The Daily Word of Righteousness

White Clothes To Wear, #5

But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:50,51 NIV)

Do you know of any other "tree" from which we can eat and gain eternal life? Compare:

And the LORD God said, "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." (Genesis 3:22 NIV)

Compare:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,  that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

Eternal life was lost in the Garden of Eden. Eternal life is gained through the Lord Jesus Christ. From my point of view Christ is the only source of eternal life. How do you feel about this?

Let us say Adam and Eve, having no inherited or acquired sin, had eaten of Christ, of the Tree of Life. Then they would have received into themselves a portion of the Life of God. As it was, they were just fleshly creatures, made from the ground, although, unlike the animals, they had the potential to become the dwelling place of the Lord.

God referred to them as "dust."

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:19 NIV)

We know they had a spiritual nature that lives on after physical death, even though they did not have the eternal Life of God in them. We know this because the witch of Endor was able to bring up Samuel from the dead. There is life after death that is not the eternal life given to us under the new covenant.

Perhaps when God said Adam and Eve would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil He meant physical death only, not the extinction of their personality. This seems assured from the Scriptures.

If such were the case, then, when the Lord said if they ate of the tree of life they would live forever He was referring to immortality in the body, since after physical death their spiritual personality would continue to exist in the spirit realm even though they had not eaten of the tree of life.

If Adam and Eve had eaten of the Tree of Life they would have had the Life of God in their personalities and immortality in their bodies.

Then what? Then the Lord could have covered them with skins and at the same time told them that nakedness was a shameful condition. They would have had the strength of Christ in them and would have been able to handle this information. Then they would have been on their way to be strengthened and taught concerning other evil in the universe.

Perhaps this would have been the scenario. In any case, this is the way it works under the new covenant. We receive the blood atonement and our sins are forgiven. Then we are given a portion of the eternal Life of God.

To be continued.