At the mention of Paradise the thoughts go back to fair Eden where Adam, in the goodness of God, was set up with everything that could delight the creature God had made. To share the bounty of a beneficent creator, Adam had Eve given to him, and over the lower creation Adam was the divinely appointed head, and Eve was his companion in the sphere of his glory. The man and his wife had the whole range of the earthly Paradise to gratify an innocent nature, God only reserving for Himself the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the divine prohibition to eating of this tree being accompanied with the words, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17).
Alas! under the temptation of the serpent Adam and his wife ate of the forbidden fruit, and the righteous judgment of God came upon them, and they were expelled from the earthly Paradise, the ground being cursed, and man having henceforth to eat bread by the sweat of his face. Amidst the scene of sin and judgment there is a wondrous ray of hope as God announces the coming of a Deliverer in the Person of the Seed of the woman. Still, in God’s righteous government, man must leave fair Eden behind, his innocency lost for ever, there being no hope of a return to the primeval conditions on earth.
Men have long sought, by their own efforts, to bring about a Paradise on earth, every effort ending in dismal failure. Some, like Cain, have sought to introduce a city into their schemes, where all man’s glory and achievements could be displayed. What began with Cain was brought to disaster in the flood, for instead of having a restored Eden, man’s world was filled with violence and corruption. All around today we hear men cry for peace, no doubt hoping that with peace they might bring into being the conditions of the earthly Paradise, but instead, it is plain for all to see, the moral condition of the world grows worse, and rapidly proceeds towards the judgment of God that is so clearly predicted for it is the Holy Scriptures.
“With me in paradise”
The exclusion of Adam from Paradise was a very sad scene, for Adam was a sinner, having stolen from God what had been forbidden, and he went forth from Eden with the sentence of death upon him. Moreover, the way of the tree of life was guarded by “Cherubims and a flaming sword,” lest man in sin should be perpetuated for ever in this world, the everlasting memorial to man’s evil, the dishonour of God and the triumph of Satan. God in His wisdom, and in His mercy, kept from man on earth the tree of life.
Turning away from Eden to an altogether different scene, we view in Luke 23 another tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for there in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ we learn of the infinite goodness of God in giving His own Son to die for our sins, and of the dreadful evil that is in the heart of man, taking the occasion of the Son of God coming in flesh to heap upon Him all the dishonour of which his heart is capable, and taking Him with wicked hands to crucify and slay. Yet, in the wisdom of God, and in the love of God, that same cross becomes for the believer a tree of life, even as Jesus said, “the Son of Man must be lifted up; that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
While on the cross, the wondrous grace of God’s Son comes before us as He answers the malefactor who said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Here was one who confessed Jesus as Lord, and believed in his heart that God would raise Him from the dead. He was a son of Adam, and like his father Adam was a thief, and also like Adam the sentence of death was on him, but it was to him that Jesus gave the wonderful revelation of the heavenly Paradise, when He said to him, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (verse 43).
What a wonderful triumph for God! Man on account of sin had been driven out of the earthly paradise, but because of the work of His own Son on the cross a repentant sinner, who believed in Jesus, had the way opened for him to enter the heavenly Paradise. What gives character to the heavenly Paradise is that Jesus is there, the One whose death has opened the gates of heaven for all who believe in Him.
In Old Testament times there were many “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15), but now, for the believer this fear has been taken away, and death for them is but the gateway to being with Christ in the heavenly Paradise. Some, like Job, could speak of seeing God, after being raised from the dead (Job. 19:25–27), and David could write of seeing the Lord in righteousness, and awaking with His likeness (Psalm 17:15), while the writer of Psalm 49 wrote “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for He shall receive me” (verse 15), but these, with others, seemed to have light beyond their dispensation, and their faith laid hold of it.
“Caught up into paradise”
Paul received many revelations from the Lord, many of which he discloses in his epistles, but whether he received any of these at this time, when he was caught up into the third heavens, could not be said for certain. This he does tell us that he had “visions and revelations of the Lord,” and that the revelations when in Paradise were in “abundance” (2 Cor. 12:1, 7). We also learn that the things the Apostle heard were “unspeakable words,” and “it is not lawful for a man to utter” them.
