Beyond The Basics

This post is second in a series about eternal rewards.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live forever?

I mean, look, I know I’m a Christian and most of my readers are Christians and so we’ve all talked our entire Christian lives about eternal life in heaven with Jesus and all that is great stuff. But most people I talk to don’t even know what that means, much less have a concept of what it would be like. Most Christians, in the west anyway, think that eternal life means living as some disembodied spirit-y ghost-y form floating around in the clouds with no real purpose other than to maybe worship Jesus in a place that exists outside time forever. Sounds rather uninspiring to me, to be honest.

Thanks for ruining that for us, old dead ancient Greek philosopher dudes.

In general, I think that we as western Christians have a very distorted and incomplete view of eternal life. Jesus, however, gives us some important information in Revelation chapter 2:

“To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7)

You remember the tree of life, don’t you? It’s that tree that was in the midst of the Garden of Eden when the earth was created. Adam and Eve were allowed to eat from the tree of life but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but instead of listening to God they listened to this talking serpent who convinced them to eat from literally the only tree they couldn’t eat from and it was this whole thing. But the interesting thing is that after that whole mess happened, God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because if He left them there, they would have eaten from the tree of life and lived forever in their fallen state (Genesis 3:22-23).

So if your initial thought upon reading that verse in Revelation was that it’s just talking about salvation and the eternal life that comes with salvation, that should give you pause. If the tree of life is just referring to salvation, how could someone eat of it and live forever in a fallen state?

I think what Jesus is doing here in Revelation is what many these days would call gatekeeping. He’s saying that you only get to eat of the tree of life if you do a certain thing. He is telling us that we need to conquer something in order to eat of the tree of life. And what is that thing that we need to conquer?

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5)

This section of Revelation is addressed to the church in Ephesus, and earlier in the section Jesus tells them they have abandoned their first love and then exhorts them to do the works they did at first. Ephesus, in Acts 19, saw a great revival in that city where many people gave their lives to Jesus. In doing so, they made a point to destroy their magic books and confess their sins in front of other believers. So in telling the Ephesians to do the works they did at first, could Jesus be saying that they had fallen into compromise and stopped confessing their sins?

Whatever the specifics might be, the greater issue is that they were no longer doing the things they did at first to show their love for Jesus so He is saying to them, “If you can overcome the temptation to abandon those things you did when you first loved Me, I will allow you to eat from the tree of life.”

Dan, you still haven’t told us what that means.

I’m getting to it. Be patient.

The tree of life reappears in Revelation 22. It is now in the midst of another garden, one that is in the New Jerusalem after it has descended to the earth. And John tells us that the leaves of this tree will go out and be used to heal the nations after the destruction of the Great Tribulation, and that the tree will bear a new kind of fruit each month of the year. Imagine how delicious an apple from the tree of life would be. And then you go back a month later to get another apple and it’s a pear of life instead.

Anyway. I think the contrast here is very important. The tree is in the paradise/garden/city/temple of God, and its leaves go out to heal the nations but the fruit does not. The fruit stays in, and Jesus allows certain people into the midst, into the holy of holies, so to speak, to eat of the fruit. This is to prevent those who abandoned their first love from eating from the tree of life and abusing its fruit.

Wait, are you saying that unbelievers could try to access the tree of life after Jesus returns?

That’s a really good question, one to which I don’t have an answer. There’s so much about the age to come that we just don’t know. Paul talks about believers on the Day of Judgment whose works were not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and the result is that though they are saved they will suffer eternal loss of the reward for their works because they were not done in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). In my opinion, these are probably the people that will not be able to access the tree of life; those who are saved, but did not do anything of eternal value during their life so they will not be able to enjoy the eternal benefits of eating of the tree of life.

Whatever this means, I think the purpose is clear. I want to eat of the tree of life for all eternity. This is not something I want to miss out on. What about you? What are things that you did out of love for Jesus at first that you no longer do?

Father, give us the grace to repent and turn back to those first works done out of deep love and devotion for you.