The Hope of the Garden of Eden on Steroids!
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-3
The “river of the water of life” and the “tree of life”… do you remember where those two grace gifts first appeared in the Scriptures? (Talk about rhetorical questions!) Of course… in the Garden of Eden! For God to include these two great realities in the new heaven and new earth underscores a few magnificent truths about the glory of the story in which he’s placed us and the incomparably amazing life we will celebrate forever after Jesus returns to finish making all things new.
The end of God’s Story is even greater than its beginning. John’s description of the tree of life, as it appears in the New Jerusalem, is way more impressive than it’s description in Genesis 1-2. In fact it’s so big it has to straddle both sides of the river of the water of life! The point? In the gospel we’re not trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. In fact the Garden of Eden was just a preview of coming attractions! The new heaven and new earth will be the Garden of Eden on steroids! Everything enjoyed in part in the Garden will be “super-sized” in the new heaven and new earth.
Affirmed again: The history of redemption is a story of restoration not replacement. God is not going to destroy the first creation world and replace it with an altogether different world. “New” means “re-newed” in God’s Story, and this concept absolutely “rocks” and regales Jesus as a great redeemer! It also deeply encourages us to stay present in the places of systemic brokenness and darkness as servants of the gospel of the kingdom. Our labors in the Lord are not in vain. Our mission continues until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea!
Our life in the New Jerusalem is going to be a life of freedom, pleasure and diversity. The very tree from which we were prohibited to eat, because of sin and death, will be our eternal buffet! Free access to the tree of life and you won’t even have to sign up for the a “fruit of the month” club cause every month this tree will offer a new crop! Can I wrap my mind around that promise? No way! What do months mean in the state of eternity? I haven’t got a clue, but the image sure thrills my soul! There will be nothing boring or inhibiting about the life we share forever.
God has placed us in a story of global healing and lush life. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations and the river is a river of life. Not only will your heart, body and mind be perfectly healed, but whole nations will enjoy the same restoration. Oh that our local churches may learn how to live and love missionally as glocal churches, for God has placed us in a big pan-national story of reconciliation and healing. And, lastly, all glory be ascribed to our great and gracious God, for the headwaters of this mighty river of the water of life are traced right back to the throne of God and the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, who died the death that will annihilate death and lived the life that gives all things new life.
