Lesson 6 Man Sent From the Garden update 9-9-13

                              Man Sent From The Garden

                                           Genesis 3:22-24

As we have been seeing in our study of the Eternal Covenant, all was planned by the living and true God. All was planned and purposed before the ages eternal (Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10). In eternity past all is done according to God’s foreknowledge and God’s forethought. All is done in the person and work of the Covenant Son to be sent to man with life and light (Is.42:6-7; 49:8; Jn.1:4-5, 9; Heb.13:20). God’s goal is to have a Kingdom of sons of God - birthed sons (Jn.1:12-13; Gal.3:26).

Moses, having made clear in the record that the issue of eternal life had been settled for Adam and Eve, could proceed with the narrative. “And Jehovah Elohim said, ‘Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever—’” (Gen.3:22).

The sentence is left unfinished, as this is a hypothetical issue. Actually, man is going to be outside the garden. There would be no opportunity for man to reach forth his hand to take and eat of the Tree of Life. And Jehovah could not have been speaking of His man Adam. Moses has made clear that Adam has the assurance of eternal life, and Adam’s assurance is through obedience to the truth.

Adam understood being naked and being clothed. He would have known there was no life in the Tree of Life. Life is eternal life. Eternal life is the life God is. Eternal life is the Word become flesh, that He might share eternal life with His creation of mankind (Jn.1:1-14).

Did Jehovah mean that Adam had become as the persons of Deity - a god to know good and evil? For what purpose did Eve eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? To know good and evil (Gen.3:5-6). Eve  was beguiled by her desire to know what knowledge the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil held for her to know and make her wiser.

What she learned was there was no knowledge to be had in the fruit of the tree. But in her act of transgressing the command to not eat of the tree, Eve learned of the sin of her own heart and of the lusts of deceit of her own desires.

The New Testament makes clear through a letter of the apostle Paul to his son in the faith, Timothy, a young pastor of the faith of Jesus Christ, that Adam was not deceived by his wife (1 Tim.2:14). Why then did Adam eat? For himself, to know as God knows.

Rather than continue to be dependent upon Jehovah to know as God knows by being taught by Jehovah Himself, Adam turned to his own way, thinking for himself there was another source of knowledge of good and evil, a source other than Jehovah Elohim.

After Eve, and then Adam, did eat of the Tree of Knowledge, did they know good and evil? No! What did they know? They knew they were naked (Gen.3:7). Is it good to be naked? How did they know that it was an evil thing to be naked?

They had been taught of eternal life in the Son by Jehovah Elohim Himself. With the eyes of their understanding opened, each one, Adam, and Eve, knew, experientially knew, that they had failed to obey the truth taught by Jehovah. They had not received the eternal life set forth in the Anointed Son of God. And they were made aware of the reality of the truth which had been shared with them, and immediately turned back to God to receive the only One in whom is eternal life for a new birth to be forever clothed with skin in The Resurrection of Life (see Jn.5:24-29a; 11:23-27; Rev.20:5).

Would Adam then have put forth his hand to take also of the Tree of Life and eat, thinking to live forever? He had been assured by Jehovah of living forever. Through receiving the eternal life in the Son, Adam had been clothed by Jehovah with new skin, with assurance of a body raised out from the dead (see Gen.3:20-21; Rom.3:22-26; 2 Cor.5:1-4).

Note, not only is Jehovah’s sentence left unfinished, but no consequence is given. That is not the lesson of the Tree of Life. Behind the lessons of the two trees is the battle for the mind of man (see Ps.7:9). Will man go God’s way and let God have the say over the thinking for man? Will man bow to the will of the God who created him and learn who he is and for what purpose he was brought into being and his end purposed by God through the light of the knowledge of the glory of God being shined into his heart? Will he receive the light into his very being to have the eyes of his understanding opened to the will of his Creator for His creation of man?

What then did Jehovah mean by “the man putting forth his hand”?

