Creation

To fully understand the Bible’s story, we need to look at the beginning, which tells us something about how God wanted the world to be. With a good picture of the beginning, we can better understand what went wrong in the next part of the story. The opening chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, give us a peek into the creation of the world and the humans in it.

Christians have offered various ways to coordinate science’s narration of the planet’s early history with the Bible’s, but what everyone can agree on, and what’s most important to us here, is that this is how ancient Israel (the authors of this part of the Bible) told the world’s origin story. This was their explanation of how things got to be the way they are. Jesus saw himself as part of this story.

The Image of God

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 describes God's creation of the world over different time periods. In Genesis 1:1 - 2:3, God transforms our planet from a lifeless, chaotic start into a place filled with life and ordered by days, nights, and seasons. God’s highest act of creation is to make humans “in the image of God,” instructing them to expand and justly govern all the Earth.

But what does this story mean by the phrase, “image of God”? Other cultures around ancient Israel give us a clue. In their stories, when a god defeated an enemy, a temple would be built at the place of victory. An “image” (e.g. statue) of the god would be included to remind friends and enemies that the area was now under that god’s rule and protection. With that in mind, God making humans in his image communicated that the world was God’s temple and humans were his representatives on Earth. Looking back on the chapter, this helps us understand the purposes for which God created us. As God’s representatives, humans were supposed to

• Be creative (just as God was)
• Bring new life into the world (just as God did)
• Take care of the world in a way that would show God’s goodness and love (as God commanded)
• Spread the ordered beauty of the garden over the wild Creation (as in Genesis 2)
• Enjoy rest in the beauty of Creation

Each of these can have many expressions in different contexts. But for the most part, the work that we find most fulfilling relates to one or more of these things for which God made us.

Right Relationships

Fulfilling all of the responsibilities listed above would be hard for any person to accomplish alone. Fortunately, that was not God’s intention. He made humans in relationship with himself, each other, and the rest of the world (Creation), as detailed in Genesis 2.

This chapter tells the story of the first humans, Adam and Eve. God breathes life into the first human, Adam, and places him in a great garden land, Eden, to take care of it. Since the task is too big to enjoy or complete alone, God works with Adam to find him an equal partner capable of sharing in his life and duties. After Adam realizes that none of the animals are suitable partners, God takes material from Adam’s side to fashion the first woman, Eve. When Adam meets her, he bursts into poetry at having finally found someone to share his life and calling.

In the Bible’s telling of our origin story, we see that humans have many strong, positive relationships. We start off in right relationship with…

• God
  • Humans are able to communicate with God clearly and easily. They are growing in their experience of his love and goodness, they know his invitation to receive more of his life as shown by the tree of life, they are aware of his will for them, and they work in partnership with him to advance his purposes for the Earth.
• Each other
  • Interpersonal: humans are fully open and honest with each other. Adam and Eve are equal, yet distinct partners who represent God in the world through their shared life together.
  • Societal: God envisioned family and social systems where each person has value, dignity, and freedom to express their unique talents and gifts.
• Creation
  • Themselves: humans are aware of their desires, and they are able to direct them towards fulfilling their God-given vocation. They are in touch with their physical, emotional, and mental state of being.
  • The World: humans work to spread the beauty God has started for them, shaping their environment for the flourishing of all life.

Healthy relationships in all of these categories are vital for humans to live out God’s vision for us.

If we harm those relationships, we mar the beauty of God’s vision and fall short of our full responsibility as God’s representatives on Earth.

The Two Trees

Genesis 2 also describes two special trees in the Garden of Eden: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God directly tells Adam (who presumably tells Eve) not to eat from the second one, saying that the person who eats it will die. This leads to some natural questions. Why did God put a forbidden tree in the garden in the first place? Was he setting humans up for failure? Is the Bible implying that knowledge is a bad thing?

It would be wrong to say that God’s intention was to keep the knowledge per se from humans. Surely, humans would need knowledge to fulfill their responsibility to justly govern the planet. A parent may ban their child from touching the stove initially, but that is only so the child can watch how the stove should be used and can be used to make wonderful things. Over time, the child will be invited into the cooking process, and as mutual trust is built, more agency is given to the child. Eventually, the child will be able to use the stove freely for their own purposes.

God desired for humans to see the goodness of Eden as a reflection of his goodness. He wanted them to trust him and learn about good and evil from their experience living with him. Over time, they would have grown in knowledge, desire, and maturity as they worked with God to bring about his purposes for Creation. God intended a positive feedback loop, where he would guide humans in their work, they would experience the goodness and love that came from following him, they would increase in knowledge and ability, and they would desire to work together with him in new and more complex ways.

The two trees represented a choice for humans to make. They could trust in God and eat from the Tree of Life, entering into an upward spiral towards a richer relationship with God and a fuller experience of being human, spreading the beauty, ordered goodness, and flourishing of the Garden of Eden throughout all of the world. Or, they could eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, trusting in themselves alone to define right and wrong, stepping away from full relationship with their Creator to remake Creation into a temple that served only them.

Unfortunately, the first humans chose the second option, and we are still living with the consequences of that choice today. What went wrong and what were the effects? That is the topic of the next C: Corruption.