We can see God’s intention by typology or figurative study of Genesis. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden with “trees” to eat from, including a tree called “the tree of life” (Gen 2:9), which is figurative of Christ’s life. God intended that Adam and Eve take the life of that tree into their being by eating of it to gain Christ’s innately righteous essential life. They never did eat of “the tree of life.”

Adam and Eve ate of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” rather than eat of and receive life from “the tree of life.” By deception of the Serpent, Eve and Adam chose to eat of the forbidden tree of “knowledge.” They did this in an effort to become independently “wise” (Gen 3:6); to become as gods, and thereby independent from God. They believed what the Serpent said, “you shall become as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

Scripture reveals that Adam never did eat of “the tree of life.” God blocked the way to this tree (Gen 3:24) after their disobedience. The “tree of life” was a shadow of Christ’s as life (Zoë, spirit life). Jesus said He is the real “tree of life” as the “vine” (John 15:5) whose life is to flow to and within every branch. We are His branch believers. Thus, from the very creation of mankind, man was intended to receive the added element of the life of God that is in Christ.

A Change in God’s Spirit

Many Christians site Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not…They say, “God does not change.”  Yet, the Scripture is clear that God has changed His form two (2) times, seen as follows.

1. God’s first change in form came when Jesus, who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2:9), was incarnated into a human body that He received from His physical mother, Mary.

John 1:14 And the Word (Jesus Christ) was *made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The word “made” here is better translated “became.” We will see this “made (became)” once again here in Point #2, in God’s second form change.

1. A second vital change in the form of God occurred when Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead and “became the life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45). Paul writes “now the Lord is the Spirit” (2Cor 3:17b)

Actually, the resurrected Christ as “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” brought into the Godhead a change that forever marks God as a changed Spirit. This change in God’s Spirit occurred when Jesus of Nazareth, “the son of man” according to His humanity, was now elevated, being “declared the Son of God.” Romans 1:3-4 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; ⁴And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:  By this declaration, the Godhead now includes all that is of Jesus’ by His human experience of birth, suffering, death and resurrection. All that Jesus of Nazareth experienced in being processed to become “the life-giving Spirit, is now included in the Godhead, forever.

Referring the Jesus, Paul writes of this change in God’s Christ-form. 2 Cor. 3:17a Now the Lord is that Spirit. 1 Cor. 15:45 ... the last Adam (Christ) was made (became) a quickening (life-giving) spirit. Jesus became “the life-giving Spirit,” such that He, as the Spirit-Seed of the Father, could now bring created men to a rebirth, to become the literal “many son’s” of God (Heb 2:10). Each then may become the expression of the Christ’s Spirit-life that now is their new essential spirit-life (Col 3:4a).

This change in God’s Christ-form to Spirit is the key to “the eternal purpose that He purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:11). God’s own Spirit is “the spirit” in all created mankind …but now, God has changed Jesus’ form to Spirit, to become “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Jesus, now as “the Spirit of life,” is available to indwell “as many as receive Him” (John 1:12), making each one a literal birthed child of God the Father.