This little phrase from Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. encapsulates so much of Geerhardus Vos’ eschatological program. The phrase is meant to convey the idea that God has a plan of eschatological, consummated life laid out for Adam even before the fall into sin.  The Covenant of Works was put into place with the offer of that reward.

When attempting to demonstrate this point, we often appeal to the Tree of Life and its “reappearance” in Rev 2:7 and 22:2, 14, 19.  This occurrence demonstrates the realization of the blessings offered to Adam prior to the fall. But one place we do not often consider is the book of Job.  Job 42 offers a similar perspective on the question of eschatology.

Job undergoes terrible trials and loses almost everything.  Job was blessed in 1:2-3: “here were born to him seven sons and three daughters.  He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.”  All of this he lost at the hands of Satan who received permission from God to persecute him.  The book continues through several questioning episodes from Job’s friends who are convinced Job must have sinned in order to receive this portion.  Retributive theology is at work among his cohorts.  The LORD eventually speaks up in the face of Job’s questions.

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? “Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him. Look on everyone who is proud and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then will I also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can save you. (Job 40:6-14, ESV)

Shortly thereafter, in chapter 42, Job is restored, and this is the interesting eschatological point.  Look at the details of his restoration in Job 42:12-13 “And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters.”

His blessings are doubled [except for the sons, an interpretive issue we'll save for another day].  The inheritance is expanded to his daughters – something unheard of in Job’s contemporary culture. Moreover, his daughters are named and the sons are not.  This is perplexing, but I think is illustrative of the expansive reach of the New Covenant blessing (similar to how the covenant entrance sign of baptism is given to both men and women).

God’s plan and goal for a consummated glory was in place even before man fell into sin.  It was set out for Adam to attain.  He would have entered into eschatological, consummated life had he obeyed throughout his probation period.  But he fell and now a second Adam must come to provide a way for God’s elect to reach that original goal.

This eschatology is behind the message of Job.  Job’s “salvation” is not a return to his original blessing.  Likewise, we do not look to the Garden as our heavenly reward.  We look to the New Heavens and New Earth.  Job is a prototypical righteous one who suffers while pointing to the eschatological one who comes to suffer vicariously.  This is the Christ, the one who ushers in eschatological blessings greater than anything ever present before.

Prophecy enables the Church to understand the Christ-event preached to it as fulfillment, as eschatological salvation, and, therefore, to appropriate proclamation as gospel.

It makes the biblical-theological heart warm, doesn’t it?

The cross is represented as effecting an absolute separation between two worlds, so as to have cut loose the Apostle from the world to which he at first belonged, and having transplanted him into another.

How seriously do we, as believers, take Paul’s language?  I know that too often I consider myself a partaker of this present evil age.  Surely I sin and the old man is daily being mortified through the Spirit’s work in me, but I don’t consciously think of having been transplanted into the age-to-come.  But as Christians, we must also look forward to that reality – not simply as a future.  We have been transferred to a new life at the cross and we must live upon the foundation of that truth.

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.  The old commandment is the word that you have heard.  At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.  Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.  Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.  But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

First, the commandment is an old commandment.  It was commanded long ago: love your neighbor as yourself.  This is nothing new.  Yet while it is an old commandment, is it a new commandment?  The solution to this conundrum lies in understanding John’s redemptive-historical grid.

John is employing a two-age schema just as Paul does throughout his epistles.  We may speak of the present sinful order and the coming age of consummation.  As a result, our current age is defined by two points: Christ’s death-resurrection and His coming and subsequent consummation.  New Testament believers have a somewhat mixed experience.  They have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, but have not yet experienced the bodily resurrection and therefore encounter the consequences of the Fall into sin.  They rest on Christ’s finished work and have been renewed in the inner man, but continue to struggle with sin.

This age-overlap dynamic alters the way we understand God’s commandments.  We are still bound to keep them, of course, but we are only free to keep them in Christ.  Since all men born via ordinary generation are fallen in Adam, they are totally depraved and therefore unable to keep the law.

So when John writes “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” we can see how the two-age overlap is the proper interpretive grid.  The age of the curse – the sinful era – is passing away and the true light in Jesus Christ is already shining – particularly in the hearts of those united to Him by faith.

Through the sanctifying power of the Spirit that comes through union with Christ, believers are able to “do” the law because their relationship to the law is defined through Christ rather than through Adam or themselves.  As such they are justified on Christ’s account and because of their union with Him, the true lawkeeper, believers are able to “do” the law in freedom.

Therefore, the one who obeys the commandment demonstrates that he is united to Christ for “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light.”  Obeying the commandment acts as proof because only those united to Christ are able to do it.  But on the flip side, the one who does not love his brother betrays the fact that he is not united to Christ and belongs to the old order or darkness.  “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

This brings us to the question: Is John speaking about a new commandment or an old commandment?  Well, it depends on your perspective.  If you are asking from the standpoint of the requirements of the commandment, then it is old.  However, if you are asking about the believer’s understanding of the commandment and how it is to be kept [namely through whom] – then that is a redemptive-historical “new.”

