As believers in Christ, we need a vision of the tree of life and realize that it signifies the Triune God in Christ to dispense Himself into His chosen people in the form of food; the tree of life is the center of the universe and it should be our center today.
We need to be those who eat the tree of life, that is, take in God as life, and we should reject and stay away from anything of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
By our birth from our parents, we are born in the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and as we grow up, learn things, are educated, live in a certain way, and acquire knowledge, we water and fertilize the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
All men are a constitution of the tree of knowledge o good and evil, and even those who are not very cultured still are on this line of the tree of knowledge.
The people who are on the line of the tree of knowledge always want a YES or NO answer to their question.
If we read the Gospels we see again and again that the Lord didn’t have a clear yes or no answer, because He was not on the line of the tree of knowledge but on the line of the tree of life.
For example, once they saw a man who was blind from birth, and the disciples said, This person is blind, so somebody must have sinned – either him or his parents, that’s why he was born blind! And the Lord said, Neither one; he was born blind for God to be manifested in His glory in his situation.
Those on the line of the tree of life can be very mysterious people, giving mysterious answers, not having a clear-cut yes or no answer; this is how the Lord Jesus lived, and this is how a person who eats the tree of life lives.
We may see many wrong things happening either in society or even in the church life, and we may have a list of this and that thing that was done wrong or was spoken in a wrong way; however, are we on the line of life when we do this, or are we on the line of the tree of knowledge?
We may understand and agree with the fact that there is a line of the tree of life and a line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but do we actually live in the line of the tree of life? Did we contact the Lord today?
Did we partake of God in Christ as the tree of life, and are we depending on the Lord? Or do we have an answer to everything, for we know how this and that works, and we have an opinion about things?
Do we merely see things as right vs wrong, good vs evil, or do we follow the sense of life within us? Do we cultivate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or do we water, fertilize, and cultivate the tree of life?
By default, we are on the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; by inertia, we simply live in the wrong tree, for our natural being is naturally inclined to live and do things in a certain way according to the tree of knowledge.
How we need to experience a transfer, again and again, from the tree of knowledge (the tree of death) and on the tree of life, so that we may partake of God in Christ as the tree of life and live according to the divine life within us!
We need a Vision of the Tree of Life: the Triune God in Christ to Dispense Himself into us as Food
We may know that there is a tree of life in Genesis and also in the book of Revelation, and we may understand that the tree of life is central to God in His economy; however, we need a vision of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:1-2, 14).
We may have the teaching of the tree of life, but we need to also enter into the vision and experience of this; we need the vision of the tree of life so that we can have the experience of actually living in the realm and on the line of the tree of life.
What does the tree of life signify? The tree of life signifies the Triune God in Christ to dispense Himself into His chosen people (that’s us!) as life in the form of food.
This is what God desires to do; He created man in His image and according to His likeness, and He wants to dispense Himself into man as life in the form of food.
We as believers in Christ need to eat the tree of life, that is, we need to eat God as food. Some people may think it is crude to talk about God in such a way; eating God may sound quite crude and not very spiritual.
However, the Lord Jesus is the One who came and said, Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no part with Me.
Read John chapter 6, it is full of the Lord’s speaking concerning His desire that we, His followers and disciples, would eat Him and partake of Him.
In John 6:57 in particular He says that if we eat Him, we shall live because of Him. We need to eat the Lord Jesus as the reality of the tree of life, partake of Him, and live because of Him.
The principle of the tree of life is dependence; when we partake of Christ as life, we depend on Him, and we live a dependent life on Him as we take Him in as life.
The tree of life is revealed in the Old Testament in Genesis, where we see that man chose not to partake of this tree but of the wrong tree, the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the New Testament, we see that Christ came as the fulfilment of the tree of life.
John 1:4 says that in Him was life; v. 3 refers to the creation in Gen. 1, so the mention of life in v. 4 should refer to the life indicated by the tree of life in Gen. 2.
We need to see a vision of the tree of life. The life displayed by the tree of life in Gen. 2 was the life incarnated in Christ.
He came as life; He is the way, the reality, and the life (John 14:6), and He is the resurrection and the life.
Furthermore, John 15 reveals that Christ is a tree, the vine tree; if we put together John 1:4 and 15:5 we will realize that Christ is the tree of life.
This is why He kept speaking of our need to eat Him, take Him in as the bread of life, the living bread, the bread of God, and the bread that came out of heaven (see John 6).
In Christ, God came as life to be enjoyed by man in the form of food; Christ as the embodiment of life is the tree of life.
Rev. 2:7 furthermore says that the overcomer will eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.
Adam fell by not eating the tree of life, and the way to the tree of life was closed to man (Gen. 3:22-24).
The way to the tree of life was closed to man due to the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, which need to be met before man can partake of God as life.
But praise the Lord, through the redemption of Christ, the way to enjoy the Triune God in Christ as the tree of life has been opened again (Heb. 10:19-20); there’s now a new and living way to come forward to God and enjoy Him.
Even though the degradation of the church has crept in and has kept most believers into the realm of knowledge and not in the realm of the enjoyment of Christ, we today can exercise to apply the blood of Christ, wash our robes, and have the right to eat of the tree of life (Rev. 22:14).
