Christ Our Eden.

In reading the book - Love Not the World by Watchman Nee, I found an interesting sentence (one among many).

'Today, through Christ, God plants in the heart of His redeemed people an Eden to which, in triumphant fact, Satan will at last have no moral access whatever.'

Yesterday, on the Sabbath, I started a study called, Cracking the Genesis Code, found on Youtube videos. The study begins with the fact of at the very beginning of our existence we were placed in a garden- the Garden of Eden. There in that garden after we were newly created we were told by our Creator that the earth was ours. We were given dominion over the earth.

Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

In the Garden Adam and Eve lived sinless and then at some point Satan came to tempt them and succeeded. The conditions God had placed upon Adam and Eve remaining rulers of the earth as His children were this--

Gen 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

Here were the conditions- DO NOT EAT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.  So really it was a single condition. Do not eat from a single tree.

We all know what happened, Adam and Eve ate from the tree they were told not to eat from and as a result they brought death upon themselves and all their offspring. They abdicated their rulership over earth when they chose to listen to evil. They gave Satan that power. And this is what happened to the Garden of Eden…

Gen 3:23  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 

A flaming sword turning every way possible protected the tree of life, and Cherubims were guarding the garden. Of all the earth this place was off limits to Satan and all mankind. Spiritually protected that place would not be available to any but God.

God drove man out of the garden, but He had a plan for mankind to be redeemed. God, the declared Son, would die for mankind.  And every single able minded person would have to make the same choice as Adam and Eve- good or evil.

When we make the choice for God we are choosing Him over Satan and all that belongs to Satan. We are choosing God over so much of the world, because this world is Satan's dominion. Reading that sentence--

'Today, through Christ, God plants in the heart of His redeemed people an Eden to which, in triumphant fact, Satan will at last have no moral access whatever.'

-- it had me thinking about how when we choose God we are inviting Christ to live in us.

Col_1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

Christ in us is the Eden of our heart, the pure Garden where no sin was allowed to remain. We need a place in us where Satan has no moral access, don't we? Christ in us is that place. We have to choose to recognize Christ in us, Christ living in us, working in us for His will. This is our hope, that Christ is in us, that Christ knows us in this way. He truly is our hope of glory, our only hope.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 

Our love is for Christ, our love is for God the Father, our love is for the Holy Spirit. Our love is heavenward, not earthbound. The idea that we have Christ in us as our hope must be a reality, more than an idea. Christ our hope. Our love must be of Christ's world, and that world is not this one.

Joh_17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

This is a reality, not a mere idea. We must recognize that we truly are not to love the world, or the things in the world, we should love nothing that is not of Christ. Christ came to teach us about salvation, our heaven hope, our kingdom of God hope. Christ died so we could live with this hope as reality.

May we have Christ in us our moral anchor where Satan has no ground whatsoever!

All through the love of God, all through the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, all by the Holy Spirit given to us, guiding us, loving us now and always!