The WAY to the TREE

ORIGINALLY true Christianity—not the contemporary pathetically perverse version—was known as “The Way.” [Acts 9:2; 18:25-26; 19:9,23: 22:4; 24:14,22.]

It derives from the fact that true Christians are followers of Christ who identified himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” [John 14:6].

By using the definite article Christ identifies himself as “the only way” to eternal life. There is no other way of truth and no other way to eternal life. And, more importantly, there is no other way—no other intermediary through which contact can be made with the ever-living God and ultimate entry into His eternal kingdom.

In short, and as offensive as it might be to several other religions, Christ unequivocally declares himself as the only way to the Eternal Godhead, whom he identifies as “the Father”.

This confident declaration is based on the fact that he, as the Son of God, provides the only path, the only way, and the only means to “come unto” God, “the Father of [all] spirits” [Hebrews 12:9, and John 14:6].

AN OLD TESTAMENT TRUTH

 “The way” was originally associated with a tree. And still is!

In the beginning, in the Garden, there were no thorn trees. Thorny trees and bushes developed after man sinned! [Gen 3:18.] Adam’s sin caused the development of thorny plants, anticipating Christ’s crown of thorns—a wreath of sharp thorns externally embedded upon Christ’s head. 

Symbolically Adam created the thorns by which Christ was crowned!

This sharp and painful “Passover Crown” so forcefully thrust upon Christ’s head by a Satanic force [Rome], parallels and symbolises the external Satanic force [the serpent] that thrust itself upon the head of the human race, with disastrous consequence—death!

Adam became alienated from and an enemy of God “in his mind by wicked works” [Col 1:21].

Thorny-sharp thoughts of rebellion and disobedience, with its painful aftermath, disfigured and marred the once pure mind and character of Adam [Gen 1:31], just as the divine and noble head of our saviour was marred and disfigured by the thorny “Passover Crown”!

Without the sin of Adam, the Passover Crown of thorns would have been impossible!

Sin entered the world. And death followed. Characteristics Adam and Eve passed on to their offspring.

“As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” [Rom 5:12 ].

After Adam and Eve sinned—transgressing the law of God [1 John 3:4]—they were banned from “the TREE” and “the WAY” which leads to eternal life. 

“So [as a consequence of man’s sin] He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword … to keep [guard] the way of the tree of life” [Genesis 3:24].

The “tree of life” represented “the way of/to [eternal] life”’.

The man was prevented from entering Paradise to attain eternal life on the basis of his free will. Man would have compounded his criminality if he entered Eden to illicitly benefit from the fruit of the tree of life.

MAN CANNOT CHOOSE GOD!

Man cannot secure eternal life by his own free will. Man cannot decide to follow the way of truth to eternal life. To become a true follower of God—to become a true Christian—is not a decision that emanates from the will [the natural inclination or desire] of man!  No man can decide to be a Christian!

To become a child of God comes by God’s determination and invitation. As no child can decide to beget itself so no man can decide to beget himself into the family of God. God, as the Father, determines the begettal. To become a child of God, to be begotten of God, is a God choice, not a human choice! 

The Way to eternal life is initiated and motivated by God the Father. Salvation, though a gift, is nevertheless a PROCESS, not an emotionally tearful moment at some prairie tent meeting or in a suburban ecclesiastical palace.

“It is God who works in you both to will [inclines you] … to act according to His good pleasure” [Php 2:13].  God seeks, calls, and elect’s man; no man seeks after God [Romans 3:11].  After God initiates the calling, man’s duty is to make the God-calling and election sure by obedience [2 Pet 1:10]. Obedience is the Way—the narrow way,that leads to everlasting life [Mat 7:14].

To attain immortal life, man must first be invited, or drawn, or motivated by God, unto God. Thereafter, man commits to follow His way of life to ultimately partake of the tree of eternal life in God’s Garden.

John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [literally, drags] him…”  To come to God is a gift of the Father [verse 65]. Therefore, to follow Christ, to walk in the WAY of TRUTH and LIFE is not a matter of human will or desire. Adam and Eve proved that, and Isaiah confirms by stating “all … have gone astray” [Is 53:6].

None, by personal desire or natural inclination, can choose to walk in the way of God.

Proverbs 16:25 states, “There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Man’s lifestyle choices lead to a way of death. But God’s Way leads to life eternal. What precisely does that Way entail?

THE WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE

The way OF God TO eternal life is through repentance—the turning away from sin—sin being the breaking of the Law, the Ten Commandments [1 John 3:4]. 

Man was barred from the Tree of Life due to his sin, but by repenting from sin, and accepting the atoning sacrifice of Christ, man can regain access to the Tree of Life.

