Almost Perfect

It was Paradise, a garden made by the very hand of God as a place for man to dwell along side all the animals of he world in harmony.  All the trees with seed bearing fruit was given for man to eat and all the animals were given everything green to eat (see Gen 1:29-30).  Man had charge of the garden and the animals but there was no struggle with weeds and watering, and no striving between the eater and the eater (there was harmony not competition for survival in this garden).

It was Paradise, it was made by the hand of God, the Lord himself reviewed what he had created and "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (vs 31); it was perfect - well, almost.  There was one imperfect part, one thing that did not allow for harmony but rather, seeking after only its own good alone, led to a loss of harmony and the beginning of striving in the world: Pride, the source of sin itself, the imperfect thing that would not fit in a world of harmony as it is so entirely one-sided.

The one variable that would allow for a perfect world, also allowed for the end of that perfect state: Love.  Love?  Really?  Really!  The variable of love that allows for this disruption is choice, without which there is no possibility of love for without the freedom of choice man is simply a programmed animatron (lifelike robotic creation that emulates human characteristics).

Consider one of the closing messages of the Bible in Revelation 29:9, "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"  Note that man is invited not ordered to come to the feast.  God prepares and provides but does not demand.  In order to have a mutual relationship witth mankind, God had to allow for man's mutual right to decide, and therein lay the imperfection.

Man could have lived forever in Paradise forever partaking of the "tree of life" (Gen 2:9) but in that same garden grew another tree, "the tree of knowledge of good and evil" (2:9), which God forbade man to eat of but which man chose over and against God's desire.  Falling short of the will of God, man introduced sin into the world, which is to "fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23).

After this, woman was cured with "painful labor in childbirth" (Gen 3:16) and man with "painful toil of the ground" (vss. 17-19).  Mankind was ejected from the garden into a world marred by sing in which he would experience pain and death - Paradise was lost "death reigned from the time of Adam" (Rom 5:14).  Death continues to reign in the world today for all except for those who accept Jesus Christ, "for those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" (Rom 5:17).

So, what next?  I believe that God will restore Paradise since he promises that, along with the redemption (return to the original) of man, "...the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" (Rom 5:21).  There will be a renewal of "heaven and earth" (Rev 21:1), which will happen when "God's dwelling place is now among the people" (v. 3).

God will dwell among men in a new heaven and a new earth, he will dwell with man in both places because both places will be joined together in newness.  Heaven (the dwelling place of God) and earth (the dwelling place of man) will be one new place, a restored Paradise but this time made perfect by the grace of God through the blood of Christ.  God's Redemption At Christ's Expense (GRACE).  Jus' Say'n.