Dale Partridge - Genesis 3_23-24 - Understanding the Tree of Life

00:00:00.000 Today, by God's grace, we get to complete this third chapter of Genesis.

00:00:09.080 And if you were here with us last week, you know that we are now are in part two of this

00:00:14.420 kind of post judgment or post fall section of the chapter.

00:00:19.960 Now, as you know, Genesis three is one of the most consequential chapters of the entire

00:00:25.080 Bible.

00:00:25.760 It's so vital.

00:00:27.420 It's so vital.

00:00:28.380 One theologian even said that the rest of Scripture turns on the hinges of this chapter.

00:00:36.060 You can't understand the whole Bible if you don't understand chapter 3 of the book of Genesis.

00:00:41.440 So I just want to remind you where we're at.

00:00:43.960 So Genesis 3, 1 through 7 recorded the serpent's temptation of Eve and the fall of mankind into sin.

00:00:53.140 Verses 8 through 19 recorded God's curse upon the serpent and his judgment upon the man and the woman.

00:01:00.940 And then verses 20 through 22 is what we talked about last week.

00:01:05.320 Recorded Adam's incredible act of faith that we see even here in Genesis 3.

00:01:11.020 That basically in the midst of a death sentence that God gives to Adam.

00:01:17.160 He calls his wife Eve, the mother of the living.

00:01:22.240 That is, that he trusted God's promise of a redeemer that would come from him and his wife.

00:01:33.660 And we also saw God's provision of animal skins to cover their shame,

00:01:41.120 which was really a foreshadowing of the penal substitutionary atonement doctrine

00:01:47.260 that we see throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament.

00:01:50.760 And finally, we looked at what theologians called the Augustinian Matrix.

00:01:56.280 Very important doctrine for where we're about to go.

00:01:59.620 And I want to talk about that.

00:02:01.360 I just want to go over it one more time.

00:02:03.120 So you have the context here of where we left off last week.

00:02:07.020 And it was another word for it is the fourfold state of man.

00:02:11.240 And Augustine identified these four distinct conditions of humanity that we see in the Bible.

00:02:17.000 And the first one was in the garden.

00:02:20.300 We spent the last several weeks in the garden, and there in the garden, man was able to sin

00:02:28.020 and able not to sin. He was able to sin and able not to sin. It's the closest concept that you can

00:02:37.880 get of free will, though I would not call it free will. Number two is after the fall.

00:02:44.080 that is the place that we're about to enter into next week post fall well i guess even this week

00:02:51.660 now but man was only able to sin man was only able to sin that is that he was bound to sin or

00:03:01.440 he was a slave to sin after the fall number three is after redemption in christ

00:03:09.900 that the Christian is essentially freed from the bondage of sin

00:03:15.520 and is once again able to sin and able not to sin.

00:03:23.640 And then the fourth one is in glory.

00:03:27.040 And this is obviously after death.

00:03:29.080 The believer will not be able to sin after he enters glory.

00:03:35.100 And so these four quadrants, very important,

00:03:37.480 because it helps you have the theological, contextual understanding

00:03:41.600 of where we're going in the Bible.

00:03:45.180 Now, it helps us grasp life outside of Eden

00:03:50.620 and the longing and aching anticipation for the promised Redeemer

00:03:58.540 that we saw in Genesis 3.15.

00:04:01.260 There will be a serpent crusher that comes from you, Eve,

00:04:04.380 which is fitting for our advent season so today we're going to be covering the second half of

00:04:13.660 verse 22 to the end of the chapter verse 24 and this sermon i'm going to title understanding the

00:04:21.840 tree of life now for the sake of clarity i'm going to read all of verse 22 and also be prepared this

00:04:33.220 sermon will stretch you. It stretched me. It's theological. It's a bit heady. I'm going to try

00:04:42.020 to make it as consumable as possible. It says in verse 22, then the Lord God said, behold,

00:04:52.900 the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

00:04:58.760 if you remember last week it's it's not sinful to know good and evil that's not the point that

00:05:05.420 is being made here in this passage it's sinful how adam and eve came to know good and evil

00:05:12.820 in other words they came to know evil by doing evil by disobeying god and eating of the tree

00:05:22.260 in which they were not to eat of but today we're looking at the second sentence or the

00:05:27.600 second half of this sentence, which had, again, significantly more theological depth than I had

00:05:35.700 expected. It says, now lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat

00:05:45.560 and live forever. Now, this is an interesting line because in the Hebrew and even in the English,

00:05:55.280 It's an unfinished thought.

