Thank you, my dear friend, for this very good question. Well, let’s look at the verses in Genesis which speak of this. First, let’s look at Eden itself. In Genesis 2:9, we read: “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then in verse 17 we read: “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Eden means ‘delights’, and this place must certainly have been a delight to live in! It contained all that man truly needed, not only in beauty but also for sustenance…and all within an arm’s reach. And, best of all, it was a place where man might forever have dwelled in peace and safety, and in happy communion with God, so long as man was obedient to God’s one commandment. Now, in the midst of this garden, the Bible tells us that there were two unique trees, one the tree of life and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We don’t read much in this chapter about the Tree of Life, though we do get an important characteristic of the tree in the final few verses of chapter 3. I note that there was no commandment given about this tree. We do hear about that particular tree again, its leaves and its fruit, in Revelation 22:2.

The other tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I believe that it was forbidden to man because God said so. But man did not obey God’s rule, and with that, sin entered the world, and with it came death (Romans 5:12-21). With sin in the world due to man’s disobedience, Adam and Eve could no longer dwell in the paradise of Eden. Eden was the splendid environment which God had prepared for man to dwell happily in, but it only was open to mankind for the short time of man’s innocence. When sin entered the world, that is when Adam chose his own will over God’s will, the innocence of man disappeared, and man, and all creation, came under the curse of death (Genesis 3:16-19; Romans 5:12; 6:23). Now, God hates sin, and sin is what separates man from God (Habakkuk 1:13; Proverbs 6:16-19; Psalms 5:4-5; Isaiah 59:2; Zechariah 8:16-17. Man could have lived forever in the garden had sin not entered the world, but after the fall, man and all else in creation were now subject to sickness and death, and from this point on, mankind would have to labor hard in a world ruined by sin, by the sweat of his brow as Scripture tells us. All sickness, sadness, disease, and death came with sin, and fellowship with God broken such that mankind was alienated from God (James 4:4; Romans 8:7). Thus, Eden, the garden paradise created for man, was lost due to sin which ruined all.

But now, why did God need to expel Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? In Genesis 3:22-24 we read: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. William MacDonald, in his Bible commentary, gives us his comments of these verses: “3:22-24…she (Eve) and Adam learned by the hard way of experience to discern between good and evil. If they had then eaten of the tree of life, they would have lived forever in bodies subject to sickness, degeneration, and infirmity. Thus it was God’s mercy that prevented them from returning to Eden. Cherubim are celestial creatures whose function is to “vindicate the holiness of God against the presumptuous pride of fallen man.”

My dear friend, sin as a principle in this world must be dealt with if mankind is ever to be freed from the power of death, and our individual sins must be atoned for so that we might have God’s forgiveness, and so that we might be reconciled to God, and made fit for a heavenly paradise one day. All of this could only be accomplished for us by the sinless Son of God, and it is the reason for Christ Jesus coming into the world so that we might be delivered from the wrath of God’s righteous judgment, and the power of sin, death and hell removed forever (1 Timothy 1:15). Romans 5 in its entirety clearly explains God’s amazing grace through the finished work of Christ Jesus on Calvary’s cross. We next see the tree of life spoken of in Revelation 22:2 in that heavenly abode, where sin cannot enter, where there is no sickness, sorrow or death-the happy abode of those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us (Ephesians 5:2).   (SF)  (676.4)