By Pastor David H. Grisham
7-30-10

In the midst of the Garden of Eden were two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave Adam ONE commandment; ” Do not eat of the Tree of Knowlegde of Good and Evil which is in the midst of the garden.” Adam was told that he and Eve could eat of every tree, including the tree of life, except the one. The first time Eve was lied to, she was deceived. The first time Adam was tempted, he disobeyed God. Such is the nature of the flesh. As Christ said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” So, mankind fell into transgression and sin; and through sin, death came to us all. But God had a plan.
Every plant and animal in the garden became a seed for all the animals and plants of the world today. Adam too became a seed. Adam became a seed of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He stood in the midst of that garden and by the free will God had given him, made a choice to become a seed of the Tree of Life or the seed of the Tree of Knowledge. He made the wrong choice. But God had a plan.
Adam was a king because he had dominion over all the earth. Because the king became corrupted, his kingdom thus became corrupted and all the world came under the curse of the new king, Satan. As it says in Romans 6:16, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” So, Adam and the whole world became slaves of the Devil. The paradise of the garden of God became the harvest field of death. In the midst of it was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But God had a plan.
God’s plan was to turn the Devil’s plan back in his own face and turn death into life. God was going to plant a new Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil involved choice of good and evil. So God started a root of good in that tree with Abraham.
Abraham became the root of Israel. The father of many nations. This root of good became a trunk of promise in Isaac through a miracle of the Holy Spirit. A dead womb in Sarah brought to life. The mark of God’s plan. Death redeemed to life by the miracle of God. The trunk of Isaac became a fork in Jacob and the fork in the trunk became the twelve limbs of Israel by the patriarchs. Out of one of these limbs came a branch. The branch of David. Out of that branch came a branch of righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5,33:15). Out of that branch of righteousness, by an act of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was born to a virgin. The only perfect fruit ever produced by this tree.
Jesus Christ became the new seed for the new Tree of life by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. This perfect fruit, prepared by the Holy Spirit on the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, had to die in its flesh and be planted in the ground. Jesus said it Himself, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” The perfect fruit had to be planted into the ground so as to produce a new Tree of Life in Christ.
Jesus in the flesh, through perfect obedience (again refer to Romans 6:16), died on the cross (death of the flesh of the fruit), was buried (planted), and raised from the dead.Again, the mark of God’s plan to redeem life from death.
His ressurection became the new root of the Tree of life with a new promise. The Holy Spirit became the trunk of this new tree and the Apostles became the twelve new limbs. Thus the perfect Bride of Christ, the church, became the perfect fruit of the Tree of Life.
Today we stand in the world with the same choice Adam faced. Do we eat from the new Tree of Life or do we disobey God and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. One leads to eternal life with the Lord in Heaven. The other, to eternal death in Hell. By the free will God has given each of us we choose. Choose wisely.