THE PARADISE OF MAN LOST BY SIN. THE PARADISE OF GOD GIVEN BY GRACE
[p. 291] THE PARADISE OF MAN LOST BY SIN. THE PARADISE OF GOD GIVEN BY GRACE
Genesis 3:8 - 11; Genesis 3:15; Luke 23: 39 - 43
The first question God put to Adam is the question that every soul has to answer, “Where art thou?” There are three great facts: there is the fall, there is the Saviour, and there is the new place with God. If you are raised out of the fall, you are raised to new ground. These three are very plain - the fall, the Saviour (or the salvation - how it has been effected), and where you are now as saved. The fall is where man is naturally. The Saviour effects your salvation; and being saved, your new place is with God.
In Genesis paradise is lost; in Luke 23 paradise is given. That you, who have lost one by sin, should get another so much greater is the marvel of divine grace, for it is not the one you lost that you get back, but you are given through grace one which is infinitely greater. It is very difficult to explain grace. All can understand the Lord when He said, “The one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty”; that is, the grace which each would require to be forgiven. All in a way understand the grace which forgives sins; but do you understand God’s measure of grace - the grace which would set you in an infinitely better place than you had lost? I could not give you the measure of it; it can only be measured by the love of the One who effected your salvation. Thus much merely as a preface.
I believe the great lack in souls, even in those who are converted, is that they do not see the extent of the fall. And if you do not see the extent of the fall, you certainly cannot see the measure to which you are raised out of it. If a man fell ten feet and was raised only five feet, he would not, if he knew that he had fallen ten feet, be satisfied with being raised five feet.
[p. 292] The extent of the fall is the first subject I shall dwell on; secondly, the Saviour, how you can be saved; and thirdly, your new place with God.
Now I turn to Genesis 3, to present as clearly as I can the extent of the fall. The fall is “death by sin”. Adam is to lose the condition he was in; not only is he a sinner, but he is to lose the condition he was in. And consequently Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Adam, instead of being at ease in God’s presence, as he was before, said, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”. I desire that the youngest here should understand the extent of the fall. It is explained when Adam says, “I was afraid, because I was naked”. God said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” He had lost his body in the sight of God. Satan had said, “Ye shall not surely die”. To man’s eye he had not died: but the fact is that the moment Adam transgressed, that moment he had a conscience, he was sensible of sin by committing it, and he was under the penalty of it, which is death. Death is the judgment of God; he had lost his body in the sight of God. Hence the first sense any soul has of God is fear; it could not be otherwise. “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid ... and I hid myself”. Why? “Because I was naked”. I refer any one desiring to understand the subject better (it is not necessary to go into it now) to 2 Corinthians 5, where the apostle writes: “If our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” - that is, to get a new body - “if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked”. That is that we should not be found as Adam was in the sight of God. Every unconverted man goes about the world [p. 293] afraid of God; he avails himself of the trees of the garden, earthly greatness, to hide himself from the presence of God. You must accept that your body is under the judgment of God. Through grace you will receive another body, as the apostle says, “a building of God, an house not made with hands”. Here grace, the salvation of God, begins. All the work of man could not remove the judgment. Hence we read in another place, “For since by man came death” - one would naturally add, ‘so by man came life’ - no; but “by man came also the resurrection of the dead”. Some think of doing works in order to make reparation for their sins, and some think that the righteousness of Christ can be a set-off for their unrighteousness. You are a sinner, and you are under the judgment of God: “The wages of sin is death”. The man who has sinned must die, that man could not be retained. Hence the scripture, “This corruptible must put on incorruption”. We read, “Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”; and, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins”. I desire to press that every man on the face of this earth is under the judgment of God, unless it has been removed: it is not merely that he is a sinner, but he is under the judgment of God, and that body where sin is must go in judgment. If you have to undergo the judgment, you are lost. This is the first point.
