no return ticket

So I had one of those weeks where all of a sudden you comprehend something in a totally new way. Something was articulated in my prologomena class but then a book I was reading for a my counseling class helped.

Sinclair Ferguson said in The Christian Life:

'Perhaps the most wonderful thing of all is this: God lifts us not only from what we are by nature to what Adam was in the Garden of Eden, but what he was to become in the presence of God and what he would have been in the presence of God.

The Gospel does not make us like Adam in his innocence- it makes us like Christ, in all the perfection of his reflection of God.'

I think some where I had this strange idea if Adam had never sinned then he had a perfect relationship God. That he would not need to progress, to learn discipline, or basically be sanctified. However that is a completely false notion. Whether or not Adam disobeyed or obeyed God, he was still to learn, to grow, to perfect until it was time to be united with God permanently. God's plan for us was not a perpetual Eden, in which we remained innocent and unchanged.

His purpose for us was always growth, always to have his name glorified through us, always a greater end. And some how last week, this finally broke through in a new way. Its implications for counselling are amazing because we are never trying to return, but we are constantly pressing forward. We will never return to Eden. We will never return to the state of Adam before the fall. We will never return to innocence. And neither we will ever return to the reign of sin.

Instead we are going forward, moving in grace, attaining sanctification all through Christ. Through Christ we attain this perfection, experience growth and are changed day by day so that when we stand before the throne of God we are everything we were meant to be because of Christ and in Christ.

So while I get this nostalgic idea in my head about Adam never sinning, or even worse a world without growth and progress I must called to mind that God always purposed something more for his creation. Our growth, our sanctification in Christ allows us the full benefits and joys of a relationship with God, even more than Adam had in Eden with God.

The call is not to return to innocence but to move forward in obedience.