The Kingdom of God: 2 | Paradise Lost

In the beginning, God created everything to not only be ‘good’ – but to be untainted, unbroken, and affected by sin, death, and unbelief. God created the earth to be a place where nothing obstructed mankind from having a relationship with Him, the Creator. But we messed that up pretty quickly in the Garden of Eden when adam and Eve stopped listening to the voice of God, the King and decided for themselves what they would and would not do. We call this, The Fall (Genesis 1-3).

recovering what was lost

Jesus said in Luke 19:10 that he, the Son of Man, came to save that which was lost. Notice he doesn’t say who, he says that. While he did come to save people, his agenda was bigger than that and it has to do with the Kingdom of God that he was announcing.

When Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden as a consequence of The Fall, they lost their position in the Kingdom as well. Their now sinful condition was unacceptable in the presence of a Holy God, they had to go. Their sin removed them from God’s intimate presence, and his Holiness kept him from being in close relationship with sinful man. At this moment humanity lost its place in the Kingdom and its position in the hierarchy of God. We were given dominion, but now we had lost it. We were given unfettered access to the Father, now we had lost it. We were given the prestige of God’s presence and an intimate relationship with Him, now we had lost it. We were given unlimited access to the Tree of Life, now we had lost it. This is ‘that’ which Jesus came to recover, this is what he came to save. Jesus came to restore us back to a position of blessing and favour within his Kingdom.

paradise lost

The garden of Eden was the first paradise on earth. In the original Hebrew, Eden literally means place of paradise, and the word paradeisos in Greek is the equivalent, which is where our English word paradise comes from. This is super important.

The word paradise comes from the root word pardec which means forest or orchard. It was often used to describe a manicured garden, hence ‘paradise’ is often associated with perfect natural beauty. The Persian monarchs during the Old Testament era, (for example Cyrus the Great c546 BC) had pristine gardens built around the King’s house. These gardens and parks were highly manicured, filled with exotic animals and fruit orchards; absolutely stunning and beautiful. So when the Persians used the word paradise, it meant a walled enclosure containing this incredible and exotic private garden. Now stay with me.

When Jesus was on the cross, one of the thieves on a cross next to him had this conversation with Jesus; And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)

It’s as if Jesus was saying, today you will be with me in the Kings Garden; my Garden.

When the Apostle Paul was speaking in the third person about being caught up into the 3rd heaven, he used the same word as Jesus; I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise… (2 Cor 12:2-3). The third heaven you say? Let us divert for a brief moment…

Third Heaven

Paul said he went to the third heaven, and he described it as the Kings personal Garden, inside the wall, when he called it ‘paradise’. In Genesis 1 we are told that God created the heavens and the earth. The 1st heaven is the one we live in and under, it is the natural heavens where we look up and see the sun, stars, moon and planets. This is what we see when we look up to the heavens.

The second heaven is a spiritual dimension, it is not seen physically or discerned naturally. It is where the spiritual principalities and powers exist. The place of spiritual warfare, where angels do battle (as described in Daniel 10:13-20). This is why we are told that our fight is not against flesh and blood, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). These evil and wicked spirits can not possibly exist in the same ‘heaven’ as where the throne of God is, they cannot be in the Paradise Garden of the King where Paul was taken in the third heaven, so it stands to reason that they must exist in what we call the second heaven. I will devote more time to this topic in a different series. Let us return to the topic at hand; What was lost and what was recovered.

PARADISE RECOVERED

A quick recap: Adam and Even were evicted from paradise, Jesus promised to recover what was lost, he also promised a dying sinner who confessed him as King that they would be together in paradise, and the Apostle Paul described heaven – the eternal dwelling place of God, as paradise. Now, this is the really exciting part. In Revelation 2:7 Jesus makes this astounding promise;

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

The beginning our the human story started with Adam and Eve in a garden, eating from the Tree of Life, and ends with Jesus reopening his Royal Paradise Garden to humanity and once again giving them access to the Tree of Life! Jesus came to save and recover our place in his Paradise! This is what the announcement of his Kingdom is about, the recovery of that which was lost.

Next we’ll look at God’s original intention, design and purpose for us as revealed in the first Garden. By considering how it was intended to be, we can see how it should be (and how it shouldn’t) and how those of us who have entered the Kingdom of God can begin to be transformed more and more into who we were created to be by responding to the voice of the King who is leading us back to Paradise.