Friday, December 27, 2013

Gen. 3:22-23 Perfect gift deferred

Gen 3:22-23 NKJ 'Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever "--  23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.'
"Living forever" in the flesh of sin was not the future that God had designed for them and for those of their children who were to be counted as righteous through the future work of the Seed of the woman. There is often discomfort provided through the flesh of sin in order to bring edification to the spirit oriented life of the believer. But for eternity, something better will be provided. The mortal will but on immortality and Death will be swallowed up in Victory - 1Cor 15:54.
So the tree of life was preserved and protected by the Cherubim in the Garden. After the Flood it was preserved and protected in the heavens. Its fruit will fully enjoyed by the begotten again of all dispensations when their fleshly bodies have been replaced with spiritual bodies. Proverbs and Revelation also speak of trees of life which make available all possible heavenly blessings to the begotten again while they are in fleshly bodies. The One who hung from a tree is the fruit that is enjoyed. He thus became a curse for us. And as the Cross also represents the other tree in the midst of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He also was made sin for us. He became a curse that we might receive the promised blessing through faith - Gal 3:13-14. He was made sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. - 2Cor 5:21.
This post was inspired as I was making a modification to the King James text of James 1:17. I replaced the first occurrence of "gift" with "giving". This change is based on the Greek and is also made by Geneva and by Young. I suddenly realized that the modification is important in conjunction with Genesis 3:22-23  as outlined above.
James 1:17 KJV Every good [giving] and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
In the light of the tree of life and its fruit of love, we may understand that our receiving of every good giving, particularly the giving of every spiritual blessing in heavenly places - Eph 1:3, is made possible by a perfect gift, the gift of eternal life in Christ - Rom 6.23. But the good giving of the complete perfect gift is deferred until the mortal has put on immortality and death is swallowed up in victory - 1Cor 15:54. Then we will perfectly enjoy the perfect gift Rev 2:7. And we will enjoy Him anew in the new heavens and the new earth of the new creation throughout eternity - Rev 21:1.


I2C 131227b Gen 3v22to23 Perfect gift deferred / I2C / 131227 1430 / Gen. 3:22-23 Perfect gift deferred