Page 371 - Maranatha (1976)

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Garden of Eden Restored, December 12
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in
the midst of the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:7
.
The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become
an outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted
to gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the
watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory
was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they
renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of which
had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread the
world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a flood
of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the earth. But
in the final restitution, when there shall be “a new heaven and a new earth”
(
Revelation 21:1
), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the
beginning.
Then they that have kept God’s commandments shall breathe in immor-
tal vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants
of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the
perfect work of God’s creation, untouched by the curse of sin—a sample
of what the whole earth would have become, had man but fulfilled the
Creator’s glorious plan.
Adam is reinstated in his first dominion. Transported with joy, he
beholds the trees that were once his delight—the very trees whose fruit he
himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines
that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care
for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is
indeed Eden restored.
Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will
“grow up” (
Malachi 4:2
) to the full stature of the race in its primeval
glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and
Christ’s faithful ones will appear in “the beauty of the Lord our God,” in
mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh,
wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with
eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
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