It is, in fact, the case that Abraham’s descendants (i.e. those who have faith in Christ, see Gal. 3) become heir’s of the “world,” in Him who overcame and received the inheritance of the world from His Father. In Christ, we too become heirs of God and of the world. This is also the explanation of our Lord’s words, “The meek shall inherit the earth,” and Peter’s reference elsewhere to the New Heavens and the New Earth. Believers will come to possess “all things,” as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 6.

A proper understanding of the purpose of the land of Israel opens a new area of research into the significance of the Garden of Eden. Eden was a special place, a physical location (or land), in which Adam was place by God at Creation. It was the prototypical promised land. There is also identification between Eden and the Temple–the place where God is worshiped by man, and dwells with man. The presence of lilies, palm trees, and pomegranates in the very fabric of the Temple are meant to bring the minds of the people of God back to Eden. Phil Ryken notes:

[the Temple] really was like the gates of Paradise. And for many people the way of access was still denied. Unless they were priests they would never see the golden wonders inside. Only the High Priests would enter that most holy place. Yet however limited it was there was access. You see God was opening back up the way to Paradise. You might think of Solomon’s temple as a kind of spiritual portal. The paradise lost could be regained.¹

It must be firmly established in our minds that God was always, throughout the Old Testament era, moving toward the restoration of the blessing of Eden. This in turn ought to move our attention back to the Garden of Eden to find hints as to the land/world connection. This is the case if we begin at the beginning, with the creation of man.

In Genesis 2:7 we learn that God formed man “out of the dust of the ground.” The “ground” is man’s natural environment. [As an aside, there seems to be a relationship between man and the rest of creation as a direct result of his being made out of the ground. On account of man's sin and idolatry (Rom. 1) this manifests itself, in the greatest act of perversion, in man worshiping the creation (i.e. beasts, animals, tress, etc.). This explains why men now exalt the created order above the image bearer of God and above God Himself. The hippie movement of the 60's, environmentalism and all naturalized forms of religion are correct, in one sense, to draw a connection between man and the value of his environment. The fault lies in the subordination of man to the environment and, at the same time, the exaltation of the creation over the Creator Himself. The close relationship between man and beast may be argued, in part, from the fact that both are created on the same day (Gen. 1:24; 26-27), as living, moving and breathing beings. The dissimilarity is to be observed by the fact that man, who alone is made "from the ground," is alone the image bearer of God. We are told that the LORD commanded the earth to bring forth the beasts of the field, but we are not told that they are made from the "ground," nor that they bear the image of their Maker. Add to this that the Hebrew word for "ground" is [Adam]. The very name of the man is the name of the place from which he is taken. Genesis 1:24 is the first time the word [Adam] is mentioned. There it is in regard to the animals. God is said to have created ever living thing that moves “on the ground.”]

There is another reference to the “ground” found in Genesis 2:5 where we read, “…there was no man to work the ‘ground.’” The “ground” is the sphere of blessing and fruitfulness. Eden especially carries this meaning. God intended to create an image bearer who would “work the ‘ground.’” Therefore, God made man from the “dust of the ground” (Gen. 2:7). The sphere of blessing that would be the source of fruitfulness is the place that man is taken from. He is taken from the ground and he is created to work the ground. Adam is made to “be fruitful and multiply,” and to “dress and keep” the Garden. Adam is to work the ground and take the Garden out into the world. His task was to turn the world into the Garden.

Sadly, we know how quickly man forfeited his task by sinning against his Creator. In the pronouncement of judgment on man (Gen. 3:17-19) we discover that the sphere of blessing, the very place where man originated, is now cursed and turned into a thorny, barren wilderness that man will have to suffer toilsome labor in order to cultivate the once fruitful land. The “ground” is cursed on account of Adam’s sin. Adam was taken from the ground, the ground was the sphere of God’s blessing man–the environment in which blessings would be uncovered–but Adam rebelled against His Maker. God now curses the very place out of which He made man.

Adam’s sin and the depravity and corruption that he brought on all his descendants manifests itself, in the worst way, in the life of his firstborn son. Cain kills his brother, shedding Abel’s blood on the “ground” that he, incidentally, tilled. When the LORD confronts Cain He makes this astonishing statement: “The voice of your brothers’ blood cries out to Me from the ‘ground.’” Cain had sought to hid the body of his brother in the ground, but God is not limited by time and space, as fallen man wants to think about Him. The blood of Abel “cries out” to God to bring vengance and judgment on Cain.

