Imagine Perfection.
Imagine having more than you could ever need, living in a world without danger. Picture a life filled with beauty, tranquility, peace, love, health, and boundless contentment. Imagine a perfect love relationship with someone who couldn't love you more. Imagine the cool of a summer evening, simply being. This is paradise, this is Eden!
Would I stay in such a place? Would I give it up?
Giving it up
Adam did.
Let's revisit Genesis 1-3, considering God's character. Remember, He revealed His exact nature to Moses in Exodus 34:6, describing Himself as "Yahweh, Yahweh, God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth." This character was fully manifested in His beloved Son, Jesus, Emmanuel, who now lives in you and you in Him.
The good only
The point is this: God is good. He created everything good. The Hebrew word "ṭôb" (טוֹב) paints a picture of a surrounded, secured house, signifying goodness and perfection.
God declared seven times during creation that His work was good. Seven is the number of perfection. Even when He created man and provided for him, He declared, "Behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
Versus the bad
Up until Genesis 2:25, Adam and Eve knew only good. They lived in a world of perfect goodness, grace, and provision. They had dominion over the earth and ruled as kings. They were in Eden, the garden of life. They could eat from the tree of life, receiving life directly from God's hand. They needed nothing else.
Man was created in God's image, with full executive authority and free choice. He was designed for intimacy with God, the Lover of man. This required one thing only: to eat (believe, trust, and find love) only of Goodness, Life Himself. Not a mixture with anything contrary, but Goodness alone.
God commanded man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17)
The journey from perfection to fallacious
Adam was in the perfect place and perfect position.
Why would he choose anything different?
Genesis 3 tells the sad story of how Adam, living in perfect Goodness, chose against perfect Goodness, Grace, and chose the law instead.
How can you make perfect Goodness better? Adding anything to it messes it up!
So, what is the Tree-of-the-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil?
Adam, up to this point, knew only good. God is Good. It is His Being. Everything He made was good. But Adam chose to know good AND evil.
Simply put, the law is the Tree-of-the-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.
Not trusting in the good that there is requires a set standard for all to follow. Not trusting fellowship with God, Good only, Grace only, Provision only, Love only, man went ahead and chose the law for himself!
The seemingly good fruit that comes from the wrong tree is, in fact, from the tree of the law!
Mixing up own works with the perfect Good...
The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die." (Genesis 3:4)
Man chose to live by rules (his own works), by the law instead of a pure Love relationship.
The problem now?
The law is ruthless and without leniency. There is NO Grace in the law!
The law also demands a verdict, precise execution of justice, a just ruling, and full payment accordingly.
The chasm of death
Apart from God, there remained only one verdict for man-in-the-law should he trespass: darkness, meaning separation from the Light Himself - death.
When God said, "you shall surely die" in Genesis 2:17, He referred to this separation, this verdict. The phrase "surely die" is in the intensive form, emphasizing the finality of the consequence. The intensive form of the word die (מוּת) is obtained in the Hebrew by repeating the word, thus מוּת מוּת. The Hebrew word paints a word-picture reading: chaos secured sealed.
Man brought upon himself a sealed verdict of secured chaos - death!
Distant to the original design
This went against man's original design. He was not designed to know good from evil, to be measured and judged, or to know death. He was designed for good, for life. But the enemy knew this and lied.
Man was already like God, created in His very image to rule and have dominion on earth. He had a space within him to receive and have communion with Love.
Yet, man keeps making the same wrong choices.
Deception that screams out
Even today, we are deceived into the lie the enemy wants us to believe - to taste from the Tree-of-the-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil.
The Bible is not a book of law. Read Hebrews chapters 7 to 10. The Bible is God's love letter to us. It reveals ultimate Love, ultimate Goodness, Ultimate Grace - Jesus!
Obliterated by the Savior-God
Jesus Christ served justice because of the law so that we could become the righteousness of God and have fellowship with the ever-loving good God.
Now, I can freely receive perfect good love and be in a relationship with my Father who couldn't love me more. In Jesus I have it!
I can eternally walk with Him in the cool of the evening.
He never leaves nor forsakes me.
I can just be.
This is paradise.
I receive from His open Hand.
I am in Eden!
Forever
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)
HalleluYah!