Look Ahead
Our hope is not a return to Eden. Eden is a paradise that we can read about not just in Genesis but in the reflections of later Scripture. Clearly, what a special place this was. The plan of the Lord, though, to bring his people into everlasting fellowship with him is not going to be Eden 2.0. The garden itself was designed by the Lord to aim at a global project.
The reason it was only part of the world and for the image bearers to be fruitful and multiply within it, it’s going to be for the goal of expanding those borders and to image the glory of God throughout creation. The disruption that sin has brought and the alienation of exile brought about by sin as well, those things help us to see that outside of Eden we don’t look at those conditions around us now. We see a brokenness and a tragedy from Genesis 3 and forward. That’s our world.
Short of Glory
Mitchell L. Chase
In this accessible book, Mitchell Chase identifies biblical themes found in Genesis 3, explaining why they are essential to understanding the biblical narrative and identifying why these themes are crucial for believers today.
The hope we have is not to get through the flaming sword of those cherubim or to go back into those places where those two special trees were. God will accomplish the goal of the garden. It will be through Christ’s work—the glory of what the church’s future is in Christ—but also a new creation that the Lord will bring about at his second coming. This means the garden aims at the hope that is to come.
This is why Revelation 21–22 have so many echoes from the early chapters of Genesis. John’s vision at the end of Scripture is telling us that what God began, he will complete. And from Genesis to Revelation, it’s about his power, exalting his glory.
Mitchell Chase is the author of Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall.
Mitchell L. Chase (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is an associate professor of biblical studies at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the preaching pastor of Kosmosdale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of several books. He blogs regularly at Biblical Theology on Substack.
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