In the narrative of the history of man’s redemption given by Moses we have seen that Adam and Eve were enlightened to their having been identified with the mankind to be born of Adam’s seed in the image of the earthy. And all mankind is identified with Adam as the federal head of the race of man in human flesh (1 Cor.15:21-22; 2 Cor.5:14).

“Adam” stands for “man.” Man is represented in Adam. The proving of man’s obedience to the truth - to be born from above of the incorruptible Seed, the Son of God, the Word become flesh, to have a body begotten out from the dead - was for all mankind. One proving of the heart would serve for all, as mankind has one heart of self-will and self-love and self-serving (see Jer.17:9-10; Ps.33:15).

Adam and Eve, who personally shared the sanctuary of the garden with their Creator and Master, had been personally taught of His also being the Redeemer of the mortal body of mere human flesh enlifed in the blood. They had not taken the redemption personally. They had not seen their own need to be born from above, that the body not return to the dust of the ground and perish. The bodies of each one, both Adam and Eve, had been made by the hand of God. The bodies of Adam and Eve were formed by God Himself, not reproduced from seed of man (Gen.2:7, 21-23). In this way their bodies were different, and Adam and Eve thought of themselves as different.

Then one day came the proving of the heart and, without thinking of the truth shared with them, each one, Eve and then Adam, turned from being dependent upon and responsible to their Lord and Master Teacher to their own way of thinking. Each one thought to know that which is only known of God from another source, a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden. The proving exposed the sin of self-will. Given an alternative choice and having the freedom of expressing his own will, man would choose to turn to his own way, thinking himself to be like God, the owner of his personal being, to do as he pleases, to think and reason for himself to come to his own conclusions.

In the proving of the heart, each one, Adam and Eve, discovered they could not have been more wrong. That which is known only to God must be shared with man in his very being to enlighten the eyes of his understanding of the ways of his Creator-Redeemer.

The apostle Paul, who was learned in the Old Testament Scriptures and personally taught the spirit and life of the Old Testament Scriptures by Jesus Himself (Gal.1:11-18), wrote to the assembly in Rome concerning the proving of the heart of man. He said, “Wherefore,” because of this, “the sin entered into the world through one man, and death through the sin, so also death passed to all men, inasmuch as all sinned” (Rom.5:12).

Note Paul wrote, “the sin entered the world through the one man.” He did not say that Adam passed a sin nature on to human kind. There is no such thing as a sin nature. The natural man is the creation of a body of flesh in which the personal being lives. Man does not receive a divine nature when born again. The new birth assures the new body in the likeness of Jesus’ body of glory being raised up out from the dead earthly body (Phil.3:21). It is in the body that man and God unite - not in a nature. When Peter speaks of being partakers of the divine nature, the word for “nature” is phusis, “essence” (2 Pet.1:4). The divine essence of which a son of God partakes is the essence of righteousness.

In the proving of the progenitor,  all mankind were proved to be sinners (Rom.5:14). From where did the sin that entered into the world come? From the heart of man (see Gen.8:21; Ps.33:15; Jer.17:9-10; Mt.15:17-20). The sin of having one’s own will over the will of his Creator and God is self-serving and defeats the purpose of God to have obedient sons of God, born from above. And each one must be shown the willfulness of the human heart. Being born from above is a choice of man’s will.

In his letter to the Romans Paul uses three words concerning the disobedience of Adam and his wife. He uses the word “sin,” which in the Greek has the meaning of “missing the mark.” He uses the word “transgression,” which has the meaning of “stepping over a line drawn by Jehovah Elohim,” and he uses the word “offense,” which has the meaning of “a false step.”

In turning to his own way, Adam took a false step. He stepped over the line drawn by Jehovah Elohim at eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (see Gen.2:17). In eating of that which was God’s will that Adam not take in, Adam missed the mark of his high calling to become a son of God and he was left naked (Gen.3:6-7).

