Jesus Christ: the Tree of Life.

Believers, "all have sinned." Stand before God as one who has even just a tiny bit of righteousness from obeying the law and He will be to you the Righteous Judge that "will by no means clear the guilty," and the wages of sin is death.

But stand before Him as a sinner through and through, without an iota of righteousness of your own and looking to Him for Salvation; He will be your Justifier. See Romans 4:5-

"But to the one who does not work [that is, the one who does not try to earn his salvation by doing good], but believes and completely trusts in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God)."

God the Righteous justifies the ungodly who believe and completely trust in Him. Let's not follow after the example of Eve who thought she could be godly (be like God) by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (a picture of the law which gives the knowledge of good and evil.) We see this in Romans 7:8- "Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Just like the tree, "the letter kills"  and Satan is still using it to seduce many, just as he did with Eve. The good that one does under law kills just as fast as the bad. Let us eat freely from the Tree of Life and live forever. How do we do this? Remember Genesis 3:22-

"And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Notice the words "eat" and "live forever"? Now see what Christ says in John 6:51-58:

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world...54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day...58...He who eats this bread will live forever.”

Because He loved us so, God Himself made provision for us to eat of the Tree of Life- Jesus Christ- and live forever (not perish as was our lot under law, but have everlasting life.) and we find this in the most popular verse in the bible- John 3:16- "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Eat and live forever. Believe in Jesus and have eternal life.

Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ- that He has overpaid the price of our past, present and future sins (Heb. 10:12;) that we are made to "be like God" (righteous) by His obedience (Romans 5:19) and not by our filthy rags fig leaves of law-keeping and good works and that in Him, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1) and no generational or other curse hanging over our heads (Gal. 3:13) - is to eat from the Tree of Life. Partaking of His body and His blood (Holy Communion) with understanding and reverence is to eat from the Tree of Life.

Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life.

His body broken to make us whole. His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus Christ "The Lord our Righteousness" is the Tree of Life. With Jesus Christ the Tree of Life as our righteousness and strength, we get to live forever.

By God's grace, let’s stop feeding on the Law (the good that one does in order to earn salvation) that was given through Moses and turn to Grace and Truth that came through Jesus Christ. The letter kills. The Spirit gives life. In Christ, we are led by the Spirit, not the letter that kills. Believe Right. Partake of His flesh and His blood and you will live forever. He is God's gift to us. Remember Christ says in John 6 that the one who partakes of Him "has eternal life" and not "will have." Eternal life begins here on earth!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does one partake of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner?

How do you partake of the Holy Communion in an unworthy manner and eat and drink judgment to yourself? The bible says there is none righteous, no, not one, so it is definitely not by partaking when you're not 'righteous' as is being preached in many churches today! No one is righteous on their own. 1 Corinthians 11: 29 says it's by "...not discerning the Lord's body." The bible says in 1 Cor 11:30 that "for this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep." Notice that it is for the singular reason of "not discerning the Lord's body" and not because you committed some sin before partaking. With Christ as our righteousness and forsaking that which is borne of works of the law, we are righteous in God's eyes 100% because "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ." 2 Corinthians 5:21. Bear in mind that without God's gift of righteous
Read more

Repentance - what is it?

When many of us believers think of the word Repentance, we think "feeling really bad because we sinned," "promising God that we will stop sinning," and "making the decision to live a holy life from now on." But did you notice that there is no Saviour Jesus in this equation? It all rests on you. Jesus does not do anything here. This is a Judas kind of repentance - towards self and not towards God. This is repentance to death and not repentance to life. The Parable of the Lost Sheep shows us what true repentance is - a gift from God. Luke 15: 4 - 7 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that li
Read more

What does it mean to be a "neither cold nor hot" Christian?

Before his conversion, Saul was very zealous for God, upholding the Law and ensuring that anyone who believed that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law in all who believe landed in jail. Like his fellow Pharisees, his righteousness depended on his ability to keep the Law. His life and his ministry was all about "Thou shall not" and "Thou shall"... or else judgment, as it is with many who profess to believe in our Saviour Jesus today! Believers, don't be deceived! If you think that it is your various fasts, trips to some mountain, church donations and vigils and almost-strict observance of the Ten Commandments that makes God pleased with you or bless you, you are worse off than pre-conversion Paul and his fellow Pharisees whom Christ referred to as a "brood of vipers." What such people get in return for their self-righteousness is being cut off from Christ, according to Galatians 5:4 "For if you are trying to make
Read more