What was the original purpose of the tree of life in the garden if there was no sin or death?

G’day everyone, Dave Deane here, and our question for the week is: What was the original purpose of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden when there was no sin/death?

This is a really interesting question, and theologians and commentators have offered different answers. Some say that the “tree of life” is kind of pointless because human beings were created immortal and would have lived forever if we hadn’t sinned; others say that we weren’t created immortal and so if humanity never sinned, we would have lived and died and gone to heaven all the same.

Personally, I take a different view to both of these, and I’ll explain why.

The phrase “tree of life” is mentioned 12 times in the Bible, and while a full answer to this question needs to deal with all of the data, we do seem to get a reasonable answer from just a few considerations.

The first mention of the “tree of life” is in Genesis 2:9 which says: “out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Now, leaving aside considerations of whether this was a literal tree with literal fruit or a metaphor or symbol for something more, at this point in the Bible we don’t know anything more about the “tree of life” other than that it is a tree good for eating and pleasing to the eye in the midst of the garden of Eden and that Adam and Eve were free to eat from it (v. 16).

There was only one tree in the garden God told Adam and Eve not to eat from, and that is the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Now, it’s interesting isn’t it? So often we complain about the one thing we’re not allowed to have or not allowed to do, while not appreciating all that we do have and all that we can do. So often we bring that to our reading of Genesis and we complain about this one tree and it’s forbidden fruit. But the reason God told them not to eat from it was their own good. Genesis 2:17, “in the day you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die.”

The second mention of the “tree of life” is in Genesis 3:22-24 after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. And here we get more information about the “tree of life” when God says that he’s going to cut off access to the “tree of life” from Adam and Eve lest they eat from it and live forever.

You see, what this second mention tells us is that meaning of the “tree of life” is found in its effect – it sustains life!

So, two trees:

• the “tree of life” which produces life sustaining fruit; and
• the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” which produces deadly fruit.

Adam and Eve ate the deadly fruit, Genesis chapter 3. The consequence was death, therefore God removed their access to the “tree of life” and its life sustaining fruit.

So back to the question: What was the original purpose of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden when there was no sin/death?

Well, if what we mean when we say “there was no sin or death” is that human beings were created immortal, then the question becomes: was human immortality unconditional? Are we our own life or is life something we have? Were we created with the intrinsic sustaining source of our own life OR was our original immortal state a consequence of our connectedness with God and His order and structure and pattern in creation?

I think it’s the latter. I think the “tree of life” teaches us how human beings are created to be connected; to be in spiritual and physical harmony with God, ourselves, each other and all of creation. We are not social atoms; we are not self-sufficient creatures; we HAVE life but we aren’t life which is obvious enough in that none of us asked to be born.

God and God alone IS life – John 14:6 Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth and the life” – so to the extent that we are relationally connected with Jesus is the extent to which we HAVElife.

You see, by eating from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” Adam and Eve awoke all sorts of alternatives for the meaning and purpose of life. That word for knowledge means ‘knowledge by experience,’ which is why eating the forbidden fruit is not a trivial act. It is the ingestion, the embodiment, the knowledge by experience of the alternatives to life without God.

But it was a deception. Because if God is life, then there are no alternatives to life without God. All there is, is death.

That’s why Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that seems right to a humanity, but its end is the way to death.”

To sum all of this up: sin is a separation from God and what he says about creation, which is why sin leads to death – the physical, spiritual and ultimately eternal separation from God and His means for sustaining human life.

But here’s the thing. We’ve only looked at the first two mentions of the “tree of life” in the first book of the Bible. When we get to the end in the last book of Revelation, guess what we see? The “tree of life” and human beings eating from it once again in the new heavens and the new earth. What’s changed?

The short answer is: Jesus – God Himself who rejoined what our sin has separated. Just “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, [Jesus said] neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing…” (John 15:4-6).

The only reason there was no death before sin is because sin is what separates us from life.

Sin separates us from God like a cosmic orphan. Salvation in Jesus rejoins us as adopted children in the household of God.

Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

So friends, “taste and see that the LORD is good!” (Psalm 34:8).