00:05:57.460 Just look at the text.

00:05:58.380 You just look at it and you go, it just kind of stops in midair.

00:06:02.360 You want the sentence to conclude with something like, therefore, let us remove him from the garden.

00:06:06.840 But it doesn't.

00:06:08.180 It just says, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

00:06:15.540 And so Hebrew scholars suggest that this is some form of a literary device that the writer is using.

00:06:22.180 and it's meant to communicate some form of urgency or immediacy. 0.85

00:06:27.140 We've got to get them out of the garden quick.

00:06:30.720 Why?

00:06:32.540 When I'm studying this, I'm going, what's the urgency?

00:06:38.160 What's going on here?

00:06:41.240 Was God worried that Adam might cheat justice

00:06:44.160 and then run over to the tree of life and grab the fruit and eat of it

00:06:48.180 and say, ha ha, I don't need the gospel.

00:06:52.180 Was that what was going on?

00:06:54.340 No.

00:06:55.820 No.

00:06:57.220 To understand God's purpose, we have to turn to the doctrine of sacramentology.

00:07:03.660 Sacramentology.

00:07:04.300 Now, sacramentology is the biblical doctrine of signs and seals, right? 0.89

00:07:09.080 It's circumcision, Passover blood.

00:07:12.300 It's manna, the bronze serpent, baptism, the Lord's Supper.

00:07:15.460 All of these things are signs and seals.

00:07:17.400 They're sacraments that we see in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

00:07:21.280 We only have two in the New Covenant, but this is what we see here.

00:07:25.780 Now, the tree of life fits into this sacramentology.

00:07:31.980 Now, this is a real tree bearing real fruit, just as all the other trees in the garden were bearing real fruit.

00:07:42.940 now what makes this tree unique is that god had assigned to this particular tree

00:07:50.580 to serve as a sacramental means by which he conveyed christ to which he conveyed christ

00:07:59.180 again much like now he uses baptism and the lord's supper to convey christ

00:08:06.120 in other words the tree of life is not a magical tree it's not a medicinal tree it's not like

00:08:13.000 oh i ate of it and it just gave me the right amount of nutrients to let me live forever

00:08:17.300 that that's not what it is it's a real tree endowed with sacramental power

00:08:25.920 by god's own appointment to convey christ that's that's what it is

00:08:32.040 is. John Calvin says, For there never was any intrinsic efficacy in the tree, but God

00:08:43.540 made it life-giving, so far as he had sealed his grace to man in the use of it. Okay, so

00:08:53.520 the tree of life conveyed the life of Christ sacramentally. It conveyed Christ sacramentally.

00:09:01.460 Now, as we know, Jesus is life.

00:09:06.280 We know John 1, verse 4.

00:09:08.300 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

00:09:12.480 All of life is wrapped up in Christ.

00:09:16.900 But here's the catch.

00:09:19.560 Okay?

00:09:20.640 It could only seal life under obedience.

00:09:27.500 This is very important.

00:09:28.920 It can only seal life under obedience.

00:09:33.560 In other words, God attached the promise of life to the obedient use of the tree.

00:09:41.140 You need to catch this. It'll make sense in a second.

00:09:44.200 God promised life sacramentally that would come through this tree,

00:09:49.140 but only attached this promise to life to the obedient use of the tree.

00:09:55.680 Now remember, prior to the fall, prior to the fall, we are in, we're not in the covenant of grace yet.

00:10:02.920 There is no need for the covenant of grace yet.

