|
The Garden of Eden Restored
Before entering the city of God, the Saviour bestows
upon his followers the emblems of victory, and invests them with the insignia of
their royal state. The glittering ranks are drawn up, in the form of a hollow
square, about their King, whose form rises in majesty high above saint and
angel, whose countenance beams upon them full of benignant love. Throughout the
unnumbered host of the redeemed, every glance is fixed upon him, every eye
beholds His glory whose "visage was so marred more than any man, and his form
more than the sons of men." Upon the heads of the overcomers, Jesus with his own
right hand places the crown of glory. For each there is a crown, bearing his own
"new name," [REV. 2:17.] and the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord." In every
hand are placed the victor's palm and the shining harp. Then, as the commanding
angels strike the note, every hand sweeps the harp strings with skillful touch,
awaking sweet music in rich, melodious strains. Rapture unutterable thrills
every heart, and each voice is raised in grateful praise: "Unto Him that loved
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever."
[REV. 1:5, 6.]
Before the ransomed throng is the holy city. Jesus
opens wide the pearly gates, and the nations that have kept the truth enter in.
There they behold the Paradise of God, the home of Adam in his innocency. Then
that voice, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, is heard,
saying, "Your conflict is ended." "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Now is fulfilled the Saviour's prayer for his
disciples, "I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I
am." "Faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy," [JUDE 24.]
Christ presents to the Father the purchase of his blood, declaring, "Here am I,
and the children whom thou hast given me." "Those that thou gavest me I have
kept." Oh, the wonders of redeeming love! The rapture of that hour when the
infinite Father, looking upon the ransomed, shall behold his image, sin's
discord banished, its blight removed, and the human once more in harmony with
the divine!
With unutterable love, Jesus welcomes his faithful
ones to the "joy of their Lord." The Saviour's joy is in seeing, in the kingdom
of glory, the souls that have been saved by his agony and humiliation. And the
redeemed will be sharers in this joy, as they behold, among the blessed, those
who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and loving
sacrifice. As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable
will fill their hearts, when they behold those whom they have won for Christ,
and see that one has gained others, and these still others, all brought into the
haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet, and praise him through
the endless cycles of eternity.
As the ransomed ones are welcomed to the city of God,
there rings out upon the air an exultant cry of adoration. The two Adams are
about to meet. The Son of God is standing with outstretched arms to receive the
father of our race,--the being whom he created, who sinned against his Maker,
and for whose sin the marks of the crucifixion are borne upon the Saviour's
form. As Adam discerns the prints of the cruel nails, he does not fall upon the
bosom of his Lord, but in humiliation casts himself at his feet, crying,
"Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Tenderly the Saviour lifts him up,
and bids him look once more upon the Eden home from which he has so long been
exiled.
After his expulsion from Eden, Adam's life on earth
was filled with sorrow. Every dying leaf, every victim of sacrifice, every
blight upon the fair face of nature, every stain upon man's purity, was a fresh
reminder of his sin. Terrible was the agony of remorse as he beheld iniquity
abounding, and, in answer to his warnings, met the reproaches cast upon himself
as the cause of sin. With patient humility he bore, for nearly a thousand years,
the penalty of transgression. Faithfully did he repent of his sin, and trust in
the merits of the promised Saviour, and he died in the hope of a resurrection.
The Son of God redeemed man's failure and fall, and now, through the work of the
atonement, Adam is re-instated in his first dominion.
Transported with joy, he beholds the trees that were
once his delight,--the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the
days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have
trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the
reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored, more
lovely now than when he was banished from it. The Saviour leads him to the tree
of life, and plucks the glorious fruit, and bids him eat. He looks about him,
and beholds a multitude of his family redeemed, standing in the Paradise of God.
Then he casts his glittering crown at the feet of Jesus, and, falling upon his
breast, embraces the Redeemer. He touches the golden harp, and the vaults of
Heaven echo the triumphant song, "Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was
slain, and lives again!" The family of Adam take up the strain, and cast their
crowns at the Saviour's feet as they bow before him in adoration.
This reunion is witnessed by the angels who wept at
the fall of Adam, and rejoiced when Jesus, after his resurrection, ascended to
Heaven, having opened the grave for all who should believe on his name. Now they
behold the work of redemption accomplished, and they unite their voices in the
song of praise.
Upon the crystal sea before the throne, that sea of
glass as it were mingled with fire,--so resplendent is it with the glory of
God,--are gathered the company that have "gotten the victory over the beast, and
over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name." [REV.
