Creation and Fall
So God, in an overflow of love, spoke this world into existence. He created galaxies, stars, waterfalls, animals, seas, trees, and all things seen and unseen to portray His glory. The Bible tells us that the glory of God is God's beauty put in display for all to see. So when God created everything to "glorify Himself", that means He is showing us the only thing that can satisfy us: Himself. The Bible also tells us that creation is telling us the glory of God. God has created the universe as an invitation to enter into the wonders of His love. Every good thing around you tells you something about your Maker!
Think about your friends. Reflect on the times you laughed with them, the times you danced with them, or cried with them. Maybe you have a significant other; think about the times you've held her or been held by him. Think about your family, and the times they've sacrificed for you, comforted you. The joy, beauty, wonder, and love present in our lives are words from God about the profound joy, beauty, wonder, and love in His own heart.
The Bible tells us that God made mankind in His own image. That doesn't mean God is some human-like thing in the sky; He is unlike anything present in creation or formed by our imagination. This means that God created man as a sort of mirror; to reflect His wise rule, love, and goodness into the world, and to reflect the beauty of creation back to God in the form of praise. He created Adam and Eve, the first humans in the human race, to spread His presence by imaging Him throughout the world.
In spite of all of this, any of us who have lived for more than a few years know that our world is place of both profound beauty and profound pain. There are moments that bring tears of joy to our eyes mixed with moments that wrench our hearts. There is genocide, human trafficking, deep violence, and death that permeates the world we live in. How did a world created with beauty mix with brokenness?
Adam and Eve were placed in a garden called Eden, a place of paradise and peace, to work the ground and joyfully spread the knowledge of God. They were united together as husband and wife, made to work without conflict or hardship for God's glory. God, because of His love for them, gave them every tree in the garden for food--except for one. This tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them that if they ate from that tree, they would die, because rebelling against the source of all life cuts you off from life. However, in the garden, there was a being who had rebelled against God, embodied in a "serpent" figure.
He claimed that Adam and Eve could be like God if they ate from the tree, and that God was trying to hide something from them. Eve believed the lie. She disregarded God's commands, and "sinned". That means she chose to ignore what God tells us to do, and made herself the god of her own life. She took the fruit from the tree, and gave it to her husband. Adam, in another act of rebellion, chose to take the fruit and eat it too.
Adam and Eve's story is our story too. The Bible says that God has written His commands on our conscience. And yet, if we're really honest with ourselves, every day we've all done something we know we shouldn't have. Every single person reading this has made mistakes, and messed up. The Bible tells us that Adam's sin had consequences not only for himself, but also for all of his descendants. Sin spread like a cancer, from Adam to his descendants, bringing separation from God.
As a result, death, disease, pain, suffering, evil spread through the human race. Just like Adam and Eve, people tried to know good and evil without knowing God, developed different ideas of right and wrong, and became selfish and self-centered. Conflict, war, and violence all spring from our inability to agree with one another and our selfishness. If you have siblings, friends, or parents, then you know what I'm talking about! Our conflicts most often happen when we disagree and we put ourselves first. Be it a fight over a toy, an argument with your parents about curfew, a conflict with your spouse about the kids, the themes of disagreement and selfishness always pop up. On a world-scale, we see this in segregation, genocide, bigotry, and war. Creation itself started to go horribly wrong, as God gave it over to the corruption that followed man's rebellion.
God, being perfect in justice, must judge these rebels. Why? Imagine a bank robber who goes into court, and gets let off without punishment. Just think about the international outrage when a man who's done something horrible goes free, or gets let off with a punishment that doesn't correspond to the seriousness of the crime. Are the judges in these cases good judges? So if God is a good judge, He cannot let our sin go unpunished. And if sin is the rejection of God, the sum of all good in reality, then sin is really, really horrible. It merits a punishment that corresponds to the crime: separation from God. Therefore it merits separation from all good things, and opposition to God forever. Since perfect good must be opposed, and completely reject perfect evil, so God must completely reject and oppose all those defined by evil for all eternity--every single one of us. This is what we deserve; this is hell.
Yet God still richly loves us. Yes, He sees mankind doing wicked things to each other; He sees the pain we bring each other and the tears we cause. Yes, His anger burns against our evil. In spite of all that, His longing is still for us to know Him. He loves us. In His great love for us, He decided to make a way out.