Revelation 22:1-5: Paradise Regained

Outline

  • Garden
  • Temple
  • Kingdom

Introduction

‘Protology is eschatology’ is an important truth that helps you grasp the unity and overall storyline of the bible. The study of first things makes no sense unless we study them in light of last things. God by the power of His Spirit and through the work of His Son is driving the story of the bible towards the realities of the New Creation. From the very beginning of the bible God is setting things up and preparing us for the greater future realities that are reserved for us in the future. By way of progressive revelation God who is the single author behind the bible wields the human authors as His pens to speak of these future realities. So what starts as a garden, becomes a land, gets concentrated as a temple, exists as a church, will culminate in the Garden-temple-city-kingdom that is spoken of in these closing chapters of the bible. As we come to the end of the story and God wants to tell us about what is coming He draws on the pictures of the Garden of Eden, the Temple, and the kingdom. Those were the shadows that had stored up in their outlines a pointer to these realities. We want to ponder the paradise lost, and foreshadowed in the paradise regained.

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