THE TREE OF LIFE

The Bible prophesied that Jesus would come a second time with the fruit of the tree of life and give eternal life to human beings who were destined to die. It is Ahnsahnghong that brought us the tree of life, so the Church of God believes in Him as the Second Coming Jesus.
Then, what is the tree of life? Is it truly Christ Ahnsahnghong that brought us the tree of life?

Matt. 13:34-35 『Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."』

Jesus revealed the things hidden since the creation through the parables. Among the 66 books, which book has the history of the creation of the world? It is the book of Genesis.
In the book of Genesis there are many parables showing God’s Providence. Among the parables, let’s study the tree of life.

Gen. 2:16-17 『And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."』

In the Garden of Eden, God the LORD put the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And He commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, they were tempted by Satan and violated the commandment of God. By this, human beings are destined to die and death entered this world through sin.
After Adam and Even sinned in the Garden of Eden, has God ever given us an opportunity to be saved from death? Is there no way to be freed from death?

Gen. 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."』

As stated in the above verse, there is only one way for us to live forever. It is to eat from the tree of life.
Then, how can we eat from the tree of life?
If we look into the history of the Garden of Eden, we can find out that it is God that banned the sinners from eating of the tree of life. Then, we can reason that it is also only God that will allow us the tree of life. So Jesus who is God came to save us by restoring the tree of life to us.

John 10:10 『The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.』

The words, "I have come that they may have life," means, "I have come that they may eat from the tree of life." What is the reality of the tree of life?

John 6:53-54 『Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.』

In the book of Genesis, what should we eat to live forever? It’s the fruit of the tree of life. However, what did Jesus say we should eat to live forever? He said we should eat His flesh and drink His blood. Then, what is Jesus’ flesh and blood? It’s the fruit of the tree of life. That’s right. The fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden represents Jesus’ flesh and blood. By eating Jesus’ flesh and blood we can eat the fruit of the tree of life which was lost by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We should eat Jesus’ flesh and blood in order to have eternal life.

Now, what is important is how to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood, the reality of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. It is impossible to eat Jesus Himself. Then, what does the words of John 6:53 mean? These words are referred to the words of Matthew 26:17. In this verse, we can find the way to eat the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Matt. 26:17-26 『On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.'" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. … While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.』
Jesus said that the bread and wine of the Passover is His flesh and blood, that is Jesus Himself. Eating the bread of the Passover and drinking the Passover wine is eating of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. So far, we have studied that the tree of life is a parable and its reality is Jesus, and the truth through which we can eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood is the Passover.

We can understand that the tree of life is allowed to us through the Passover, and that Jesus who allowed us to eat from the tree of life is God.

We, human beings, who lost the tree of life and were destined to die, could have eternal life by God who came in the flesh and allowed the fruit of the tree of life, that is, the bread and wine of the Passover. However, the devil abolished the truth of the Passover at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. It means the tree of life was hidden and no one could have eternal life. We could not expect salvation without the Passover the truth about the tree of life. In this situation, the one who is able to restore the truth of the Passover, that is, the tree of life, is only God as it was 2,000 years ago.

Heb. 9:28 『so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.』

The purpose of Christ coming a second time is for our salvation. To bring us salvation the Passover is absolutely needed. The One who allowed us the Passover truth is Ahnsahnghong.
Therefore, Ahnsahnghong is Christ who came in this age according to all the prophecy of the Bible. He restored the truth of the Passover, the tree of life, and saved us from our sin and death.

He is our God.