Created in Peace and the Consequence of Sin
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And what he created was good. When he had finished creating he rested, for creation was complete. Indeed, it was very good.
In this creation there was peace. Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God. They dwelt with him. They had peace with him. They could speak freely with him and enjoy his company with no barrier between them. They also had peace within their own lives. There were no internal wrestlings that conflicted them. They had peace with each other. They were one flesh and had a relationship without suspicion, disagreement, or conflict.
Even the whole creation was at peace. It was all working just as it was meant to work. The cosmos was free from corruption, accomplishing the will of God just as it was meant to. The creation was free from futility and decay.
All things were at peace because God was rightly ruling over all things as King and Sovereign Lord. With God on his throne and all creation rightly subject to him there would be unending peace. This is because “the biblical concept of peace is one in which God’s authority and power over his created order are seen to dominate his relations with his world, including both the material and the human spheres.”1 Apart from submission to God’s authority there can be no real peace in any sphere of God’s creation.
Adam and Eve’s sin and rebellion against God’s authority ushered in the end of peace. Their one simple act of disobedience brought confusion, chaos, enmity, conflict and ultimately death2 into every sphere of creation. The peace they enjoyed with God was destroyed as they were banished from his presence. In their hearts, and the hearts of all their progeny, they harbored enmity towards God so that we have become enemies of God (Rom 5:10).
Their sin brought guilt and shame that stole their inner peace. Not living under the authority of our Creator means that we seek to put ourselves in his place. But authority that lacks omniscience, perfect wisdom and righteous intentions, along with the power to carry it out, necessarily brings indecision, harmful consequences, and error.
Their sin also introduced conflict between ourselves and others. This is seen clearly in Genesis 3 when Adam was so quick to cast blame on Eve. Rather than stand with her as her head and take the blame he deserved, he sought to distance himself so that she alone would be held accountable.
And finally, their sin brought destruction and death into the world so that “the creation was subjected to futility” and put in “bondage to decay” (Rom 8:20, 21). Now we live in a world that destroys itself through disease and natural disasters. Even more, there is a cosmic battle raging between God and the powers of darkness, the rulers, dominions and authorities.3
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1 S. E. Porter, “Peace,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Brian S. Rosner, D. A. Carson, and Graeme Goldsworthy; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 682.
2 Death, by its very nature, is devoid of peace. Paul tells us in Romans 8:6 that the mind set on the flesh “is death”, but the mind set on the Spirit is “life and peace.” Peace goes hand in hand with life. There is no true peace in death. The very phrase, “May he rest in peace,” is essentially an impossibility because as long as there is death there is not peace. True peace is fully brought about at our resurrection when our last enemy—death—is finally defeated.
3 Adam’s sin did not bring about this war, it was already raging when Adam sinned, which is why the serpent was tempting Adam in the first place. However, once Adam sinned humans became unwitting combatants for Satan as we fell under his dominion as the god of this world.
Posts in this Series:
Introduction
Peace (shalom) in the Old Testament
Created in Peace and the Consequence of Sin
The Gospel of Peace and the Death of Jesus Christ
Peace with God
Peace Within
Peace with Others
Peace in Creation and the Cosmos
Excursus – Is Peace an Attribute of God?
Called to Be Peacemakers
[...] Created in Peace and the Consequence of Sin In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And what he created was good. When he had finished creating he rested, for creation was complete. Indeed, it was very good. In this creation there was peace. Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God. They dwelt with him. They had peace with him. They could speak freely with him and enjoy his company with no barrier between them. They also had pea … Read More [...]