00:10:05.120 We are in what's called the covenant of works.

00:10:08.040 The covenant of works.

00:10:12.360 And the covenant of works was basically this.

00:10:15.200 God granted life for obedience and death for disobedience.

00:10:20.800 Life for obedience and death for disobedience.

00:10:25.300 That's the covenant of works.

00:10:26.700 That is how it was operating in the garden.

00:10:31.600 Now, why is this important?

00:10:35.900 Because the tree did not give life to anyone who merely just ate it.

00:10:41.720 Again, now you're starting to get the answer to the question, right?

00:10:45.140 Was God afraid that Adam was going to run back and grab it?

00:10:48.940 No, he couldn't. No.

00:10:50.100 It wouldn't have conveyed eternal life, blessed eternal life, because it wasn't the obedient use of it.

00:11:00.420 Catch this here with me.

00:11:02.560 Why is this important?

00:11:04.000 Because the tree did not give anyone life who merely ate it.

00:11:09.760 It gave what God promised only under the conditions that God established in that covenant.

00:11:17.140 Stay with me.

00:11:18.220 It'll come together here.

00:11:20.100 Once Adam violated the conditions of the covenant of works, he disobeyed and broke the covenant.

00:11:32.360 The tree could no longer convey blessed eternal life to him according to the covenant of works.

00:11:37.940 Now, again, see why the need to quickly bar Adam from the tree.

00:11:42.480 That's what I'm wondering.

00:11:43.260 Okay, why do you have to get him out of there so quick?

00:11:45.920 in hebrew the phrase live forever do you see in verse 22 the phrase live forever

00:11:56.060 here in verse 22 it means forever in that state forever in that state it really means

00:12:04.220 continue indefinitely in the current condition

00:12:09.020 so given Adam's condition what is he now well he's not righteous he has fallen he has fallen

00:12:20.980 and so to live forever would not mean eternal blessedness but the eternalization of his

00:12:30.540 corrupted state. If Adam would have ate of that tree, he would have been forever fallen.

00:12:42.760 Matthew Henry says, Adam must not take of it and eat and so perpetuate his fallen life,

00:12:50.760 which would have been a perpetual mystery or misery. Calvin says, God therefore casts him out

00:12:57.740 lest he should perpetually remain in the same miserable condition forever.

00:13:07.320 Now, how could this be?

00:13:10.060 How does this work?

00:13:14.920 How does the tree that was meant to give life now become a means of sustaining death?

00:13:22.460 These are the questions that I'm asking while I'm studying.

00:13:27.740 Well, because in Scripture, sacraments, in Scripture, sacraments always confirm the covenantal state of the one who partakes of them.

00:13:40.380 Always confirms the covenantal state of those who partake of them.

00:13:45.080 They never function neutrally.

00:13:47.180 They never function without function.

00:13:49.680 okay what God appointed to seal life under obedience would after the fall seal corruption

00:13:57.140 under sin I'm going to say that again I really want you to grasp it again we're not going to be

00:14:01.640 the theologically shallow American Christians that don't understand the fundamentals of the faith

00:14:06.520 even though we're 20 years deep grasp this 0.83

00:14:10.460 what god appointed to seal life under obedience

00:14:18.900 would after the fall seal corruption under sin

00:14:25.320 paul actually makes this explicit in a sense first corinthians 11 27 through 30 about the

00:14:35.260 Lord's Supper, he says, whoever eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment

00:14:40.480 on himself. For this reason, many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. I've always wondered,

00:14:47.020 whoa, that is a very intense passage of scripture.

00:14:52.480 Gives you a bit of a fear and trembling when you're taking the Lord's Supper.

00:14:59.020 Now again, I'm not saying that if you've ever taken communion in an unworthy manner,

00:15:03.600 that you're sealed for hell.

00:15:05.080 That's not what's being said here.

00:15:07.680 I'm saying that the sacraments, by God's design,

00:15:11.800 always have an effect.

00:15:14.360 Always have an effect.

00:15:16.580 For those in the covenant, they seal grace.

