Within this sacred space of Eden were the all too familiar trees- the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Most of us are familiar with what happens. Adam and Eve disobey and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. They are removed from the Garden, their sacred space, and a cherubim with a flaming sword is put in front of the Tree of Life to guard it. The tree is now off limits. Now, the rest of scripture becomes about God getting humanity back into sacred space with Himself. In the wilderness, He establishes a priesthood and gives the people a tabernacle. Under Solomon He has a temple built; all of this to restore the sacred space...yet nothing has been done about the Tree of Life.
Yet God continues to pursue His people. In the New Testament, God brings His sacred space down to us. John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." The word translated "dwelt" here is actually a word that John made up. It literally means "tabernacled." The very Word of God came down and tabernacled among men, and John said they saw His glory (all temple/tabernacle imagery here). Thus, God brought sacred space down to us to restore what we lost.
The only other place in scripture where the Edenic imagery of the Tree of Life is used again is found in the book of Revelation. Revelation 22:2 states. "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." Do you notice something missing in this imagery that was there in the Genesis text? Yes, the cherubim with the flaming sword! It is gone! Why? It is because Jesus, the eternal high priest, absorbed the wrath of God so that the way of life could be opened up again. Octavius Winslow says it best when he states, "Never was the Son of God dearer to the Father than at the very moment that the sword of divine justice, flaming and flashing, pierced to its hilt His holy heart...What a new conception must angels have formed of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, when they beheld the flaming sword of justice quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus!" The cherub is gone because the fiery sword of judgment has been extinguished, and the way of life opened again.
Even more than this, Jesus Himself is the Tree of Life. When we partake of Him through faith, we are in essence eating from the Tree of Life. This is why in John's gospel Jesus speaks of Himself so often as "life." Now, through Christ, the sacred space has been restored. We, the church, are now the temple of God. Sacred space has been brought to us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now, daily, we can eat of Jesus, the Tree of Life. Now, daily, we live and walk with God in sacred space. Whatever it is our parched and starving souls need, it is there in its fullness in Christ. However, we are still awaiting the consummation of all things. Until Christ returns, we live in the "already-not yet." This basically means that we still await the full inauguration of the Kingdom. This is what Revelation 21-22 points forward to. There is a day coming when the dwelling place of God will be with men, and the sacred space is more than just restored, it is glorified. Thus, we will dwell in that sacred space forever, worshiping and serving the Lord.
The imagery of the Tree of Life is by far my favorite theme in scripture, and it is this theme that this blog is dedicated to. It is my hope that the Triune God will use this blog to enable you to feast daily off of Christ, the Tree of Life.
One more thing: This site used to be called Familylink, so you will still see the Familylink name on many of the old podcast, etc. Just FYI.