God’s original intention is that man would eat of the tree of life, and He has made a way for this to happen – Christ’s redemption; now we can believe into Christ, wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb, and come to God to enjoy Him as life!
May we see a vision of the tree of life and partake of the Triune God in Christ as life in the form of food!
We do not need to strive or struggle to please God; we don’t need to try our best to fulfil what God says in His word – we simply need to come to the Lord, apply the precious blood of Christ, and partake of God in Christ as life in the form of food!
And when we do this, when God gets into us as life, He in us can fulfil all the requirements and things that the Bible speaks of, for only God can fulfil His law, and only Christ can live the Christian life.
Lord Jesus, grant us a vision of the tree of life! May we not only have the teaching of the tree of life but also have a vision so that we can enter into the experience of actually eating the tree of life! Amen, Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the embodiment of God to make the tree of life real to us. Thank You Lord for Your redemption, Your death on the cross, which opened a new and living way for us to come forward to God and partake of the tree of life. Lord, we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb and we come to take in the Triune God in Christ as life in the form of food! We come to You, dear Lord, and we open to You to eat You in Your word. We eat You as the tree of life and we live because of You.
The Tree of Life is the Center of the Universe and our Eternal Portion as God’s Redeemed
We do not know what the physical center of the universe is, for we don’t know what is the shape of the universe; what we know, however, is that the center of the universe is the tree of life.
According to God, in His purpose and according to His intention, the center of the universe is the tree of life.
In God’s purpose, the earth is the center, and the center of the earth is the garden of Eden, and the center of the garden of Eden is the tree of life with man; this is the center of the universe, and this should also be our center.
The tree of life should be our center in our personal universe; we should focus not on many other things but on the tree of life, that is, on partaking of God in Christ as life in the form of food in His living word.
If we have a vision of the tree of life as the center of the universe, we will take the tree of life as the center of our personal universe and also as the center of our church life.
The central thing in our church life should be the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life.
We shouldn’t be distracted by things which are right or wrong; right and wrong things happen all the time both in society and in the church life, for human beings are there.
In the church life we may see a lot of wrong things happening; our focus, however, should not be on the right or wrong things but on the tree of life.
We shouldn’t be distracted but rather, eat the tree of life and make it the center of our daily life, our Christian life, and our church life, and we will be very peaceful and happy, whether things are right or wrong.
In the divine view, the tree of life with man is the center of the universe; nothing is more central and crucial to both God and man than the tree of life (John 6:33; Rev. 22:14).
Christ came as the fulfilment of the figure of the tree of life, and all those who believe into Him have received Him as life and have been grafted into Him as the tree of life.
He is the vine, we are the branches; we have been cut off from the tree of knowledge and we have been grafted into the tree of life.
Now we are part of the tree of life, and this tree needs to grow in us and swallow up the tree of knowledge, which has been growing our whole life.
In the Gospel of John in particular we see many aspects of the all-inclusive Christ – He is our food, our water, our light, our air, our supply, our healing, and our everything – all these are the outcome of the tree of life (John 6:48; 8:12; 10:11; 11:25; 14:6).
In Rev. 22:1-2, 14 we see that, for eternity, the enjoyment of the tree of life will be our portion, for in the New Jerusalem the tree of life is constantly growing and bearing fruit, and it is so accessible.
The tree of life grows on the two sides of the river of water of life which proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:2); this indicates that the tree of life is a vine, spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy.
Hallelujah, for eternity we as God’s redeemed people will enjoy the tree of life!
For eternity we will enjoy Christ as the Son of God, the redeeming Lamb, as our eternal life supply!
The tree of life fulfils for eternity what God intended for man from the beginning. The fruits of the tree of life will be our food as God’s redeemed in eternity; these fruits will be continually fresh, being produced every month. Hallelujah!
May we see a vision of the tree of life and realize that, through Christ’s redemption, we have access to partaking of God as life in the form of food!
Lord Jesus, we take the tree of life as the center and focus of our Christian life and church life. We choose to focus not on the wrong or right things happening in the church life but on the tree of life. We come to You, Lord, to partake of the Triune God in Christ as life in the form of food by praying over the word of God to take God in as life. Amen, Lord, we take the tree of life as our center in our personal universe and in the church life. Keep us enjoying You as life. Keep us washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb and coming forward to You to partake of the tree of life. Hallelujah, we have the right to enjoy the tree of life as our eternal portion, for Christ has fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory! Praise the Lord, for eternity the enjoyment of the tree of life will be our eternal portion as God’s redeemed in the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msg. 41), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 4, Man and the Two Trees.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Eating is man’s destiny / And the Lord’s recovery; / This defeats the enemy— / Overcome! / Come enjoy the tree of life, / Leave the doctrines, leave the strife! / Overcome by eating Christ— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273)
– Thus within the church-life garden / There’s a fruit-producing tree / Full of life and so available to eat. / So be simple, don’t be hardened, / Drop your concepts—eat that tree! / Take in Jesus every moment—He’s so sweet! (Hymns #1237)
– We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151)
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