"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of The Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God " (Rev.2.7)

The Tree of Life figures only in the initial narrative of human history, the story of the Garden of Eden, and the final scene when the human race is in process of final reconciliation to God during the Messianic era which concludes that history so far as it is revealed in the Bible, in the words of Ezekiel the Old Testament prophet and John the writer of the book of Revelation. Man in his primal perfection and union with God had access to the Tree of Life and by that tree he lived. During the long intervening years of sin and death he is debarred from the Tree. At the end, when the reign of Christ over the earth is abolishing sin and death, and men are coming into vital union with God, the Tree is there again, its fruit for food and its leaves for healing. A side issue to the picture is that represented by the text above quoted in which the promise to every one of the Christian church of this present Age who makes his "calling and election sure" is that he also will eat of that Tree of Life at his attainment to the glory of the celestial life. There is therefore a direct link and a close association between Gen. chaps. 2 and 3, in which the Tree of Life is first mentioned in connection with the first of mankind, and Ezek. 47.7-12 with Rev.22.1-3, both of which have to do with the final stage of man's preparation for eternity. It is significant also that in the first picture the Tree of Life is associated with the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, which because of the consequences in the Eden story becomes the symbol of death, but in the latter picture the Tree of Knowledge is no longer there. There is no more death, for it has been abolished by the Messianic work of Christ. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away" (Rev.21.4).

All this poses the question: what is the significance of the Tree of Life in the Eden story? The very general impression among those who hold that there actually was a Garden of Eden and a literal Adam and Eve is that it was a very special kind of tree the fruit of which had the power of conferring continuous never-dying life. All the time our parents partook of its fruit they would never die; conversely, if they were debarred from the tree, death was certain. This, despite the fact that "every tree that is …good for food" was separately mentioned as the support for man's physical life and the Tree of Life made to stand out as something unique. It should be borne in mind also that in the Divine arrangement death is the natural and inevitable consequence of sin. When the bond of union between God and man is severed because of sin the life-line is snapped, and continued, "eternal", life is lost because of that severance. The man then possesses only the modicum of animal vitality still residing in his material body and sooner or later that residual vitality ebbs away and the man dies. So the sentence on Adam was "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". Whatever the nature and properties of the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden of the Genesis story, man automatically lost access to it at the moment of his sin, and not as a secondary precautionary action on the part of God, even although the rather inadequate translation of Gen.3.22 in the A.V. may seem to favour that latter view. The Most High, soliloquising after the tragedy of the Fall, knew, and declared, that man should no longer, because he could no longer, have access to the Tree of Life and so live forever. But it was the fact of his sin, and not the inability to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, which created that situation.

It is more than possible, on the basis of the literal inerrancy of the Eden story, that the partaking of the fruit both of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge were ritual acts, having a ceremonial significance expressive of the inward heart condition something like the significance of the bread and wine in the celebration of the Last Supper. In such case to partake of the Tree of Life was expressive of loyalty and allegiance to God and recognition that man's continued life depends upon the unbroken union and communion with God which comes in consequence of that loyalty and allegiance. Hence it is easy to understand that when disloyalty and rebellion had entered man's heart he no longer partook of the Tree of Life. His loyalty and allegiance was now given to the Satan who had seduced him and in partaking of the Tree of Knowledge he signified the change. He could partake of the one Tree or the other; he could not partake of both.

This then was the position from the time of the Fall onward. In a very true sense men have been partaking of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil ever since, giving their loyalty and allegiance to the "god of this world". Because all men, even the best of them, are involved in the death conditions introduced by their first father the Tree of Life is debarred from all. As the Apostle Paul says, "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom.3.10). But this is not for ever. In the story celestial guardians were appointed to keep the way of the Tree of Life as though to preserve it and throw it open again to mankind when the time should be ripe. That can only involve one conclusion, that a time is to come in the purposes of God when the power of sin shall be overthrown and its consequences eliminated, and mankind restored to a condition of reconciliation and union with God, and logically, then have access to the Tree of Life in the sense that they affirm and maintain their loyalty and allegiance to God and walk in the ways of his righteousness for ever. Equally logically, the Tree of Knowledge disappears, for there is no more evil in the hearts of men.

