From the Beginning: Jesus’s Desire to Speak with Us Directly
The Bible tells one story from beginning to end. God’s pursuit of intimacy with His people. He never designed humanity for distance, ritual, or endless sacrifices. His plan was always direct fellowship where he would be walking with us, speaking with us, and being near to us. Yet sin fractured that design, and humanity chose to hide, to retreat, to set up intermediaries.
The remarkable thread of Scripture is that God never gave up. Again and again, He simplified the path back to Himself, making righteousness accessible even when people strayed. From Eden to Sinai, from the wilderness to Calvary, God consistently pointed to the day when all barriers would fall. And in Jesus, the true friend and Savior, that longing was fulfilled.
1. Eden: Walking with God in the Garden
At creation, humanity’s relationship with God was unbroken. Genesis 3:8 paints a picture of intimacy: Adam and Eve heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The Creator came not as a distant deity demanding ritual, but as a Father and friend desiring conversation. This was righteousness in its purest form; true harmony with God, others, and the rest of creation.
But when Adam and Eve sinned, their first instinct was to hide. They covered themselves with fig leaves and withdrew into the trees, similar to how easy it is for us to run or push away accountability. Shame severed intimacy. Righteousness gave way to rebellion, and the face-to-face fellowship God had designed was lost. Notice, though, that God still came looking. “Where are you?” He called (Gen. 3:9). His heart had not changed. He still desired direct fellowship. It was humanity that chose separation.
Lesson: God never wanted sacrifices or systems. He wanted righteousness, a right relationship where we walk and talk with Him freely.
2. Sinai: “Do Not Let God Speak to Us Directly”
Centuries later, after rescuing Israel from Egypt, God once again drew near. At Mount Sinai, He descended in fire, smoke, and thunder to speak His covenant to the people. The scene was awe-inspiring: the mountain trembled, the trumpet blasted, and the people stood at the foot of holy fire (Exod. 19:16–19). God was offering direct relationship once more.
But the people recoiled. Overwhelmed by fear, they pleaded with Moses: “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exod. 20:19). In effect, they rejected intimacy and asked for an intermediary. And so God gave the Law for us to use a way to know how to walk with him. This was a system of priests, sacrifices, and commands to govern their relationship with Him. Much later down the story we find that instead of looking at the law like a way to understand our God’s love we interpreted in our own twisted way that elevated those who knew the law and control others.
This was not God’s ultimate desire. Through the prophet Hosea, He later declared: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). And David prayed: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it” (Ps. 51:16). What God wanted was righteousness, hearts turned toward Him, but Israel wanted a buffer.
Lesson: The Law was never the final word. It was a concession to human fear and sin, a tutor pointing toward Christ (Gal. 3:24).
3. Wilderness: The Bronze Serpent
The wilderness years revealed again how helpless humanity was to live righteously. Despite God’s provision, the Israelites grumbled and sinned repeatedly. At one point, their rebellion brought judgment in the form of venomous serpents. Many were bitten and dying, and the people cried out for deliverance (Num. 21:4–7).
God’s answer was shocking in its simplicity: He instructed Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and tell the people to look at it. “Everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live” (Num. 21:8). No sacrifices. No rituals. Just look. The cure was faith, believing God’s word and acting on it.
Jesus later made the connection unmistakable: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). The serpent was a foreshadowing of the cross. Salvation is not earned; it is received by faith. Righteousness is not built on works; it comes by looking to Christ.
Lesson: God has always been stripping away intermediaries, showing us that righteousness comes by faith, not by human effort.
4. The Veil Torn: Removing the Final Barrier
For generations, the temple in Jerusalem stood as the center of Israel’s worship. At its heart was the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God’s presence. But it was separated from the people by a heavy veil. Only the high priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, could enter with blood to cover the sins of the people (Lev. 16). The veil shouted separation. It reminded Israel that unrighteousness keeps humanity away from a holy God.
When Jesus was crucified, the Gospels tell us that “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51). This was no accident. God Himself ripped apart the symbol of distance. Through Christ’s sacrifice, the barrier of sin was removed once and for all. He bore the full punishment. The whips, the nails, the spear; every blow was for us. Worst of all, He bore the crushing weight of separation from the Father: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).
