Why That One Forbidden Tree?

Have you ever wondered why there was that one forbidden tree in the center of the Garden of Eden?  It’s not as if God stumbled upon this Garden Paradise and then decided to place man in it.  God was the One who created the Garden and everything in it.  So why in the world would there be that one forbidden tree in the center of Paradise?

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but 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.”  (Genesis 2:16-17).

In a word, that one forbidden tree was a test for Adam and Eve.  Would they be ruled by their love for God or their love for themselves?  Would they continue to live their “dependent-upon-God-divine-design” or would they choose the way of self-sufficiency and self-rule?

God had graciously given them everything they needed to live lives of unimaginable freedom, joy, and faithfulness to the One who had created them (vertical relationship) and to each other (horizontal relationship).  Life in the Garden was absent of everything bad we experience on this side of their cosmic rebellion.

• Selfish ambition was absent
• Self-centeredness was absent
• Self-focus was absent
• Self-reliance was absent
• Self-rule was absent

Because God had granted Adam and Eve rule and dominion over all of the creation, they needed to be reminded that they were still under the rule and authority of their Creator.  And therein lies the purpose behind that “one forbidden tree” in the center of their Paradise.  They were never meant to live apart from God.  Living a life of autonomous rule was to be as far as from their thinking as the east is from the west.  The great 16^th century theologian John Calvin wrote:

Abstinence from the fruit of one tree was a kind of first lesson of obedience that man might know he had a Director and Lord of his life, on whose will he ought to depend, and in whose commands he ought to acquiesce.  And this truly is the only rule of living well and rationally, that men should exercise themselves in obeying God.

So, where in your life right now has God been testing your obedience?  Who has been directing the areas in your life that matter most?  Whose will have you been depending upon?  We simply were never designed to live our lives apart from God and His life-giving, life-changing Word.  We find our identity in Him; we find our direction in Him; we find our purpose in Him; we find our understanding of everything in Him.  It was only when Adam and Eve chose to find their identity, direction, purpose, and understanding outside of God that Paradise was lost.  But not forever!

You see, a better Paradise was promised through the life and death of Jesus Christ—the Second Adam.  God, in His amazing grace, refused to leave mankind forever trapped in bondage to sin and death.  He promised in Genesis 3:15 to send our Redeemer.

The Lord God told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  Our Redeemer lived the perfect life we refused to live and paid the debt we could never pay.  His victory on the cross paid the price for all of our sins—past, present, and to come.  And when Jesus Christ returns, He will make all things new . . . and that includes you!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!