Revelation 21-22 reveals that God's final intent is to restore humanity to a state of fellowship with Him, free from the consequences of sin and death, in a New Jerusalem that embodies a perfect dwelling place with Him.
In the Climber Metaphor, the climber represents humanity's fallen state, needing a series of rescues and interventions to restore him to health. This metaphor illustrates how God acts through covenants and ultimately Jesus to redeem humanity from sin.
The Tree of Life, which reappears in the New Jerusalem, symbolizes eternal life, healing, and the restoration of access to God's presence, akin to its role in Eden.
In Ezekiel 47 we are introduced to something wonderfully new - a river. It begins as a trickle in the Holy of Holies but eventually becomes a raging river flowing East through the desert toward the Dead sea. The river transforms the deserts of Judah into a garden and even turns the Dead Sea (which can support no marine life fresh). So this River brings all that is good and nothing that is evil. Rather, this river is a River of Life: "everything will live where the river goes." Ezekiel 47:9.
Originating in the throne room of God the Holy of Holies it brings life back to a fallen earth. Ezekiel 47:12 by the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail they will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing. Hmmm...when did we last encounter a tree of life?
The New Jerusalem - this brings us at last to Revelation 21- 22 the end of the story. The biblical author is describing heaven as a new earth. The garden has been restored, the primordial deep (“chaos”) has been defeated, and Ezekiel's City/Temple is being lowered from the heavens to serve as the residents of the redeemed. Hear the voice from the throne ringing out into the silence and grief of Adam's wasted world: “I am making all things new!” Revelations 21:5 The Creator speaks and the earth and its inhabitants are finally free.
Healing has come; mourning is past; death is no more. This is the New Jerusalem purified and whole. And with the New Jerusalem comes the presence, and God himself shall be among them.
Then he showed me a river of the water of Life clear as Crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve him and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of the lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illuminate them and they will reign forever and ever.
The New Jerusalem (what we know as “heaven”) is all that the city of the man in Eden was meant to be. In fact it is Eden a fruit-filled paradise animated by a cosmic River and graced by the tree of life.
Here, once again, the unhindered presence of God and the unhindered maturation of a sinless humanity coexist.
God's original intent is his final intent. Eden was the perfect plan, and God has never had any other. His goal was that the people of God might dwell in the place of God, enjoying the presence of God. This is all our heavenly father has ever wanted for us. And everything that lies between Eden's gate and the new Jerusalem, the bulk of our bibles, is in essence a huge rescue plan. In fact, we could summarize the plot line of the Bible into one cosmic question: " how do we get Adam back into the garden? " In Genesis 3 humanity was driven out; and Revelation 21 through 22 they are welcomed home.
Rock Climber Metaphor
Although designed to live out their lives in Eden, humanity chose rebellion instead. The result was the fall with all of its horrible repercussions. Like a rock climber having fallen from a great height, Adam now lies broken and bloody on the ledge of a cliff - too far from the top or bottom for a simple rescue it will take a series of rescues to bring this climber to safety. Let's pursue this metaphor for a moment. A climber who has experienced this sort of accident is too injured to do anything to help himself; he is probably unconscious. So someone is going to have to repel down that precipice to reach him in his need. That someone will need to do emergency first aid, brace the climber's neck and strap his battered body into a litter so that he can be hoisted back up or down the face of the cliff. But this is only the beginning of the rescue. An airlift will be needed to get this man to a hospital. Emergency surgery will be necessary to stop the bleeding, remove the irreparable organs and splint the bones. And now the real vigil begins. Placed in ICU on a respirator and iv, will our climber recover? the rescue of Adam is much the same as this metaphor. The Bible teaches us that redemptive history did not happen in one fell swoop. Rather, God has been leading humanity back to Eden by means of a sequence of steps, a series of rescues, a series of covenants. To mix metaphors, with a covenant of Noah the paramedic successfully reaches the fallen climber; with the covenant of Abraham triage is done and the climber is lowered down the cliff; with the covenants of Moses and David the airlift is accomplished and surgery begins; with a covenant of Jesus the surgery is successful and the vigil begins dash will our rescued climber endure to the end? The rest of this book is dedicated to detailing each of the covenantal administrations of this great rescue plan. Each step of the story, each state of the rescue may be organized under one of six covenants. Figure 5.6
Even in the New Jerusalem are the bookends of redemptive history. God's original intent is his final intent and everything that lies between is one extraordinary rescue plan.
