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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Resurrection, #13
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16,17)
Obviously this is an allegory. Trees of life and trees of the knowledge of good and evil do not grow from the ground—at least not in our day.
The question is, what is the result of eating of the tree of life, and what is the result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
The result of eating of the tree of life is bodily immortality.
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (Genesis 3:22)
Whoever eats of the tree of life will live forever. The Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven to give us eternal life, that is, to give us the opportunity to eat of the tree of life. Our tradition teaches that the Lord came to bring us to Heaven. This is not true. The Lord came to restore what was lost in the garden. The spiritual natures of Adam and Eve are in Heaven—at least we hope they are! But being in Heaven does not give a person eternal life.
It is our point of view that it is our Lord Jesus who is the Tree of Life, and that if we allow Him to transform us we too will become trees of life. We think that Adam and Eve had some kind of opportunity to partake of the Logos, the eternal Life of God, before they disobeyed God. The Logos has been with God from the beginning.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (I John 1:1)
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. (John 6:50)
We do not believe that there is any source of eternal life other than the Lord Jesus. If Adam and Eve had partaken of Christ they would still be alive in the flesh. They would not have perished but would have had eternal life.
But what about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
First of all, the tree itself was not wickedness. To eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to be like God Himself.
. . . Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: . . . . (Genesis 3:22)
Growth in Christ brings us to the knowledge of good and evil.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)
It may be true that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the eternal moral law of God—the law that was revealed in limited form in the Law of Moses.
When the law of God comes to us, sin comes to life and we die—just as God stated would happen.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (Romans 7:9)
To be continued.