Jehovah Elohim knows how to use evil for good. In giving Adam an alternative thinking to what was being made known to him in the gospel of the coming Son, Jehovah showed Adam and his wife, Eve, the sin of self-will, the sin which must be put away once for all - for all sinned (see Eccl.7:20). Sin is lawlessness (see 1 Jn.3:4-5). Sin is the transgression of God’s will, which is law.

It was necessary for each one, Adam and Eve, to have the experiential knowledge of the sin of the lawlessness of the heart of human kind. Having themselves turned from God’s way and having stepped over a line drawn by Jehovah, they would have understanding and empathy for the children that were to be born of Adam’s seed. Having the authority of the experiential understanding and having the knowledge of the truth, they could give wise counsel to their progeny rather than judgmental criticism.

Having the understanding of the One who is the Truth and the One who is Life Eternal, Adam and Eve could share the gospel of the One who is good and who only does right, the One who knows what is evil (see Col.1:12-23). Evil is that which God does not approve and which He cannot accept. Each one would understand the death passed upon all and why all bodies born of the seed of man, bodies of human flesh bearing the image of the earthy, must be consigned to return to the dust of the ground.

In the garden of Eden the proving of the heart had made clear what Jehovah Elohim had been teaching in His gospel. The body of human flesh, which would be reproduced through the seed of man, is a seed coat for the body of eternal life for a son of God (see 1 Cor.15:35-38). Unless a seed coat contains the germ of life to bring forth after its kind, no body will be brought forth. There is no power of life to bring forth after its kind. As the life power in the blood in the seed of man will bring forth the body of human flesh, it can only bring forth after its kind of life - mortal flesh (Gen.5:3; 1 Cor.15:45, 48-49). When the mortal body stops breathing, it will become lifeless and return to its elements.

The body of the begotten Covenant Son of God out from the dead is the Seed of eternal life to bring forth after its kind - eternal life - deathless - a forever living body (Jn.12:23-24; Phil.3:21). The begotten Son is the germ cell of life for the seed coat of human flesh. Man is given the germ cell of eternal life in the Son. Each one born of human flesh must receive the Gift of eternal life in the Son for the power of life to bring forth a body of eternal life out from the dead seed coat (see Rom.5:15-21; 8:10-11).

“He that has the Son has life.” He has the germ cell of eternal life with power to raise up the mortal body. “He that does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 Jn.5:12). His body is a dead seed coat. The germ cell of eternal life in the begotten Son of God was never received. There is no power of life to raise up a body born from above out of the dead. There was no birth from above. There will be no body like unto the body of Jesus’ glory. The personal being who lived in the mortal body will not be clothed with new skin.

Rather than prove each one born of the flesh in the image of the earthy individually, Jehovah Elohim put His mankind to the proof in their head and representative, Adam. The heart of man is the same. All, each and every one, sinned. Each and every one took a false step and turned to his own way and stepped over a line drawn by Jehovah Elohim. It would not be the same transgression of each one, but the command of God to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would concern all (Rom.5:14). The command represented leaning to one’s own understanding. All would be born coming short of the glory of the new birth (Rom.3:23).

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one” (Rom.3:10-12). Paul quoted the psalmist when he was making his argument to the Roman assembly that there is no difference in mankind (see Ps.14:1-3).

Man in a body of flesh and blood, dead in trespasses and sins, is of no profit to the God who created him to become a son of God. Each one bearing the image of the earthy must turn and come back to the God who made him and receive the One who is eternal life, that he might be born a son of God and live forever in a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory - the image of God (see Jn.1:12-13; Rom.8:29-30; 1 Cor.15:42-57; Phil.3:21; Col.1:12-22).

