Message Magazine’s Online Devotional for Thursday, January 28, 2016
This Week’s Devotional Focus is, “Freedom From Sin.”
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7).
You may recall from the story of our foreparents, Adam and Eve, that God created humankind in a perfect world. The environment was perfect. The holy couple was perfect. All of the fine details of God’s creation were perfect. The relationship between God and humanity was, well, perfect.
Unfortunately, Eve was deceived into accepting the word of the wily serpent over the Word of her loving Lord. Adam chose to jump into sin with his now fallen wife, and they both spiraled downhill toward inevitable death. Thankfully, God had already foreseen their fall (not that they had to fall), and provided that if fallen human beings submitted themselves to God by faith, and continued to grow in love and submission to Him through the righteousness of Christ, they would be redeemed from eternal death.
Some don’t realize that when the Bible says that God stationed an angel with a fiery sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life after Adam and Eve sinned, that He had their best interest at heart. The tree made people who continued to eat from it immortal. That is, as long as one could freely eat from the Tree of Life, one would never die. What if the now fallen couple were allowed to continue eating from the tree? Due to sin, now disease, strife, emotional distress,and bad relationships, had become the lot of humanity. Can you imagine what eternity would be like with Ebola continuing to eat away at your flesh, but you never die? Can you imagine what an eternity of spousal abuse would look like? Can you imagine how it would be if slave masters could continue their heinous, devilish plans forever? I think you get the picture. So it was a blessing that God’s Plan of Redemption included a temporary ban of Tree of Life fruit eating.
Now, here’s more blessing, if you can handle the truth: God is now forming holy characters in the lives of cooperative people. He has promised clean hearts, new minds, humility, love, and the ability to do His will to those who would simply yield to Him as He gives them strength. And He promised that those who overcome our human deficiencies through the power of His blessed Holy Spirit would one day have access to the Tree of Life again. We will be reunited and it will feel so good. Once God has sealed those who have continued loving Him, and Jesus finally returns as He promised He would, He will guide us to that blessed tree, which has 12 manner of fruit and leaves for our eternal healing.
Now imagine eating from the tree with no sin, sadness, pain, suffering, or evil of any kind. How does that feel?