This is how it is in the other two pictures of the Tree of Life presented in the Scriptures, both in settings descriptive of the Millennial Age of Christ's reign over the world. The earlier, and most descriptive, is that seen in vision by the prophet Ezekiel half a millennium before Christ, and recorded in chapter 47 of the book which bears his name. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit he saw a magnificent idealised Temple, reminiscent of the edifice built by Solomon at Jerusalem and destroyed by the Babylonians in Ezekiel's own time, but greater and more imposing in every respect. Just as Solomon's Temple was symbolic of the Divine rule over Israel during the term of the theocracy, when their kings "sat on the throne of the Lord", so this greater Temple of Ezekiel's vision is symbolic of the future far greater Divine Kingdom of the Millennial Age, when not Israel only, but all nations and all men everywhere, will live under its influence and walk in its light. Now one feature of this Temple and its associated features was a River of Life which emerged from the central sanctuary and flowed through the countryside, bringing life and fertility to the surrounding lands "everything shall live whither the river cometh" (vs.9)—until it eventually reached the barren waters of the Dead Sea and healed those waters so that they became full of fish—another symbol of life. And the banks of the river were furnished with trees, trees of life, whose fruit should be for food and whose leaves for healing. Here again is the same principle that is enshrined in the Genesis story. The Tree—the word in Genesis means trees or a grove—the Tree or Trees of Life derive their potency from the central sanctuary, where God dwells, through the medium of the River of Life. Those who partake of the Trees are thereby brought into direct contact and union with God and so long as they maintain that union by that means they will never die. This is the eternal life which every man who believes and becomes Christ's man will receive in abundant measure through him as the channel of life from God. "I am come" He said "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10.10). True, during their progress through the remedial processes of the Millennial Age, the steps of repentance and conversion and dedication, of renunciation of sin and rehabilitation to the standard of righteousness, men will stand in sore need of healing, and restoration from the power of sin, and the untoward effects of their own past lives, and that is why Ezekiel said that the Tree of Life is also for healing. But the end result will be that "all that hath breath shall praise the Lord ".

The Apostle John on Patmos (Rev.21.2-22.5), saw something of a very similar nature pointing to the same glorious culmination. He saw, not a Temple, but a City, the New Jerusalem come down to earth from God that God might dwell with man—restored and perfected man. The nations are to walk in the light of the city—and the glory of God is that which lightens it, and the presence of Christ the Messianic King and they become its citizens only when they are fully cleansed from sin and every defilement. As with Ezekiel, there is the river of life, proceeding this time from the throne of God in the centre of the city, and on the banks of the river the same trees of life seen by Ezekiel, again yielding fruit for food, and "the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations" (Rev.22.2). Precisely the same symbolism as with the earlier prophet, and referring to the same era in prophetic time. With John there is an additional appropriateness, for just as the banishment of man from the Tree of Life marks the beginning of human history at the beginning of the first book of the Bible, so the rescinding of that prohibition comes at the climax of human history prior to the eternal state at the end of the last book of the Bible. Beyond that point sin and evil are no more, all creation is at peace and harmony with God, and Christ is ALL in ALL, with every tongue confessing him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

There remains the promise to the "overcomers" of this present Age. These, said the glorified Christ to John, are to be given "to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God". (Rev.2.7). Now since it is through the instrumentality of the Church, associated with her Lord in the celestial world, that He will conduct the evangelical and reconciling work of the Millennial Age, it follows that this promise is fulfilled at the completion of the Church's career upon earth, i.e. at the close of this present Age. The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 15 speaks of the "change" of every member of the Church, every truly dedicated and consecrated Christian of this Age, to heavenly conditions—since "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God", and the Apostle Paul in 1 Thess.4.13-17 of this resurrection as taking place at the Second Advent of our Lord, also at the end of this Age. There is therefore here in Rev. 2.7 a bold metaphor of the union of all believers with God at the time they are presented "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24) on the basis of the earthly symbol of the Tree of Life. Just as the reality of essential union with God is symbolised for mankind by the literal Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden, so, we are told to infer, there is a spiritual counterpart of the Tree of Life in the celestial presence of God. Just as man will continue to all eternity in vital life-relationship to God the Father and Creator of all, so will those who "by patient continuance in well doing" have achieved the immortality which is the inheritance of all who have been "buried with (Christ) by baptism into his death", and raised "in the likeness of his resurrection". (Rom.6.4-5). The one Tree was in the paradise of man, on earth; the other in the paradise of God, in heaven.

But they two are really one Tree of Life. One means of communion, one bond of union, one channel of life, between God and man. That channel is Christ. "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5.11-12). It may not be too far-fetched to say that, in reality, the Lord Christ himself is the Tree of Life

AOH