Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 41 – November 1992

Paradise Is Not Found In The Back Of Plato's Cave!

Sermon by Rev. H. W. Pennings on Gen 3:23, Rom 7:24, Phil 1:21, 23-24

Reading: Genesis 3

Beloved congregation,

The Bible tells us to set our minds on the things that are above rather than on the things that are here on earth.  It tells us that we are to see ourselves as pilgrims here below.  However, it also tells us that we should not ignore the things that surround us from day to day.  In fact, the Bible gives us much practical advice concerning our involvement with each other and our involvement with the earth.  While it tells us not to set our mind on the things of this earth, it also gives us a calling to care for the earth and for all people.

Is there, then, a conflict in what the Bible teaches?  It is full of God's word concerning our responsibilities in the world.  Yet we read in Col.3:1 to set our minds on things above, on where Christ Jesus is, seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  Is there conflict in that?

Obviously not!  But its teaching is clearly this: our life on earth is more of hell than it is of heaven.  It teaches us that we should never imagine that the kind of life we live now is what God planned for mankind, His special creation.  What is normal?  Not what we experience now.

Well over 2000 years ago the great Greek thinker and philosopher Plato wrote a little parable which became known as The Parable of the Cave.  I haven't read it for a while, and hope that I can tell it accurately.  It concerns a man who, for nearly his whole life, had lived in the back of a deep and dark cave.  It was, in fact, his prison.  He had been there so long that he could not even remember what ordinary light was like.  In fact, he did not even understand the meaning of the word LIGHT.  Neither could he understand the meaning of the word PERSON.  For as long as he could remember, all he had ever seen was the SHADOWS of people.  When he was spoken to, as he was from time to time, he thought that it was THE SHADOW which was speaking to him.  His reality was DARKNESS rather than LIGHT, and SHADOWS rather than PEOPLE... just shadows and voices.

Then came the day when he was released from the cave.  How frightened he was!  When he first saw the sunlight it absolutely BLINDED him!  It took him days and days just to adjust to being in the light, and to be able to see anything at all.  When he actually could SEE again, and he saw a person speaking to him, it frightened him no end.  Reality was frightening, almost unthinkable.  I cannot remember anymore why Plato told this parable, and what great truth he was trying to illustrate by it.  But it always reminds me that, at present, we are living AS IN THE BACK OF PLATO'S CAVE!  We are used to it, of course.  We've never known anything else.  And there are even times when life is full of little pleasures; times when we might almost understand the meaning of the word JOY.  We have our families, and all of us, hopefully, some friends.  Haven't we some glorious sights to see too?  Even the Bible tells us that 'The heavens declare the glory of God' (Ps.19:1), and that the stars show us his handiwork.  Most people have lots of pleasure in life.  Of course there are also sad moments.  There are, as Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, moments to LAUGH and moments to WEEP, and moments to MOURN as well as to DANCE.

The man living in the back of Plato's cave did not understand TRUE REALITY or REAL LIFE until he was RELEASED from the cave.  WE, TOO, SHOULD UNDERSTAND WHERE WE LIVE while we are still present in the world that is filled with SIN and, therefore, filled with ever so much MISERY.  For we are all descendants of Adam and Eve who, when they rebelled against the Word of the Lord, were REMOVED FROM PARADISE.  PARADISE, congregation, is the NORM FOR LIFE – PARADISE IS NORMAL.  What we experience outside Paradise is ABNORMAL.  Every moment of it!  REALITY is something else completely.  We are still living, even as the people of the Lord, in the back of Plato's cave.

Not, of course, in hell.  But more of HELL than of HEAVEN nonetheless!  Animals bite and scratch each other.  People shoot bullets and drop bombs on each other, and sometimes torture each other for years on end.  Marriages end in the Family Law courts.  Children seek to settle their differences with shouting or even their fists.  Aeroplanes crash and kill hundreds at a time.  OUTSIDE PARADISE, Adam and Eve were still allowed to live.  They were still allowed to have children.  But their children, too, were sinners.  They too were banished from the NORM, from PARADISE.  It was lost to them.  We build houses that eventually all fall into decay.  We plant gardens that are soon filled with weeds.  Eventually the body of every grandparent and grandchild is laid in the grave.  NORMAL LIFE?  Many people think so.  It's not hell.  Hell is worse.  In hell no one laughs ever, and no one has peace ever.  No one is ever kind to another.  No one is ever faithful to their partner in marriage.  No, it’s not HELL where we live.  For the love and grace of God are still present.  Although by nature we HIDE from God as did our first parents, we know that the Lord continues to say to us every single day of our lives, 'Where are you?'  No, we certainly don't live in hell.  In times past, while the Lord did not always personally come to bring His covenant people back into His pleasure, He sent many messengers.  And, when the time was right, He again came Himself!  He came in the form of the God/man, Jesus Christ.  When we listen to the voice of Him who came not to CONDEMN the world, but that we should be SAVED THROUGH HIM (John 3:17), our sins are completely PARDONED and we can walk a NEW KIND OF LIFE.  Then we have a God to direct our ways and a Father who loves us enough to adopt us into His own family.  For believers, life is full of the glory of the Lord, and full of His love and grace.  The heavenly Father sent His own Son into the world to bear the anger of God against our sin.  If, then, Jesus 'descended into HELL' for us, we do not live in hell.  Nevertheless, we must all realise that we are still living in the back of Plato's cave.

