Genesis 3:22 | Pastor Jerry A. Burns
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: — Genesis 3:22
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The promise of Satan was technically true in a limited and tragic sense. Adam and Eve did come to know good and evil. But they knew it from the wrong side. Their moral nature was now corrupted by sin.
God blocks access to the tree of life. If Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of life in their fallen state, they would have lived forever in a sinful, corrupt condition.
So even here, we see mercy.
Death is part of the judgment of God, but for the redeemed, death is also a mercy. It means we do not remain forever in sinful flesh. One day the believer will put off this corruptible body and receive a glorified body.
God was not being cruel by blocking the tree of life. He was being merciful.
God bid man go out; told him he should no longer occupy and enjoy that garden: but man liked the place, and was unwilling to leave it, therefore God made him go out. This signified the shutting out of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God, which was the bliss and glory of paradise. But man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken. He was sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment. Our first parents were shut out from the privileges of
their state of innocency, yet they were not left to despair. The way to the tree of life was shut. It was henceforward in vain for him and his to expect righteousness, life, and happiness, by the covenant of works; for the command of that covenant being broken, the curse of it is in full force: we are all undone, if we are judged by that covenant. God revealed this to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to quicken him to look for life and happiness in the promised Seed, by whom a new and
living way into the holiest is laid open for us.