The Pleasure of God’s Soul – Part 3 – Adjusted Perspective

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In our pursuit to understand the strong warning at the end of Hebrews 10, we are examining the assumption that the whole Story is about forgiveness and redemption. If these are the only issue, then the warning threatens our eternal security. Are we in danger of “loosing our salvation”? Could we really go to hell if we screw up?

So, we returned to the beginning of the Story, to see if we missed anything.

We started with the Bad News behind the Good News. In summary, the Bad News is that, in the Garden, we chose to -

• Abandon the identity and significance that was ours as God’s representatives.
• Abandon the fulfillment of life in the Garden -  the sustenance, beauty, and intimacy available there.
• Align ourselves with the enemy of God, making ourselves rebels, objects of God’s wrath.
• Follow a path leading to physical death.

This raises the question, “Is the situation hopeless, or can all that was lost be recovered?”

Actually, from the very beginning, there is hope. But the hope was not in redemption but in the anticipated defeat of the enemy responsible for the overthrow of God’s kingdom on earth, and in the reversal of the effects of the curse. They are not looking forward to being forgiven, they are looking forward to a time when the threat to God’s Kingdom is crushed, and when they can rest in the abundant provision of the earth, rather than toiling in sweat, battling thorns and thistles.

Which raises the question of whether our perspective still too limited? Is our understanding of the Story too self-centered? Is it about more than the personal loss for us? Read more