The Tree of Life

 

John 3:16 must be the most quoted verse in Bible. You are probably automatically reciting it in your head right now: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. For some reason, we like to use it as a tongue twister. This verse seems simple enough, but, unfortunately, many Christians don’t know how to explain it in its entirety in their own words. The explanation that you hear the most is that Jesus who is the Son of God died on the cross to pay for our sins that we might be saved from the consequences of those sins, which is death. The problem with this explanation is that it is incomplete. It doesn’t say anything about what the gift of salvation entails – everlasting life. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus payed the price to give sinful spiritually dead people the gift of everlasting life. When asked about what it means to receive eternal life, the predominate Christian will say: well, life that has no end. Which is technically a correct, but a very bland and limited definition. Jesus defines everlasting life for us in His prayer to the Father before His crucifixion:

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

Our limited human minds upon hearing the phrase “everlasting life” immediately focus on the first word. From the physical standpoint, life is not eternal, it has an end, and one usually concludes that means that Jesus came to prolong our life and make it eternal. Yet, the Son of God did not come to extend something that we had, but to give us something that we didn’t. This is God’s definition of life – to be with Him and know Him forever. Whoever doesn’t know the Father and the Son, is dead, in the eyes of God.

In the beginning, when God created man, man was with God and he knew Him. God planted a beautiful garden for man, where He walked and talked with him, and in the midst of that garden was the tree of life (Genesis 2:9). This tree marked the presence of the knowledge of God in that place. Of this tree God told man that he could freely eat, but there was also in that garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God told man that if he ate of that tree that he would surely die. When man was with God and knew God, He was his source of truth and understanding. Man was dependent on God to know what truth is, what is good and evil. When man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he claimed independence from God. The serpent made man question the authority of God’s word and suggested that it was possible for man to be his own source of truth (Genesis 3:1-5). That idea enticed man to partake of the forbidden fruit but eating it did not make man all-knowing like God. Instead, man was separated from the all-knowing One to make up his own mind according to his limited knowledge. In claiming his independence from God, man claimed death. He became as a lamp unplugged from the electrical socket, as a tree that has been pulled out of the ground. Though independent to discern what is true for himself, man’s understanding remains infinitely limited compared to God’s. This limited knowledge cannot sustain the spiritual life, instead, it leads to self-destruction.

Hence, God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever… – therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-23). Like God man became independent to make up his own mind and define truth. Man doubted the authority of God and the truth of His word and sinned against God in the process. Man’s sin separated him from God, who is the source of life and truth, making him spiritually eternally dead. His sin also separated him from the tree of life, which God gave to sustain the physical eternal life, making his physical body finite. The way back to God and to the tree of life is heavily guarded.

The good news of the Gospel is that God never stopped loving man, even though he claimed independence from Him and sinned against the Holy All-knowing God. As soon as man was cast out of the presence of God, He began to prepare the scene for the Son of God to enter this world and make the way back to God available for man. God created us for life, to be with Him and to know Him, and despite our sin He longs to bring us back to life, back to Himself. When Jesus Christ the Son of God came to this earth, He said of Himself:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Jesus Christ is the way back to God. He is truth, and whoever partakes of Him as of the tree of life, will have everlasting life. He told the hungry crowd that they should labor for the food which endures to everlasting life: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life…I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world…Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the last day…He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:26-58). Re-read this text a couple times!

Given up to his own understanding and deprived of the tree of life, man roams the world hungry. The problem is that we try to fill and sustain ourselves with things that do not last. The food and the pleasures of this world can not endure to everlasting life, it cannot even enduringly sustain the physical life. The food that comes from heaven can satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst forever. Jesus addressed the true hunger and thirst of a man’s soul – man longs for what he lost in Eden – everlasting life. Jesus tells us that for our hunger and thirst to be met and satisfied, we need to believe in Him and be sustained by Him.

By faith in the Son of God we receive the Spirit of the Son of God into our hearts (Galatians 4:6). This is the new birth when we are spiritually brought from death to life. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ the tree of our life is planted back into the ground, and the dry branches are brought back to life by the waters of the Spirit of God that flood us from the soil of God’s restored presence. By faith in Jesus Christ everlasting life is restored to man, he is restored to the presence of God and to the knowledge of God. This life is matured and sustained through being with and knowing the Father and the Son. To feed on Christ requires us to be with Him and to know Him, to abide in Him. As we abide in Him and His word, His Spirit will produce the fruit of His character in us (John 15:1-17).

Jesus Christ made the way back to the tree of life, back to Eden, back to life in the presence of God available to us by faith in Him. Spiritually, He is our tree of life. By faith in Him we are brought back to life spiritually, and on the last day, the day of His revelation, He will raise us back to life physically. He will give us a new eternal body (2 Corinthians 5:1-10). That body will be sustained by the fruit of the tree of life that will stand in the middle of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Revelations 21-22).

This is the good and compelling news of the Gospel. We need to take care that the Gospel that we received and preach to the lost and dead people is complete. We need to know God’s definition of life.

The man that is alienated from the life of God is as an uprooted dead tree tossed to and fro by the winds of his lusts, he isn’t secure because of his ignorance and the blindness of his heart, he lives in the futility of his mind (Ephesians 4:14, 17-19). Yet, blessed is the man that knows God and abides with Him, that delights in His word and is dependent upon the guidance of His Spirit:

“He shall be like a tree planted by the rives of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1:3)