Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Deeper Teaching by Kenton Cheek

     There were two trees in Eden.  Two trees with very different fruit.  The Tree of Life is a powerful symbol of what Adam and Eve enjoyed.  They had perfect fellowship with God; their relationship with Him knew no inhibitions.  With Him there was light and life and every good thing.  Perfect love casts out all fear.  Our first parents had nothing to be afraid of.  There was no sickness, stress, strife, death or any problems whatsoever. 

     God had formed Adam from the dust of the earth like a potter or a sculptor works with clay to fashion a vessel.  Their very breath of life came from Him.  He wanted these vessels for His goodness, power and love to flow through.  Everything in Eden was perfect and tranquil.  So peaceful is the thought of the first couple walking with their Creator in the cool of the day. 

     But this beautiful relationship was not forced.  Adam and Eve had options.  They were created with free will; the moral agency make decisions and respond to the ripple effects of those choices.    Immense power had been granted to them by Almighty God.  Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 

     The Lord gave great responsibility when He willingly gave guardianship and stewardship of the Earth to humanity.  His design was for humanity to function in His power and authority.  This was disrupted when, by their own free will, Adam and Eve chose to go their own way and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Whereas before they sinned, they had known only goodness, they gave into temptation and evil came into the world, corrupting the paradise they had once enjoyed.  A chasm of spiritual separation now divides the perfect and holy God from fallen and sinful mankind. We need to be rescued from ourselves.

     Their perfect relationship with God was spoiled and the dark effects of sin would be compounded generation after generation until today where our present reality is a mess of confusion, heartache, disease, and death.  Deception cost them more than they knew.  As a child, when I read of the Lord expelling them from the Garden and guarding the Tree of Life with a flaming sword, I thought God was being cruel.  Actually, He was being compassionate.  He did not want them to remain in their sinful state for eternity.  Tragically, instead of operating in the King of Kings’s authority, they relinquished power to Satan and he became the god of this world, the prince of darkness filling the globe with cruelty and lies.

     From the beginning, divine rays of hope broke through the darkness.  A plan of redemption was set into motion.  Our Creator would become our Redeemer, creating something beautiful and glorious out of the ashes of ugliness and despair.  One day He will cleanse the world with fire, banish everything that is not holy and good, and bring about an even grander Eden by far, a New Heaven and a New Earth.  Paradise will be restored and His relationship with humanity will be more intimate than ever before. 

You see, His greatest desire is for the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to be adopted into His eternal family and discover their true identity, deepest sense of belonging and thrilling destiny in Him.  One bright day we will drink from the River of Life and partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life in perfect harmony, united with the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.