Reading Scripture with “the present life and the life to come” as its primary concern, the sermon traces a single storyline: paradise in Eden as the covenant place where God dwelt with man, the tabernacle as a portable symbol of that dwelling restored, and finally paradise fully restored in the new heaven and new earth, where the covenant is fulfilled and the image of God in man is completely renewed. In this coming city, the river of life flows from the throne, feeding the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
This new creation is marked as much by what will be absent as by what will be present: no more sun or moon, for the glory of God is its light; no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, for the former things will have passed away; no more curse, and nothing unclean will ever enter it. Believers already taste of this new creation now, in Christ, and are urged to treasure this coming inheritance the way a man sells everything he has to buy a field containing hidden treasure.