Right to the Tree of Life Through Obedience
Frank Starr uses Revelation 22:14 to make eternal life conditional on keeping the commandments. But Jesus said that whoever believes has eternal life and has already passed from death to life.
Por Rodrigo Custódio ·
The moment
On Thursday, March 17, 1881, the weekly Signs of the Times — volume 7, number 11, published in Oakland, California — carried on page 124 the article "The Future Inheritance," signed by Frank Starr. The masthead of the issue lists James White, J. N. Andrews, and Uriah Smith as editors, with J. H. Waggoner as resident editor.
Starr's text is a meditation on the new earth: there would be no more death, the saved could no longer die, and eternal life would be enjoyed forever beside the One who died to purchase all of it. The article moves toward a devotional ending — "let us come to him, that we may have life, eternal life" — and then, in the final sentence, introduces the condition.
The closing cites Revelation 22:14 as the final blessing: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." The verse is presented as the biblical seal of the whole picture: the right to the tree of life and entry into the city would depend on keeping the commandments.
Note the mechanism: after pages describing the future inheritance as a gift purchased by Christ's death, the article's final word turns the gift into a right acquired by obedience. Eternal life ceases to be received and becomes deserved — and the verse from Revelation becomes the stamp on that exchange.
Nineteenth-century walled orchard with a locked iron gate — atmospheric period illustration.
The absurdity
Starr puts a price on the tree of life — and the price is obedience. The article describes eternal life as something Christ died to purchase, but ends by saying that the "right" to it depends on keeping the commandments. If Christ purchased it, why would the believer need to pay again with obedience? The text's logic is that of a toll: the cross opens the road, but the city gate opens only for those who present proof of commandment-keeping. Read the exact words of the printed page:
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
Source: Signs of the Times, vol. 7, no. 11, March 17, 1881 — p. 124.
Highlighted clipping from the printed page with the quoted passage, March 17, 1881 edition, p. 124.
Why this is serious
The word "right" betrays the article's theology. A right is what one possesses by merit, by contract, by payment — it is the language of the notary's office, not of grace. By saying that those who keep the commandments have a "right" to the tree of life, Starr turns eternal life into wages: something owed to those who have fulfilled their part. But the Bible calls eternal life a gift — and a gift is not earned, it is received.
The use of the verse even reverses the order of the gospel. Revelation 22:14 describes the blessed — those who have already been washed, already been forgiven, already belong to the city — and does not establish a toll at the gate. Starr reads the text backwards: instead of seeing in obedience the fruit of those who already have life, he turns it into the price for those who want to enter. Description becomes condition, and the beatitude becomes a charge.
And there is the article's own internal contradiction: Starr writes that Christ died "to purchase all this for us" — eternal life, the new earth, communion forever. If it was purchased by Christ, it is paid for; if it is paid for, there is no second charge at the city gate. To demand obedience as a condition of entry is to say that Christ's purchase was insufficient and that the believer must complete the payment. It is the cross plus an installment.
The pastoral effect is the imprisonment of the conscience. The reader who finishes the article has learned that entry into the city depends on keeping the commandments — and since no man keeps the commandments perfectly, no reader can be certain of entering. The "future inheritance" becomes a conditional promise that no one can fulfill, and the Christian hope, which should be a firm anchor, becomes a moral lottery.
Victorian botanical greenhouse with exotic plants and glass panes — atmospheric period illustration.
The verdict of Scripture
Jesus defined the conditions of eternal life without mentioning commandments: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). Hath — in the present. Is passed — in the completed past. Eternal life is the present possession of the one who believes, not the future wage of the one who obeys. Starr's "right" is an invention; Jesus' "hath" is the gospel.
Paul explicitly excludes the logic of an acquired right: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). If entry into the city depended on keeping the commandments, it would come from works — and there would be something to boast about. But salvation is a gift: no one presents proof of obedience at heaven's gate, because the gate was opened by another.
And the righteousness that grants access to the city is not produced by the believer: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). The end — the goal, the fulfillment — of the law is Christ, and that righteousness is "to every one that believeth." The one who believes already possesses Christ's righteousness; he need not manufacture his own on the basis of commandments kept. The tree of life has no price because it has already been paid for — and whoever tries to pay again insults the purchaser.
As for the verse used by Starr, the Bible itself shows who the blessed of Revelation 22:14 are: those who washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14). The beatitude belongs to the washed, not to those who washed themselves by obedience. Entry into the city is through the gate — and the gate is Christ (John 10:9), not commandment-keeping. The 1881 article exchanged the gate for a toll; Scripture keeps the gate open, free of charge, to everyone who believes.