Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Man was created in the image and likeness of the Almighty God. God commanded Adam and Eve to follow His way and not be disobedient to His commandments. Had they followed His way they would not have tasted death and been driven from the garden. God had given them dominion over all things on the earth and they in their pride decided to take it a step farther and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and become gods themselves. Why not? They already had the dominion of all the earth. It seemed right unto them to do it their way. Satan could not be blamed for that mistake.

He was just the deceiver not the doer. Doing it their way had disastrous consequences. Death!

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me.

Man is still doing it his way. It even seems right unto him. Man’s way is the way of death and eternal separation from God. Yet they still blunder along, rebellious and prideful living life their way. The only true way is God’s way. God’s way is complete obedience to Him and His purpose. If a man will truly follow God’s way, he can reenter the garden and come back into communion with God. He can eat of the tree of Life and find eternal life. To inherit eternal life is the reward of those who follow the Way, but there is so much more depth to eating of the fruit of that tree than just the reward. Had Adam and Eve not sinned against God all men would have been born within the garden and eaten from the tree of life. That was the purpose of God from the beginning. It is still God’s purpose that men dwell within the garden in their rightful place. All men are now born outside the garden and must obtain reconciliation with God in order to gain entrance into the Kingdom of God…the spiritual Garden of Eden. God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply in the garden. That commandment has not changed. In order to receive forgiveness for our inherent sinful nature and to receive reconciliation we must follow the Way of God, which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. To understand this we must go back to the greatest commandments of God. 

Mark 12:29-31 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 

To love my neighbor as myself…How do I do this? What does this have to do with me being saved and regaining eternal life as Adam would have had if he had not sinned.? What does this have to do with me being saved from eternal damnation in Hell? The answer is in this next scripture. 

II Corinthians 5:17-19 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Reconciled unto God. How beautiful that is. It is His ultimate purpose to bring mankind back to the rightful place where God had intended for him to dwell. The shed blood of Jesus blotted out all sin to them that would believe on Him and obey His commandments.

Genesis 2:8-10 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

God wants man back in the garden with Him! He wants man to eat of the tree of life. Man governed by the Adamic nature that he is born into cannot pass by the Cherubims and the flaming sword which guard the entrance. The flaming sword will put to death any man that would try to pass by without first being reconciled to God.

Genesis 3:24 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.

In order to eat from the fruit of the tree of life we must first partake of another tree…the tree of death. Jesus physically died on that tree hewn into a cross. He died for the sins of the whole world. He died so that man could be reconciled back to God. We must pick up our own personal cross and follow Him. We do not have to physically die as He did that in our place…but we must die to ourselves. The Adamic nature in us must be nailed to that tree. The old man there is put to death. It is there we become a new creature in Christ. The old man has passed away and all things become new. We are buried into His death through our immersion in water and baptized in the name of Jesus. It is there we become dead to sin. He fills us with His Holy Spirit and it reigns in our life instead of sin. Should we be tempted with sin…it is that His spirit that empowers us to overcome sin. The soul that sins will die.  It is His will that all men are reconciled unto Him and that none perish.  

The true church of God is the city which God has prepared for them that will trust and obey Him. The true church of God is the New Jerusalem. The true church of God dwells in the Garden. The true church of God partakes of the fruit of the tree of life. In the New Jerusalem flows the river of life from the throne of God. 

Revelations 22:1-2 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The fruit of the tree of life is truth. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it cannot bring forth life. Jesus was eating the Passover with His disciples right before His death. He took bread and gave it to them and commanded that they eat it. The bread was symbolic of His body, which was given for us. They all took a cup of the fruit of the vine and He commanded that they drink. The fruit of the vine was symbolic of the blood that would be shed for us so that we could find remittance and redemption for our sins. They were to eat and drink of the truth. The commandment to continue this act of remembrance is still applicable to this day. This truth had been prophesized about since the expulsion from the garden. His death and shed blood would bring eternal life and reconciliation back to God for them that would believe on Him. He became our sacrifice. Our King would become our servant. The greatest would be the least.

Die to yourself. Let God lead you back into the garden. Eat from the tree of life and you will become a tree of life yourself, watered by the river of life that proceeds from the throne of God. It is here that you grow from a tender sapling to a mature tree that bears fruit. The fruit of the tree of life is the knowledge of the working of the Spirit of God in you and His truth. The revelation of truth will keep you fruitful. The river of life will keep your leaves from dying in drought or persecution and the life in your leaves will bring healing to individual lives and nations. 

Even Jeremiah and the disobedient children of Israel understood that they were the planting of the Lord and understood His covenant with them and the concept of fruitful trees. Jeremiah wrote concerning these matters. If it was relevant in the old covenant, how much more important it must be in the new. 

Jeremiah 11:17-19 For the Lord of hosts, that hath planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me into anger in offering incense unto Baal. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou showedst me their doings. But I was like a lamb led to the slaughter and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when the heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Ezekiel 47:12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. 

God has chosen His Church to bring about the reconciliation of the world to Himself. He has given the Church the word of reconciliation that will bring this about. That Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is only in His death and ascension that we live and it is only in our death…that we…the seed of truth can live and we become trees planted by the river of life…unmovable…bearing good fruit. That is the fruit that will feed the lost souls of this world and will lead them to victory over the curse of sin and to life eternal. Are you willing to die to yourself that others may live? Love your neighbor as yourself. Keep the way of the Tree of Life.