For Adam and his wife, it was not the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that caused the consignment of the death of the dust body. It was not the transgression and stepping over the line that caused the consignment to death. The earthy body, which came from the dust of the ground, was consigned to return to the dust of the ground because the eternal life offered in the Anointed Son of God’s Covenant had not been received. The dust body is of no profit to God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor.15:50; Jn.3:3-7). The Kingdom is for sons of God. Man, dead in trespasses and sins, is left outside the Kingdom for one reason. He did not choose to turn and come God’s Way. Rather he made a choice to not believe God and receive the Gift of eternal life in the Son (see 1 Jn.5:11).

Sin is not the issue. God had sin covered in His Covenant (see Jn.1:29; Rom.8:3; 2 Cor.5:21; Col.2:13-15; Heb.13:20). The death of the mortal body is necessary as an exodus out of a mere creation of man. To be united together in Christ in His death is the only way to be born again, born from above of the resurrection of the body out from the dead. The issue is obedience to the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, who lives and abides forever (1 Pet.1:17-23).

A mortal body of flesh and blood will stop breathing and become lifeless and return to the dust of the ground and perish. Jesus came down from heaven and brought life and immortality to be seen in the light of day (2 Tim.1:9-10). Raised up on the third day, Jesus came out from the dead mortal body - alive in a body of eternal life of flesh and bone, an immortal imperishable life (see Lk.24:17-51; Jn.20:19-27; Ac.1:3). There is seen eternal life in the flesh (1 Jn.1:2). There is the image of God (Heb.1:1-3).

Jesus came down to get us out of our mortal body, which will stop breathing and become lifeless. Without His eternal life the mortal body will go back to the dust from which it came and perish. Jesus came for the redemption of the body (Rom.8:10-23). The body must not be lost or the personal being will be forever unclothed. He will have no dwelling, no house (see 2 Cor.5:1-4).

Adam’s seed, having been tested and proved to turn to their own way, must be born outside the presence of God. They are turned from God. Each one must choose to obey the truth which they will be taught and each one must repent and turn to God and reconcile by receiving the Gift of righteousness and the life eternal sent to them in the Covenant Son.

Though the proving of the heart of mankind turned to his own way was collective, in Adam, the proving of obedience to the truth and choosing to be born again, born from above, is individual. Each one born of the flesh must personally receive the germ cell of eternal life with power to bring forth after its kind - a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory (Phil.3:21).

As mentioned formerly, the two trees in the midst of the garden were named, as they were symbolic of the two ways man could choose to go. The Tree of Life does not become prominent in the narrative until after the proving of obedience to the truth. God Himself has provided man the Way to live forever in a body of flesh and bone. The Way to live forever was provided before the beginning of time, before the first man was formed of the dust of the ground. In eternity past God said, “Let Us make man in Our image - after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26a).

Moses had written, “Lest man put forth his hand and eat and live forever” (Gen.3:22b). What does man most desire? To live forever. That is also God’s desire for every person born of the seed of man in a mortal body of human flesh. Therefore Jehovah Elohim made a way for man to live forever. One Way that man might be born from above and live abundantly, with health and well-being (Jn.14:6; 10:10). A Way man might live freed from the law of sin and death, at peace with himself and with heart satisfaction.

As was said at the beginning of the lesson, Jehovah put forth a hypothetical situation. Man putting forth his hand is a metaphor for taking matters into his own hands, thinking it possible that he himself could fulfill his desire to live forever. Why would man think it would be possible to find a way to live forever? Because he wants to believe he can.

Man, having come to think of himself as God to know what is good for him, could easily be beguiled into thinking he could achieve living forever for himself. Man has bought many lies: reincarnation, a fountain of youth, and today, genetic engineering, to name a few. Whatever means of living forever in which a man would put his faith other than through a new birth provided in the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, will end in his being outside God’s Kingdom of sons of God and, therefore, outside of the presence of God forever.

“Therefore Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from where he was taken. So He drove out the man and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a sword of flame which turned every way, to guard the way of the Tree of Life” (Gen.3:23-24).

