God’s Plan, In My Own Words
God created the world for the purpose of sharing his life with us. In the biblical language, Eden is the place where God’s life and the life of the world meet together in perfection.
However, Humanity has rebelled against God—we have preferred to put ourselves in the center and have therefore said to the Creator, “No, thank you.” This rebellion has resulted in destruction, a destruction that would have been total had not God never stopped caring for Creation. (This broad sweep is recounted in Genesis 1-11, and then again over and over again through the rest of the Old Testament.)
The Lord then chooses one man—Abraham—and plans to save all of humanity through this one man’s family. The family becomes known as Israel, and God makes a covenant with Israel that involves instructing them how to live in such a way as to bring blessing wherever they go.
Israel, however, doesn’t heed God’s instructions, and rather than bringing forth blessing into the world often brings forth violence and hatred and curses. Israel lives in constant enmity with the nations.
But the Lord does not abandon Israel nor the Edenic ideal. Throughout the long Old Testament centuries, the Temple in Jerusalem is the place where Heaven and Earth meet—the Temple represents Eden. And then, in just the right time, God the Father sends his only Son as an Israelite who keeps the instructions perfectly and even dies in between Jews and Gentiles—between Caiaphas and Pilate, so to speak. Jesus’s death fulfills the divine plan and now blessing is released to the whole world and membership in God’s family is open to all who trust in Jesus.
This means that Jewish ethnic practices are not what define the people of God, but rather just the simple act of trusting in the gospel. From now on, God’s Spirit is pulling back into one people the divided peoples of the world, but God’s design is not a uniformity but a unity—we are different, but united.
And now, rather than a Temple built with human hands, it is God’s people—the unified Church—who are where heaven and earth meet. God’s Spirit is present among and through his unified people. Wherever God’s people are, they are meant to bring Edenic blessing with them until Jesus returns and perfects all things.