Heaven’s Dilemma
God says “I need somebody who’ll be willing to go to the other tree. The first tree got them kicked out of the garden. I need somebody who’ll hang on another tree to bring them back in the garden.” Jesus said, “I’ll go.” If one man Adam jumped into the hole with all of humanity tied to his waist, then a Second Adam can sky-rocket to heaven with all of humanity tied to His waist and thereby save the world!
So, what he first Adam messed up, the second Adam fixed up. “I won’t eat from a forbidden tree, but I’ll hang on one if I have to, in order to defeat Satan.” The Story of the World can be told with FOUR TREES (see your cards). And because He obeyed God and was sinless, God raised Him to new life, gave back to Him and all mankind their rightful rule, and every person who believes in Him has this new life surging through their veins and are a part of His New Community, the Body and Bride of Christ, who rule over the powers of darkness.
How does Jesus Christ deal with the tree? In the garden of Gethsemane, he’s struggling. There’s a garden. See centuries after Adam and Eve are struggling in the garden over a command about a tree, Jesus is in a garden, and he’s struggling over a command about a tree. It’s called the cross. He knows he has to go to the cross and die for our sins and pay the penalty we owe, and he’s struggling.
Think about this. Adam and Eve were in a bright sunny garden, and God said, “Obey me about the tree, and you will live,” and they didn’t. Jesus Christ was in a dark garden, and God said, “Obey me about the tree, and you’ll be crushed,” and he did, for us. Here’s what he did. He climbed the tree of death and turned that tree of death, the cross, into a tree of life for you and me. There’s the reversal of the tree sin.
What’s the tree sin? Us putting ourselves where only God deserves to be, putting ourselves in the place of God. The tree salvation is God putting himself where we deserve to be, on the cross. See the original tree sin was us putting ourselves where only God deserved to be, taking prerogatives only God deserves to have, putting ourselves in the place of God, but the tree salvation, which is a salvation of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, is God coming down and putting himself where we deserve to be and taking it for us.
You have to see Jesus Christ climbing a tree of death and turning that tree of death for him into a tree of life for you and me. That will finally begin to take the toxins out of your soul, and you’ll finally start to actually believe God loves you. This is the only thing that will take that out.
The last verse of this chapter says God threw Adam and Eve out of the garden so they couldn’t reach out and get the tree of eternal life. There is an angel, it says there, put before that tree with a sword that goes right and left, back and forth. The only way back to that tree is through the sword. Anyone who will lead you back to the Tree of Life and give you eternal life is going to have to go under the sword. Why? Because the penalty for disobedience is to be cut off. The Bible tells us about the Messiah, about Jesus Christ. He was cut off from the land of the living. He went under the sword. All of your sins were charged to him, so now they’re covered, in God’s sight.