Step 5: Read:

God is a triune God and exists as community – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When God created the world, his creation reflected this divine community. God was in community with humanity. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were in perfect community with one another and reigning with God, exercising dominion in the earth in perfect community with creation.

When sin entered the picture (Genesis 3), that community was shattered. The image of God in man was marred and community with God was undone (Genesis 3:8). The community that existed between our first parents was shattered, as man and wife moved from unity and vulnerability to division and shame. Humanity also became at odds with creation (Genesis 3:16-19). Satan usurped man’s dominion in the earth and the world fell into the lap of the evil one who is now the “god of this age” and the “prince of the power of the air” (1 John 5:19; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:1- 3).

The fabric of creation was now unraveled by sin. It was under the powerful influence of God’s enemy, full of evil, brokenness, injustice, tears, and death, but God clearly revealed that this is not the way the world would remain. The prophets spoke into this fallen world declaring, in so many words, ‘there is coming a day when all this will change. Everything will be made new, restored, the fabric rewoven to the way it is supposed to be.” People before Christ’s coming looked for the day when the Messiah would come – a divine King who would defeat God’s enemies, and begin to reign in the earth, establishing God’s Kingdom. Through his reign, he would restore God’s design for creation. He would renew the marred image of God in man (love and holiness) and restore humanity to community with the triune God. He would create a new human community reconciled to one another that would reflect the divine community in their relationships. And he would restore creation to its original design, reweaving the fabric of creation to create an environment that images forth the beauty and glory of God and provides a realm for the flourishing of the human community. Through the work of this divine King, the Savior, this “present age” would be replaced by the “age to come.”