In the Garden of Eden there were many trees. Two of them had special names: the ‘Tree of Life’ and the ‘Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’. This latter name, somewhat cumbersome, might be shortened to the ‘Tree of Death’. For God warned Adam, “When you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17).
Sure enough, when Adam and Eve ate from this tree, they died, and eventually their bodies returned to the dust from which the Lord God had formed them.
Reading this story, I’ve always wondered: Instead of eating from the Tree of Death, did it ever occur to those first people to eat from the Tree of Life?
Apparently not. But what if they had? How would the story have turned out then? For one thing, if Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life, they would have lived forever (Gen. 3:22). Then, presumably, the fruit of the other tree could not have harmed them.
Isn’t this interesting? We’re told that the two trees were located “in the middle of the garden” (2:9). Quite possibly they were side by side. Adam and Eve could just as easily have picked fruit from the one as from the other. Why weren’t they attracted to the right tree? Was the nature of the Tree of Life in some way hidden from them? How different the whole history of the world might have been if our forebears had discovered and eaten from the Tree of Life rather than the Tree of Death!
Or consider this scenario: What if the first couple had remained virtuous, while only their children fell into sin? Then would Adam and Eve still be alive on earth today? And would they live in the Garden of Eden where the rest of us, having been exiled, would be unable to find them? It is even possible to imagine two separate species of mankind existing side by side on the earth: one Edenic, one fallen; one eternally alive, the other dying. While the two species might know about each other, perhaps there would be no real contact between them.
Sound like a fantasy novel? But really, isn’t this exactly how things stand? The first couple did eat from the wrong tree, and everyone since has joined them at the banquet table of death. Nevertheless, when Jesus Christ came into the world, God once again opened the way to the tree of life (Rev 2:7). That tree is the cross of Christ, and everyone who comes to the cross and eats of its mysterious fruit receives eternal life, while those who do not must remain in death.
Yes, it turns out that the theory of evolution is true, at least in this sense: that one branch of homo sapiens has actually evolved—through a kind of heavenly natural selection—into a new species: homo fidens. Indeed, does not the phrase “Son of Man,” so often employed by Jesus, carry the inherent suggestion of an upgrade to humanity?
Thus there exist two human species upon the earth—one earthly, one heavenly; one of fallen creatures, the other of new creatures in Christ—and between the two lies an uncrossable chasm. At least, there is only one way to cross this chasm, and that is by way of the cross.
Next Post: “Apprehending God” by A.W. Tozer
