It was in true love and mercy that God closed the garden of Eden and guarded the way to the tree of life, lest man in a fallen and sinful state should have eaten of that tree and have lived forever. Had Adam partaken of the tree of life, neither he nor we could have been saved, but must have lived forever in a condition of sin, and at an infinite distance from God. Hence it was mercy that led our God to take steps so that man should not eat of that tree. God's love towards man did not change when he sinned, but at once He was ready with the means for his redemption from sin and death. Salvation was at hand as soon as the man sinned; the earthly paradise was closed forever, but the paradise of God was opened in heaven. Earth can afford no joy, no rest to the sinner. Heaven, the garden of God's delights, is open, and it is there, and there alone, that man can find satisfaction. It is there he can be abundantly satisfied with the goodness of God's presence, and drink of the rivers of His pleasures. With God is the fountain of life, and in His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.
God, moreover, is made known to us in the person of His own Son. He has been down to earth, and returned to the paradise of God in heaven. He is God manifested in the flesh. Happy, yea, thrice happy is he who knows HIM who dwells in the midst of the paradise of God, and what it is to abide in His presence, at peace with God, resting in His love and favor. It must, however, not be forgotten—and bless God it never will be forgotten—that this home of God has been opened to us at the cost of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His precious blood has reconciled us to God on the cross, where He met every claim of Divine justice. By the Eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God without spot, that He might obtain eternal redemption for us who have believed in Him. By dying for us He has freed us from the wages of sin, which is death. By His drinking the bitter cup of judgment there is no condemnation for us who believe. By the shedding of His precious blood we are cleansed from all sin, and we are reconciled to God. He has thus redeemed us to Himself, a peculiar people, to be His companions in glory, for all eternity. On the cross God made Christ sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,—new creatures in Christ, so that we might be as He is (2 Cor. 5.; 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)). It is finished. All our sins are forgiven, and the punishment due to us has been borne by the Son of God. The old creation and all its belongings finished too, set aside and done with as far as God is concerned.
By this finished work of Christ on the cross the ground has been cleared for God to bring in a new thing—the new creation. God does not repair what man has spoiled, but commences afresh. Man by sinning has spoiled all; and so we read, God will make all things new. He begins with man, and hence we have in 2 Cor. 5., if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, and all things have become new. On the cross, the old creation, with all its belongings, was condemned, finished, and made an end of. In the resurrection of Christ, God commences the new creation. Will the reader here ask God, by His Spirit, to make this truth very clear, and grant it a resting-place in the inner man?
Now the first thing that happened when our blessed Lord had made an end of the old creation by dying, was the rending of the veil from the top to the bottom. This veil had kept man out from the presence of God. It is now rent in twain, and God is displayed in all His favor and love towards man; for since the death of Christ, nothing can hinder the full and free outflow of Divine love. God always loved us, but until the death of Christ, His love could not be enjoyed in its fullness. The holiest of all is now opened. The very presence of God is uncovered, and into the paradise of God in heaven the believer has free access, having perfect peace with God. Boldness to enter into the holiest of all, by the blood of Christ, is the happy privilege of all who believe in Him, and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST are theirs.
They who are in the flesh, that is, in the old-Adam nature, cannot please God. He that is born of the flesh is flesh; and therefore, before he can please God, or even enjoy His presence, he must be born of God, that is, be made a new creature in Christ. In the death and resurrection of Christ this has been accomplished. In His death we have died with Him, so that God no longer sees us connected with the first fallen Adam. In the resurrection of Christ we have been quickened and raised up with Him, so that we belong to the new creation of God. Being thus born of God, we have received a nature and a capacity to see by faith into heaven itself, and enjoy all that is presented there to us in the ascended and glorified Christ. The world, sins, the evil nature, wrath, and all that was against us are all behind, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glory of God in His face are before us. The heavens are opened, and the word to us from God is, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3)."
