Were we ever separated from god?

What do I—and many in the early church—actually mean when we speak of “illusory separation.” It has nothing to do with denying sin, denying its consequences, or making the cross symbolic. It has everything to do with refusing to grant sin a metaphysical power the New Testament never gives it.

“Illusion” Doesn’t Mean “Unreal." It Means “Not Ultimate.”

There’s a difference between something being experientially real and being ontologically true. Adam and Eve’s exile, the curse language, the cherubim—all of that is the biblical way of narrating the real world consequences of believing a lie about God. But what was the lie?“You are not like God.”“God is withholding good from you.”“God is not trustworthy.”

When they believed that lie, they experienced alienation, fear, and shame. They hid from God—God did not hide from them. Separation was real on the human side, but it was never real on God’s side.

This is why the first thing God does after “the fall” is come walking toward them (Gen. 3:8).Not away. Not withdrawing. Not banishing Himself. Their experience of separation was real. But God’s separation from them was not. The early church fathers—especially Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus—taught that humanity broke fellowship in consciousness, but God never broke fellowship in being. That’s why the incarnation is possible at all.

Exile Is the Fruit of Deception, Not God Cutting Himself Off

Adam and Eve leaving the garden was not God saying, “I cannot be near you.”It was God saying, “You cannot remain in this state while eating from the tree of immortality.”It is an act of mercy, not rejection. Death itself becomes the arena where God heals humanity, not a punishment He uses against us (Heb. 2:14; 2 Tim. 1:10). The “curses” in Genesis 3? They are descriptions of the consequences of alienation—not declarations of God’s eternal posture. Read closely: God never curses Adam or Eve. The curses fall on the serpent and the ground, not the image-bearers.

Calling Separation “Illusory” Protects the Cross—It Doesn’t Undermine It

If we say humanity was literally, metaphysically separated from God, we create bigger theological problems:

• How can anything exist apart from the One “in whom all things hold together”? (Col. 1:16–17)

• How can we be “in Him” from the foundation of the world? (Eph. 1:4; Acts 17:28)

• How could David say, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7)

• How can Paul say that God was never counting our sins against us? (2 Cor. 5:19)
  

If separation is ultimate, the incarnation is impossible.

But if separation is relational and experiential, then the cross becomes the place where God steps fully into our delusion, our darkness, our death, and heals it from the inside. That is not symbolic. That is not psychological. That is the invasion of Divine Life into human death.

“Reconciliation” in Scripture Is One-Sided: God Reconciling Us to Him

Notice Paul’s precision: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”—2 Cor. 5:19

It does not say:“God was reconciling Himself to the world.”

Why? Because God never turned away.We did.Humanity needed reconciliation.God did not.

The cross is not God changing His mind about us.It is God changing our minds about Him.

Old Testament Saints Needed Christ—But Not Because God Was Far From Them

You’re absolutely right that even Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and David were saved through Christ alone.But the writer of Hebrews also says:

• They walked with God

• They knew God

• They pleased God

• They heard God
  

This is not possible if God is metaphysically separated.It is possible if the separation is real in our experience but not real in God’s nature.

Jesus came to heal the human condition, not to fix a divine problem.

God’s Holiness Is Not Fragile or Withdrawing—It Is Healing

Holiness in Scripture is not“God cannot be near sin.”Holiness is“Sin cannot remain near God because God is a consuming fire of love.”

Holiness is not allergic to sinners.Holiness restores sinners.

This is why Jesus is the exact image of God:

• He touches lepers.

• He sits with sinners.

• He allows a sinful woman to wash His feet.

• He walks into the tombs.

• He becomes sin, enters death, and fills it with life.
  

Jesus redefines holiness by revealing what it has always been:Love that repairs, not love that withdraws.

Redemption Is Not God Fixing Himself Relationally—It’s God Fixing Us Ontologically

We absolutely agree here:The cross is essential. Sin is real. Death is real. The consequences of the fall are real.

The question is: What did the cross actually accomplish?

• It didn’t change God’s posture toward us.

• It changed our condition before God.

• It didn’t make God able to love us again.

• It revealed the love that never stopped.
  

The cross is not a rescue from an imaginary problem—it is a rescue from a real bondage created by believing an imaginary lie about God.

Yes—Love Never Overrides the Human Will. But Love Never Abandons Either.

Human response matters. Repentance matters. Faith matters. Transformation matters.

But the foundation of all of that is Christ’s objective victory—a victory that was God’s gift to humanity before we ever knew it (Rom. 5; Eph. 2). Repentance is not what makes reconciliation possible.Reconciliation is what makes repentance possible.

Final Thought

• Sin is real.

• Its consequences are real.

• Redemption is essential.

• Christ’s work is actual, not symbolic.

• Holiness and nearness are two expressions of the same love.

• The human will matters.

• The cross changes everything.
  

I believe separation is real in our experience but never ultimate—and the cross heals the lie at the root of it. The Father never stops being the Father, even when we stop seeing Him.

That’s why Jesus says,“If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.”Not the Father after the cross.The Father always.