The author of Hebrews picks up on the idea of Abel’s blood “crying out,” when he–while comparing Old Covenant and New Covenant worship–writes:

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, ¹⁹ and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24)

Abel was a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blood that Abel shed was on account of Christ. Abel, was a “righteous” man, putting his faith and trust in the promise of God for a Savior (Gen. 3:15). Just as Cain, the ‘seed of the serpent’ (1 John 3: ), killed Abel, the ‘seed of the woman,’ so the apostate Jews and unbelieving Romans, the ‘seed of the serpent’ (Matt. 3:7; John 8:44) killed Jesus, the Seed of the woman (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 3:23-38; and Rev. 12:1-5). The blood of Abel cried out from the “ground” for judgment on the ungodly, but the blood of Jesus “speaks better things than that of Abel,” crying out for redemption and salvation. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, agonizing under the realization of what He would suffer, Luke tells us that “his swear became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” The blood of Jesus fell into the ground in the Garden, and it was shed into the earth at the cross. While, the most important aspect of the blood of Christ is that it is sprinkled on the mercy seat in heaven, it nevertheless, falls to the ground, the place of curse that He came into the world to turn to the sphere of blessing.

Returning again to Genesis we soon discover that God pronounces a curse on Cain, further cursing the “ground” that had once yielded its fruit for him. Cain had shed his brothers’ blood into the ground, therefore, God cursed the ground, from which man was taken, to an even greater extent than he had before.

When Lamech, a descendant of Seth, bore a son, he called him “Noah” (lit. ‘rest’), because he believed that, “This one will comfort [lit. give rest to] us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed (Gen. 5:29).” Noah is also a type of Christ. Lamech names his son “rest” because he is believing the promise of God (Gen. 3:15), that He would send a Redeemer to give rest from the burden of sin manifested in God’s curse on the “ground.” Interestingly, Noah does give “typical” rest to the ground by obeying the LORD when he is called to go into the ark with the animals and his family. Man and beast, were brought into the ark. God would actually provide rest through the judgment He brings on the earth with the flood. Rest would be provided through judgment. Likewise, Jesus, the greater than Noah, provides eternal rest through the judgment He endures as the sin-bearer. When Noah left the ark, the “rest” that he typically provided for man is seen in the fact that he is, essentially, the head of humanity on a “new earth.” All of the flood narrative is moving toward the “re-creation” of the earth that had been so polluted by sin. So Christ, does not just redeem His elect, He also purchases the “new heavens and new earth” with His blood. He provides ‘rest’ for “us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.”

Moving backwards again to the creation account (Gen. 1-2) we learn that there is a “Sabbath,” a day of rest pointing forward to the eschatological rest that Christ would provide for us. It is interesting that Jesus healed many people on the Sabbath, giving rest from physical infirmities. In this way He was showing that He was the one who could give “rest” for the soul (see Matt. 11:25-12: 14 for support of this idea). In the OT the rest that Christ came to give is typified, first with Noah and the “ground” then with Israel and the “land.” Meredith Kline noted:

Another indication of the royal nature of God’s Sabbath rest is afforded when the Bible interprets the entrance of God’s covenant people Israel upon their royal inheritance as the securing of a Sabbath rest. Thus Israel’s occupation of the promised land is described as God’s gift of “rest” (menucah) to them (Deut. 3:20; 12:9; 1 Kings 8:56). In fact, in Hebrews 4, Israel’s dominion rest in Canaan (viewed as forfeited by the generation in the wilderness but typologically achieved through Joshua’s conquest of Canaan) is expressly interpreted in terms of the Creator’s seventh day rest…

The link here would be between typical “Sabbath rest” for Israel in the “land,” and eternal Sabbath rest for the people of God in the “new earth.” Again, the link between the promise that Abraham would be heir of the land and that he would be heir of the world is made through the relationship of Christ to the Sabbath.

The most amazing truth, unfolded in the book of Revelation, is that all the places that were representative of the sphere of God’s blessing (i.e. the Garden, Land and City) become the language of the redeemed church. Man becomes the environment of God’s dwelling, the eschatological sphere of blessing. The covenant promise that God would dwell with His people and that He would dwell in them is typified from Eden to Christ. In the New Covenant the land no longer has the typical significance it once had. Meredith Kline explained how it is that man no longer needs a typical environment for redemption:

At the consummation man leaves behind the external…he has developed through his earthly history…Glorified mankind is depicted as the city of God, the fullness of the new heaven and new earth…Scriptures identification of the eternal city with the glorified church (Rev. 21:9-10) is accompanied by its proclamation of a new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1) and thus intends, of course, no negation of the cosmic dimension of consummated creation…glorified mankind is encorporated into the archetypal Spirit-temple, with which…the cosmos has been intergrated. Hence…it is at once the people-temple and the cosmos-temple, together consummated in the glory temple.