This new nature has its origin in Christ. All its springs of peace and joy and liberty are in HIM in the heavenlies. Nothing whatever of earth can possibly minister to the new man in Christ. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit; and nothing but that which is from the Spirit, who only ministers Christ, can minister to him who is a new creature, -to him who is a spiritual man. Nothing but Christ can feed or satisfy the new man. The true believer is not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world (John 17). The world knows nothing of this life, and fails to understand those who possess it. The world knows not Christ. This life is hid with Christ in God; and hence the world knows nothing of the believer, even as it knows not the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian is heaven-born—born of God. He belongs to God and heaven; and as to earth, he is a stranger and a pilgrim, waiting for the Lord to descend from heaven to raise those who sleep in Him, and to change and catch up to heaven and to HIMSELF those who are alive, and to be forever with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17)). The death of Christ closed this world, and opened the heavens to all believers. A well of spiritual water the believer has within him,—the water of the Spirit of life, which, as is the nature of water, rises to its level, which is Christ in the glory. In Christ all fullness dwells, and of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
The fullness of the Spirit dwells in Christ bodily, and of this Spirit have we who have been truly redeemed, received. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and thereby we are united to Christ in heaven. It is thus we are one spirit with the Lord. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit (1 Cor. 6).
We are, however, not only quickened and risen with Christ on to the resurrection-side of the Cross, with the opened heavens before us, and Christ Himself the one object for the admiring eyes of our faith, and the worship and adoration of our hearts; but we who have believed fully in Christ are seated together in Him in the heavenlies. God says so (Eph. 2:4, 54But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:4‑5)). Blessed! wondrously blessed it is, to be raised on to the resurrection-side of the Cross with Christ; but still we must not stop there,—for God does not. We must go on to ascension in Christ. God has, by the Holy Spirit, seated us in Christ in the heavenlies. It is unbelief to stop when God would lead us on. We must believe God, and give Him full credit for all He has said in His word to us. We must believe, even if we cannot understand all the marvelous expressions of His infinite love and power towards us. God is love, and therefore He blesses us according to the measure of Himself. He will not have the objects of His love at a distance. He has accepted us in the beloved, in whom He is well pleased. God has given us a Divine nature whereby we can know and enjoy His presence; and He has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, where He dwelleth. There we stand in His favor, and dwell in His love. As then to our spiritual natures we have ascended in Christ, and are seated in HIM, He says to us, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14). He adds, "Behold, I come quickly."
We have passed from death unto life, and we have been delivered from the power of darkness, and we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1). What want we more? What do we look out for? We wait for Gods Son from heaven, to take us, not only in spirit and soul, but in body to Himself. He will come, and then He will change these bodies of ours; He will alter and fashion them like unto His body of glory (Phil. 3). Earth is not our resting place. Heaven is our home. It is but a mere circumstance that we are here in a foreign land. We are heaven-born, and belong to heaven; so we wait for God's Son to come Himself, to take us to the place He has prepared for us, where, unhindered, we shall praise Him for the great salvation wherewith He has saved us.
Now, as we have seen, we are associated with Christ in His resurrection. He was raised by the glory of the Father, the Resurrection and the Life, the last Adam, the Head of the new creation, and we were raised with Him. But we go a step further, for when He ascended to glory we ascended in Him, and were made to sit together in Him, in the heavenly places. This is most positively stated in Eph. 2:5, 65Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:5‑6), and by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost this is made good to us; and it is the privilege of the true believer, living and walking in the Spirit, to have a certain consciousness of it. Wonderful truth—wonderful fact, indeed! but so it is; God is holy and righteous, and therefore He must have, for His nature requires, a new creation; and as man failed in the first creation, God has now made His Son Head of the new, in whom there can be no failure. Moreover, the nature of God, as love, demands such a salvation; because love cannot tolerate its object at a distance, and we never could be near to Him in the flesh.
Well, then, we who have fully believed have a place in the glorified Christ in heaven. We have a condition as He has, for He is our life; and moreover, we have a portion with Him, for all spiritual blessings in heaven are ours. Thus, as Christ is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)).
The Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost, after the glorification of the blessed Lord. It is by the Holy Ghost we have been born again; and it is by His dwelling in us that we are united to Christ in heaven. By one Spirit have we all been baptized into one body; and by Him we know our place in Christ, and all the things so freely given to us of God (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20); 1 Cor. 2:1010But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10); 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)). The importance, then, of our apprehending and giving place and authority to the Holy Ghost, cannot be over-estimated. May the Lord give us all grace to live in the spirit of self-judgment as to the old man; so that the Holy Ghost being ungrieved, may give us more and more the living consciousness of being in Christ in the heavenly places, and of all our portion in Him; so that we may live Christ in all our thoughts, words, and ways, during the little while He remains away.