00:15:21.280 For those who have broken the covenant,

00:15:24.020 they seal judgment.

00:15:26.840 They seal judgment.

00:15:28.280 you want to take the Lord's Supper

00:15:33.220 after you've broken covenant with God

00:15:35.160 you will seal judgment to yourself

00:15:38.620 in other words the sacrament never becomes this empty

00:15:44.160 or this powerless or this casual

00:15:46.720 thing when received improperly

00:15:49.920 it always remains effectual

00:15:51.460 again we live in America where we have like

00:15:55.400 made the sacraments into nothing

00:15:57.920 They're so irreverent.

00:16:00.760 We've just squashed it all in our egalitarian society that says everything's the same.

00:16:05.500 There's no more mystery.

00:16:07.080 I can't explain it, therefore it must just be, you know,

00:16:09.580 if it's not logically making sense, there's no mystery there.

00:16:12.640 There's no miracle there.

00:16:19.460 There's a reason why, historically, the church has fenced the table.

00:16:23.740 it wants to make sure that those who are receiving the sacraments

00:16:30.140 are in the covenant through baptism they're not walking in open rebellion

00:16:34.480 they're not under church discipline and now taking this supper

00:16:41.020 because the supper seals grace to the faithful and judgment to the defiant that's a point

00:16:50.080 So, the question is never, does a sacrament do something?

00:16:58.320 Rather, it is, what does it do, given the covenantal condition of the one receiving it?

00:17:05.140 What does it do?

00:17:09.460 And that principle is key to understanding God's action here in Eden.

00:17:15.640 all of that needed to be taught in order for you to understand what is happening here

00:17:21.180 if adam now a covenant breaker fallen dead had eaten of the tree of life it would not

00:17:31.920 have restored him but would have sealed to him his fallen state forever

00:17:37.600 However, he would have no possibility of death and therefore no possibility of resurrection and redemption.

00:17:49.540 And you might be wondering, why is the tree of life so conclusive and permanent in its kind of sacramental effect while baptism in the Lord's Supper doesn't seem as permanent?

00:18:07.600 Again, this is because the tree of life belongs to the covenant of works.

00:18:12.880 You have to think in categories here.

00:18:14.900 The tree of life belongs to the covenant of works, not the covenant of grace.

00:18:20.800 Let me make this point here.

00:18:22.600 Under the covenant of works, the sacrament is confirming, it's a confirming seal.

00:18:28.360 Not a renewing grace.

00:18:30.400 It's very different.

00:18:31.140 They operate differently under two different covenants.

00:18:36.060 It seals a person to whatever covenantal condition they currently occupy.

00:18:40.020 Obedience unto life and disobedience unto death.

00:18:43.000 That's the point.

00:18:46.140 But under the covenant of grace, the covenant that we're in, we're in the covenant of grace.

00:18:51.740 Our sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, they do not function conclusively.

00:18:58.940 They function restoratively.

00:19:01.440 They're a grace to us.

00:19:03.580 They're a mercy to us.

00:19:05.420 We're under not works, we are under grace.

00:19:10.640 But if you want to go play the game under the covenant of works,

00:19:14.540 then things start to get stiff and rigid and ruthless.

00:19:21.840 And scripture says that fallen man must die to be saved.

00:19:27.620 so here is how i want you to understand this passage of scripture all of that being said

00:19:37.300 god expelled adam quickly both as an act of judgment

00:19:44.820 he was removing him from his presence that's kind of a form of spiritual death we'll talk

00:19:50.100 by that in a second. And as an act of mercy, as an act of mercy, preserving the possibility

00:20:00.400 for redemption through the promised seed. One theologian said this, he says, if they

00:20:10.320 stay in Eden and eat from the tree of life, they will live forever in their sins, separated

00:20:15.080 from God. What do you call a place where you live forever in sin, always separated from

00:20:19.380 God. Hell, he says. For them, Eden would have been

00:20:23.400 like hell itself. Paradise is not only lost, it is now

00:20:27.340 transformed into a prison. It is for their own good that

00:20:31.300 they are cast out. As humiliating as it was, it was also a severe

00:20:35.600 mercy of the Lord. Wow.