The lesson of the Tree of Life is the lesson of the Way God has provided for man to enter His Kingdom and come into His presence.

Jehovah “drove” man out of the garden of Eden. The Hebrew has the meaning of “expelled.” Mankind having turned to his own way must be expelled from the presence of a holy righteous God. At the east of the garden must have been the entrance.

The garden was Jehovah’s sanctuary. Later in the history of Israel the gate to both the tabernacle and a prominent gate of the temple were on the east (Ex.38:9-15; 2 Chron.4:9-10). There at the east of the garden Jehovah placed cherubim and a sword of flame, which turned every way to guard the Way of the Tree of Life. Here are two symbols concerning the government of Jehovah Elohim,  the Most High God [El Elyon], Possessor of heaven and earth.

Cherubim are an order of angelic beings found around the throne of God (Ps.80:1; 99:1; Is.37:16; see Ezek.1:1-28; 10:1-22). They were chosen to be guardians of the Anointed Son of the Covenant in His earthly ministry (see Ps.91:1-12; Mt.4:11; Lk.4:8-11; 22:39-43).

In the figures of the true in the tabernacle in the wilderness we see this pictured in the two golden cherubim forming the lid of the ark of the covenant. Together the ark of the covenant and the lid of the mercy seat formed the throne of God, where the Shekinah dwelt in the midst of the very presence of His people (Ex.25:8-22). This was a fore view of the Word become flesh to tabernacle among His people (Jn.1:1-14). It is in the redemptive work of the cross that man and God meet (1 Tim.2:3-6). Jesus is the Propitiation, the mercy seat (Rom.3:21-26; Heb.2:9-17; 1 Jn.2:1-2; 4:9-10).

The sword represents the power of the authority of justice given to the government of the dominion given to man over the works of God’s hands. Dominion is as God’s representative. For a time the sanctuary of the garden of Eden would remain upon earth. The Tree of Life is in the garden. It is not, however, the tree which is being guarded, nor is it the way “to” the Tree of Life that must be carefully guarded. It is the way “of” the Tree of Life that is guarded. It is the Way of the Tree of Life which must be carefully guarded and kept straight and true.

What is “the Way” of the Tree of Life? This is very important. Mankind of human flesh have been expelled from the presence of God. Jehovah Elohim has made One Way into His presence - the Way symbolized in the Tree of Life (see Jn.3:3-8; 14:6).

Man, having turned to his own way and therefore having been expelled from the presence of Jehovah Elohim, is forewarned to not think it possible for him to enter into the Kingdom of God and one day be in the presence of God through any doing of his own (see Eph.2:8-9). The end of the thinking that one can live forever in the body of human flesh is to be forever cast out of God’s presence. When the flesh body stops breathing, there is only one way to raise it up out from the dead alive forevermore.

Living forever in a body of human flesh and blood is contrary to God’s purpose to have born sons of God in His image (Jn.3:6; 1 Cor.15:49). Physical death is necessary to God’s design. It is man’s exodus out of Adam. To accomplish God’s purpose to have sons of God in His image, man must be released from the mortal body in the image of the earthy. The earthy body is a body of sin and death (Rom.8:9). The body will die and corrupt and return to the dust of the ground from where it came and perish (Gen.3:19).

Man must die out of Adam, whose image he bears. But first he must be made alive in the Anointed Son of God through a new birth. The body must not be lost (see 1 Thess.5:23). The body of flesh and blood of the seed of man is the seed coat for the new body born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God.

God Himself provided man the Way of being born a son of God to enter into His Kingdom and to be in His presence forever. The Way of the Tree of Life is personified in the Anointed Covenant Son of Jehovah Elohim. The Way of the Tree of Life was guarded and kept in the writings of the prophets and poets of Israel (see Jn.5:39; Lk.24:25-27, 44-48).

