Genesis 3:22–24 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Revelation 22:1–2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
One of the many remarkable things about the Bible is its self-consistency. Written by about 40 very different authors (shepherds, kings, physicians, scholars, etc.) in several different geographical locales (Israel, Babylon…) over a period of around 1600 years, its message is completely coherent throughout. There is no other work like it, and the fact that it forms a single literary whole with no incongruities or inconsistencies is one of the evidences that it is God’s handiwork.
Our passages above illustrate this point quite wonderfully. Drawn from close to the very beginning of the book and from its final chapter, it is remarkable that there is a common theme on display - our access to the tree of life. It is clear from the account in Genesis that the tree and the right to eat of its fruit are emblematic of eternal life. Adam and Eve had the right to eat from this tree during their time in Eden. They were sinless - there was no cause of death within them - and that condition would have continued had they not eaten the fruit from the tree that was forbidden them - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
On that day, they forfeited the right to eat from the tree of life. God even set a secure guard to prevent their return to the garden and eating from that tree. They were sinners now, with death at work in them, and therefore it was not right that they should eat from a tree that spoke of sinlessness and absence of death. So Adam and Eve were sent “east of Eden” (east often in Scripture being a direction associated with curse and condemnation).
The history of man in the interim can be looked at in one way as a series of failed efforts to bypass the cherubim guards and eat from the tree of life. We are preoccupied as a race with eternal life - with extending our time on earth or prolonging youthful looks. Otherwise we try to create a name for ourselves that will live on long after we die. It’s worth noting in passing that one reason why the current pandemic is so jarring to us is that it shatters the illusion we have created that we will never die. It shows us that we are fragile and mortal and that we will not live forever by our own methods, intellect and ingenuity. We cannot get around those cherubim while we remain sons of Adam, still bearing the guilt of his sin within ourselves.
Some people like to skip to the end of a book to see how it will finish before they invest the time in reading it. That is what we have done above - and what an ending it is! Here in New Jerusalem, we find the river of the water of life running down the main street. Either side of the river is the tree of life, watered from the river and abundantly fruitful. Two symbols of eternal life adorning the one street! The whole picture along that street is life and healing and joy! Remarkably, the people who live in New Jerusalem have a right to enter the city by its gates and to eat from that tree.
We saw yesterday that New Jerusalem is the church - the bride who comes down out of heaven prepared for her marriage to the Lamb (Jesus). And we know that the citizens of New Jerusalem are believers - whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. How did they get the right restored to them to eat of the tree of life (which Adam and Eve forfeited for all their offspring)? How have they been able (as it were) to pass by the cherubim and their flaming swords and to access the tree?
We said that it would not have been right for those in whom death was at work due to sin to eat of a tree that speaks of eternal life and sinlessness. But all the sons and daughters of Adam are born guilty of his sin. So if they are to eat of the tree, they must become children of God. Their guilt must be dealt with and there must now be a principle of life in them, rather than death - the evidence of which is that they now have a right to eat from the tree of life. But how could this happen? There is a clue in 22:14 above. They “washed their robes,” it says. In the Bible, the robes that characters wear often speak of their standing before God. Unbelievers are pictured in filthy robes, whereas believers wear spotless robes of Christ’s righteousness. And it is the blood of Christ in which filthy robes may be washed to become spotless:
Revelation 7:13–14 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
So at the beginning of the Bible, man rebels against God. His robes become filthy. He has death at work within him and loses his right (and that of all who are related to him in the flesh) to eat of the tree of life. At the end of the book, Christ has died to take away the guilt of His people. They wash their robes spotless in His blood. They now have eternal life at work in them and the right to eat from the tree of life (which belongs to all who are related to Him in the spirit). Beautiful symmetry and consistency, but beyond that, amazing truth!
All who will turn from their sin and trust Jesus to save them from its guilt and power may wash their robes and eat of the tree of life. Have you?
