The manifestation of the eternal purposeSample

The history of redemption

The history of redemption begins with humans in the Garden of Eden. What was their problem? Most say it was that humans ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but that was not humanity’s problem. That was the consequence of the problem. How is that? Humanity’s problem is that it should have partaken of the tree of life God placed in the garden’s center. 

God placed humans in an environment of work, where they had to work to be productive. He put them in place to subdue, rule, and exercise dominion over all creation. All the trees were good for food. The tree of life was at the center. This tree is none other than Christ. The humans, Adam and Eve, had to make a choice. They could choose to partake of the life that is Christ or to experience their knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is the same tree that appears in Revelation––it is Christ, the tree of life.

God put the tree of life in the center so humans would hit the target. Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven, not the same bread that your fathers ate and died; he who eats of this bread shall never die; he also said he who eats and drinks of my blood shall have eternal life” (John 6:51). Human beings have the option to participate, to eat, just as Adam had the option to eat from the tree of life. If he had eaten from that tree, he would not have eaten from the tree of good and evil.

Why did God tell Adam, “The day you eat from this tree, you will die?” Because one tree gave life and the other death. Adam and Eve chose death. They chose to live in sin. The most important word for sin in Greek is harmatia, which means to miss the target. The target was the tree of life. That was why God put human beings in the garden. God said, “Multiply. I want you to be people of government, of dominion. I want you to be productive, to participate in My life, to hit the target, to multiply and to fill the whole earth with people like yourselves.” But Adam and Eve did not hit the target. They sinned; they missed the target, so they died spiritually.