“The Tree of Life”
This morning I want to talk to you about the biblical concept of “Tree of Life.”
The Word of God is real; the Word of God is relevant. We came here today to worship God and to fellowship one another, but let’s also leave with something that we can apply to our life, today.
Professor Merrill C. Tenney, Dean of the Wheaton Graduate School of Theology, is quoted as saying: "Neglect one area of the Scriptures in our teaching and preaching and that area will become the seed bed for tomorrow’s heresies."
The Bible is foundational for Christian living. We don’t need any “self help” books. As followers of Jesus Christ we can go to the source. The Word of God is like a spring of life to those who find it. So, this morning I just want to get into God’s Word and seek to understand it better.
The first place in Bible where we hear of the tree of life is in the very first book of the Bible. In Genesis 2:9 (ESV) the Bible says; “And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
You see, in a special place in the center of the Garden of Eden there were two trees; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
The book of Genesis describes the fall of man. When Eve was deceived by the serpent and subsequently Adam was deceived as well. They both ate of the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Listen to what the Bible says concerning the other special tree; the tree of life, after mankind had fallen into sin;
In Genesis 3:22-24 (ESV) “Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--" therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Mankind had access to the tree of life in the garden. In the book of Genesis we see that God gave permission to Adam and Eve to eat from every tree. So we have no reason to believe that they did not eat of the tree of life prior to the fall.
Mankind was intended to live forever. Now we don’t know what kind of fruit was on these trees. But the Bible is clear; there were two trees with literal physical fruit.
The importance of the fruit of the tree of life is that the benefit of that fruit is eternal life. All believers still have the hope of sharing in the fruit of the tree of life.
After the biblical account of the tree of life found in the book of Genesis, we again find the tree of life spoken of in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 22:1-2 (NASB) “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
The JFB Commentary says that, “just as different seasons are now marked by their own productions; only that then, unlike now, there shall be no season without its fruit, and there shall be an endless variety.”
In the garden mankind tasted of the tree of life. Prior to the fall of man into sin, men and women would have enjoyed eternal life. The fall brought with it the curse of death.
This death is and was both physical and spiritual. When Adam sinned, he acted as the head of mankind. His sin has become our sin. God judged that sin and cast us out of not only the garden but also away from the tree of life.
Revelation 22:14 (NASB) goes on the say; “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.”
Regarding this passage Adam Clarke in his commentary on the Bible, says, “God’s grace through Christ produces the good, and then rewards it as if all had been our own.”
What is it that our robes must be washed in? It is the blood of Christ. Normally, you don’t think of blood making something clean. But in the case of our sin, it is only the blood of Christ that can make us clean.
Listen to what the Bible says about Adam’s sin in regard to Jesus Christ, our redeemer; in Romans 5:14-15 (NASB) “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”
It has been well said that the last book of the Bible, Revelation, brings the completion of all that is begun in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Here are five such comparisons.
1. Genesis speaks of the creation of the sun. Revelation tells of a place that needs no sun.
2. Genesis speaks of the entrance of sin into this world. Revelation tells of the banishment of all sin.
3. Genesis speaks of the sin-curse that is pronounced upon mankind. Revelation tells of the broken curse.
4. Genesis speaks of Satan’s first triumphant victory over mankind. Revelation speaks of Satan’s demise!
5. Finally, Genesis speaks of the exclusion from the ‘tree of life.’ Revelation speaks of the admission to the ‘tree of life.’
We have seen the comparison and the contrast of the tree of life in Genesis and then in Revelation.
We have seen how sin separated mankind from the tree of life and how when are washed in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, we become partakers of the hope of eternal life.
Though we have never tasted physically of the tree of life; believers partakers of its fruit. By faith in the work that was accomplished on that other, most precious tree of life, the Cross of Calvary we eat of the fruit of eternal life.
Just as we will one day taste the literal fruit of that literal tree of life, we who are called according the purpose of God, already eat of the fruit of redemption which was purchased by our Lord some two thousand years ago at the Cross.
I am hoping and praying that I am speaking to a church full of people who have received Jesus Christ as Lord. The great news is that if you can hear my voice this morning; it isn’t too late.
It isn’t too late to receive Christ as Lord. And it is not too late to reaffirm your walk with Him.
At the beginning of this message I told you that I wanted you to be able to take away something that you can apply from this message; something that you can apply to your life today.
As I close this message and we close our time together this morning, I hope that you leave this place confident in Christ as a partaker of the tree of life.
You know, one day Jesus will literally, physically, bodily return to this earth to establish His kingdom. We, who are called believers, are already citizens of that kingdom.
Salvation does not begin when we pass from this life to the next. At the moment of our salvation we were reborn. Like the words of that most beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace,
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Some of us and some of our dear friends are sick with physical disease, pain, and ailments of various kinds. The doctrine of the tree of life brings us hope. Sin separated us from the tree, but God’s grace through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross has allowed us access to that tree once again.
God is going to bring us all out on the other side of our pain, our trials, and our sickness. That is the source of our hope; Eternity.
Dr. Gary Habermas calls this “top down thinking,” Looking at this life from the perspective of the next. We see our through our sickness to our ultimate healing. We see through our trouble to the time of perfect peace.
I want to close this message with a passage of encouragement and hope for all of us, Revelation 21:4-5 (NASB) says, “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
