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In this episode we begin looking into God’s Eternal Purpose which was revealed by God in the very beginning.

At the time of creation, God the great Gardener, planted a garden and called it Eden, which was for His pleasure. In this beautiful garden God revealed a purpose and plan that He had in His heart from Eternity. In this garden there was a certain Tree, a man, a law, a choice and a will. God placed the Tree of Life at the centre of the garden, indicating its value and He desired Adam (mankind) to ingest The Life by partaking of its fruit. God wanted the life of His Son to be expressed in mankind, expanding the love of the Godhead, to the glory and pleasure of the Father. God wanted man to live by the Life of His Son, for the increase of Christ.  In this garden, God’s original intention was lost to Him – when Adam made the choice to take up his own will over God’s will by partaking of knowledge over Life.

In a second garden named Gethsemane, meaning ‘olive press’, God revealed again the purpose and plan that He had in His heart from Eternity. For in this garden there was a certain tree, a man, a law, a choice and a will. The tree, the Cross of Calvary was at the centre of the purpose of the garden of Gethsemane. The Son of Man, Jesus, the last Adam and the Second Man, had a choice to either take up His own will or lay it down in order to take up the will of His Father by enduring the shame of the cross.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Luke 22:42

The cross which represents the law of sin and death was death for Jesus and for all believers, in that we who are in Christ were also crucified with Him when He was crucified. The cross whilst bringing death, also became the Tree of Life by being the means by which we share in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. In this garden, Jesus restored God’s original intention to His Father, when Jesus chose His Father’s will over His own and said yes, to the cross.

We too, are a people of the ‘nevertheless‘ in that it is no longer us who live but it is Christ who lives in us (Gal 2:20). The outworking of our Christian life is the learning to live by His life and not ours, just like Jesus lived by His Father’s life and this is in accordance to God’s Eternal Purpose and desire.

This one purpose of God’s heart is spoken of many times in scripture;

• Eph 1:4-5 … the intention of His will …

• Eph 1:9 …the mystery of His will…

• Eph 3:3-11 …made known unto me the mystery….the intent…the Eternal Purpose…

• Eph 5:32 …the mystery…Christ and the church …

• Eph 6:19 …the mystery of the gospel…

• Philippians 3:14 …the high calling of God…

• Col 1:26-27 …the mystery…now been made manifest…Christ in you…

• Col 2:2 …God’s mystery…

• Col 4:3 …the mystery of Christ…

When we realise that God only ever had one purpose and not multiple purposes or wills for all individuals, we can stop our searching and simply get on board with God’s will for Himself which includes us! This desire of God to have a family, a dwelling place in humanity and a corporate body for His Son is being fulfilled inside of space and time as the church grows in her maturity toward knowing Christ.

In the book of Revelation we see this one purpose of God is realised in the holy City of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. We read of God dwelling amongst His people who will see Him face-to-face, just as Adam and Eve did so in the first garden. We see in this city that Jesus as the Lamb slain before creation is the Light of the city – just as Jesus came as light into the darkness to redeem what was lost for His Father’s joy and pleasure.  And in this glorious city we find a third garden where The Tree of Life stretches out along both sides of the River, bringing healing to all the nations.