Scripture:
Genesis 3:22-24
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.”23 So
the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the
ground from which he had been taken. 24 After
he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of
Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to
guard the way to the tree of life.
God put up a barrier between humanity and the Tree
of Life. Why did He do this? He says that if humans were to reach out their
hand and eat from it, they would live forever. But doesn't God want us to live
forever? Doesn't He want us to have eternal life?
As God makes clear in the coming of Christ, He
does want us to have eternal life, but it can't come by our own doing. In our
sinful state, we can't reach out our hand and take from the Tree of Life.
Eternal life is something that God has to give us and lead us toward.
He leads us to the Tree of Life and eternity by
guiding us into His wisdom (Proverbs 3) and through belief in His Son
(Revelation 22).
We will eat from the Tree of Life, but it will not
be because of our strength or actions. We can't reach out our hand and take it
for ourselves. It will come only as a gift from God and from what He has done
for us by teaching us and sending Christ to take away the barriers between our
sinfulness and God's holiness.
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