Man was created an eating creature. God made the world full of food, and before the fall all the blessings of eating—energy, renewal, delight, and fellowship among others—were there in the Garden of Eden.

When Adam ate from the only prohibited tree, death came into this world. God cursed the ground, which would no longer easily yield food for mankind, and instead he would deal with thorns and thistles. Adam fell at a tree, but Jesus obeyed by dying on a tree with a crown of thorns on His brow. He rejected the devil’s food, refusing to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus proclaimed all foods to be clean, and Paul warns Timothy of deceiving and demonic doctrines that forbid marriage and command people to abstain from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Tim. 4:3).

The Christian faith is in principle omnivorous because the earth is the Lord’s and fullness thereof. We don’t have to eat everything, but we do confess everything is blessed, and at the center of our faith is this meal where God communes with us in broken bread and red wine, the blood and body of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus was faithful, we are blessed, the food is blessed, and though we will die, we will live forever eating from the tree of life.