Verse: Genesis 3:22
Context: Genesis 3

In Genesis 2:9, God placed a tree in the midst (middle) of the garden of Eden known as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God warned that if man ate of its fruit, he would surely die.

In Genesis 3, the Bible describe the fall of mankind and how sin, death and suffering entered the world when Adam disobeyed God’s commandment and ate of the tree. Towards the end of Genesis 3, God said that man had become like him, in that man has become knowledgeable and able to discern between good and evil and said if man eat of the tree of life, he would live forever. Not wanting man to live forever, he drove man out of the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24).

This raises an interesting question why God would prevent Adam from eating from the tree of life after he had sinned.

The tree of life was meant to make man live forever in his body form and since the fall of man brought suffering and misery to man, eating of the tree of life means they would have lived forever in bodies subjected to sickness, degeneration, infirmity and separation from God. Thus it was God’s mercy that made him prevent man from eating of the tree of life.

Humans only live as disembodied spirits after death. At resurrection, the believing humans who died in Christ will have their bodies changed to glorified bodies (Philippians 3:21) while the unbelieving sinners retains their normal bodies and take it to the lake of fire which is destroyed by the fire though their spirits remain in torture forever.

Even the glorious body when given will not be capable of living forever until tree of life is eaten from and for this reason, the tree of life will be given in God’s kingdom where all believers will be given access to eat from the tree of life and that will make them live happily forever in God’s kingdom (Revelation 2:7; 22:14).