Skip to main content

Gen 2:9 Tree of Life (Type)

Christ is our Rest

Published on: January 23, 2025

Genesis​

Genesis 2:9; 3:22, 24

Gen 2:9
9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden

Gen 3:22
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.
Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

Gen 3:24
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The Tree of Life can be seen as a prefiguration of Christ, who provides eternal life and spiritual sustenance to believers.

  1. The tree of life itself is a symbol of life.
  2. It signifies living eternally forever in the presence of God.
  3. It stood in the center of the garden.
  4. If man had not fallen he would have continued living in the garden and fulfilled the dominion mandate.
  5. Man was kicked from the garden as a mercy to prevent eating from the tree of life to live eternally apart from God

[JBP] "The tree, moreover, did not lose its power through humanity's fall; it prophesies a life yet to be attained in the future."

The Tree of Life as Christ​

John 6:35
Jesus said to them,
'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'

John 14:6
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

John 15:1-5
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away,and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The imagery of abiding in Christ as the vine (John 15:1-5) parallels the idea of being sustained by the Tree of Life.

Revelation​

Rev 2:7 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God

Rev 22:14 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

[JBP] "Provides the straightforward prediction of this same promise. Mankind's life is perfected in the New Jerusalem" (Rev 22:2)