EDEN TO PARADISE

EDEN TO PARADISE 

Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden with a blameless soul that they themselves had generated - before Satan appeared on the scene. Their souls enjoyed perfect relationship with God – knowing nothing but the love of God and being grateful and obedient to him in all things. When they were tempted and fell into disobedience their souls lost that perfect relationship and they were cast out of the garden.
Eden was a beautiful garden and had many trees and they ate the fruit of them, except for two of the trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. A river called Pishon flowed out from the garden where there was gold and the Bible says that the gold was good – a lot in that statement!

The Garden of Eden was a picture of Paradise - a Persian word for a walled garden, and it signifies a state of perfect joy and peace, and divine presence. That divine presence and protection of their Paradise was lost for Adam and Eve and for humanity when they sinned against God and ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then barred Adam and Eve from the Tree of Life to prevent them from eating its fruit and living forever in their fallen, sinful state. God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever (Genesis 3:22). Death entered - awaiting resurrection.

Five other things that were changed or lost by and through Adam and Eve in Eden and restored for us through Jesus in a new true Paradise. 

The Garden of Eden and future Paradise. 
The two trees – The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of life – big changes.
The River flowing from Eden to Paradise in Revelation – big change
The gold of the garden becomes the substance of the Heavenly City in Paradise. 
The presence of God and its power in every present moment is now our Paradise.

1 When Paradise was closed off and barred to humanity because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience it was reopened in Christ on the cross, as the Tree of Life. 
In Luke 23:43 a robber on a cross next to Jesus had just rebuked his fellow robber for mocking Jesus, saying to him ‘we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong’. He asked for Jesus to remember him in the Kingdom and Jesus said to him ‘Today you will be ‘with Me’ in Paradise’. Access was given to a sinner who was mercifully and lovingly forgiven. 

Eden is not just reversed at the Cross - Paradise is now centred in a Person -‘with Me’, Paradise is not simply where we go - it is what happens when nothing obstructs the presence of ‘God with us.’ That is where Paradise started, and that’s how we currently find it, and that’s where it finishes in our final ‘age to age’ existence. Adam in Genesis closed it, Jesus opens it, we live in it now – within us – Book of Revelation completes it.

2 The two trees – The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of life.
What we eat becomes physically part of us. What tree we eat from determines what we become in our inner life. The tree of Life is the indwelling life that Jesus won for us on the cross that we can choose by faith to live out of. The Tree of knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve ate separated them relationally from God and from one another. It became all about ‘What is good is only what is good for me’ - ‘I am right and you are wrong’ 
Instead of the knowledge of good and evil being the answer for humanity it became the problem. When Eve saw that it was ‘desirable to make one wise’ and shared the fruit with Adam, their covetousness for that self-centred meaning of ‘good’ corrupted their wisdom into foolishness. The Bible describes that tree of knowledge kind of wisdom. 
if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.( James 3:14+).
James goes on to say that this corrupted wisdom causes us to live in conflict with others and in conflict within ourselves. We know we are eating from the wrong tree when we get emotionally involved in proving we are right and get irritable if someone won’t see things our way. The Tree off Life prompts us to wait and listen for God to speak into the situation.
The Tree of Life stood at the centre of the garden, and it represents ongoing participation in God’s life - Not mere immortality, but dependent, relational life. Access was open until the fall. After the fall Humanity was barred from the Tree (Gen 3:22–24) and Cherubim guarded the way. The key meaning of the Tree of Life is sustained communion with God as the source of life so the crisis of our lives is not just death—it is the loss of access to divine life.
The Tree Reappears as the Cross - Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24)
This is not accidental language. What was once guarded in Eden becomes given at the cross and the reversal is life changing. We can put to death the tree of knowledge in us and be risen up to life in the Tree of Life. It is a commitment of faith that works by love.

3 The River that flowed out from Eden flows through to Paradise in Revelation.
This is now the River of Life within for the Tree of Life being Lived in Jesus.
River once flowed from Garden – life flows from Jesus through Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us that our life is now “in Christ” – we become participants in the flow
Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east…7 I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, 9. “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down and enters the sea; And everything will live wherever the river goes. 

Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb - through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (ongoing).

4 The gold found in the garden  - everything in the Heavenly City in Paradise is of gold.  Gold speaks of value. It speaks of material value and also of spiritual value. The world stores up gold for economic power and influence and in this its value gets corrupted.
The value of Spiritual Gold is that it speaks of the nature of God that dwells within us through Jesus. Peter wrote that the gold is tested through fiery trials of faith to be refined (1Peter 1:7) Job said, when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. (Job 23:10).

The ark of the tabernacle had gold on the inside and was covered by acacia wood on the outside – Humanity overlaying divinity. The interior of Solomon’s Temple was overlaid with gold, the final dwelling place of God in the Old Testament. Jesus said he was that temple. And Paul says we are now that temple on earth.
1Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 
Gold is always being revealed through what is being destroyed (the not us). 

The silver redemption shekel buys the gold of God’s nature. 
Every man shall give a ransom for his soul…”  Exodus 30:12
The silver is explicitly called atonement money, ransom money, Redemption is silver.
Joseph and Jesus were both betrayed by silver. Both gold and silver can be corrupted.
They appear in Revelation regarding Babylon’s corrupted wealth – The gold is greed and silver is betrayal. Then silver disappears from Paradise in Revelation as final redemption has reached its goal and the Heavenly City is pure gold
Revelation 21:18 The city was pure gold… And the street of the city was pure gold, 

5 The presence of God - and the power of this present moment that Jesus owns.
2 Corinthians 5:13 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
Reconciliation awaits our believing and receiving by faith to experience our new reality of being as a ‘New Creation’ (2Corinthians 5:14-21). God awaits the awakening of the world that he has reconciled. His longsuffering (macrothumia – extended heartfelt waiting without retaliation) is our age-to-age salvation (2Peter3:15)

Faith comes into focus when we become conscious of what God is doing rather than what we are doing – God consciousness instead of self-consciousness. 
God desires drawing near to us more than we do to him, and he does this to achieve non-separation between himself and us – Divinity and humanity reconciled into one New Creation - God with us. Pray this reality into your spirit.

Thank you Lord for your loving presence – and for your powerful work you are doing on my behalf in the world of the unseen. 
Thank you for your mercy on my shortcomings and your forgiveness that has gone before in all things. 
Thank you for this moment that you own in which you are reordering all things.
Thank you for including me in this moment of your Kingdom being reordered in my life.

That kind of faith leaves you living with a new hope

Paul OSullivan  pauloss@me.com