The next great fact is - The Saviour, one born of a woman, was to bruise the serpent’s head. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel”. “I will put enmity between thee” - that is the serpent - “and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; he” - it ought to be - “he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3: 15); that is, the Saviour would go into death. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”, Hebrews 2: 14. In Genesis 3: 15 it is not your sins, but the nature of the judgment on you, and the only way of deliverance from the fall.
If you apprehend the extent of the fall, then you will have some idea of the work of the Saviour, how great it must be.
I see the history of man on the earth, opening with two men, Cain and Abel. Cain, like every man of sense, perceives that there is a distance between God and man, and he desires to remove the distance. He is what you might call a man of good human aspirations; but he thought that by the fruits of the earth he could restore relations with God. He did not understand the nature of the distance; he was altogether in darkness as to it. And here many really pious are defective; they do not understand the nature of the distance. Now, Abel in his offering corrects Cain; he offers of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, a victim not chargeable with his offence bearing the judgment of it, and, at the time of bearing the judgment of it, having a personal excellency. That was Abel’s offering; he got the fat through death; he could not have got it if the lamb had not been killed. But there was no resurrection there; and I refer to this on purpose, because many people find a measure of relief as to their sins from seeing that Christ died for them; but you are not justified until you see Him risen from the dead. All through the Old Testament salvation was not accomplished, and could not be accomplished until Christ rose: and when He rose, He had not only borne the judgment on man, but He Himself had risen out of it, and hence He originated, that is, He is the Head of, a new race.
As we read, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”, and, “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead”. He rose out of death; He was “declared to be the Son of God with power ... by the resurrection from the dead”. But He had gone into it, and had borne the judgment; He was not only “delivered for our offences”, but he “was raised again for our justification”.
Now I turn to Luke 23 in order that you may see the new place into which the Saviour introduces the believer. Here the Lord is between two malefactors, and one rails on Him and says, “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us”. We have two men again; not only two men in the beginning of the world, but two men in the beginning of christianity. Now these two men are two sample men, illustrating the two lines that are in the world. One of them cannot see anything in Christ, and yet one is locally as near to Christ as the other; he could see Christ only with the natural mind, and the natural mind cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God; hence he says, “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us”. Now look at the other; he is as much degraded as his fellow; but see how grace works in him; the light of God enters his soul. Light is wonderful! It was evidently very sudden, for in another gospel we read that he also was reviling. Beloved friends, light is very sudden; it is instantaneous; thank God, it is divine. Look at the light which shone out of heaven on Saul of Tarsus. That is the beginning of the work of grace. There are two parts of grace: one, the work which Christ has accomplished; the other, that the sinner’s eyes are opened, and he is turned from darkness to light. This is the marvel of His grace, not only that He has removed everything against the sinner, but that He leads the sinner to know it; as we read in Luke 14, “Compel them to come in”. He compels by His light shining into the soul; hence, “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”, 2 Corinthians 4. It is a light “above the brightness of the sun”; it shines out of heaven. The world does not see it, but the soul who receives it is converted, turned to God; he is converted by the power of God; God sends His word, and His light shines into the soul. What a moment! No one is converted otherwise. Then you fear God. You are consciously under the judgment of God; you could not get near God without fear, as Adam said, “I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself”. Every unconverted man tries to conceal himself from God by something of the world.
Now it is interesting to note how “the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God?” He has received light, and he finds himself in the presence of God; “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”. I like to see it in a child. It is a good sign when the fear of God is before your eyes. It is often, alas! like the Pharisees in John 8; when the light shone, they went out one by one. Sometimes if a man is touched at a gospel preaching he will not come again for a while, though if God’s light has entered he will come again. The Pharisees “went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last”. The woman, the sinner, remained where the light was; she was blessed.
