31-2:3 So God created man in his own image, in the

image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them . . . . And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested

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from all his work which he had done in creation.

On the seventh day, everything is very good. He’s finished, finished, done, done, done (He repeats it several times), rested, rested, shabbath, shabbath . . . sabbathed from all His work. For on the seventh day, everything is very good.

God the Father is content, satisfied, pleased and delighted in all He has made. And that would include you. He’s not angry, frustrated, or upset. God declares the seventh day “holy.”

But where is it? By chapter 2, Scripture is describing the sixth day. And thousands of years later, man is still being made in God’s image.

The seventh day can hardly be the Garden of Eden, for not all is good there. Why would you need a garden, unless outside there was “not garden”? Surely that snake is not “all good.” Surely Adam and Eve are not yet made in God’s image, for the snake tempts them to make themselves in God’s image.

So where’s the seventh day? When’s the seventh day? Maybe we haven’t arrived quite yet. As we discovered in the last chapter, physics indicates that from the standpoint of the beginning, the universe is about six days old. Not seems like six days old, but because of the laws of relativity is actually six days old.

So maybe the seventh day is in the future. Yet Hebrews 4:3 tells us: “God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world.” That would be even before Day 1! Every other day in the story has an “evening and morning.” But the seventh day has no evening and morning. It’s a “unique,” different, holy day (Zech. 14:7). It’s like it has no duration. So maybe God is eternally resting even while He’s always working in time.

Well Jesus says His Father “has been working until now” . . . now being 2,000 years ago, just a little before Jesus cried from the cross, “It is finished.”

Jesus is “the End.” And Scripture testifies that the “end of the ages;” “end of the

aions;” “end of the evers,” has come upon us in Christ (1 Cor.10:11). “Jesus Christ and

Him crucified” is the door to the seventh day.

So last time we drew this picture; maybe it’s like this:

At the beginning of time is the Big Bang, there are six days, and then there is the end—the judgment—the Day of the Lord—the seventh day. Jesus is the judgment and the end . . . and also the beginning, the source, the root. Maybe Day 7 is all around the timeline. At the cross, the seventh day is revealed, and God gives meaning to all things through His Word. Perhaps Day 7 is an eternal reality, while days 1 through 6 are

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temporal realities. Chronological time, our time, is a created reality. That would mean that time exists inside the seventh day; like “in God we live and move and have our being;” like “the kingdom of Heaven is really at hand.” Whatever the case, our time exists in God’s time, God’s eternity.

What I’m trying to say is that we are surrounded by the seventh day, surrounded by Heaven, and surrounded by God, like a baby in a womb is surrounded by its mother though it has not yet seen the face of its mother.

After I tried to explain this at church one weekend, I talked to a friend of mine who sometimes sees visions. She said, “Peter, I didn’t understand what you were talking about when you drew that line and then the seventh day. So I prayed, ‘Lord, what is Peter talking about?’” (By the way, that’s a prayer I highly recommend.) She then said, “Peter, I looked up, and I saw Jesus lying on the communion table.” (He is the body and the blood, you know.) “He was lying on the communion table—and this is weird—but He was, like, giving birth . . . to us. But we weren’t yet born; we were being born.” And I said, “Oh, that’s exactly what I’m talking about!”

Jesus said we must be “born from above,” (John 3:3) and we are being born from above. So life is not a test like an algebra test, but like being born is a test. God is not waiting to see if we’ll pass or fail. He’s testing us like gold or silver is tested and purified. It’s not to determine “if” there is good; the test delivers the good and destroys the “not good.” He’s preparing us for eternity and “an immeasurable weight of glory.”

Being born is a test! It’s hard to think of anything more traumatic. Actually, I’ve blocked it out entirely. I was safe, warm, and comfortable when my entire world closed in on me - expelled me. I died to my old world and was born into the new. A doctor took a knife and cut away, what I thought was most precious, what I thought was a part of me, the most important part of me: the chord that bought life to me in the womb and the placenta with which I was attached to that womb - my world. I was judged. I was cut. One day our flesh will be cut away; this old world will be cut away… and we will remain.

It was a test! As that old world pressed in on me, it forced fluid from my lungs. I exhaled my old world and inhaled oxygen in a new world. I used that oxygen to exhale terror. I cried out in shock and pain … but my father laughed. He spoke. It was a voice I had heard even in the womb. He held me in his arms. He looked me in the face. He spoke… and I rested.

When my son was born, he was battered and bruised, crying his lungs out. They put him in my arms still howling. I spoke his name and immediately… He stopped.

Well, by the power of “incorruptible seed,” we are being born out of this womb of a world, out of the confines of space and time as we know it; born out of this world and into the new creation: the seventh day—God’s Sabbath day.

That’s our hope, and God doesn’t want us to forget it. So He commands the Sabbath as if to say, “Yes, Israel, I know the journey is hard. The whole earth groans in travail. So every seventh day, hear my word, even in the womb. Hear my word and remember:

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I deliver you, and it is finished. I sanctify you, and it is finished.

Rest in that knowledge . . . or die. If a baby refuses to be born, it will die… or never live. Rest in that knowledge . . . or you’ll stay dead. Maybe we haven’t even begun to live and

we don’t yet even know what life really is.

Adam and Eve “died,” but I wonder if they were ever fully alive? Whatever the case,

We’re being born out of time and into Eternity

Well, I’ve asked you to think of time as a line. But now I’d like you to picture it as a space – the space in which we live. Perhaps you could think of it as our world, our earth. Perhaps you could even think of the timeline as lying on the surface of the earth. (That is how we measure time. One rotation of the earth, we call a day… but the seventh day is different, holy). So, in the picture below, think of the space above the line as Heaven or the 7th day and the line as the surface of our earth, the edge of our space and time. So the space above the line is the seventh day. Below the line is the sixth day—the 666 Day: sin, exile, bondage, death, Sheol – our time. Our time comes to an End, just as this old earth will come to an End. This also is the 7th day.

Remember that the creation story is about at least three things: the first Adam (that is, all humanity), Israel (the people of God), and Jesus (the last Adam—the Eschatos Adam); it’s about three things and you.

We know that these three things happened in the following order1… at least according to our knowledge of time:

1) God took something of Himself (His Breath) and breathed it into earth and made

Adam. But Adam fell. “The day you eat you will die,” says God: sin, exile, bondage,

death, and eventually Sheol, which begins here, in this world. Adams line sinks into the earth. [doted line].

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2) Then God took something of Himself (His Word) and sent it to old Adam and made

Israel. But Israel rebelled and failed to enter the promised rest: sin, exile, bondage,

death, and a valley of dry bones. Israel’s line sinks into the earth [dashed line].

3) Then God took Himself and wrapped Himself in Israelite flesh and the body of Adam. His name is Jesus. At the cross, God “made him to be sin, who knew no sin.” (2 Cor. 5:21) and He descended into death and Hades and rose victorious on the third day. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. “Christ the firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:23). “Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15) “All the promises of God find their Yes in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:20) He is the door to the seventh day. Jesus descends in to the depths of the earth and rises from the dead. [solid line]. “The substance” of the Sabbath belongs to Him (Col. 2:17).

Jesus is the Substance of the Sabbath

Adam (mankind fell) and did not enter the 7th day. Israel fell and did not enter the promised rest: