You were made to live forever.
I don’t think that our innate foreverness changed when sin changed us. I think it is one of the communicable attributes of God that we share with Him, being created imago dei.
We see two trees mentioned in the early chapters of Genesis. We see the warning by God for Adam not to take and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17) and after the Fall and resultant curse, we see God protect and hide another tree, the tree of life (3:22-24).
If you notice, there was only one tree that Adam and Eve were not to eat from, and that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were intended and allowed to eat of the tree of life. God had told Adam, though, that if he ate of the forbidden tree, “you shall surely die.” So, death, and a taking away of the tree of life, is a direct result of the curse of sin. That is why the Bible can say things like, “Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Non-life is a result of sin.
But, it is interesting to note our intended design. We were designed to live forever. God never said to Adam, ““You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of life…” What came, as a result of eating from the forbidden tree, is physical death. We see uncountable inferences in the Bible that though we physically die, we live on. We are still designed and intended for eternity.
Who we really are is not what our physical body is. You are you apart from your body. Your body will die, but you – the real you - will live forever. We were made to live forever.
We see this no clearer than the clearest glimpse we get of forever – Revelation 22. Throughout the Bible, in times of hardship or destruction, we see what is called decreation language (Jeremiah 4). What is present in Revelation 22 is not decreation language, and it’s not even recreation language. The grandeur of what is presented in this last page of the revealed Word is decurse language.
Revelation 22:1-5
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
What we have in heaven, awaiting us, is a complete reversal of the curse – the tree that was once guarded is free for all – eternity is not just something that we long for and get glimpses of, but it’s something we taste and behold. The curse is broken. Sin is a long-lost memory. And tears, and death, and mourning, and pain are no more. They are the “former things.” They have been crucified. To the thirsty God will give from the spring of the water of life without payment (Revelation 21:6).
We were made to live forever. What the curse brought, the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus has put to death. As He is alive forever, so will we be. And to those who trust in Him, the reward, forever, is not just all bad things undone, but all good things made new. We will take of the tree and eat - and live.
