Genesis 3:22-24 (ESV)
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
There were two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden. There was one whose fruit could be eaten. There was one that couldn't. Adam and Eve were prevented from eating of the Tree of Life after they had eaten the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Being driven out of the Garden was an act of God's mercy when it didn't look like mercy.
Mankind would have been the eternal state of damnation if Adam and Eve were to have eaten from the Tree of Life after they had eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Here is my reasoning for saying this:
Jesus became human to die for our sins. Humans that have eaten from the Tree of Life would never die. Jesus would not have been able to die when He took on human flesh. There could be no sacrifice to pay for our sins. The wages of sin is death. Therefore, man would have been in an eternal state of separation from God. Therefore, God drove them away from the Tree that would have made them live forever. It was an act of mercy for all of mankind.
It would not have seemed like an act of mercy at the time. It would have appeared as punishment. God loved His creation so much that He was willing to see man suffer to bring about eternal life. For God so loved the world began in the Book of Genesis. What He did then gave us salvation today.
God's mercy prevails even when it doesn't look like His mercy.
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