And yet He endured it for love. Like the truest of friends, He suffered what we deserved so that we could be restored to righteousness. The torn veil was heaven’s declaration: the way back to God is open.
Lesson: The cross reveals both the depth of our sin and the greater depth of God’s desire to bring us near.
5. The One Mediator
In a world full of priests, rituals, and religious systems, Paul’s words ring clear: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Christ is the only mediator because He alone bridges the gap perfectly — being both fully God and fully man.
But His mediation is not like Moses standing apart from the people, relaying words from a distance. Jesus mediates by drawing us into Himself. He is the High Priest who brings us into the presence of God (Heb. 4:14–16). He doesn’t just cover our sin; He clothes us in His righteousness. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Lesson: In Christ, mediation doesn’t keep us away, it brings us near. His righteousness becomes ours, and His access becomes our access.
6. From Law to Spirit: God Within Us
God’s plan didn’t stop with tearing the veil. His ultimate goal was not simply access to His presence but indwelling of His presence. Through the prophet Jeremiah, He promised: “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it” (Jer. 31:33). Ezekiel echoed: “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes” (Ezek. 36:27).
This was fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in believers. Paul drives it home: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1 Cor. 6:19). Righteousness is no longer about external law-keeping but internal transformation. God’s Spirit empowers what the Law only demanded.
Lesson: God has moved from dwelling near us → to dwelling among us → to dwelling within us. Righteousness is not something we achieve; it is something God works in us by His Spirit.
7. The Holy Spirit: God Walking With Us Today
When Jesus completed His work on the cross and rose from the dead, He didn’t just leave His followers with memories or teachings. He promised them a Helper, a Comforter, One who would walk with them in the present age. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17). The Spirit of God is not a distant force. He is God Himself, living with us and in us.
This is the continuation of what God always desired in Eden: to walk with His people. Now, through the Spirit, He does just that in our daily lives. The Spirit convicts us of sin, comforts us in weakness, and empowers us to live in righteousness. He doesn’t just remind us of God’s commands — He gives us the strength to carry them out. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). In other words, the Spirit doesn’t just tell us what righteousness looks like. He produces it within us.
Most importantly, the Spirit aligns us with God’s will: to love Him and to love others. Paul says, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). That love becomes the fuel of mission. The Spirit equips us not only to live holy lives but also to bring others to Christ. Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8). God walks with us by His Spirit so that His righteousness spreads through acts of love, forgiveness, service, and testimony.
Lesson: The Spirit is not just proof of our salvation; He is the very presence of God walking with us now. He enables us to love like Christ, live in righteousness, and draw others into the friendship with God we ourselves have received.
8. Looking Forward: Face-to-Face in the New Jerusalem
The story ends where it began, with God and humanity together. John’s vision in Revelation describes the New Jerusalem, a place where no temple is needed: “For the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). Here, righteousness is no longer partial or imperfect but complete. Sin is gone, death is gone, separation is gone.
And the most stunning promise of all: “They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:4). The God who once walked with Adam and Eve in the garden will walk with us again, forever. What was lost through sin has been restored through Christ. Every lash of the whip, every wound of the nails, every ounce of separation He endured was for this. So that we could dwell in righteousness with God for eternity.
Lesson: The goal of redemption is not just forgiveness, but restoration. Righteousness that allows us to see God face-to-face forever.
God never wanted sacrifices. He never wanted distance. He wanted righteousness. He wanted hearts walking rightly with Him. Our lives lived in friendship with Him. Our sin created separation, demanded blood, and required intermediaries. But Jesus, the faithful friend, bore it all. He endured the pain, the nails, the forsakenness of the cross, so that we could come near again.
From Eden to Sinai, from the bronze serpent to the torn veil, the thread is the same: God longs to speak to us directly. And through Christ, He has made the way simple… look, believe, walk in righteousness. Through His Spirit, He walks with us now, enabling us to love others and bring them into the same friendship with God.
The question is not whether God wants to speak to us. The question is: are we still hiding in the garden, still standing back at Sinai, still searching for someone else to go before us? Or will we step forward in faith, trusting Jesus, and walk in the righteousness He died to give us?
