The
Debate between the Two Trees.
P.B [September 2019]
_______
The most corrosive debate happening to us all the time, is the constant test of choices. The communists visualize
the world to be polarized between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the rich
and the poor. The naturalists and the Darwinists conceive the world's apparatus
as belonging to the struggle of species for survival and in the process,
understand the world as an arena of teeming competition between strength and
weakness, between adaptation and imbecility. The foremost of political thinkers
consider the test on the basis of utility and wastefulness - whether a piece of
legislation is going to enjoy the public cause of utility or not.
But
Under the law, the supreme perspective was not to think and
decide on terms of richness or poverty, or on lines of
strength or weakness; but the most valid point in the law was the crystalline
depiction of an objective guide towards good and evil. In Jewish memory, the
cosmic measure is polarized between good and evil, between God and demons.
*This moral question of good and evil is seen in many other
heathen systems of religious education. However,
the Jewish moral code is the original divine document of validation as far as
moral clarity of a test is concerned. Moral questions in all other religious denominations, feature a mixed bag of fact and surrealism.
But there is another tree in the middle (besides the tree of
knowledge), and that is the *tree of life*. This tree features a completely
different order of revelation: and was discovered in Christianity (not in
Judaism). The tree of life pertains to the question of grace in Lord Jesus.
The tree of life in the middle of the garden presents
another important feature - that the world is polarized on the test of grace
(not the test of good and evil). This is advanced argument of thought and
choice.
The Jews tested everything based on moral strength and moral
turpitude. This was what the obvious touch of law did to the human heart -
trigger moral variables.
But, God in the light of new testament truth introduces the
new test : the test of asking about everything based
on whether it is in convergence with the grace of Christ or not. The is the new
ultimate reality : test decided on Pilate's question -
'what have I to do with Christ?'. This is the new polarization for the cosmos -
"Do you think I am come to bring peace on earth. No. I tell you but
division" (Luke 12:51).
Now, it is seen that both the trees are placed in the middle
of
God's envisioning of paradise for humanity and the entire
universe is centred on the cross - where the two trees merged. In other words,
at the cross, what was revealed was:
1) That the course of humanity was nothing but evil, as was
tested and proved in the rejection of Christ on the cross. This was the law,
and the moral argument. This was the bitterness of the tree of knowledge: the
epistemological consciousness of universal guilt against the goodness shown in
Christ.
2) There was also grace at the cross, over and above,
despite the failure under the law. In Christ, divine grace is communicated to
humankind apart from the test of moral failure. This is the tree of life, the
grace factor enshrined in the cross of Christ.
Now, there is another important consideration as regards to
the tree of life. God did not permit the fallen man to eat of the tree of life
and placed the cherubim of judicial obstruction - the reason was
stunning.
God wanted man to die before he had access to the tree of
life, and this was meant to bring out a secret truth, a precious truth - that
of resurrection.
Man can have access to the threshold of grace only on the
basis of new life, a new standing brought about by resurrection of Christ from
among the dead. In other words, our access to the tree of life (grace) is
dependent on the resurrection truth of identification with Christ' resurrection
glory. Without Christ resurrection truth, no one has access to divine grace.
The cross features the two trees - that of responsibility
(knowledge of good and evil) and that of grace. But Christianity, in the
enjoyment of its privileges allows unhindered access to grace alone. There is
no more the Jewish test considered as a valid option. Only the tree of life
(grace) exists for a Christian in his walk of faith and life in Christ. This is
the reason why the church at