No Way Out!
Family, ugh. (I was
going to leave the post at this – but since my audience consists mostly of my
family I thought that would be dangerous for my readership numbers.)
Continuing my mini-series on relationships I want to again
focus on God creating the first eternal
relationships. The idea of mankind being eternal from the outset!
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The greatest part of the creation
story involves two new eternal beings named Adam and Eve. Created male and
Female and one for the other relationship drove the creation of these two.
First, a creation in God’s image
and then a creation to accompany the original. The creation story is
almost immediately followed by the story of the fall of man into sin (or out of
relationship with God). In truth we don’t know exactly how long Adam and Eve
experienced the benefit of relationship with God in the Garden – however the
opinions of this range from minutes to years.
The truth is that it doesn’t
matter, humans were created to be eternal, and that is just what Adam and Eve
were. Come to think of it, that is what we are now. You see, from the outset of
creation, humans have been eternal. At no time were humans any less or more
than eternal. We don’t have a great grasp on what it means to be eternal, but
to be honest I have a hard time imagining 65 years old too! We do understand
that we are not physically eternal because of sin (although we were originally
created that way) – it seems that we retain being spiritually eternal though.
To rephrase it another way, when we
were created, there was no way out for us. We exist, whether in this body or
not, and nothing we can do can change that. We are, and we always will be. God is
eternal, and he then created man in his image. We need to come to grips with
the eternal nature of our existence because only then can we truly focus on the
relationship we have with God. It is hard for us because we had a beginning so,
naturally we want an end.
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When we come to grips with our
relationship with God going beyond the physical limitation of time it should
bring us to the point where we value it higher. Our relationship with God (good
or bad) is never ending. We don’t get to opt out. God’s creation will always be
judged and evaluated based on the relationship between Him and it. The good
thing is that God offers to make us into a new creation when the old one has
lost respect and love for God. This new creation we are made into is like when
a potter reforms clay from one thing to another. The new creation is still the
eternal material God started with, it is now just in a new glorious form that can
again be in good relationship with Him.
When you think about the eternal
nature of man, how does that settle with you?
Do things have to change in your life if you understand that you will exist forever?
What are the questions that come up
as a result of being eternal?
How is the new creation a better
creation? Can mankind fail again as a new creation?
