Genesis 2:9. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:16-17. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
The man that God created was not a pre-programmed robot. Nor was he a puppet with God pulling the strings. Adam was a volitional being. God gave him a free will that was able to make a free choice. This is made clear by the two commands given to Adam in 2:16-17.
Command #1: Eat to the full from every tree in the garden, including the tree at the center of the garden, the Tree of Life.
Command #2: Do NOT eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
The tree offering immortality to the man, the eternal life of God himself, was at the center of the garden. This means that man was not at the center of the garden. Yes, man is the king-priest of Eden. He has been created to image God, to work and keep the garden as God’s representative, and to enjoy the beauty of the creation that God has made (the trees were pleasant to the sight). But even with this high calling, man is not at the center of the garden-temple, God is. His life is.
That is the choice set before Adam – life or death. God at the center or me at the center. One of these offers life, while the other offers death. Moses set this same choice before the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 30:15-19. 15“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live.
This is the same choice that is set before all humanity each and every day. The choice to embrace knowing God and his will as the source of everlasting life, or the choice to embrace moral autonomy, knowing, even determining, good and evil for ourselves.
Many have asked, “Why did God give mankind this choice if he knew that Adam and Eve would choose the Tree of Knowledge and usher death into the world (spoiler)?” The answer lies in the nature of love. All love requires choice. I think we can safely say that knowing good and evil was not the real problem, but choosing to disobey God’s will, THAT was the problem. Truly it was a choice to place themselves at the center of existence, to use knowledge as a means to autonomy, and therefore, to reject God and his divine life. His divine love.
Questions: Do you agree that love requires choice? In what ways are death and life still beings set before us today? How does choosing Jesus equal choosing the Tree of Life?
To Live is Christ 