Human language is evidently unable to convey to saints of God in their present mixed condition the bliss of the heavenly scene into which the Lord carried His servant. This enables us to understand that the saints of God in their “unclothed” state, who are now with Christ in the heavenly paradise, enjoy a wonderful order of things in the company of the One in whom they trusted while in the body here. Having been to Paradise, where Christ is, and where the departed saints are with Him, Paul was able to say that “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). The Apostle does not say, To depart and to be in Paradise is far better, but rather to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. For the Apostle, and for every true saint of God, it is Christ’s presence in Paradise that makes it a place of heavenly delight and rest.
Many wonderful divine revelations have been communicated to us in the writings of the Apostle Paul, such as God’s eternal purpose for the blessing of His own, the great mystery of Christ and the church, the changing of living saints into Christ’s likeness when the dead in Christ are raised and changed, and the precious truth of the rapture of the church to heaven at Christ’s coming. While we know these great truths in measure, there are still the “unspeakable” things of the Paradise of God to be known, and the beholding face to face of the things that we now “see through a glass darkly,” and “know in part“ (1 Cor. 13:9, 12).
The Tree of Life in Paradise
If the way to the tree of life in the earthly paradise has been guarded so that man in sin cannot remain in this world, how very wonderful it is that the tree of life has been held out to the faithful not in a renewed earthly paradise, but in the Paradise of God in heaven. This is brought before us in Revelation 2:7, where the Lord Jesus speaks to “the angel of the church of Ephesus,” and has this word of the overcomer, “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
Human life on earth has been restricted to three score years and ten, or a little more, and as before the flood, it will be to about a thousand years in the millennial age, but there is no restriction in the Paradise of God, for the saints of God in that heavenly scene will eat of the tree of life. Eternal life has already been communicated to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but this does not apply to his earthly tabernacle, received from Adam. Soon, at the coming of the Lord, the believer will receive his body of glory like Christ’s body of glory, and then we shall have eternal life in the way in which the Apostle Paul writes of it in his epistles. In Titus 1:2 we have this as a “hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began,” and it is spoke of as “that blessed hope,” for which we wait, and which will be in evidence at “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
The Heavenly Jerusalem
Having lost the earthly paradise, Cain and his progeny sought to make themselves happy away from God, building a city, and having there the inventions of human skill in music and science to occupy their hearts and minds. Abraham, a pilgrim and stranger in this world, refused the entertainments of the cities of the land of Canaan, waiting “for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). In Revelation 21 – 22 we see the city for which Abraham waited, and in connection with this city we see the paradise of God.
In the earthly paradise there was a river, and in relation to them the riches of the earth, the gold and precious stones (Gen. 2:10–12); in the Paradise of God the seer is shown “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). The source of divine life and heavenly freshness is God and the Lamb, and all flows from the throne that order all for His glory and the blessing of His own.
Here the tree of life is seen, in the midst of the street of gold, and “on either side of the river,” and the fruit of life is in constant supply for the delight and sustenance of those that God has brought into His heavenly rest. On earth, during the millennium, there are the nations, wounded so sorely in the divine judgments that were necessary to cleanse the earth from the pollutions of men, and the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations.”
How great will be the joy of the saints of God in heaven in the service of God, for “His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His Name shall be in their foreheads.” Our service them will be without the imperfections of the present time, and will be in closest intimacy with Him as seeing His face. So often in this world the features of the flesh appear in the servant of the Lord, but up there nothing but Christ will appear in us as we serve Him, for His Name, and all that that precious Name speaks of will be stamped upon us and all that we do.
Night will have for ever gone, with all that the darkness of the night speaks of, nor will there be artificial or natural light which prevails in this world, but all the light of heaven is divine from the Lord God. That scene of light will not end with the millennial day, but will pass into the eternal day, in which the saints, as associated with the Son of God, “shall reign for ever and ever.” All the blessings that are ours now, and all that is so soon to be enjoyed in the heavenly Paradise, we owe to the sovereign grace of God, and to Him who died upon the cross that we might drink of the water of life there, and eat of the tree of life in the scene prepared of God.
R. 19.11.69