Gods test

The Tree of Life and the Foreshadowing of the Cross

The tree in the Garden of Eden is the tree of testing and the tree of temptation. However, there were two trees in the garden. There was another tree. This tree, the tree of life, is a foreshadow of the cross.

Remember the tree at Calvary, a cross, Galatians 3. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not plan B, it was plan A from the beginning, and so was the tree at Calvary.

Abraham, the Sacrifice of the Son, and God’s Test

Why? Because God is going to get the glory in rescuing his sinners. When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God says, stop, stop, now I know you love me. This would be a foreshadow of something else.

The fulfillment of this would eventually come when God the Father does the very same thing to his son, yet not stop when it came to crushing his own son. Isaiah 53, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

We esteemed him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The tree of life in the garden was a foreshadow of the tree at Calvary.

Without that tree, without that test, we would never understand the unfathomable depths of the love God has for us. Like, I'm running out of adjectives to describe this love.

The Measure of God’s Love in Ephesians 3

How do you describe God's love?

How should we respond to God's love? Paul tells us in Ephesians 3, and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, the love that God has for us, being rooted and established in God's love, you may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.