because we were made to live with God but our sin has taken us away from him and him away from us. So we live our whole lives trying to cover ourselves and uncover everyone else. We want to get back into the garden where we’re safe and seen and unashamed, but we’re afraid.
This is why Jesus had to die on the cross. He died so that we can confidently walk into the Garden again. Because the sword of the Lord fell on Jesus, God clothes anyone who trusts in him with his goodness.
As long as you’re trying to clothe yourself by doing good or bad things, you’ll remain cut off from God. But if you’ll uncover your need to God, he’ll cover you with his goodness. If you refuse to uncover yourself to God, then you’ll live your whole life covering yourself and uncovering others so you feel covered. Jesus’s covering is the only way back to life with God. Do you have the only covering that leads to life?
Grateful for God’s Covering, With You,
Pastor John