Creation is what it is because it reflects the design of God and the presence of God. This is not a pantheistic way of viewing creation as if God is in everything. However, we are told that the visible creation does declare something of the reality and existence of God (Romans 1:19ff). Creation is divine condescension; God coming down to reveal Himself to what, once, was not. The Psalmist concludes, "The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein," (Psalm 24:1).
The world, therefore, has rightly been described as the theatre of God. Creation is about life and the life of life is the presence of God! Life is only life when it is connected to, lived in, and lived out of the presence of God. Nothing is truly understood unless or until it is understood in connection with the presence of God. That includes, not only, everything that can be known but also mankind's understanding of ourselves.
The problem of Genesis 3 is the attempt of Adam and Eve to live, understand reality, truth and even their own existence, independent from the presence of the Lord. That is what sin is and, because if that, it is where shame, dysfunction, chaos along with self and relationally destructive actions and attitudes originate. What happened in the garden was the most self-destructive thing that mankind has ever done and when we sin, we are merely repeating the pattern. Thus, for our health - our physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual - we are taught in the whole of the scripture that man was created to continuously experience the taste of infinite pleasure in and through the glorious presence of Lord. Thus, the whole of the redeeming activity of God is the call back to His presence which, now, is not merely a place but a person - Jesus Christ.
It is not odd that the New Testament book that opens with language that corresponds to the creation account also speaks about Christ as the presence of God. John says the following:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... 14 And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son
from the Father, full of grace and truth.... 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at
the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:1, 14, 18, emphasis added).
This is one of, if not the most, theologically packed chapters in all the Bible for many reasons. One of the reasons is the theology of the deity of Christ. Christ is God in the flesh who has revealed God (v1,14). The word "revealed" means, literally, to tabernacle which represents the Old Testament tabernacling God did with Israel while in the wilderness. The tabernacle represented the presence of God among His people. Jesus, in the flesh, was now the fulfillment of the tabernacle. Therefore, John says that seeing Jesus is seeing the glory of the Father.
Yet, as if that were not enough, it gets richer...more intimate. God designed redemption, before creation, to involve not simply Jesus, God with us (Matthew 1:23) but God in us. Wonder of all wonders! The God who took up residency on earth in Christ is not the God who takes up residence in us such that Paul could define God's presence with us a "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
What is even more amazing is how the connection between us, Christ, and the mission of God to spread His presence around the globe continues. Paul says something stunning in First Corinthians 6: "...do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:20). Do you see the connection?
Jesus dwelt (tabernacled) among us (John 1:14) and now we, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, are not tabernacles but temples! Tabernacles moved from place to place but the temple, for Israel, represented the permanent, earthly, location of the presence of God. When Paul says, "do you not know...." we should understand that the "you" is plural, not singular. It stands to show that the church, not merely individual Christians, represents the visible witness and location of God's presence upon the earth.
What Adam and Eve forfeited because they chose to live a life outside of the confines of the presence of God, Christ has come to renew and restore. A saving relationship with God, therefore, can only be found, understood, and experienced in the context of the people of God - the church as it represents and proclaims the gospel of Christ. The benefit, therefore, is not for all created human beings. The experience and transformative dynamic of God's powerful presence is now, singularly, the knowledge and experience of the re-created - the redeemed
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!