Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
As already mentioned, the first category of rewards cannot be earned and the reason for that is because Jesus has already paid the price for these rewards with His own precious blood. In other words these rewards were earned by the Lord Jesus for us and are thus freely given to us. And so in this section we want to examine each of the eternal rewards that are freely given to the saints. As a reminder it is important to note that none of the saints have partaken of any of these rewards yet, for all rewards will only be given on the day of judgement. In the passage of scripture quoted above the first reward that our Lord Jesus lists for the one who overcomes is that they will be allowed to eat the fruit from the tree of life. The tree of life that our Lord mentions in this passage is the same one that is referred to in the book of Genesis (Genesis 2:9). And so as this tree was physically present in the Garden of Eden so it is that this tree will also be physically present in the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal home of the saints.
Revelation 22:1-2 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (2) In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle John reveals to us where the tree of life will be located in the New Jerusalem. The heavenly city of Jerusalem is laid out as a square that is two thousand four hundred kilometres across and is set upon a mountain that is the same height as the width of the city (Revelation 21:16). Winding around the city is the street of gold, and in the middle of that street is the river of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb which is located in the centre of the city. On either side of that river the tree of life will be growing along its banks. Obviously there will not be just one tree of life but rather many trees that will be growing along the banks of the river of life, for their will be many millions of saints that will partake of the fruit of the trees of life every month. As an aside it is interesting to note that the new earth that God our Father creates will also orbit a new sun that He will create, for this passage declares that the new earth will revolve around that sun on an axis that will take one year to complete.
Ezekiel 47:12 “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
As an aside, as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, the tree of life will also be available to the saints in the city of Jerusalem in this current earth. The context of this passage describes the saints living and reigning with the Lord Jesus on the current earth for one thousand years before they finally take up residence in the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem. And so although there won’t be a street of gold in this Jerusalem there will nevertheless be a river of life that will flow from the Lord Jesus’ throne in the temple, and just as in the heavenly city, there will be many trees of life growing along the banks of that river as it flows through the city. This passage also reveals to us that the tree of life will produce twelve different fruits each month of the year.
Genesis 3:22-24 “Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"-- (23) therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. (24) So, He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
The fruit from the tree of life will be food for the bodies of the resurrected saints, which will in turn make their bodies immortal. So how do we know that? In the passage of scripture quoted above God reveals to us that if Adam had partaken of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden that his body would have become immortal. At that time Adam and Eve had already committed sin and both had died spiritually and their bodies were still mortal. And so God could not allow them to eat of the fruit that would make their bodies become immortal, for that would have placed them in the class of angels who can never die (Luke 20:36). And so God removed Adam from the proximity of the tree of life after he had sinned, and in future will only allow the saints who overcome to have the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life.
Michael E.B. Maher
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