Now,
at first it might seem like no big deal to have access to the tree of life in
our sinful condition. What would be wrong with sinners living in the Garden of
Eden, the paradise created by God himself,[2]
and having access to the tree of life so that we could live forever? If God
told Adam that eating from the forbidden tree would bring death, wouldn’t
access to the tree of life be the cure?
The
fact is that, once Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
so brought the curse of sin and death into the world, if he also had access to
the tree of life, he could have prolonged the dead-man-walking experience
forever. The tree of life would not have been the antidote to the poison of the
forbidden tree, but would have enabled the deadly poison of the forbidden tree
to work in us continually. Adam would have secured that man would live on
death-row for eternity, facing death in the face every moment of every day.
Because God took us away from the tree of
life, he gave us the opportunity to be redeemed. Because he took us out of the
Garden, and put us into the world that was now cursed with our sin, we could
have a Savior come and die for our sin in order to give us life.
The
fact is that the Garden of Eden could not have remained what it was. If we had access
to the tree of life, we would live forever as sinners in a sin-cursed world.
That means that we would never have an end to the curse, to the decay of the
world, to the deterioration of our DNA, to the fighting, and bickering, and
corruption. There would never be an end to the dangers, the murders, the
diseases. There would be no end to the world wars, civil wars, or bullying.
Not
only that, but we would have to erase all the goodness we read about in the
Scriptures, because God would have had no one to treat as righteous by faith. There
would be no Savior waiting in the wings, so to speak, while history unfolded in
the way we have seen it, because the tree of life would have guaranteed that
all people would live forever in the deadness of their sin.
Think
of this: if we had access to the tree of life, so that we could live forever in
our sin, every good thing we know that
God did to touch people’s lives would need to be erased from history. We would
need to imagine a history with nothing good coming from God to stop the tide of
evil that would keep growing in man’s heart.
For
example, when we come to the evil and violence of the days of Noah,[3]
there would be no story of God seeing the righteousness of faith in eight
people that he could save from that sinful world. There would be no work of God
to lead Noah to build an ark, to save animals and his family, and start all
over again. There would be no righteous Noah at all, no ark, no salvation. The
level of wickedness and violence that had grown in those first centuries to the
state it was in during Noah’s time, would have seen no stemming of the tide, no
hindering of the increase of wickedness. People would still be living with a
world consumed by wickedness, and violence. Violence would be everywhere. And
people would be doomed to live in this state forever.
That
means that every form of violence we can think of would have not only continued
unabated, but would have kept increasing in its ugliness, and its putrification
of the human soul. There would be no marches against violence against women
because the world would have no thought of such violence ever ending. There
would be no rallies to protect unborn babies from the violent death of
abortion, because no one would have good enough hearts to care about violence
against children of any age. There would be no mothers trying to stop drunk
drivers, or parents organizing school programs against bullying, or support
groups for victims of sexual violence, because the world would have no means of
stopping violence, or even wanting violence to stop.
When
God banished Adam from the Garden of Eden, he actually took us away from the
thing that would prolong our misery in sin forever. By cutting us off from the tree
of life, and by allowing us to bear the consequences of our sin whereby we die,
he actually presents us with an opportunity to live forever, but this time
without sin.
This
is the wonder of the good news Jesus brought into the world. He came to deliver
us from the sin that brought the curse of death into our world. He came to
redeem us out of the sin that causes disease, and world wars, and sexual abuse,
and murder, and bullying. He came to invite us into a life that he would give to
those who would die, who would die to their own right and freedom to live in
sin and death, and would open up their hearts to the gift of God, that through
the death of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of man, and through the glory of
his resurrection from the dead, sinners under the curse of death can receive
the gift of eternal life.
And
guess what is waiting in heaven for those who die to their sin and receive the
life of Jesus Christ: “Then
the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing
from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the
street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with
its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations.”[4]God cut the first Adam off from the tree of life so that he could
send his Son as the second Adam to bring us back to the tree of life.
And that is a short explanation of why I began today very thankful that God banished the first Adam from the Garden of Eden. Because he did so, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, is presently preparing paradise for all those who will come to him in repentance and faith. I have come to him, and he will come for me. And, when I get there, it will be death that will be banished from the Garden of God’s presence forever.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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