00:20:40.860 I thought, what a beautiful...

00:20:43.460 It was actually quite shocking to me. I actually had to check with like

00:20:46.620 15 other historic theologians that I trust

00:20:50.140 that had come out of the Reformed tradition.

00:20:52.580 And they all held the same position.

00:20:55.620 I was like, how have I not worked through this?

00:21:01.060 But it starts to make more and more sense

00:21:02.820 as we get through the text.

00:21:03.940 1 Corinthians 15, 50 through 53 says,

00:21:06.600 flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

00:21:09.300 We shall all be changed.

00:21:11.420 This perishable body must put on the imperishable.

00:21:16.540 In other words, this body has to die because it has been corrupted by sin. 0.98

00:21:22.540 Because we are of Adam, it must die.

00:21:26.140 It's an important part of the process of salvation.

00:21:30.080 We must essentially die in order that we might live.

00:21:34.260 We must die in order that we might be resurrected. 0.54

00:21:37.700 It is, in a sense, a severe mercy that we get a chance to die.

00:21:45.660 So does the tree of life equal Christ?

00:21:48.480 It's a very important question.

00:21:49.660 No.

00:21:52.800 Typologically, yes.

00:21:54.880 Yes, typologically.

00:21:56.860 Sacramentally, yes.

00:21:59.000 In the form of a man?

00:22:00.660 No.

00:22:02.040 No, it's a real tree.

00:22:03.840 It's a real tree.

00:22:05.720 Is this a mystery?

00:22:07.360 Yes, it's a mystery.

00:22:10.660 The tree is a picture.

00:22:12.340 It's a sacramental union of Christ.

00:22:14.080 And this matters because it helps us shape our understanding of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

00:22:22.400 These are not mere memorials.

00:22:24.960 They're not metaphors.

00:22:26.700 They're not nothing.

00:22:29.820 They're not nothing.

00:22:33.820 Scripture actually speaks of them with real potency.

00:22:39.320 I'm going to read a passage of Scripture that stumbles a lot of us.

00:22:41.840 For example, 1 Peter 3.21, it says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

00:22:50.580 Okay?

00:22:52.280 What am I to do with that?

00:22:57.420 John 6.53-59 says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

00:23:05.140 For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

00:23:11.840 Jesus speaks, the scripture speaks of the sacraments far higher than we do in America, in the West.

00:23:29.600 Christ is, in a sense, in the waters of baptism.

00:23:33.100 How? I don't know.

00:23:35.060 I'm not going to try to bring clarity to a mystery.

00:23:39.120 This is the problem with a lot of theologians.

00:23:41.140 Let me tell you how Christ is in the supper.

00:23:45.660 No.

00:23:46.740 The scriptures don't tell us how Christ is in the supper.

00:23:49.060 It leaves it mysteriously.

00:23:51.160 Christ is sacramentally in the supper.

00:23:53.120 I don't know how that works.

00:23:54.420 I'm not going to try to create some sort of paragraph that tells you why.

00:23:57.940 It's like the people that try to explain the Trinity.

00:24:00.740 We've done the best we can.

00:24:02.120 But every time you try to talk about the Trinity, it's like ants talking about calculus. 1.00

00:24:07.880 It's stupid. 1.00

00:24:09.240 No matter what you say, you're going to be a heretic. 1.00

00:24:11.140 Christ is in the bread and wine 1.00

00:24:18.460 I don't know how

00:24:19.560 I don't know how

00:24:20.960 I'm not Roman Catholic

00:24:23.680 I don't think that turns into Christ

00:24:25.800 but I'm also not a memorial

00:24:28.640 thinking oh we're just remembering

00:24:29.820 it's far more than that

00:24:31.840 we're the only generation

00:24:33.860 that just has flattened 0.99

00:24:36.420 the sacraments into basically nothing

00:24:38.120 the text goes on to say in verse 23 it says therefore the lord god sent him out

00:24:46.120 from the garden of eden to work the ground from which he was taken

00:24:48.960 and so here we see the word therefore so you have this kind of concluding

00:24:53.700 word here it's a word of conclusion or a term of conclusion we see that god sent him out well he

00:25:01.240 sent him out because it's clear that he doesn't want to leave okay he had to be sent out and

00:25:07.820 Adam is sent out to do what?