There is only One Way into the presence of the living and true God and that is through the veil, that is to say, Jesus’ flesh. All brothers of Jesus, sanctified together with Him, have one Father (see Heb.2:9-11). Each one has boldness to enter into the presence of the holiest through the blood of Jesus (Heb.10:19-20).  Each one has been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once (see Heb.10:1-18).

The first psalm in the book of the songs sung by the sons of Israel is of the Man who is like a tree. The Tree of Life is not like a man. There is the Way of the Tree of Life. The Man who claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life of God is like a tree (Jn.14:6).

Here is the Man who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but only took counsel from His Father God (Jn.5:19, 30; 6:38-40; 8:28-29). He never stood in the way of sinners to have His will over the will of His Father and His God. He never scorned what His Father was saying or doing, but only obeyed to fulfill the Law of God’s Covenant (Mt.5:17-18). His delight was always in the Law of Jehovah and in His Law did He meditate day and night (see Is.50:4).

The blessed Man was yet coming in the psalmist’s day, so he wrote, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season. Its leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever He does shall prosper” (Ps.1:3).

What tree was planted by rivers of water in a garden, whose leaf does not wither? The Tree of Life (Gen.2:8-14). The Man who is like the tree will bring forth fruit of sons of God (Jn.1:12-13; 12:23-24; Gal.3:26). The leaves of a tree of nature are a manufacturing plant of life for the tree.

The Man like a tree is Eternal Life. Whatsoever He does shall prosper (see Is.53:10-12). His death will put away sin once for all. His resurrection will overcome the death passed upon all bodies of the dust of the ground. Through faith in Him God will have righteous sons of God for His Kingdom. Through Him the Kingdom of righteousness will be established forever, a Kingdom of righteousness and peace on earth. The meek who do not fight or contend or resist the Way of the Tree of Life will inherit the Kingdom of God and be in the presence of God forever.

The Way of the Tree of Life is the righteousness of God through faith in His Anointed Son. He that hears the words of Christ, God’s Anointed Son, and believes the One who sent Him will not come into condemnation but has passed from death to life,  eternal life (Jn.5:24). He is judged a righteous son of God. He shall stand in the congregation of the righteous in the Kingdom of righteousness and peace forever.

“The ungodly,” who did not put their faith in the righteousness of God, who did not turn and go the Way of the Tree of Life, are not so, “but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Jehovah knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Ps.1:4-6).

The ungodly are not so as the Man who is like a tree. The ungodly do not bear the image of God. They are not judged righteous. They will be shut out of the Kingdom of righteousness and shut out of the presence of God and perish.

In the Proverbs Solomon wrote, “Happy [blessed] is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies [coral], and all the things you can desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retains her” (Prov.3:14-18).

Here wisdom is personified as a tree of life to those who lay hold of wisdom. Blessed the man who finds and lays hold of wisdom and gets understanding. Solomon personifies “wisdom” in the feminine gender in chapters 1 through 3.

In Proverbs 8 wisdom is personified in the feminine gender. Yet when the wisdom is spoken of in the first person singular, “I, wisdom,” verses 12 through 36, the reference is clearly to the Anointed Covenant Son of God.

The Way of the Tree of Life is the Wisdom of God, the Seed of the woman. God’s birthed Son, Jesus, born of a virgin in a seed coat of humanity in the likeness of the man He created, is Seed for the body to be raised up after its kind. The life germ of the Seed of the woman is God in the flesh of humanity.

In the wisdom of God it would take two bodies to have Seed of eternal life to bring forth bodies of eternal life. First there would be the body of human flesh in the likeness of man. This is the body for God’s Son, Jesus, who will be the federal head of a new creation of sons of God. Jesus would be the representative Son of Man for all born sons of God (1 Cor.15:20-23; Gal.3:26). As man’s Substitute Jesus would lay down the life of His mortal body in the likeness of man - that He might take it up a body of eternal life (Jn.10:17-18; 1 Cor.15:20-22; Phil.2:5-8; Heb.2:9-17). Jesus would die the death passed upon all bodies of the earth, earthy, that He might redeem the earthy bodies consigned to death and raise them up out from the dead - born again with eternal life.

