The first picture we have in scripture of the reconciliation of God is actually in the beginning in the garden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and believed THE lie that there was something that they had to do to be like Him. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they died spiritually.
As was His custom, the LORD was waiting for Adam and Eve to walk in the Garden with them in the cool of the day. His desire to be with them and His thinking toward them had not changed at all. Adam and Eve’s thinking toward the LORD had changed. They were hiding from the LORD. They had made a covering for their nakedness by sewing fig leaves together as they tried to deal with their sin according to their own efforts. By the way, they failed just as man fails today as He tries to do something to be acceptable to LORD.
The word used for LORD in the Old Testament is YHWH. It means I AM. YHWH is the one that met with Moses at the burning bush. He is the one who came to Abram and declared him righteous because he believed Him. He is the one who wrestled with Jacob. He is I AM that I AM.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament who I AM is. None other than Jesus Himself said, “Before Abraham was born, I AM.” Jesus here was claiming to be I AM of the Bible. He was claiming to be the God of the Old Testament. The Jews present picked up stones to stone Him because they knew exactly what it was that He was saying. He was saying that He was indeed God.
YHWH, (pre-incarnate Christ), called out to them when He said, “Adam, Eve, where are you?” Their reply was comical, when they said, “We are hiding.” To think that anyone could hide from the one who created the universe and knows all things. What we are going to see next shows the character and intention of YHWH (Jesus) from the beginning or even from eternity past.
He asked them why they were hiding as if He did not know. He knew, but He wanted them to know. They were naked in their own efforts to please God. There was nothing they could do to please God. There is nothing that can be done today to please God. Good news, there is nothing you need to do to please God. He loves you, and He desires oneness with you so much that what He did next shows how He really feels about you.
The Bible says YHWH made a skin covering for man’s nakedness. What makes this covering better than the one man made for his own nakedness? Up until this point, nothing had died on the earth or in the Garden. But now, YHWH Himself shed the blood of an innocent animal to make a skin covering for man’s sin.
This is a big deal because it shows a picture of the cross and the blood atonement of the coming Christ. The one who carried this out in the garden was the one who would be carrying it out on the cross. This is a picture of the atonement. Before we saw that the Mercy Seat was actually a picture of the atonement. This even pre-exists the mercy seat. This is, in the beginning.
I believe that the atonement as far as God is concerned actually existed in God’s mind before time existed. I have said before that God said that he chose us before the foundation of the world. Also that people before the cross looked forward to the cross for believing resulting in salvation and we look back to the cross.
I am going to go ahead and say that in God’s mind it was finished on the cross before time began. I said before that it was fleshed out in time when Jesus willingly went to the cross as He became sin so that in His death, burial, and resurrection His life would become our life. This is the atonement.
The word atonement in English means to be lifted out of the camp of the enemy and placed into the camp of the friendly. That is exactly what Christ has done. Because of His atoning death, burial, and resurrection which was in effect before time existed and was first displayed in the garden, we have been made right with Him and placed into the camp of the friendly.
Sadly, I don’t know why, but some people choose not to receive and believe what has been done for them and given to them is theirs. As a result, they don’t benefit by the atonement as far as it pertains to their life. They are not born again. All is done and given to them because of and through the cross, but they choose not to walk in what is theirs and are not benefiting from what Christ has already done. They need to believe and receive and be born again. More to come.
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