For many Christians, the Garden of Eden is imagined as a distant place in the far past, a paradise lost because of sin, now unreachable until the end of time. But when Scripture is read carefully, and when we listen to the wisdom of the early Church, something far more hopeful emerges:
Eden was never merely a place. It was a way of being. And it is being restored, not geographically, but inwardly, through Christ.
This is not speculative mysticism. It is deeply biblical, profoundly Christ-centred, and rooted in the earliest Christian imagination.
Eden as the Sanctuary of the Human Person
In Genesis, Eden is not described simply as a pleasant location. It is described as a sanctuary.
“The LORD God planted a garden in Eden… and there He put the man whom He had formed.” (Genesis 2:8)
God walks in the garden (Gen 3:8), just as He later “walks” in the Tabernacle (Lev 26:12) and among His people (2 Cor 6:16).
A spring rises up from within Eden (Gen 2:6), and four rivers flow outward to water the earth (Gen 2:10). Life flows from within outward.
This mirrors Jesus’ words:
“Whoever believes in Me… out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)
Eden looks remarkably like what the New Testament calls the human person alive to God.
That is why Paul says:
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)
The human being was created as God’s dwelling place. Eden is not merely where humanity lived, it is how humanity lived.
The Fall: A Shift of Consciousness, Not God’s Absence
After eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve do not report that God has left.
Instead:
“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden…” (Gen 3:8)
“And the man and his wife hid themselves…” (Gen 3:8)
God is still there. Humanity is the one that hides. This is crucial to note.
The rupture is not spatial. It is relational. Not God withdrawing, but humanity becoming afraid, ashamed, and divided within itself.
This is why Scripture consistently describes sin not as distance from God, but as blindness:
“Their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21)
“The god of this age has blinded the minds…” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)
Redemption, therefore, is not God coming closer, it is humanity being healed enough to see again.
Christ as the Gardener of the New Creation
When Jesus is raised from the dead, where does it happen?
In a garden.
“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden…” (John 19:41)
“She supposed Him to be the gardener.” (John 20:15)
John’s Gospel is not careless with symbolism. Jesus is the Gardener, the One restoring what was lost.
Paul calls Jesus “the last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45), not because He resets history, but because He heals humanity at its root. Adam is synonymous with the Garden of Eden
And where does He dwell now?
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
Not in a distant Eden. In human hearts.
The Earth Is Already Full, We Are the Ones Waking Up
Habakkuk prophesies:
“The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)
Notice, it doesn't say "filled with the glory", but, with the knowledge of the glory.
The glory was never absent...
Human awareness was.
That is why Jesus does not announce that God has arrived, but that the Kingdom is at hand (Mark 1:15), within you (Luke 17:21), and already active.
Witness of the Early Church
This inward reading of Eden is not modern. It is ancient.
St. Irenaeus (2nd century):
“The glory of God is a living human being, and the life of the human being is the vision of God.”
(Eden restored is humanity alive again to God.)
St. Gregory of Nyssa (4th century):
“The human soul is a garden planted by God, in which He delights to walk.”
St. Ephrem the Syrian (4th century):
“Blessed is the one who has become Eden again, in whom God walks and rests.”
Origen (3rd century):
“Whoever cultivates the soil of his own soul will find planted within himself the paradise of God.”
Isaac the Syrian (7th century):
“Enter into yourself and you will see the ladder by which you may ascend into the Kingdom.”
All of them understood Eden not merely as a past location, but as a spiritual reality of communion, lost through fear, restored through love.
Good News, Not Threat
This matters because it reframes everything.
Salvation is not about escaping the world.
It is about healing our perception of it.
It is not about convincing God to be near.
It is about being healed enough to recognise that He always has been.
Eden was never abandoned.
It was misunderstood.
And Christ does not bring us back to a place, He brings us back to ourselves, as we were always meant to be: human beings alive with God.
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with humanity.” (Revelation 21:3)
Not will be.
Is.
That is the gospel.
And that is very, very good news.
Enjoy your time with him in the Garden. Rest with him. Listen to him.
Cheers.
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