God with us

One of Jesus’ names is Immanuel: Hebrew for “God with us.”

Reading the Gospels it is rather obvious that while Jesus was always ethically righteous before the Father he was not always “with” the Father or as “close” to the Father in a significant way. Being tempted in the wilderness was not the same experience of God’s presence as being in the cloud of the Mount of Transfiguration.

Likewise, God was with Adam in “the cool of the day” in a way that was distinct from his presence with him before. In some real sense God was absent from Adam and Eve, testing them to see how they would act on their own.

It is possible to talk about God’s absence or presence with his creatures without needing sin to be a consideration. Even a sinless creature could rejoice in a promise that God will one day be with him.

In fact, before sin was in the world we are told of a created barrier between God’s heavenly throneroom and the earth. On the second day of creation God made a “firmament” between heaven and earth. This second day’s work, unlike the other five days, is missing any report of God seeing that it was good.

The story of the creation of Eve tells us that God can make things that are temporary and “not good” as a permanent situation. It was not good for man to be alone, yet God created him that way in order to bring about a change for the better in the future. This gives us a clue as to why the boundary between heaven and earth is not declared to be good. It was meant to be ended.

And Jesus’ mission, while dealing primarily with sin, also dealt with this created barrier that had no reference ot the Fall: God sent Jesus to accomplish “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph 1.10).

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