Month: June 2022

Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

After the Lord placed Adam in the garden of Eden, He told him he could eat of all the trees of the garden. God was gracious and generous. But He gave him one command, just one: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The human response to God’s gracious goodness was to be trust and obedience. The man was to respond to God with total dependence on the Lord for everything. The man was (and we are) meant to ”fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” If you do, everything will be well with you forever.

But Adam the man, and all men since, made the wrong choice. And we know the rest of the story, in the next chapter. The man decided, in pride and unbelief, to “be like God:” he would take matters into his own hands, run his life the way he wanted, love himself, trust himself, and decide for himself what is good and bad for him.

We still, by nature, respond to God’s Love the same way. We can’t believe God can be that good. We know better. Wills clash. Selfish rebellion surfaces. Sins erupt. And life is messed up. Our response kills us. Immediately (“in the day”), we surely die, are separated from God and Life.

But God’s response to our response is to send His Son. Jesus came to do the will of the Father, to perfectly trust and obey for us. The Second Adam did what the Old Adam in us failed to do.

Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.

God created the garden of Eden, a perfectly beautiful Paradise, and put man into it to enjoy God and live with Him forever. The intended human response to God’s gracious action was: Work! Adam praised and thanked and enjoyed the Lord God by working the Garden and keeping it. Work is the proper and God-given response for people to whom the Lord has given gifts and blessings. Work was designed to be pleasant, fulfilling, and enjoyable as our thankful response to God’ grace and goodness.

However, because of the Fall into Sin, the blessing of work became the curse of toil, hard work. Our Sin turned the blessing into a curse. All work, whatever it may be, is now filled with ”thorns and thistles,” stresses and strains, problems and obstacles. Life is hard now because work is cursed. Life is tough because work is rough. And it is our own sin that is the cause (we can’t just blame Adam).

Although the curse remains, Christ has redeemed us from the curse. And although work is still hard, it is ameliorated by believing and living and working in Christ. Each Christian has a particular calling, or vocation, that when lived out by faith, makes life and work meaningful and fulfilling. So, work is still our happy response to God’s gifts and blessings. On the other hand, laziness is a deadly sin, for it thwarts God’s good purposes for our abundant life.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

God created man and woman in His own image, and he blessed them. The human response to Creation and Blessing was to reproduce humans, fill the earth, and have dominion over every thing. This Adam did when he named the animals, thus keeping God’s command and fulfilling His promise. But then he failed in his role as vice-regent when he surrendered dominion over the created world to Satan, “the creeping thing.” Adam (and we) disobeyed the Lord, gave over the right to rule. and plunged the world (and all subsequent human beings) into sin and evil, darkness and death. Man’s response to God’s blessing brought terrible consequences on all.

Adam did not did not have dominion over the Serpent, over Sin, and all Evil. And now Death reigns, Sin rules, and Satan legally has dominion over the world. But the Second Adam came and took back the Kingdom and rules in the hearts. He did it by sacrificial love and perfect obedience, by taking dominion.

The human response to the blessing of God is to take it for granted and to surrender dominion to Sin, Death and Satan. But the divine response to our human surrender was to take back the dominion over evil and restore it to us in Christ, partially in this life by faith and completely in the next life by sight.

We have finished the series of Promises in the Bible, daily looking at over 1800 promises of God to us. Today we begin a new series of daily studies: Human Response to God’s words and actions, commands and promises. In the Bible, the responses to God are all over the map, from the negative, hostile, rebellious, disobedient, and evil, to the positive, friendly, obedient, faithful, thankful, and joyful, and more. In summary, we will respond with either faith or unbelief.

God shows up, God speaks, God does something: How do we respond? We can learn by the Spirit’s teaching, for ”all Scripture is…profitable for teaching…and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete [1 Timothy 3:16-17].” We will let the Word of Law show us what to do, and the Gospel give us the power to do it. In short, we pray the Lord’s Prayer: make us better people!

The proper response to the Law is repentance. Contrition and godly sorrow leads us to the Gospel. The proper response to the Gospel is faith. The Holy Spirit induces penitence and creates faith in Jesus, and its fruit, eternal life. The improper response, of course, is prideful impenitence, stubborn rebellion, willful disobedience, spurning of God’s love, rejection of grace, and simple unbelief. But another more subtle improper response is to “try” to do better, and to use our own reason and strength, willpower and resolve, to be a better person. Jesus is not an example to follow but He is the only way.

We will be looking at hundreds of responses to learn by faith the only Way. The Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

This is the last of God’s promises in the Bible. Anyone who is spiritually thirsty, dry and empty, may “may take of the water of life freely.” It is available to all since Jesus died and rose again. The water of life is a part of the joy and refreshment of living in the renewed Paradise of the New Jerusalem of the eternal new heavens and new earth forever.

The invitation is open to all. The Holy Spirit says, ”Come!” The Spirit invites all to come through the Gospel by which He effectively creates faith in Christ for forgiveness and eternal life. The Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation. It quenches thirst and continually renews the life of God within. This gospel invitation comes through the written, spoken, and visible (in the Sacraments) Word. The Spirit convinces us to ”come and drink freely,” but He does not force it against our will.

The Bride, the Church, the community of believers in Christ, also says, ”Come!” The invitation to drink freely is extended to all through live human beings who have already accepted the invitation. Christians gather together to preach the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and witness the Gospel to the world.

