REVELATION OF WHAT WAS THERE AT FIRST

 

  In two years, I have read and commented on the entire Bible. For two hours each day I have poured over truth. I did that because you would not! John was given a vision of Paradise, for those who have eyes to see but saw not. Revelation is a re-revealing of the creation. The highest philosophical question is, Why me? Why do I exist?  After all the trials and tribulations in the world, John saw why!

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Rev 22:14)

  The curse, for those who endure to the end, is removed. Why seven thousand years to end the curse, when there never needed to be a curse? The curse started with the test:

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen 2:16-17)

  God provided all things that his creatures should have. However, they wanted better things! They ate of the Tree of Death rather than the Tree of Life whose fruits they could freely eat. Thereon were twelve fruits: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, gentleness, faith, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Gal 5:22-23, Vulgate). The fruits if the Tree of Death were more:  “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21)

  The curse is? “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” The fruits of the spirit were there by grace, but the fruits of the flesh were there to tempt. They are the “wages” of sin. Those who are rewarded in those ways have received their rewards already. Like it or not, there are things Christians must do and not do!

  Since all mankind ate of the Tree of Knowledge, carnal knowledge are their wages. With those rewards in hand, there is little peace, joy, charity, kindness and such. Adam and Eve, representing all mankind, had no right to the Tree of Life, and they were cast out of the Garden and from its presence. They had rejected those twelve fruits for the knowledge of lesser fruits and had no right to the Tree of Life: “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen 3:23-24).

  Much is implied there, but foremost, Adam and Eve were no longer worthy of Paradise, and try as hard as they may, they lost their right to eat of the Tree of Life. They had made their decision! Now, there was only one Way to eat of the Tree of Life, and that was by the blood of the Lamb. They could eat of the leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of the nations (Rev 22:2). They could no longer obtain the fruit until the Leaves were partaken. With that said, the Tree of Life is a metaphor, representing God’s three substances: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The “Root” is the Father, the Living Water that provided Life from below, is the Holy Spirit, and the Body of the Tree of Life represents Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus looked Jesus squarely in the Face and said, “I see men; as trees walking” (Mark 8:24). As his vision emerged, Bartimaeus saw Jesus as the Tree of Life, and that His Leaves would heal the nations.

  When Christians come to see Jesus as the Tree of Life healing the nations, then they are worthy of the Tree of Life. Adam never saw that! He saw desirable attributes. Eve did not see that? She saw only beauty and things pleasurable. Life would have been much easier if our two representatives had seen what John saw! By grace, God offered that view in the Garden Paradise, and offers the same view in the City of God — Paradise restored!

  What must we do to have the right to the Tree of Life? Recognize the Tree for what it is! Recognize it as Jesus. So simple, but yet so hard to see that one Tree for all the other trees in the Garden!

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