Blog

Nearly every day since we settled into our new home in Depauw, IN my wife and I speak of being amazed that God has given us such an amazing home on such a gorgeous piece of property.  The home we purchased (or are paying the bank for) sat empty for a year or more and we are astounded!  Now, the home is not lavish.  It is a simple home built in 1964 by a couple who had been, up until we moved in, its only occupants.  And, the property may not suit a city boy's fancy.  But we truly feel like the Lord reserved this spot just for us.  We are amazed!

One of the things we think is cool about our neck of the woods are the sounds of train whistles in the evenings.  In Southern Indiana train tracks are very much still active, and we have a train that runs several times a day in the valley about a mile below our house.  The sound of the whistle is nostalgic.  It makes us long for a by-gone time as it echoes on the hills.  Kinda eery, even, how it generates a weird longing in me for yesteryear.

So often this is true of us spiritually, as well.  Deep within us human beings lies buried a sense of tragic loss.  Something is not just missing; something has gone tragically wrong with us and the whole world around us!  We've lost something precious, but because of sin's effects in us we grope blindly to find it until God's grace in Christ comes to us via the gospel.  This sense of loss is surely one of those truths we sinners "suppress in unrighteousness" (Rom 1:18).

Something has been lost!  In the beginning of creation, God pronounced things "very good" (Gen 1:31).  But very quickly in the Bible's history of this world we see tragedy strike the human race, and consequently the rest of creation (we were, after all, supposed to be ruling the creation as God's vice-regents).  The first man and woman, called Adam and Eve, tried to be autonomous.  They wanted to achieve something no human ever can or ever will - complete freedom to act as one desires with nothing to prevent one's will from becoming reality.  This kind of freedom only exists in God!  We were not made autonomous creatures, but very dependent beings.  The limited freedom we had in Eden disappeared in a flash when Adam and Eve disobeyed their Creator God.

Now, we are even more dependent creatures!  The promised freedom of sin and Satan backfired BIG TIME.  Instead of more freedom we got less - so much less that we became and have ever since been slaves (see John 8:34).  Now, we cannot not sin (bad English grammar, but still true).

I hear well-meaning Christians somtimes say we need to "return to Eden."  I get the sentiment.  It's the "train whistle syndrome."  For sure, Eden would beat the mess we live in now!  But here's the kicker - God always had more in store for His people than Eden.  If you and I could go back to Eden somehow, we'd still mess it up just like Adam did.  How do I know this?  Because Adam represented us all.  And, God chose him to be our representative.  Adam perfectly represented us all as human beings.  If we were Adam, we'd have bitten the forbidden fruit, too, maybe even sooner in the creation narrative than he did!

A preacher I heard one time said Adam and Eve sinned to try to be more like God but they didn't understand they were already as much like God as they were ever going to get.  Let me just say, "I hope not!"  If that were true, we are hopeless and doomed to repeat an endless cycle of disobeying our Majestic Creator.

This really is the point of Romans 5:12-14.  Because we are "in Adam" we all sin and we all die.  We are Adam's race, his children.  He perfectly represented us in that Garden on that fateful day recorded in Genesis 3.  We sin and die because of our union with Adam, our head.  But praise and glory to God His purpose and plan was always for something bigger and better than Adam and Eve in a Garden!

The rest of Romans 5 tells us of a new race of people - recipients of "the free gift" which is not like the lost freedom of Eden.  "For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abudance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (v. 17).

Hallelujah!  Jesus perfectly represents His people, too!  Those saved by grace through faith in Jesus are no longer just "in Adam."  We are now "in Christ," the Second Adam.  His righteousness is given to His people.  His headship reigns.  His glory is being restored in us, dear Christians!

And the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, promises us something far better than Eden.  The Bible's whole story-line is that through the Eternal Son of God who became flesh and died in place of His wrath-deserving people, God is moving His redeemed people from a Garden to a City!  And the City is better (though as a country boy it seems counter-intuitive for me to say such a thing).

"No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him.  They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads" (Revelation 22:3-4).

Now, that's a train whistle worth longing for!  That's true freedom!