American Bible teacher and author Nancy Guthrie has a new book out: Even Better than Eden. It looks fascinating, given her recent article on the Crossway website: ‘10 Things You Should Know about the Garden of Eden’. And the 10 things are…
- Eden was good, but not yet fully glorious.
- Eden was abundant, but it wasn’t yet expansive.
- Eden was completely good, but it wasn’t completely secure.
- Eden had a rhythm of work and then rest, but not yet unending rest.
- Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but not yet as glorious as God intended.
- Adam and Eve were naked, not yet robed in royal splendor.
- Adam and Eve enjoyed one-flesh intimacy, but their bond was vulnerable to brokenness.
- Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s presence, but they were vulnerable to his presence in judgment.
- Adam and Eve could have gained the knowledge of good and evil without eating from the forbidden tree.
- Eden had the tree of life, but Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating from it.
Quite a refreshing way of thinking about it.
From the very beginning, Eden was not meant to be static; it was headed somewhere. We could say there was an eschatology of Eden. God’s intentions for his creation have always been headed toward consummation, toward glory. …
Sometimes we hear the story of the Bible told as Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration. But as good as Eden was, we’re not merely headed back to Eden as it once was. The story of the Bible is Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation. We’re looking forward to a home that will be even better than Eden.
Hat tip: Antony Billington, who reflects further on the theme of clothing in the Bible.