New Creation (2) — How it started with a New Eden

Goal:

To see how the images of Eden in the Bible
all hang together in a beautiful way,
and bring us so much hope.

New Creation – How it started with a New Eden

1. Garden of Eden imagery throughout the Bible
2. A Re-run of Eden
3. Living as part of the New Creation

Genesis 2: Garden of Eden

8. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden…
10. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden,
    and there it divided and became four rivers.
11. The name of the first is the Pishon.
    It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12. And the gold of that land is good;
    bdellium and onyx stone are there.

Ezekiel 28 – Reference to Eden

13. …Eden, the garden of God…
    sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl,
    onyx, and jasper,
    sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle

Revelation 21 – The New Creation

1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
   for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
   coming down out of heaven from God…
11. having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal…
19. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel…
    
    • jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx…

• Ch. 22

2. through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

Noah as a new beginning

Exodus 32 The Golden Calf

1. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
2. So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold… and bring them to me.”
4. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Exodus 32 Aaron shifts the blame

21. And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?
22. And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
23. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us.…
24. So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

Nation of Israel as a new beginning

The Tabernacle as a picture of Eden

• Constructing the Tabernacle (Exodus 39:6)
  “They made the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel.”

Eden imagery in John

18:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.

19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

20:15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she replied…”

1 Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

How we enter the New Creation

• Jesus became a member of the Old Creation by birth
• He died, severing his connection with the Old
• He was raised as the very first instance of the New Creation
• We are joined to him, first in our spirits, and finally with new bodies like his
• This union happens when we trust him, and some of his life gets put into us
• Baptism is a picture of this death and resurrection

Romans 6
— Raised with Christ

3. Do you not know that all of us
   who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
   were baptized into his death?
4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,
   in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
   we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his,
   we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Romans 6
— Raised with Christ

6. We know that our old self was crucified with him
   in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,
   so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ,
   we believe that we will also live with him.

Romans 6
— Raised with Christ

9. We know that Christ,
   being raised from the dead, will never die again;
   death no longer has dominion over him.
10. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all,
    but the life he lives he lives to God.
11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
    and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6
— Raised with Christ

12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
    to make you obey its passions.
13. Do not present your members to sin
      as instruments for unrighteousness,
    but present yourselves to God
      as those who have been brought from death to life,
    and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
14. For sin will have no dominion over you,
    since you are not under law but under grace.

Galatians 2
— New Life in Christ

20. I have been crucified with Christ.
    It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
    And the life I now live in the flesh
    I live by faith in the Son of God,
    who loved me and gave himself for me.