There was nothing intrinsically bad about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or its fruit, for all that God had created was good (Gen. 1:31). God created human beings and gave them a free will, and so, he wanted to test Adam and Eve to find out whether or not they would remain faithful to him. Therefore, God forbade them upon threat of death from eating the fruit of this tree with the alluring name in the center of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:16-17; 3:2-3).
The great deceiver, Satan, disguised as a serpent, cajoled Eve to sample the fruit from the tree of knowledge. This one act of disobedience, like opening a Pandora’s box, hurled humanity into a world cursed with pain, toil, hardship, and death (see story, Gen. 3:1-24).
After God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, he placed angels and a flaming sword flashing swiftly back and forth to block them from accessing the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24).
Sin entered the world through temporal, sinful man, and with it the curse of death. But through one eternal, blameless divine-man, Jesus Christ, came God’s mercy and forgiveness, and with it, the blessing of eternal life (Rom. 5:12-21; 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:21-22).
Jesus was crucified to a cross, sometimes referred to as a tree (Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29; 1 Pet. 2:24). Christ is the tree of life and his fruit, blessings. Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Christ is “the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24).
Revelation, the last book in the Bible, ends on a note of victory for the faithful: “No longer will there be any curse” (Rev. 22:3) and “to him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7; also, see 22:1-2,14).
“You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasure at your right hand”
(Psalm 16:11)
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Walking with Jesus Series, Refl. #88, Mar. 2023
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Copyright (c) 2023 by Christopher Clark