The Tree of Life “ Source of eternal existance.”

The quest of man’s heart from the Garden of Eden has been to reach the Tree of Life. This is to avoid death in all its forms, physical and spiritual.

To this blessed end all men strive, but

Jesus Christ said I AM the Way, and The Truth  and The Life.

Here the Lord brought a whole new concept of this existance to a lost world. The long awaited Jewish Messiah unveiled a great mystery kept by God the Father to all who have been His elect to receive sight in His Son from eternity past to eternity future.

This is our subject of discussion this afternoon.  How can an earthly sinful man attain this great gift of God ?

In man’s willful transgression from the commandment of God the Bibles says…  Man ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore he/she became a transgressor. It is an interesting concept that in partaking from the fruit of this tree man lost his/her innocence and became slave under the power of a law called the law of sin and death. Notice it was the fruit, which I take as the outcome of this tree. Fruitalways represents the outcome of something. People say what is the fruit of your labor?, which could mean the end result of one’s hard work. Although many still interpret this fruit as an apple, but it is much deeper than that.

I believe the Tree of  the Knowledge of the good and evil represented the self elevated ,prideful, self exalting rebellion of Lucifer and the fruit of its rebellion was the death which reigns over its participants until now.

Well having said this let us understand this one thing that Adam and his wife both were bound from both trees not only the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but even the Tree of Life. This too remains a mystery on unveiled by the revelation of Christ in the hearts of men.  In Apostle John’s Revelations of Christ chapter 2 verse 7 this amazing mystery is brought forth to a audience who have the hearing ability to hear hard and hidden truth. The Lord in speaking to John says it in this way. “ He who has and ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” I take it that you understand what the Spirit of the Lord means. Not the Tree but the Fruit of it. Even though it could also be translated in that way since Jesus Himself said “ Whoever does not partake of my body has no part in Me”.

We must understand the Christophany of the Messiah in all its allegorical aspects by the revelation of the Holy Spirit before you and I can see the different dimensions of His being. Jesus Christ the Messiah is the Tree of Life, He is the True Bread of Heaven, He is the fruit of God’s righteousness and all the other things the Lord God in His sovereignty has called Him to be. Many seek to know God and are diligently perusing Him and to them He will be revealed. Jesus Christ is the end of our faith and our true Sabbath Rest. He is the eternal life many looking unto and to the perishing He remains a myth and even a blasphemy. The Lord after clothing Adam and His wife expelled them from this heavenly abode that connected these two realities of the unseen and perishing world together and placed a flaming sword by His angels to ban man from returning there on his own fallen humanity, through the carnal disposition.

Since then many quest for the mystery of the eternal life and one of them once came to Jesus seeking to live eternally. In Luke the 18^th chapter the Holy scriptures says a young man a ruler came seeking to find the eternal life. Jesus in speaking to this rich young man said first you have to keep the commandments of God and the young man became very happy, since he was a religious young person  and he said “ Yes Lord I have kept all of the righteous requirements of the Law from birth” then Jesus turning to Him said

“Then there remains one thing for you to do sell all that you have and divide them among the poor and  you will have treasure in heaven then come and follow Me”.

The word of God says this young man became very sorrowful for he was very rich.

What is this story telling you and I about entering into the eternal life and partaking of its fruit? Is riches a hindrance?

Will our earthly possessions forbid us from eating from The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God? The answer is yes and no. Yes when our hearts are attached to them, and the only way you and I could know if it is that way when we have  a problem in giving it away. The Lord many times purposely will test the motives of our hearts by asking us to give our most valuable things away  to show us where we are standing in regards to material wealth.

Although this young man was very worked oriented religious person, but Jesus saw a greater problem in this young man’s life. A deep longing for the wealth of this world. This man although externally was a law keeper, but he had another purpose that kept him away from the fruit of the Tree of Life. He saw the eternal life through the eyes of the flesh. He imagined His life lived eternally by remaining as a partaker of the fruit of the first tree.

This young rich young ruler was forsaking God’s mercy or His covenant love, since he regarded worthless idols of this passing life. His idea of eternal life was based on his human perception of this earthly life and he did not see Christ as His portion in life.His worked based obedience of the law was a cover-up for his greed. Outwardly he enjoyed a worldly image and was living a comfortable life, yet inwardly he still was the slave of the principals of his fallen nature. He was not seeking the true eternal life likeApostle Paul did. He was fully enjoying the passing pleasures of this earthly life and wanting to live in them eternally, yet the Apostle of God was sick and tired of this passing wilderness, he was truly seeking to be found by Him eating the eternal fruit of God’s righteousness. Having overcome the temptations of this world the Apostle of God did not seek to remain in it any longer and was ready to join his eternal Lord in glory.

In the Jewish pharisaical understanding the principal of worldly wealth was a sign of reward for rightousness, therefore many saw it not as a hindrance, but a sure evidence of eternal approval with God.

Another vivid example of such conversion from the deviation of the truth is a tax collector named Zacchaeus who was a man seeking for the truth, yet remained bond by the greed of this world. Luke chapter 19 unveils the great story of this man’s conversion in a very practical way. After receiving Christ Jesus in his house this greedy tax collector was transformed by the power of God’s grace into a man who not only gave away what he unrightfully stole from men, but he went to the extent of giving them four fold for his mischief of their trust.

Here is another example of a man transformed by the Power of the Spirit of God to make the principal of the eternal life His highest form of reward.

Although the Lord God Himself had walled this magnificent gift for centuries, but in these last days He has made the access to it available to as many of us as He has called through grace to receive its benefits by removing the barrier or the veil through thebody of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth our Savior and King. As the veil of theTemple in Jerusalem tore in two pieces by the braking of the body of our Messiah so the spiritual veil is now taken away by Him alone. To eat the fruit of the Tree in the midst of the Paradise of God promised to the Overcomers is to find life and peace and righteousness in Him alone.

He is the fruit of God’s true rightousness. To see Him as our shield and exceedingly great reward. It is to abandon all for Him. It is to choose the hidden manna over the delicacies of this fallen world. It is to come to Him having forsaken the taste of the former fruit of our rebellion.