The Redeeming Garden

Gardens are beautiful places full of life. They reflect the radiance of the Creator, who is God. Gardens are places that teem with all forms of life – from plants to bugs. One garden that is beautiful yet does not particularly bring good memories is the Garden of Eden. Death happened there: the death of our souls and the death of our continued fellowship with God. Yet, there is one garden that brought life to us – the Garden of Gethsemane.

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Matthew 26:42

The Garden of Gethsemane was often a hangout place for Jesus and his disciples.

At the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus accepted with finality the work He needed to do on the cross. He accepted the ‘cup’ He was to drink. He knew it was for us all and the cup could not ‘pass’. He accepted the redemption plan as final, it was non-negotiable. As scary as it was, Jesus surrendered His will to His Father.

The beauty lost in the first garden was restored in the second one. In the Garden of Gethsemane, God redeemed what we lost in the Garden of Eden.

So, what did we lose in the Garden of Eden?

We lost beauty, God’s trust, fellowship and direct communication with Him, blessing, life and grace.

Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:23-24

What was redeemed in the Garden of Gethsemane? Let‘s have a look.

1.   Beauty

The beauty of Eden that was lost included the constant presence of God (which is always refreshing), a river watering the garden, harmony between Adam and Eve, and no shame between the couple.

There was intimacy and transparency between Adam and Eve; it was blissful. Then all was lost when they disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and his wife were thrown out of the garden with ugly things to deal with for life – cursed ground, war between Eve’s offspring and those of the serpent (spiritual warfare), pain in childbirth, toiling for life, restrictions and no access to the garden. Life changed drastically for them and their offspring.

The beauty was restored when Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. This allowed us continued fellowship with God, approaching God directly, blessing, everlasting joy, eternal life, God’s mercy and grace.

2.   Trust

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 8:12).

Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were thrown out of the garden so that they would not eat from the tree of life and live forever in a state of fallenness. God even put Cherubim at the east side of the gate and a flaming sword as a security measure so that Adam and Eve would not find their way to the tree of life. He had lost trust in them. He could no longer count on them obeying Him.

The lost trust has been restored through Jesus Christ. God knows that through Christ, we can obey His commands. When we fall short of His glory, we repent and He restores us. He casts our sins far away and remembers them no more and starts us on a clean slate after repentance. Through the New Covenant, He remembers our sins no more and gives us a new slate.

3.   Fellowship with God

Adam and Eve lost fellowship with God because they disobeyed Him. He was always with them in the garden but after their disobedience, He evicted them. They no longer had continual access to God and close fellowship with Him. God used to walk in the garden, but out there, He was not that accessible. Instead of fellowship, they got judgement. Fellowship was broken. There was now blame. Adam blamed God for Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. They were too busy blaming God to fellowship with Him.

Christ restored this fellowship in that we have direct access to God through His Spirit, and when we sin, He forgives us and restores our fellowship. Jesus’ promise of continued fellowship is state in two scriptures: John 14:23, Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him, and John 14:17, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. Through Christ’s work on the cross, we can access God through Him. We pray through Jesus Christ, and this is because He agreed to die for us all and did this at the Garden of Gethsemane.

4.   Direct communication with God

After the fall, direct communication with God was lost. Man needed a mediator to tell him what God was saying. Man could not approach God like in the Garden of Eden because of his sinful nature. Consecration had to take place first. The culmination of that was having prophets who relayed God’s message to the people. We can now approach God without someone acting as a mediator because as a believer of Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of God in you. You can talk to God anytime. You don’t have to go to a particular location to do this. Christ said in John 4 that you do not have to go to Jerusalem to worship God, you can do so in Spirit and truth (John 4:21-24).

5.   Blessing

Living in the Garden of Eden was a blessing for Adam and Eve. There was plenty of water and food for nourishment. To top it all up, they had the privilege of talking to God anytime because He was there. They did not have to work as hard as they did when they left the garden. As a result of disobeying the command not to eat from the tree, they were also kicked out of the garden. Unfortunately, all the blessings turned into curses – toiling for food, pain at childbirth, war between the human offspring and the deceptive serpent and death. But blessing was restored when Christ became a curse for us that we did not have to live under any curses anymore (Galatians 3:13). The Bible also states that He has given believers power and authority to trample serpents and scorpions so that we are not at the mercy of any deceiving serpent. Through Christ, we are blessed and don’t have to live under a curse.

6.   Life

Adam and Eve were told that they would die if they ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they ate the fruit, they died. We know that they did not die physically, we can therefore conclude that it was a spiritual death. We were therefore, born with a sinful nature because of the fall of man. Our spirits are dead in sin but this death is changed to life when we accept Christ and He gives us life. The Bible says that He came to give us an abundant life on earth and eternal life.

7.   Grace

Grace is unmerited favour. Before the fall, Adam did not have to work as hard as he did after the fall. Things were not so hard for him in the garden. His life was easy. After the fall, the ground was cursed because of his sin and his fate was to toil for bread. However, Christ gives us grace – we do not get what our sins deserve. When we repent, God restores fellowship with us. He casts our sins away, far from Him, and remembers them no more. He shows us mercy. Grace came through Christ, and now we have the grace to do all that we need to do. God has blessed us, even though many times we don’t deserve it. He withholds his judgment from us when we repent, this is a blessing we receive through Christ.

As difficult as dying on the cross was for Jesus, He did it. He agreed to do it because He knew it was his Father’s redemption plan for us. He accepted it because He knew that was the only way to restore fellowship between God and fallen humanity, avail forgiveness for the sins of the whole world and destroy the works of the devil. Are we not glad that He accepted to do His Father’s will at the Garden of Gethsemane? It was a special place for Him, and for us too!