00:25:09.520 He's sent out to work the cursed ground in which he came from. 0.99

00:25:14.180 We know that Adam is from the Adamah, the dirt. 0.95

00:25:20.600 And then in verse 24, the text doubles down for a more emphatic tone. 0.90

00:25:25.900 The first one, it says, therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden.

00:25:28.440 It's kind of kind.

00:25:30.120 But here in verse 24, he says, he drove out the man.

00:25:34.260 Oof.

00:25:34.960 Okay.

00:25:35.360 It's a little more intense there.

00:25:36.580 and at the east of the garden of Eden

00:25:39.960 he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword

00:25:42.420 that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

00:25:50.020 So again, the first phrasing is kind of like allowed this possibility.

00:25:52.840 He sent him out.

00:25:54.280 It's maybe like there's a possibility of return.

00:25:57.220 But the phrasing here clarifies the force of his expulsion.

00:26:00.880 He is evicted from Eden.

00:26:03.060 You're out.

00:26:06.580 Now, it's easy to reduce this passage to kind of narrative without catching the theological implications here.

00:26:14.440 So, if we discussed in earlier sermons, in the scriptures, we know that death is separation.

00:26:22.140 Okay, when your body separates from your soul, that is physical death.

00:26:28.080 Okay, Ecclesiastes says that your body returns to the ground and your soul goes up to the Lord who gave it.

00:26:35.180 that's physical death spiritual death is the separation of your soul from god so when adam

00:26:45.740 is removed from the garden he is physically on his way toward physical death and he is spiritually

00:26:53.180 dying in the moment he is being separated from god and everybody that comes from him will be

00:26:59.540 like him. They are born spiritually dead, separated like Adam, and needing to be born again in Christ.

00:27:16.700 And so at this point, Adam's only hope for reconciliation and reunion is that promised

00:27:25.000 seed to Eve. In fact, if you look to Genesis chapter 4, it says Eve is waiting. She's hoping.

00:27:35.500 She's hoping, oh, is it Seth? Is he going to be the one? And pretty clearly, he becomes not the

00:27:43.820 Messiah. And it says at that point, for the first time ever, people start praying and they start

00:27:50.540 calling upon the name of the Lord.

00:27:53.840 And they're

00:27:54.540 asking, oh Lord, fulfill the promise

00:27:56.780 that you gave to Eve. Get

00:27:58.580 us back to Eden.

00:28:05.420 Now third, I want you to

00:28:06.620 capture a point here.

00:28:08.420 Very important point, because

00:28:10.460 there is a great conversation in America

00:28:12.620 about complementarianism

00:28:15.340 and patriarchy

00:28:17.100 and egalitarianism

00:28:19.720 And the reality is the Bible is patriarchal.

00:28:23.240 No matter what you do, you cannot get away from it.

00:28:26.300 It is patriarchal.

00:28:28.560 Complementarianism was America's 1980s, let's play in the middle, version of egalitarianism and patriarchy.

00:28:38.600 Okay, there were some great men that came in that movement, but the reality is it is not the biblical position.

00:28:44.980 Let me give you an example here.

00:28:46.080 I want you to capture the extent of God's view of patriarchy.

00:28:49.780 For the past few years, well, you know what?

00:28:53.380 Let me just shift to another spot here.

00:28:55.920 If you look at these verses here, God has been talking to Adam.

00:29:01.680 He has not been talking to Eve.

00:29:03.900 He's been talking to Adam.

00:29:05.320 Why?

00:29:07.240 Because God views Eve's expulsion in Adam.

