11 Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden

Read Genesis 3

Intro

The Bible uses Heaven and Earth to describe God's space and our space.
In the beginning, these spaces overlapped perfectly (Genesis 1-2)
God created a common place for Himself and humanity to cohabitate and called it the Garden of Eden.
Tempted by the evil one, humans decided to have autonomy and live in a world where they rule, apart from God, and so the two spaces were driven apart (Genesis 3).

The Temple

During their travel from Egypt to Canaan, God gave Moses instructions to build a tabernacle (mobile church tent) to meet with His people.
God wants to live with his people, so he made a place (tabernacle/temple) and a practice (animal sacrifice) for humans to be forgiven so that God's space and humanity's space could once again overlap.
Animal sacrifices was supposed to absorb the sin when the animal died in your place. And it creates a clean space, so to speak, where you are now free to enter into the temple and be in God’s presence.

Heaven and Earth Overlap in Jesus

In the Gospel of John 1:14, we hear that God became human in Jesus and “made his dwelling among us.” (dwelling in Greek uses the word tabernacle=he set up a tent among us).
So, wherever Jesus went, the Kingdom of Heaven was present because of Him.
Christ dying on the cross replaces the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. His sacrifice unites us with God wherever we are.
When we unite ourselves with Christ, we also become a "dwelling" place for the Lord to reside in.

The Future: Heaven Comes to Earth

Heaven and Earth are reunited through Christ and will be completely brought together one day when He returns.

About the Garden of Eden:

Was a place where God’s space and humanity’s space were one (The Kingdom of Heaven).
We lost this privilege by sinning.
God sent Jesus to bring us back into this place.