When Adam and Eve sin, they are sent into exile away from the Garden of Eden. As they exit, cherubim with flaming swords guard the land of Eden so that no one will be able to enter and eat from the tree of life. Over-arching the whole story of the Bible, we see that this is an expression of God's wrath which will ultimately serve the purpose of his love. He sends Adam and Eve away the same way that he sends Israel into exile in Babylon - return in resurrection to their land can happen once they have died the death of exile.
The curse of disobedience is death. Adam and Eve will die. Death marks the punishment. Death also marks the terms of re-entry into God's presence and Eden. Leithart writes:
"Yahweh stationed cherubim at the gate of the garden to guard against every attempt at reentry. From Adam on, if anyone wanted to enter the presence of God, he would have to pass through the sword and fire of the cherubim. No man could return to feast in the presence of God unless he first died. Yahweh performed the first sacrifice by providing animal skins for Adam and Eve, and from that point on no one could approach God's presence unless he were clothed in an animal. He could return to life, feasting and the presence of God only by passing through death." (Delivered, 77)
Adam journeys from Eden outside, and the entrance back in is barred. The difference expressed in this geography is great. Adam was under rules of "taste not touch not" to prepare him for mature kingship. His destiny, along with Eve, is a priestly rule in creation, offering the inherent, latent, and as-yet-uncovered goodness of creation back to God. (Gen. 1:27-30) When he prematurely eats the fruit, he is expressing impatience with his own vulnerability. The serpent, in lifting up the truth that eating the fruit makes one like God, (Gen. 3:22), downplays (and outright denies) the other truth that Adam will die. Adam, in fleeing his created vulnerability, falls into an even worse vulnerability to death. Outside the gates of Eden, everything is subject to this vulnerability. Adam is no longer a ruler-in-training, but a slave.
Paul describes how the judgment and verdict on Adam is death and how the power of death then delivers all creation to a slavery under the dominion of death. This is what Paul means by 'condemnation' in Romans 5.
Whereas Adam's journey is from Eden out, Jesus' journey is from outside Eden back in. He crosses over from the world of death back into Eden. He is uniquely able to do this because he is God's Son. He always lives by the Spirit. Jesus' flesh is created by the Spirit, and in the flesh he lives by the Spirit. He is a heavenly man who has entered fully into a humanity that is in opposition to God, but he does not make common cause with humanity in its opposition to God. Come from Eden, he creates Eden everywhere he goes. But unless he dies, this is no different than Torah, because the world is still under the power of death, and still lives by flesh. His crucifixion is a submitting of his own flesh to the fiery swords of the cherubim guarding Eden. Presenting himself as the representative of a humanity enslaved to sin and death, Jesus breaks the curse on all humanity. The veil is torn. Resurrection is a re-presentation of the new humanity that undoes the former order. In Jesus, Adam is no longer a slave, but is a ruler again.
Paul goes on to describe how the judgment and verdict on Jesus is resurrected life and how the power of life then delivers all creation to a new dominion of life in the Spirit. This is what Paul means by 'justification' in Romans 5.
Debates about what justification means reflect some of the same difficulties I talked about in my post about "Recapitulation: a (Lengthy) Interlude." The atonement motifs all need each other. Motifs like 'substitution' specialize in the forgiven guilt of the individual sinner, but when abstracted from its natural soil in the Scripture, it can over-emphasize God's justice without adequately accounting for his love. Likewise, justification can be seen to reflect a forensic cleaning of the individual through that individual's own faith but which then consistently reduces Scriptural motifs about the corporate 'body' of Christ back to the looming, solitary individual. Motifs like 'apocalyptic war' specialize in God's victory over powers of evil in the world quite apart from the individual's thoughts and feelings, but when abstracted away from the Scripture, it can over-emphasize God's love (universal salvation) without adequately accounting for his justice. Likewise, justification is seen as universal, but it reduces this to say that 'everyone is saved' without adequately accounting for the biblical themes of baptism, faith, and entrance into the church. I think the way forward is in seeing that the Scripture accounts for both motifs and accounts equally for God's love and justice. Becoming more biblical will entail seeing justification as what happens to Jesus primarily, and secondarily to sinners and to the world. Trying to grasp the universality of justification as something for "all people" (Rom. 5:18) will be like trying to grasp a cloud of smoke when we don't stay rooted in the particularity of Jesus' completed work.
We will see more in future posts about how the 'universal' quality of justification is rooted in the 'particularity' of Jesus. We'll find that the objective, world-changing quality of what Jesus has done will entail looking at church a different way - not as merely a collection of 'saved' people, but as a completely new way of living in the world. When church is presented primarily as just a collection of people, we are falling into too much of a religious/secular divide: you have your grocery store for your food, your gym for staying in shape, your school for training in your chosen career field, and your church for salvation and knowing God. But church isn't just a time and a place to think about religious things. Church is a new people who think differently about everything. We should look at church not merely sociologically - the way we see it, but theologically - the way Jesus sees it. Church is new creation - new Adams and Eves who have re-entered Eden, living by the Spirit because they are gathered out of the fleshly dynamics of the world, offering the inherent, latent, and as-yet-uncovered goodness of creation back to God. It can only be this as we see the world gathered around Jesus. He is the key, start to finish, the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8). To put it another way, the world needs to become church.
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