00:29:12.480 When they sinned, who did God call?

00:29:15.880 He didn't call Eve, even though Eve initiated this whole thing under the failure of Adam's

00:29:22.260 headship. He calls Adam. He calls Adam. And so to God, when God looks at your marriage,

00:29:34.300 he sees your marriage. He doesn't dismiss the wife, but he sees the marriage as a covenantal

00:29:40.900 union with a head and representative who is the husband. And he speaks to that husband.

00:29:48.920 And again, I gave many, many sermons on this. God gave Adam the rules of morality,

00:29:55.380 not Eve. God created Adam and Eve, not simultaneously, but chronologically. Eve comes

00:30:03.120 from Adam. Eve is made for Adam. Eve is the helper of Adam. Adam names Eve twice. It is patriarchy

00:30:10.380 over and over and over again.

00:30:12.800 It is the model.

00:30:13.760 It is also the model that we see in the second Adam 0.82

00:30:16.320 where Christ comes and the church comes out of his side

00:30:19.380 and blood and water on the cross

00:30:20.920 and she is to submit to him

00:30:22.860 and he is to love her.

00:30:26.580 Patriarchy through and through. 1.00

00:30:29.240 The feminists hate it, 1.00

00:30:31.400 but it is biblical.

00:30:38.280 Now, if you look at the cover of our liturgy,

00:30:41.080 You can see the cover of our liturgy right here.

00:30:43.320 You can see the image of this passage.

00:30:45.900 It's where our first parents, they're driven out of the garden.

00:30:49.860 They're driven out of the garden.

00:30:54.380 The cherubim are a special class of angels.

00:31:01.520 They're assigned to protect and guard the holy presence of God.

00:31:05.720 They're not cute winged babies, right?

00:31:10.380 Scripture presents them actually as terrifying throne guardians

00:31:14.900 who stand between God and His holiness and man's sinfulness.

00:31:19.440 That's what we see all throughout Scripture.

00:31:22.000 After the fall, their placement at the east of Eden

00:31:25.780 shows that re-entry into God's presence

00:31:29.780 is now closed on man's terms.

00:31:36.820 God Himself must provide the way back.

00:31:40.380 In fact, the scene is kind of a visual representation of the gospel.

00:31:44.960 You want to get back in?

00:31:46.280 There's one way.

00:31:47.960 There's one way.

00:31:50.460 And we're waiting in the anticipation of Advent.

00:31:57.100 Man cannot reenter God's presence without what?

00:32:00.340 Without passing through the flaming sword of death. 0.58

00:32:03.940 it's a symbolic fire of divine judgment no sinner can endure it

00:32:13.040 and this again makes clear the absolute necessity necessity of a mediator we need somebody to get

00:32:21.940 us back in who can pass through the judgment on our behalf it's also interesting that the tree

00:32:28.180 of life is guarded and not removed i was asking myself why like why is it guarded

00:32:32.740 and not just removed.

00:32:37.460 Well, because the means of salvation,

00:32:39.700 check this out,

00:32:41.640 the means of salvation still come

00:32:44.500 through the covenant of works.

00:32:48.200 Very important.

00:32:49.780 The means of salvation still come

00:32:52.000 through the covenant of works.

00:32:54.420 Not by my works,

00:32:56.300 but by the work of Christ.

00:32:59.540 You're saved by works, not your works.

00:33:02.740 But the perfect work of Christ, we always talk about, oh, Jesus came and died for us.

00:33:07.440 You forget the other half, that Jesus came and also lived for you.

00:33:11.860 He fulfilled the righteous works that you can't keep, that you weren't able to accomplish, the perfect obedience.

00:33:21.060 He didn't just die, he also lived.

00:33:24.300 It's amazing. Amazing.

00:33:32.740 Now, because the covenant of works is how we will have salvation through Christ,

00:33:40.440 the sacraments of that covenant are still existing.

00:33:43.920 That means the tree of life is still here.

00:33:47.480 It's still existing.

