Looking closely at the scriptures, contrary to what seems most commonly believed, it is apparent Adam and Eve were not prohibited from partaking of the tree of life in the midst of the garden before they took and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and were expelled. There was only one tree that was prohibited before they violated the commandment and took its fruit.

Only after eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil were they forcibly stopped from eating from the tree of life, lest their perpetuation of life continue.

When Adam and Eve were created, there was not an expiration date placed on their lives, but they were blessed with perpetual life. However, the life granted them was conditional upon them obeying one commandment, and one commandment only.

They were told they could relinquish that life at anytime by choosing to disobey the commandment given to them—which, indeed, they did through disbelief unto willful disobedience. “For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” They broke the one and only law given them, and their eyes were open to sin, and thus, henceforth, they knew guilt.

When God created the world, Adam and Eve were the last of his creations, whom he made in his own likeness and image. After having prepared all other things before them and for them, he gave Adam dominion over his creation and made Eve his helpmate.

They were both created on the sixth day before the Sabbath began, and they entered directly into the Sabbath without laboring for six days beforehand to do so. They were not in bondage to an innate sinful nature and entered directly into God’s rest on the seventh day following their creation. They were at peace with God and rested with him in his rest.

In Genesis, we are told the beginning and the end of the days of creation, one through six—that being the evening and morning—but we are not given the same for the seventh day or told how long the seventh day lasted. The time frame of the first Sabbath, into which Adam and Eve immediately stepped after they were created, is not made definitive in the scriptures, as were the previous six days. They lived in the Sabbath for a time that is not specified.

We do know, according to the Book of Hebrews, chapter 4, that because of sin, we must now labor to enter into God’s rest, and that God spoke of the Seventh Day on this wise about Israel’s plight in the wilderness. When the law was given post-sin, it was commanded, “Six days shalt thou labor, and rest on the seventh.” It is also written in Hebrews that he who has entered into his rest has ceased from his own works—our works that we are to cease from are sinful. However, we are offered a way to cease from our works in Matthew 11:28–30, where Jesus says:

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls…”

The Sabbath, on the seventh day in which Adam and Eve abode after their creation, is a picture of resting in Christ free of sin when we cease from our own works. Dwelling in Christ and having him dwell in us is the true Sabbath—it is leaving the wilderness of temptation and crossing Jordan into the land of promise. The fullness of Christ is the Sabbath, which we seek to perfect in us by driving out all other inhabitants (sinful natures). For the kingdom of God is within you. Perfection in Christ is the land of promise.

However, the spiritual journey of mankind from Adam being the son of God—as recorded in Luke’s genealogy of Jesus—to being separated from God and then restored again as his children begins in the garden with the two trees in its midst.

(Continued and concluded in Part 2)