First there must be the body of human flesh. The body must be in the likeness of man - human flesh and blood. The body is to be the seed coat of the Grain of Wheat to fall into the ground and die. It must be of human flesh, but not of man’s seed. A body birthed of man’s seed is defiled with sin and death. Each body of man’s seed requires redemption. Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind. Jesus must have a mortal body in the likeness of man, human flesh, but - sin apart (see Rom.8:3). In His wisdom God used living flesh of a virgin daughter of David and of Abraham as seed for the body of human flesh prepared as a seed coat for His Grain of Wheat to die in man’s stead (Lk.1:26-35; see Rom.1:2-4).

The Seed of the woman was foreknown to God and foretold. First the Seed of the woman was declared by the heavens in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Covenant” (see Gen.1:14-19; Job 9:7-9; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; Is.45:11-25; Rom.10:14-18). In Genesis 3:15 He is prophesied to bruise the head of the serpent. The virgin whose living flesh would be used as the seed coat must be of the people through whom the Redeemer, who is also the King-Priest, would come. Israel is the nation whose Kingdom is established in David and in her regeneration is the nation promised to Abraham (see Gen.12:1-3; 2 Sam.7:4-17). All foreknown to God and foretold to man.

In the seed coat of human flesh is God, who is eternal life. The germ cell of life in the Grain of Wheat is God, eternal life, the power to raise up a body of eternal life (Jn.5:21, 26; 12:23-27). In the body raised up God has living flesh and bone of eternal life as Seed to bring forth bodies of eternal life for each son of God. The seed of the Word who is God, planted in the heart of man, when received in the very being of man, is the life with power to raise up his mortal body out from the dead (Rom.8:9-11; see Mt.13:18-23).

In God’s only Son begotten out from the dead, God had living flesh as Seed for life to raise up out from the dead bodies for as many sons of God as would choose to be born from above (Jn.1:12-13; 6:37-40). The Son begotten out from the dead is eternal life for whosoever hears the word of Christ and will choose to believe the One who sent Him and obey the truth to be born from above (Jn.3:16; 5:24; 1 Jn.5:9-13).

The Gift of righteousness and eternal life is in God’s begotten Son in whom is the redemption of the earthy body. God’s Anointed Son is set forth as the Propitiation, the one Son who satisfies God in His having put away sin once for all in the offering of Himself as the sacrifice for sin and to overcome death in the resurrection of earthy bodies out from the dead (see Mt.20:28; Rom.4:25-5:11; 6:10; 1 Tim.2:3-6; Heb.7:27; 1 Pet.3:18). Each one raised up out from the dead bearing the image of the heavenly (1 Cor.15:49). Each one in the image of God in a body like unto Jesus’ body of glory. Each son of God having been conformed to the image of the dear Son of God, the Son of God’s love (Col.1:12-15).

Jesus, the Anointed Son, is the Way into the presence of God, the only Way into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is the Seed of the woman. He is the Wisdom of God. Jesus is the Way of the Tree of Life. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit initiated the Way in eternity past.

Before the times eternal They covenanted together for a Kingdom of birthed sons of God. Then They made a beginning and They have been carrying through that which They formerly initiated. They will continue to bring to its consummation what they began. The work was finished on the cross (Jn.19:28-30). The word is going out to the ends of the earth.

The Way of the Tree of Life must be guarded. It must be carefully watched over and preserved in truth. It is the only Way into the presence of God. The Way of the Tree of Life must be preached to the ends of the earth. The righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus must be shared from faith to faith (Rom.1:16-17). It is the only way to be born of the incorruptible Seed and bear the image of God forever.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and gets understanding of the Way of the Tree of Life.

This ends our lesson.