It appears that this interchangeable language between the church as a Garden, Land, City and Temple is founded upon the fact that man is taken from the “earth, land or ground,” the original place of Glory and the dwelling of God with man. It is only through the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ that the “ground” is redeemed, and man again enjoys, this time to a much greater degree, the blessings of God on the land. The blessings of Christ on the land are really typical of His blessings on His people. It is image bearers with which God is most concerned. The environment is simply a way of showing the totality and comprehensiveness of His riches in Christ Jesus. In the truest and highest sense, “He makes His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

]]> http://historiasalutis.com/2009/05/29/a-biblical-theological-perspective-on-the-ground/feed/ 3 http://historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/ http://historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:50:07 +0000 Camden Bucey http://www.historiasalutis.com/2009/03/20/reverse-the-curse/ Read more→]]> We’re full into March and every baseball fan knows what time of year it is.  Furthermore, this is an especially wonderful time of year for true Cub fans.  We have especially elevated spirits and look forward to another potential championship year.  And it’s been especially feverish for that last few.  The 2003 season had a significant impact on the mind of those who frequent Wrigley Field.  Now we have "real" hope.  We have a front office willing to spend money to bring a championship to the North Side of Chicago for the first time since 1908.  We have a fighting chance to reverse the curse.  We’ve all heard that phrase with the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2005 Chicago White Sox (I’m getting sick) World Series wins.  The Cubs have won the division two years in a row, and the delusional Wrigley Faithful are looking forward to another season.

As amazing as a Chicago Cubs "curse" reversal would be, what about the curse of the Fall?  We all live under the curse of corruption and death due to the failure to be obedient under the covenant of works.  What does the Bible say about reversing the curse?  Actually, Scripture is very forthright in demonstrating how God will reverse the effects of the fall in the new heavens and new earth.

The blessing and curses of the covenant are spelled out in Deuteronomy 28.  Interestingly, the picture of the new heavens and new earth in Isaiah 65 are very similar, though they show the reversal of the curses.  This blessing to the people of God is rooted in Genesis 3:15 and later in Genesis 12 with the promise to Abraham.  At the heart of the blessing of Abraham is the receiving of the Holy Spirit.  Considered in terms of a prophetic perspective, we get a strong indication of the deep connection between Acts 2 and Genesis 12.  What takes place in Genesis 12 is in redemptive response to the Babel confusion of Genesis 11.  So what takes place in the day of Pentecost as the people hear others speaking an intelligible gospel in their own language is the eschatological initiation of the reversal of the confusion.  We have an eschatological advance on God reversing the curse.

¹¹Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. ¹²From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. ¹³For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

¹¹ Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν· οὐκ ἐγήγερται ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν μείζων Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ· ὁ δὲ μικρότερος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν μείζων αὐτοῦ ἐστιν. ¹² ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἕως ἄρτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν. ¹³ πάντες γὰρ οἱ προφῆται καὶ ὁ νόμος ἕως Ἰωάννου ἐπροφήτευσαν·

John the Baptist performed a very unique role in the history of redemption.  He was the final prophet of the Old Testament era and ushered in the new redemptive age that came with the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the anticipated Messiah.  With full indebtedness to Dr. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. at Westminster Theological Seminary through the teaching of his course Acts & Paul, here are a few thoughts about this passage.

Verse 11 says that among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.  He was the penultimate prophet who was raised up for the unique purpose of announcing the coming kingdom of the Messiah.  But doesn’t this statement contradict what we find in the next sentence?  The one who is the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  Aren’t those born of women ushered into the kingdom?  Surely, but citizenship in the kingdom of heaven “trumps” being born of woman.  We are now born of God and have Him as our Father through adoption.  The one in the kingdom is greater than John, because in his function, he is outside and prior to the kingdom.

John stood at the end of the Old Testament era of types and symbols and announced the coming of Messiah and His eschatological kingdom.  It is important to note that Jesus is making a redemptive-historical point.  He is referring to John in his function.  John was not outside the kingdom in the sense of not believing in Jesus the Messiah.  He is outside in redemptive-historical terms, not ordo salutis (or application of redemption) terms.

Matthew 11:11-13 does nothing less than present the dynamic of the already/not-yet – the interchange between this age and the age to come.  Dr. Gaffin speaks about redemptive history being elliptical.  An ellipse is a geometric figure (sort an egg-shape) defined by two points.  Redemptive history is defined by the two points of Christ’s death/resurrection and his return.

In this present day, we stand in between the two points.  We live in an time when Christ has come and earned redemption.  He sits and waits for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet.  He awaits for death to be conquered for his people.  He does not need to return to set up his kingdom, rather the kingdom is inaugurated – it has come.  John foretold it and Jesus continually announced it.  Rather, we wait for our King, who already reigns on high, to return and usher in the consummation of the kingdom in the new heavens and new earth.