The Tree Of Life

The Tree of Life

Life was at the center of the Garden of Eden. Eating fruit from the tree of life would result not only in length of life but also in a quality of life that was rich, satisfying, and secure. But when Adam and Eve chose instead to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they forfeited their access to the tree of life.

The LORD God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)

Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden. And while the exile was terrible, it was also a grace. Had they eaten from the tree of life in their spiritually dead condition, they would have perpetuated that existence indefinitely. Thus the Garden would have become hell on earth, populated with the undying dead—forever living and forever dead.

Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from his Kingdom, God has been working out his plan to bring his people back in. But how will we get past the flaming sword that guards the way to the tree of life? Christ alone bared his neck to that sword to take the full judgment of God for sin. Christ alone will lead his people into this Promised Land, this paradise, this Eden, and there we will eat of the tree of life and live forever.

John was given a preview of this forever garden and described it for us: “On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations” (Revelation 22:2). One day this will be the reality we live in. We’ll drink freely from the river of life and eat our fill from the tree of life. We will no longer be banished. We’ll be home.

Tree of life, it is you who stands tall at the center of the Garden. There you forever bear in your risen body the scars of your suffering. And because I have you, I have life. Because of you, though I, too, deserve to be driven out, I’ve been welcomed in.