00:33:51.040 Now, Christ, the second Adam, 0.58

00:33:53.680 he fulfills the stipulations that the first Adam failed to accomplish.

00:34:00.300 He endures that sort of judgment.

00:34:02.740 and he restores access to the tree of life that Adam forfeited.

00:34:08.080 So that same tree, that same tree that mediated life in Eden

00:34:14.660 becomes the sacramental life of heaven.

00:34:18.860 Very important.

00:34:21.120 And this is why Revelation 2.7 says this,

00:34:23.640 To the one who overcomes, I will give to eat the tree of life,

00:34:29.080 which is in the paradise of God.

00:34:32.740 revelation 22 14 says blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have right to the tree

00:34:43.100 of life you know what's wild is that if you trust in christ one day you will eat of the tree of life

00:34:53.260 that tree that was in eden you will eat of it

00:34:57.360 now as everybody knows

00:35:01.520 the rest of the bible is about the restoration of eden the whole bible

00:35:09.900 it's all about us getting back to eden somehow how do we get back to eden

00:35:17.760 there's songs about it

00:35:19.120 the atheist is trying to get back to eden the muslim is trying to get back to eden

00:35:27.800 the feminist is trying to get back to eden the liberal is trying to get back to eden 0.52

00:35:33.840 every religion is has its own version of paradise regained

00:35:39.840 in fact i was recently reflecting on this with another pastor and i was noting about how liberals

00:35:47.340 seem to find the most beautiful geographic places in America

00:35:51.620 and then ruin them.

00:35:53.500 They basically go, oh, this is a beautiful place.

00:35:55.700 Let's flood it with our debauchery 0.95

00:35:57.400 and take over this town and ruin it.

00:36:01.600 And his insightful response was really, really helpful.

00:36:05.440 He said, they're trying to get back to Eden

00:36:07.760 just without Christ.

00:36:10.800 Why do they go to Glacier National Park?

00:36:14.200 Most beautiful places in America?

00:36:16.160 because they want Eden.

00:36:18.000 They just don't want Christ.

00:36:21.100 And that's what makes the gospel so incredibly powerful

00:36:24.580 because Jesus declares that he's the only way back.

00:36:29.420 This language about way,

00:36:32.000 I am the way,

00:36:34.020 that's the full circle here.

00:36:36.300 It's connecting all the way back to Genesis 3.

00:36:39.280 I am the way back.

00:36:42.200 I am the way,

00:36:43.180 I am the truth,

00:36:44.560 and I am what?

00:36:45.540 the life. And nobody gets through that flaming sword. Nobody gets to that tree of life. Nobody

00:36:53.340 gets back to reconciliation with the Father, except through Christ. It's amazing. Amazing.

00:37:04.540 And we ought not to forget it. And we ought to look forward to the beautiful day that we will all

00:37:11.560 eat of the tree of life.

00:37:14.640 Let's pray.

00:37:17.420 Father,

00:37:19.040 Lord, we thank you

00:37:20.060 for your word.

00:37:23.340 Lord, that you have left us

00:37:24.320 not with a need

00:37:26.620 to make things up

00:37:27.600 or to guess.

00:37:28.500 Lord, that you have given us

00:37:29.300 so much, so much

00:37:30.020 that we can't comprehend it.

00:37:31.200 It's so much deeper

00:37:31.920 and wider.

00:37:35.200 We can't comprehend

00:37:36.580 all the beautiful revelations

00:37:38.820 that have been given to us

00:37:40.480 in the scriptures.

00:37:40.960 Lord, we ask that you'd help us to our minds and our souls and our hearts to just grasp this little bit here,

00:37:46.880 that it might help us to mature.

00:37:50.140 Lord, that we would be more grateful for the cross, that we would be more grateful for the narrative of the Bible,

00:37:55.820 that we would be more grateful as we anticipate Christmas for this beautiful story of redemption that we get to be a part of.

00:38:05.900 Father, we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

00:38:10.960 Thank you.

Dale Partridge - December 11, 2025

Genesis 3_23-24 - Understanding the Tree of Life

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