Mark the words of the enlightened thief, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?” Note the word “condemnation”, because death is the termination of the man. Look now at this sinner, a child of Adam, how he is made acquainted with grace. He is not only turned out of paradise, but he is suffering death for breaking the law; he is [p. 297] thoroughly ruined, and as far as God was revealed, there was no hope for him; he must die “without mercy”; but he finds mercy, because the Saviour has come. He sees “the just for the unjust”. “This man hath done nothing amiss”. He has received light, and he sees himself in the light of God, as Adam had done. But he sees also the Saviour; and now he prays, he has confidence in the Saviour, and says, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”. He was a Jew; he had been educated, no doubt, in the Jewish expectation of a Messiah and of His reign on the earth. He knew that he was in the presence of the King, and hence he says, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”.
Now mark the answer from the Saviour. “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. That is the paradise of God. It is the same place that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12: 4. Poets tell of paradise lost and paradise regained. It is not true; man is never restored to a state of innocence. Here a man is dying; he has not got a new body yet, but he is to go in company with the Lord that day to the very highest place. I trust you see the perfection of His salvation. If you want to know the perfection of God’s salvation, you see it here; a man under the judgment of God and naked in His sight, but who has been so completely freed from that judgment that he is to get another body, a glorious body, and in the meantime he is fit to be in the very highest place with God - “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise”. The statement is so marvellous that many a commentator would have put a stop after “Today”, as postponing it to a future time. But I press that the word “Today” sets forth the greatness of the salvation. A man would rejoice to be restored to the good position which he had lost by sin, but the believer receives infinitely more; it is divine, spiritual; “the first man is of the earth, earthy”; the Saviour, the second Man, is “out of heaven”, and His blessings are all of a new, heavenly order.
Look at the prodigal son. In Luke 15 the gospel in his mind is, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, ... make me as one of thy hired servants”; the most he expected was good quarters downstairs. But the grace of God was far beyond his thoughts, even that having turned to God, he should be given the best place. The only way we can apprehend the greatness of this grace is by recognising the greatness of the Person who has effected this salvation for us. I think but few apprehend how great the blessing must be to be saved by the Son of God. God’s Son has come out of heaven, and has borne the judgment on man, and every one believing on Him shares with Him all that He has obtained. He gained glory, and He will share that glory; “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them”. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. He who believes shall be in company with Christ in the brightest sphere. You may marvel at it, and I admit the human mind cannot take it in. The fall was terrible, and man is lost in the sight of God, as we read of the prodigal son, “This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”. Man is lost, but now God has come forth in His grace, and His own Son has borne the judgment that lay upon man, and the believer is not only freed of everything according to the glory of God, but he has part with Christ, he is in His company, and he will have a glorious body like unto His glorious body. The fatted calf, in the father’s house (Luke 15), sets forth the present blessing of the believer - he has a nearer place with God now than man had before the fall, because of the greatness of the Saviour. Man fell, and his fall was irretrievable; man must go in judgment; the man under judgment has gone in judgment in the cross; but Christ has risen from the dead and become [p. 299] the first-fruits of them that slept; “Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming”. There is a new order altogether; as we read in John 12, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” - a new order of man every way, with “life and incorruptibility”.
I need not add more. I only repeat these three facts: first, the fall, and the extent of it; next, the Saviour - He has come, and He Himself has effected deliverance from the fall; and thirdly, your new place with God - not only raised up from the fall, but given such a marvellous place with God that we read, “As he is, so are we in this world”. It is so great that it is difficult to apprehend. If the word was, ‘As He is, so shall we be in heaven’, we might understand it; but when God’s love is known, we know that “As he is, so are we in this world” in His eye.
May the Lord, in His infinite goodness, keep this before your souls, and lead you to understand the greatness of His salvation. The marvel is that any one knowing this wonderful salvation - the wonderful new place to which he is brought, as the Lord said to the disciples, “Come and see”, and they went and abode with Him - the marvel is that one’s heart is not more affected by it. Were it not for the working of the flesh, we should ever be in “joy unspeakable and full of glory”.
I now ask you to join me in looking to the Lord to make His word a blessing to every one in this room, for His name’s sake.