Finding Life in Jesus: The Tree of Life

Our church, Healing Wings, began in 1994. Not long after, God told me He was giving us a building. When I first saw it, I didn’t like it. It looked old and run down. It had been empty for five years, and the front was overgrown with weeds.

But God urged me to look again. He said, “Femi, go back there and look at the trees.” After I went back with some friends, we all agreed that 12 Festival Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, was where we should be.

The evidence was in the fruit trees.

When Moses sent spies to check out the Promised Land, they came back with fruits: grapes, pomegranates, and figs. Our new place in Victoria Island also had fruit trees. We found mango, almond, and banana trees. We picked the fruits and enjoyed them.

Trees of Eden

The Bible starts and ends with a tree. Trees are central to the message of the kingdom of God. In Genesis, God put two important trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the Tree of Life, and the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He warned that eating from it would lead to death. But they could eat from the Tree of Life whenever they wanted.

Despite this, Adam and Eve didn’t obey God. They did what they shouldn’t have done. Instead of eating from the Tree of Life, they chose the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They listened to the devil’s advice, thinking it would make them wise.

And so:

Through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

Because of their disobedience, God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their own good. He didn’t want them to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in sin. He then put a cherub with a flaming sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

This meant that sin and death became our legacy, and we lost the chance for life. From Genesis to Revelation, the goal has been to find a way back to the Tree of Life.

Men as Trees

In the Bible, people are compared to trees. Jesus said He came down from heaven to earth:

(So) that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that (God) may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)

The psalmist wrote about the redeemed:

We shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever we do shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3)

When Jesus healed a blind man, he saw something strange:

He looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” (Mark 8:24)

Jesus uses trees to teach lessons about people. He said:

Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matt 7:17-20)

Clearly, the trees Jesus talks about are people.

John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees who came for baptism:

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:10)

First and Last Adam

Paul mentions two representatives of humanity. The first is Adam, called the first Adam. The second is Jesus, known as the last Adam. Paul points out that:

As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Only Jesus can help us get back to the fruit of the Tree of Life that we lost because of Adam and Eve. To do this, Jesus became a man. He took on our sins at the cross so we could share in His righteousness.

Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus didn’t give in to Satan. Satan tempted Him with the desires of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, and pride. But Jesus stood firm and did not yield.

So, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

Cross As a Tree

Because of His unique role as a man, the Book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus gives us access to God by:

A new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh. (Hebrews 10:20)

He did this by dying for our sins on a cross. New Testament writers call Jesus’ cross a tree.

Peter says:

(Jesus) Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. (Acts 5:30)

We are witnesses of all things which (Jesus) did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. (Acts 10:39)

Because death came through a tree, life must come through another tree. We became debtors to God by eating from a tree, so our debt must be canceled by eating from another tree. That tree is Jesus, the Tree of Life, who died on the tree, or cross, of Calvary for our salvation. Jesus’ sacrifice on the Calvary Tree took away our sins.

As a result, the cherubim with the flaming sword who stopped us from reaching the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was removed.

With our sins gone, we can now freely eat the fruit of Jesus, the Tree of Life, and live forever without sin. There is now an open invitation to:

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Jesus says:

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. (John 6:53-56)

Bible treasures

Jesus teaches that:

“Every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)

When we mix our new and old spiritual treasures, we see that the Old Testament is full of examples of Jesus as the Tree of Life. CONTINUED.