6. Who are We? - Part II
Chapter Two
Sons and Daughters of God
[The Word] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.1
John was not the first to use the phrase, “children of God,” for all Jewish people viewed themselves as the “sons of the LORD.”2 And as a Jew, John knew that if he failed to follow the Law given by his Father God, he would forsake his status as God’s child:3
They have dealt corruptly with [God], they are no longer his children because of their blemish; they are a perverse and crooked generation.
In his writings, John expounded on this well-established tenet. First, he declared that we must become a son or daughter of God through a process of spiritual birth, where we are “born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Then, in his first epistle, he revealed the mechanism behind the mysterious act of being “born from above”:4
No one born of God commits sin; for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil.5
Thus, to be born of God means that God’s “seed” is present within us.6 All who receive the Word are given the “power to become children of God” because the seeds of Life, Light, and Love are laid up in their hearts, resulting in an actual spiritual change by which they are transformed after the likeness of the seeds themselves.
The process of new birth is the exact phenomenon I saw while watching the first man eat in the Garden. God gave the fruit of the Tree of Life in the beginning—and will give it again in the end—so that by freely eating of this sacred food, the seeds of God’s Word enter into us. And when God’s seeds abide in us, sin loses its stronghold because we are being born of Life, Light, and Love.
Keeping and Cultivating the Garden
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.7
I loved to watch the first man move about the Garden. Once, I saw him kneel and gently pick up a small round stone. As he gazed at the stone, eyes beaming with joy, he breathed upon it, and the three seeds of God’s Word poured from his lips. Life, Light, and Love surrounded and entered the stone, resulting in a sudden burst of white light. Then, to my great surprise, the stone transformed into a living animal.
Another time, I observed the man walk into an expansive meadow where soft white grasses gently swayed. The man paused and surveyed the vast landscape. Stretching out his arms like a priest giving a blessing, he breathed upon all he beheld. As he did so, God’s seeds poured forth from his lips, and the grasses of the prairie suddenly transformed into a multitude of exotic plants, each shining with the brightness of a star.
According to Genesis, man was placed in the Garden of Eden for the purpose of keeping and cultivating it. The Hebrew verb translated as “keep”8 means to act with vigilant protection, like a shepherd keeping watch over his flock.9 God commissioned the first man to protect the Garden through watchfulness and keeping out those who seek to destroy, in the same way that a good shepherd ensures the safety of his sheep by fending off predators. The Hebrew verb translated as “cultivate”10 means to labor with the soil.11 The Creator commissioned the first man to work the soil of the Garden, changing and improving the land through his faithful service.
While reflecting on those Hebrew verbs, two things struck me. First, we are meant to protect the Garden from forces that seek to do harm. Second, God placed us here to improve the Garden over time. When the first man breathed upon the stone and the meadow in my vision, he was performing these two tasks. By sowing seeds of Light, he infused the Garden with that which could conquer any encroaching darkness. By sowing seeds of Love, he animated the Garden with that which created it anew. In the paradise of Life, God chose us to be the ones to introduce Light and Love, thereby filling all things with the fulness of God’s Word.
By eating freely of the fruit of the Tree of Life, the first man gradually laid up God’s seeds within himself. Continually born anew by the boundless grace of that great tree, he received the power to become a son of God, increasingly capable of doing the work of God within the Creator’s Garden. God gave him unrestricted access to the Word so that he could be like God and sow these seeds into the soil of Earth.
Holding these insights in my heart, I saw clearly that if I—a man created by God—will faithfully sow the seeds of Life, Light, and Love into all that I see and touch, then I too will cultivate God’s glorious Garden. I was created to become a doorway through which the fulness of God’s Word can enter and transform all of Creation. The Garden of Earth is a foundation of Life, eagerly longing for us—the sons and daughters of God—to participate in God’s work of Creation by breathing Light and Love into all that is.12
Image and Likeness
What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet, thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.13
In the beginning, God spoke the seeds of Life, Light, and Love. We, as the image of God on Earth, have the capacity to do the same. By eating freely of the fruit of the Tree of Life, the Word enters and abides within us in increasing measure. As we lay up God’s seeds in our hearts, and then breathe them out into the world as freely as we receive them, we become like God.
When God chose to “rest” on the seventh day,14 the work of Creation was still unfinished. Earth was a paradise of Life, innocent and incomplete. God rested because the remaining work of Creation is now ours to fulfill. We are the lords of the Earth, created to keep watch over the Garden by vanquishing shadows through the seeds of Light and cultivating the Garden so that it blooms with Love. Our great commission is to fill all things with the fulness of God’s Word, thereby completing what God established in the beginning.
(Click here for Chapter Three…)
John 1:10–13
Deuteronomy 14:1
Deuteronomy 32:5
John 3:3
1 John 3:9–10
sperma in Greek
Genesis 2:15
shamar in Hebrew
Genesis 30:31
abad in Hebrew
Translators use various English words for the Hebrew abad depending on the context of the passage. For example, in Genesis 31:6, abad is translated as “served”: “You know that I have served your father with all my strength.” (See also Exodus 1:13.) In the narrative of the Garden of Eden, the context clearly indicates that the focus of the first man’s “service” is to work the soil. Specifically, Genesis 2:5, 3:23, and 4:2 each combine abad with the Hebrew word adamah, meaning ground or soil, hence the translation “cultivate.”
Romans 8:19–22
Psalm 8:4–5
Genesis 2:1–4