We must all realise that while we are alive on earth, Paradise is utterly outside every experience we have, even the most joyful.

One of those for whom Christ died, and to whom He appeared after His resurrection in the most unusual way, was once known to write, 'Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?'  How can this man, full of the gifts of the Spirit of Christ his Saviour, write that he is, nevertheless, a WRETCHED MAN?  How can he speak of a life utterly and completely in God's abundant care as THIS BODY OF DEATH?  Elsewhere he writes that he can always REJOICE in the Lord, and that he can GIVE THANKS in all the circumstances of life.  He writes, too, about having an experience of the nearness of the Lord which is just too marvellous too relate.  He tells everyone who will listen that he possesses the greatest honour which God can give to man in that he is an ambassador of Christ, the Lord of lords.  How can such a blessed child of God refer to life under God's care as WRETCHED and how can he speak about human life as THIS BODY OF DEATH?

What we learn from the apostle is that all children of the Lord must say the same thing.  For we all live in the same weakness and with the same experiences of sadness and loss and utter frustration.  Although as believers we WANT TO, live as Adam and Eve in Paradise before the fall into sin and death, WE JUST CAN'T!  We find it impossible.  We want to do only what is good, yet we find ourselves very much involved with things that are evil.  We want to love and follow the great Immanuel who became our Saviour, but every day again we find that we still hear and follow the voice of the evil one who tempts us to live apart from the Lord.  In our heart we want to love every neighbour, but in everyday practical experience we find that we are often just as selfish as those who don't have the Word of the Lord written on their hearts.  In other words, there is a WRETCHEDNESS even in the lives of the saints of the Lord, and THIS BODY OF DEATH is exactly that, and hardly in touch with Paradise at all.  As children of the Lord we are the most blessed of all people.  We can truly rejoice in the Lord always, and can find so many reasons to be thankful to the Lord in all the circumstances, of our life.  We indeed live in the amazing grace of the Almighty Lord!  Yet we cannot live in Paradise as yet.  We are still very much involved with living in the back of Plato's cave.

No wonder then that this apostle wants to REGAIN PARADISE!  He writes, 'To live is Christ...!'  He glories in the Lord and his life of salvation and service.  Then he adds, 'To die is gain.'  There is nothing in Scripture which suggests that, when we are with the Lord in glory, we'll live in exactly the same Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve lived before the angel with the sword kept them out of it because of their sin.  After all, the Bible speaks of a NEW HEAVEN and a NEW EARTH.  There is enough indication in Scripture for us to expect life in the presence of the Lord to be still different.  At any rate, there will be no temptation from any Satan then.  Nor will our bodies be the same kind of physical bodies which we have now and which, we suppose, Adam and Eve also had in Paradise.

But, if God's heaven is not exactly the same as the Garden of Eden, it is utterly and completely DIFFERENT to anything which we have EXPERIENCED, or even IMAGINED.  There will be nothing of hell in the mansion to which Jesus our Saviour has gone to prepare a fitting place for all of His own.  Nothing of hell.  What we WANT TO DO (Romans 7), we'll also BE ABLE to do!  No frustration.  No death.  No disputes.  No war.  No raised voices.  No mental torture.  No evil of any kind.  Rather, children playing with poisonous vipers; lions and lambs grazing side by side.

Therefore the apostle Paul is torn between the two.  'To live is Christ,' and he is more than satisfied with the life of service to his Saviour which has been set before him.  Yes 'To live is Christ ...but to die is (still) GAIN.'  For to die in the Lord is Paradise regained.  It's life as God meant it to be in the beginning.  The apostle of the Lord caught just a glimpse of it, and he could not describe it because it is an other-worldly experience!  He wants, he desires, he can hardly wait to experience it forever!  'To die is gain!'

Of course, he isn't going to take his own life to experience it!  He is certainly not DEPRESSED about his life in the service of the Lord.  He knows that it is necessary to teach and serve the young churches.  But in his mind and in his heart he is torn between the two possibilities ahead – continued service, and to be with the Lord - and if he had only himself to think about, 'To die is GAIN!'

How often do we think of these things?  If you agree with the apostle Paul that PARADISE LOST is WRETCHED LIFE in THIS BODY OF DEATH, do you believe that 'To die is gain' for to die is to be with the Lord in PARADISE REGAINED?  What a wonderful privilege we have as believers to live for His glory and for the service of the saints!  We would never change it for the lawlessness of the unbeliever.  There is so much that is so enjoyable!

Do you desire to REGAIN PARADISE straight away as soon as possible, please Lord! – or would your desire be to cling to life in PARADISE LOST – life still in the darkness of Plato's cave?  Do you look forward to it?  Some time ago I read about a lady who was recently widowed and who complained bitterly that her believing husband died so soon after his retirement which he had so little time to enjoy.  Could that person be you?  What glory awaits us who patiently serve and wait for the Lord.  How great a salvation He has granted us.  We haven't even experienced half of one percent of it yet in the WRETCHED LIFE.  Do you long for it?  You surely may!

No, paradise is not found in the back of Plato's cave!  It is found with the Lord!  Therefore, 'Since you have been RAISED with Christ, SET YOUR HEARTS on the THINGS ABOVE where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  For when Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with Him in glory.'  Yes, that is glory.  It will be the final fulfilment of the most glorious of all the benefits which a believer possesses through Jesus Christ.  Do you believe these things?  To die is gain indeed!

AMEN