The Tree of Life

Intro:
Today's blog is the first chapter of a book I have written about heaven, hell, love, and what it means for God to be a consuming fire.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He created light and space, sea and land, plants and all kinds of vegetation, birds, fish and all kinds of animals. Finally he creates humans, male and female, and instructs them:

Be fruitful and increase in number. (Genesis 1.28)

And:

You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. (Genesis 2.16-17)

It was like an accident waiting to happen. We deceive ourselves if we think God hoped Adam and Eve and all their descendants would resist temptation and refrain from eating the fruit of this tree. Of course they ate. And we still do. After they (and we) have eaten God says,

“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3.22-23)

Because mankind has eaten from the fruit of the first tree (“the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”) God ensures that we cannot eat from the fruit of the second tree (“the tree of life”). In so doing he ensures that mankind cannot live forever. We are mortal. We die. We are not immortal. We do not live for ever. The banishment from the garden of Eden is not phrased as a punishment: it was to stop them eating of the tree of life. Those who have not eaten of the tree of life will not live for ever. Only those who have eaten of the tree of life will live for ever.

But that is jumping to the end of the story. In Revelation 2.7 Jesus (through John) says:

To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

In Revelation 22 the river of the water of life flows down from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The narrative continues:

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22.2)

And:

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22.14)

In order to enter the city (the new Jerusalem which has come down from heaven) you need to have eaten of the tree of life. In order to eat of the tree of life you need to have your robes washed.

There we have it: the beginning and the end of the story. In the beginning mankind is banished from access to the tree of life. At the end those who are “victorious”, those who “wash their robes” may eat of the tree of life and live for ever. What happens in between?

What happens in between is the result of mankind eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Death. They ate, they died. We eat, we die. Not instantaneously of course, but the result is that we are mortal. As Jesus puts it:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10.28)

Body and soul – that is the outer and inner person – God can and does destroy a person in “hell”. The Greek word translated “hell” is Gehenna, the rubbish tip outside of Jerusalem. And Jesus uses it as a metaphor for the destination of those who die.