The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:8-9; 16-17)1
God put the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden. That word “midst” is the Hebrew word “tavek,”2 and it means middle or center. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is also mentioned, but without any description of its position. The Tree of Life was in the center of the world. The Tree of Life represents Jesus, and everything in this world is still peripheral to Him.
We often think of the Tree of Life as good, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil as bad, but the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not bad because everything that God created was good,3 but this tree just wasn’t good for man. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a foreshadowing of the law. Think of it this way:
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil/ law/ self-righteousness
Tree of Life/ grace/ Jesus’s righteousness
It is in the choice that God gave Adam that we see the amazing love of God. He did not create robots. Love is a choice, and God risked that man would make the wrong choice by creating us after His own kind. God chose to love us, and we choose to receive that love.
Every part of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was part of the fall of man, and therefore, NO part of that fruit could be part of the restoration. The forbidden fruit was “good and evil” — not just good, not just evil. Man cannot extract the good and leave the evil. He was supposed to leave it alone altogether. Partaking of this fruit brought spiritual and ultimately physical death.
However, partaking of the Tree of Life imparts the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! And the fruit of His tree bears fruit through every season and is for the healing of the nations!4
(from pages 83-84 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
Shop Unveiling Jesus Products
Unveiling Jesus Book
Unveiling Jesus 20-Part Series
Original Unveiling Jesus, 10-part series
1All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
2H8432 (tavek), Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H8432&t=KJV, accessed 5-19-14
3Genesis 1:31
4Revelation 22:2
