LIFE TO LIFE

PART 2 – THE PURPOSE OF HEAVEN

Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that ^[moves on the earth.”

GOD DESIRED A FAMILY

^{VS 26} Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; 

IN ORDER TO HAVE A TRUE FAMILY MANKIND MUST HAVE A FREE-WILL

Genesis 2:7-9 NLT

⁷ Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. AMP - [an individual complete in body and spirit] ⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. ⁹ The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:15-17 NLT

¹⁵ The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. ¹⁶ But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, ¹⁷ except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

SATAN AND SIN BRING SEPERATION BETWEEN

GOD AND MAN

Genesis 3:1-15 NLT

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

⁶ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

⁸ When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. ⁹ Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”

¹² The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

¹³ Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed    more than all animals, domestic and wild.You will crawl on your belly,    groveling in the dust as long as you live.¹⁵ And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,    and between your offspring and her offspring. (SEED)He will strike your head,    and you will strike his heel.”

GOD DESIRED RESTORATION

Genesis 3:8 NIV

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

RESTORATION CAME THROUGH REDEMPTION

Romans 5:8 NKJV

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The cross was God’s answer to man’s separation.

Colossians 1:13-14 NLT

¹³ For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkne­­­ss and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, ¹⁴ who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21 AMP

He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].

Romans 5:17 AMP

For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one (Adam), much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in [eternal] life through the One, Jesus Christ.

HEAVEN IS THE FULL RESTORATION OF WHAT WAS LOST

John 14:1-3 NKJV

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Point: Heaven is not escapism, it is reunion with the Father.