This Gospel invitation comes along with and after the preaching of the Law, which convinces people they are thirsty, empty, and dead in sin. The Word shows us our problem and gives the only solution. Both conviction of need and conviction of the solution are revealed by the Word and the Spirit in the Church. Come, drink freely, today, and forever! ”The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Revelation 22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

We have the promise that when we ”enter into the joy of the Lord” in His Eternal Kingdom we will see God face to face, and we will bear His Name on our foreheads. ”Face” and ”name” are concepts used in the Bible to depict the Presence of God. His servants (baptized believers) will be overwhelmed in the glorious, awesome, all-consuming power of love in His naked presence.

Standing in His brilliant Presence and seeing the face of God, beholding the beatific vision, will be an eternity-changing event, and we will be forever changed. We can’t even imagine what that will be like. We shall see Him as he is. Until then, the Face, the Presence, and the palpable Love of God comes to us in hidden form, through means, like the water of Baptism, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the words of absolution, the preached Gospel, and the fellowship and care of the brethren. But hidden behind these means we see the Face.

We will be forever branded as belonging to Him with His Name in our forehead. The ”name” of God is the presence of God, His soul, His character, His personality, His person, His being. It is Love. The Name will be on the forehead for all to see. In this present earthly life God places His Name upon us in Holy Baptism. The priest blesses with the Benediction (Numbers 6:24-26), and in so doing, the priests ”put my name upon the people.” Then He commands us not to ”take (bear, or wear) the name of the Lord your God in vain.” The name is in your forehead now, and even though people do not see it, God does. And we know it’s there, so we behave accordingly.

Revelation 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him.

Ah, Yes! We long for the Day when the Curse will be removed forever. The Eternal State in the New Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth restores Creation and mankind to the original Paradise of God’s grand design. Ever since our Fall into Sin we have been living in a cursed world of cursed people. Under the curse, our lives are filled with physical and emotional pain and suffering. Under the reign of Sin, Death, and the Devil life on earth is wracked with loss and grief, sorrow and misery, frustration and despair, sickness and injury, broken relationships and dashed hopes, daily annoyances and irritations, and on and on. And it’s all my fault; my sin is the cause of the curse.

But there is Hope and Good News: God loved us like this: He sent His Son. The Son of God suffered and died in our place, ”becoming a curse for us.” ”Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us [Galatians 3:13].”

The promise of the final and permanent removal of the Curse is guaranteed by the shed blood of Jesus, the death of Christ. Every time we hear the Gospel, remember our Baptism, and receive the body and blood of Christ God shares with us His curseless life. At the same time as we are experiencing the effects of the curse we get to enjoy the blessings of redemption from the curse of sin. So, when life (and death) overwhelms, remember, ”this, too, shall pass.”

Another part of the promise is this: “His servants shall serve him.” This is not a command but a promise, for it is a joy and a blessing to serve the Lord by serving others. And this we will do, forever.

Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

This glorious promise is for each individual believer in Christ: you will inherit everything and you will enjoy an eternal intimate loving relationship with God. Every one of us does not receive a portion, or even an equal share, of everything that belongs to God, the Almighty Creator and Owner. Each receives all things. We can’t comprehend how that can be. The earthly ”inheritance” image breaks down here, because no earthly father can give everything he owns to every one of his children. But God’s math works differently. He can, and He does, will everything to everyone.

You can read it yourself in the Lord’s Will and Testament(s). 1 Peter 1:3-4: ”He has caused us to be born again to…an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” We have “God’s riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” We won’t receive this inheritance until the Resurrection, but for now we ”were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it [Ephesians 1:13-14].” It’s a sure thing.

Furthermore, God and I will be in a permanent and perfect father-son relationship. And we enjoy that relationship now when we pray ”Our Father…”, the Abba who owns everything and shares it all with each of us. The promise is for ”he that overcomes.” This is the person who has learned by experience to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, my Overcomer, for all things.

Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

This is the negative promise of the Eternal State saying that all the bad things of this present life will be gone. Sin, and the deadly results of sin, are passed away, gone from our presence forever. All the negative emotions are wiped away forever, for the cause will vanish. The graphic picture shows the Lord personally wiping away the tears of each person, forever.

This fact leaves us with only the Good: good feelings and positive emotions. Love, Joy, Peace, and such, remain, have room to expand without opposition, and to become all-pervasive in the culture and environment of heaven, where only God is present and only the Good prevails.

It is enough for us to know that all the bad and the negatives of this life are gone, but it is even better to know that all the good and the positives are present. And the hope and promise of a sin-free and God-present eternity impacts our present enjoyment of God’s life in ours (heaven on earth).

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Here is the climax of many promises of the Bible: the Presence of God with us, and the covenant relationship between God and His people. The Eternal State described here at the end of ”The Book” completes the Restoration of Paradise lost at the beginning of ”The Book.”

In the Fall we lost the presence of God (“in the day you eat of it you shall die“), and we were banished from Paradise. The rest of the Story reveals what the Lord is doing to restore us to the Paradise of God, the Presence of God, and the Life of God. The presence of God dwelling on earth was in the Tabernacle of Moses. We knew where and how to find Him. Then He dwelled in the Temple of Solomon. We knew where and how to find Him. Then the Son of God “became flesh and dwelt among us.” We knew where where and how to find Him. Then the presence of God (the temple) moves into the hearts of believers (the Church) where the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments administered. We know where and how to find Him. Finally, we are ushered into the new heavens and new earth, in which all of it is filled with the visible and felt Presence of God all the time. We will walk by sight, not just by faith any longer.

In the Fall we also lost an intimate relationship with God, with one another, and with God’s created environment. This lost love relationship with God has been reconciled and restored in Christ. By faith ”we are His people and He is our God.” God Himself comes to live in us and be with us always. The promise of a visible and felt loving relationship will be experienced by all believers in That Day. For now, we enjoy that relationship by faith, and we live in the sure hope of experiencing it by sight in our future.