15:2.] With the Lamb upon Mount Zion, "having the harps of God," they stand, the
hundred and forty and four thousand that were redeemed from among men; and there
is heard, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of a great thunder, "the
voice of harpers harping with their harps." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17] And
they sing "a new song" before the throne, a song which no man can learn save the
hundred and forty and four thousand. It is the song of Moses and the Lamb,--a
song of deliverance. None but the hundred and forty-four thousand can learn that
song; for it is the song of their experience,--an experience such as no other
company have ever had. "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth." These, having been translated from the earth, from among the living, are
counted as "the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb." "These are they which
came out of great tribulation;" [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.] they have passed
through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation; they
have endured the anguish of the time of Jacob's trouble; they have stood without
an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments. But they have
been delivered, for they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb." "In their mouth was found no guile; for they are without
fault" before God. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him
day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.] They have seen the earth wasted with famine
and pestilence, the sun having power to scorch men with great heat, and they
themselves have endured suffering, hunger, and thirst. But "they shall hunger no
more; neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and
shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes." [REV. 14:1-5; 15:3; 7:14-17.]
In all ages the Saviour's chosen have been educated
and disciplined in the school of trial. They walked in narrow paths on earth;
they were purified in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus' sake they endured
opposition, hatred, calumny. They followed him through conflicts sore; they
endured self-denial and experienced bitter disappointments. By their own painful
experience they learned the evil of sin, its power, its guilt, its woe; and they
look upon it with abhorrence. A sense of the infinite sacrifice made for its
cure, humbles them in their own sight, and fills their hearts with gratitude and
praise which those who have never fallen cannot appreciate. They love much,
because they have been forgiven much. Having been partakers of Christ's
sufferings, they are fitted to be partakers with him of his glory.
The heirs of God have come from garrets, from hovels,
from dungeons, from scaffolds, from mountains, from deserts, from the caves of
the earth, from the caverns of the sea. On earth they were "destitute,
afflicted, tormented." Millions went down to the grave loaded with infamy,
because they steadfastly refused to yield to the deceptive claims of Satan. By
human tribunals they were adjudged the vilest of criminals. But now "God is
judge himself." [PS. 50:6.] Now the decisions of earth are reversed. "The rebuke
of his people shall he take away." [ISA. 25:8.] "They shall call them, The holy
people, The redeemed of the Lord." He hath appointed "to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness." [ISA. 62:12; 61:3.] They are no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered,
and oppressed. Henceforth they are to be ever with the Lord. They stand before
the throne clad in richer robes than the most honored of the earth have ever
worn. They are crowned with diadems more glorious than were ever placed upon the
brow of earthly monarchs. The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The
King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been
removed. Amid the waving of palm-branches they pour forth a song of praise,
clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem
swells through the vaults of Heaven, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb." And all the inhabitants of Heaven respond in the
ascription, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor,
and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever." [REV. 7:10, 12.]
In this life we can only begin to understand the
wonderful theme of redemption. With our finite comprehension we may consider
most earnestly the shame and the glory, the life and the death, the justice and
the mercy, that meet in the cross; yet with the utmost stretch of our mental
powers we fail to grasp its full significance. The length and the breadth, the
depth and the height of redeeming love are but dimly comprehended. The plan of
redemption will not be fully understood, even when the ransomed see as they are
seen and know as they are known; but through the eternal ages, new truth will
continually unfold to the wondering and delighted mind. Though the griefs and
pains and temptations of earth are ended, and the cause removed, the people of
God will ever have a distinct, intelligent knowledge of what their salvation has
cost.
The cross of Christ will be the science and the song
of the redeemed through all eternity. In Christ glorified they will behold
Christ crucified. Never will it be forgotten that He whose power created and
upheld the unnumbered worlds through the vast realms of space, the Beloved of
God, the Majesty of Heaven, He whom cherub and shining seraph delighted to
adore,--humbled himself to uplift fallen man; that he bore the guilt and shame
of sin, and the hiding of his Father's face, till the woes of a lost world broke
his heart, and crushed out his life on Calvary's cross. That the Maker of all
worlds, the Arbiter of all destinies, should lay aside his glory, and humiliate
himself from love to man, will ever excite the wonder and adoration of the
universe. As the nations of the saved look upon their Redeemer, and behold the
eternal glory of the Father shining in his countenance; as they behold his
throne, which is from everlasting to everlasting, and know that his kingdom is
to have no end, they break forth in rapturous song, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his own most precious blood!"
The mystery of the cross explains all other mysteries.
In the light that streams from Calvary, the attributes of God which had filled
us with fear and awe appear beautiful and attractive. Mercy, tenderness, and
parental love are seen to blend with holiness, justice, and power. While we
behold the majesty of his throne, high and lifted up, we see his character in
its gracious manifestations, and comprehend, as never before, the significance
of that endearing title, our Father.
It will be seen that He who is infinite in wisdom
could devise no plan for our salvation except the sacrifice of his Son. The
compensation for this sacrifice is the joy of peopling the earth with ransomed
beings, holy, happy, and immortal. The result of the Saviour's conflict with the
powers of darkness is joy to the redeemed, redounding to the glory of God,
throughout eternity. And such is the value of the soul that the Father is
satisfied with the price paid; and Christ himself, beholding the fruits of his
great sacrifice, is satisfied.
The text above is an excerpt from
the book
The Great Controversy
Pages 645-652
"God's People Delivered" |
