LIFE IN COMMUNION WITH GOD

Posted : 6 Jul, 2012 02:24 AM

Genesis 2:4�9



4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens--



5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,



6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground--



7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.



8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.



9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.



The history of the human race began in paradise. It was a garden of communion where God taught Adam and Even how to live. The garden had many trees that were "pleasing to the eye and good for food"�that is, they were both beautiful and useful (v. 9).



"In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The first tree is a sign that God provides life. Human beings remain dependent because God is the source of their lives. Apart from God we have no life. The other tree represents a test if our obedience. We live as long as we obey. We eat from the the tree cf life as long as we love and obey our God.



The day our parents disobeyed we died. We lost life because we broke communion with God.



The early Christians called the cross on which Jesus died "the tree." They often said that the cross was the second tree of life God planted. It was s horrible tree, of course. The tree in the garden was verdant, fruit-bearing, and beautiful. The tree on Golgotha was bare, harsh, and ugly. But the dead cross became a tree of life. to all who believe.



To those who live and die in the shadow of the cross, Christ promises "the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God" (Rev. 2:7).

by the Rev. Andrew Kuyvenhoven

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