In 1970, an art director at the New York Times named Rudolph Resta went into work and hung up his jacket. When we went to retrieve it later that day, he discovered that the wallet he had left in his coat pocket was gone. It became clear that it was probably stolen and lost for good. Forty years later, in 2011, Mr. Resta received a call from a reporter. A security guard had found an old wallet tucked away in a window in the very same building. It was Mr. Resta’s wallet, lost for 40 years. He opened it and found pictures of his wife and sons, an old Social Security card, and an American Express card—everything he had left in there, except the cash. After all those years, he had recovered something he thought he’d never get back.
When we read the first two chapters of Genesis, we get a glimpse of what we as humanity have lost. Genesis 1-2 presents a picture of a beautiful, perfect world that we have forfeited through our rebellion against God. Our Creator designed a bountiful paradise, and yet that paradise has been lost. Everything is now broken, marred by evil, sin, and death.
The story of the Bible is the story of God restoring what we have lost. The beginning of the Bible gives us a glimpse of what we lost and foreshadows what Jesus gains, what he finds, and what he restores for us. The Bible begins with creation and ends with new creation, and in the middle is how we got to where we are today and how we’re going to get back to what we lost.
These words at the beginning of Scripture teach us about God, help us understand ourselves, and point us to Jesus, who regains what we have lost. Genesis 2:4-17 specifically teaches us that God created us to experience his goodness, trust his Word, and dwell in his presence.
God Created Us to Know His Goodness
A major point in Genesis 2 is that God provides for humanity completely. He gives Adam and Eve all they could have needed. The first gift God gives man is life, breath. The very breath we breathe, we get from God. God is the Lord and Giver of life. The food on our table, our home, the people we love, the good work we do—these are all good gifts from our Father. They are blessings of His provision. Even in this broken world, we all know God’s goodness. God has not left any person without some token of His goodness, some experience of His provision. We are not owed breath in our lungs or food on the table—they are gifts. Every good gift we have comes to us from God and should lead us back to Him.
God Created Us to Trust His Word
God also created us to trust and obey His good and perfect Word. God’s Word is another one of the good gifts He gives. In Genesis 2:16-17, God gives Adam a command, but it starts with His provision: “You may surely eat of every tree in this garden.” We often think God’s Word is all about what we cannot do, but grace comes before God’s law. God’s Word reveals His grace that shows us all the good things He has given us. We can take God at His Word and know His goodness.
There is one tree, though, that God forbids Adam to eat from: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree was about who gets to decide what is right and wrong. It was about moral autonomy. If Adam ate from this tree, he would be declaring that he wanted to determine what is right and what is wrong—he would be trying to usurp the role of God. Thus, tree represented rebellion against God.
Just like Adam, we can trust that God’s Word is good. Obeying Him is always for our good. We can take God at His Word and boldly believe it and obey it.
God Created Us to Dwell With Him
The garden God planted in Eden was meant to be a kind of temple—a garden temple where God would walk and speak with man. Eden was God’s dwelling place with his people. Adam was meant to be a gardener and a priest in this garden temple. He was to work, and he was to worship. But he would ultimately fail. He rebelled against God’s Word and God cast him out of His presence.
The rest of the story of the Bible is how God begins to restore what Adam lost. He works to dwell with his people once again. He sent His son, Jesus, the one who is Emmanuel—God with us. Jesus shed his blood as our sacrifice by dying on the cross. He died so that we who were far off could be brought near. He came to restore the dwelling place of God among men. He is the better Temple and the true Priest. All who turn away from their sin and trust in him will regain what Adam lost. God dwells with his people through His Spirit, and one day we will know God’s presence perfectly and will dwell with Him forever in a place that’s even better than the Garden of Eden.
In Adam, the original gardener and priest, we lost our place in God’s garden. But in Jesus, the last Adam, the true and better Priest, we get it back. There will be nothing missing. In fact, it’s going to be even better.
This post was adapted from the sermon below:
Image Credit: ©abhaynawani on Getty Images via Canva.com
Story about the lost wallet found at https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/a-wallet-lost-40-years-ago-now-is-found/
