The Gospel in the Gardens
I recently gave a challenge in which I was asked to give the gospel. I was working in my garden as I thought about how I would present it, and I thought about the connections between the gardens in the Bible and the gospel.
The Garden of Eden and an off-limit tree
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created a man and a woman and he created a beautiful garden that he placed them in.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:8–9).
In that garden that they were tending, they were allowed to eat of any fruit but that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve, hoping she could be like God, was tempted by the serpent, and both she and Adam gave into the temptation and chose to disobey God. They sinned, and they knew it. They were ashamed and tried to hide from the God who walked in the garden fellowshipping with them.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Gen 3:8).
Adam and Eve were punished and sent from the garden, from that fellowship that they had with God. From that time, we have all been born with a bent to sin. We have the same struggle to not want anyone—especially the one who created us—to be in charge and tell us what to do. And we are born with a broken fellowship with God (cf. Rom 3:9–18).
But also from that time—and even in eternity past before that first garden and that first sin—God had a plan to fix the problem of sin and to renew his fellowship with the people he made (cf. Eph 1:3–14).
Man had been trying to obey the law and still tries to be good enough for God, but all have failed. So God sent his Son Jesus who never failed. He lived a life perfectly fulfilling every demand God has for holiness. Jesus fulfilled every demand that Adam and Eve failed to fulfill in that first garden and every demand that we also fail to fulfill (cf. Phil 3:9).
The Garden of Gethsemane
This brings us to another garden called Gethsemane. There Jesus prayed to his Father, asking to avoid the agony that he knew he would face. If he couldn’t avoid it, he gave himself into the hands and will of his Father (cf. Matt 26:36-39). In that garden, Jesus was betrayed by his friend and given to the ones who sought his death (cf. John 18:1-11).
Another “Tree”
Jesus endured an unjust trial and was mocked and beaten. Then he was placed on a tree. This tree was “planted” in an ugly place—Golgotha—a hill that looked like a skull (Matt 27:33), a place where only death could flourish.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Pet 2:24).
Jesus’ death paid the price for our sins. His perfectly lived life counts for our imperfect ones. His death on that tree heals us from the sin that began in that first garden.
A Burial Garden
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John 19:41).
Jesus was buried, but because he had lived a sinless life, death had no power over him. God vindicated his Son and raised him up (cf. 1 Tim 3:16). We have a living Savior!
A Final Tree
We must admit that God is in charge and that we are not. We must confess the sins with which we daily struggle. We must accept God’s gift of Jesus’ righteousness. We must recognize that only his death pays the penalty for our sins. Then we too can have fellowship with Jesus (cf. 1 John 1:3). We may not walk with him in the garden like Adam and Eve did, but we can have the peace that God gives because we finally have a right relationship with God (cf. Col 1:19). And one day, we really will walk together with God in a place that has another tree.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Rev 22:1–5).
If you do not have peace in your heart because you are not at peace with God, I pray that you would seek someone out to understand from Scripture how you can have fellowship with your Creator now and forever in heaven. And for those who do have peace with God now because of Jesus, we can look forward to seeing God face to face forever as we fellowship together by the tree of life.
Holly Huffstutler serves with her husband David, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. She blogs with him here, where this article first appeared (used with permission). Holly is a homemaker, raising and schooling her four children.
Photo by Stacey Franco on Unsplash