Christ bore [literally meaning to take up or carry away sin, as did the Azazel goat on the day of Atonement] “our sins in his own body on the tree, [so] that we … should live unto righteousness…” [1 Pet 2:24]. To live unto righteousness is to live in obedience to God's law; to follow the way unto eternal life.

Note the contrasting parallel between “the tree” of life in Eden and “the tree” of death upon which Christ was sacrificed.  Man was barred from the Tree of Life in Eden, but in Christ, who was nailed to “The Tree”, man, again, has access to the Tree of Life.

In Eden, the Tree of Life was denied; in Christ, the Tree of Life is supplied--through the Tree of death.

THE CONTRASTING TREES

The tree of life reappears in the paradise of God as a restitutive reminder of God's original intent, to provide man with eternal life. [Since man already had a natural life, the tree of life refers to the gift of eternal life.]

Man, by disobedience in the “paradise [garden] in Eden” [Gen 2:8], forfeited the opportunity to partake of the tree of eternal life. Christ had to be gibbeted on Golgotha’s tree of death to reinstate the tree of life in the “paradise of God” [Rev 2:7].

As by disobedience man forfeited the opportunity to eat of the tree of eternal life, so, contrastingly, by obedience, man will, after God calls and elects him, secure the opportunity to eventually eat of the tree of eternal life.

It is not by works of the law that eternal life is obtained. Eternal salvation is a gift of God.  But, before God grants that gift of eternal salvation, a life of righteous living must be maintained by living an obedient and sanctified life.

The sanctification process [man’s responsibility] follows justification [God’s responsibility]. The two elements work together to secure salvation and the right to ultimately eat of the tree of eternal life.

THE LAW AND SALVATION

It is an incontrovertible fact of scripture: Not a single habitual law-breaker will receive salvation!  In other words: To enter the kingdom of God, you must be a habitual law keeper! Obedience must be your WAY OF LIFE!

In Revelation 21:8 Christ states: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Why would Christ make such a declaration if he supposedly died to nullify the law? Ministers teaching that the law has been “done away” declare thereby that Christ is a liar, or some confused God not knowing his own teachings!

Notice, people who break the Ten Commandments CANNOT ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD! Observe that four of the Ten Commandments are specified, and Christ categorically declares that people who break them are destined for hell! That statement Christ made from heaven, sixty years after he died on the gibbet for man’s sins! His death does not “do away with the law!” His death binds the believer to the law!

Revelation 22:14 categorically confirms: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city [of God].” 

Can Christ be any clearer than that? To have the right to the tree of life and to enter the eternal city of God, man must be a commandment keeper! The Ten Commandments are the essence of God’s character. It is His Way of life [Deut 11:28, Ps 119:32].

Claptrap Christianity and its embarrassment of false teachers proclaiming the abrogation of the laws of God by their false “grace alone theology” will, in the end, find themselves without God’s grace! 

Christ stated that at his return he will “profess unto them [the law breakers and their teachers], I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity [Mat 7:23 and 5:19]. Depart whereto? “You cursed, [depart] into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” [Mat 25:41]. 

The gibbeting of Christ was for the forgiveness of sins and to bring man into a right [justified] relationship with God. And that relationship, once established, is maintained by obedience to the way He established—the way of the law!

Churchianity has to have the scales removed from their eyes and the veil of slumber lifted to accept the truth and learn to follow the way that leads to life. The tree of death outside Old Jerusalem ensured the restoration of the tree of life inside New Jerusalem.

Christ says to the churches: “To him that overcomes [sin] will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” [Rev 2:7].

The connection between the FORMER tree of life and the FUTURE tree of life is through the TREE UPON WHICH CHRIST WAS NAILED. To give effect to the efficaciousness of the “tree of death”—the tree of reconciliation—Christ had to be resurrected. Salvation is not through the "cross" alone. Justification, or reconciliation, is through his death, but salvation is through his resurrection.

The complete salvific work of Christ was not concluded by his death but by his resurrection and by his acceptance of the Father.

 “For if, when we were enemies, we were [in the past] reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved [in the future] by his life” [Rom 5:10]. 

Being reconciled through the tree of death, man’s animosity and enmity [Ro 8:7] against God’s way—the law—is removed.

“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now [at present] hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you [in future] holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” [Col 1:21-22]. 

To be presented “holy and unblamable” means to presently live the way of God—within His law—ultimately to be granted the right to the tree of eternal life in paradise.

The WAY to the TREE of LIFE is through the TREE of DEATH which reconciles and binds us to the Father and His holy law. That is the TRUTH that sets us free!