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bradfreeman

The problem Jesus came to fix...

Acts-dicted Posts: 9027 **5/11/16 5:54 am**

THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL

God's will was for us to live forever without the knowledge of good and evil.

"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Gen 2:16

The serpent's message and plan was for us to toil to be like God through our knowledge of good and evil.

"The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”" Gen. 3:4,5

It's a tree of judgment, enabling you to be like the Judge and say:
"That is good." or "That is evil."

It's a tree that produces shame.
It's a tree that makes you cover your shame with fig leaves, put on sheep's clothing, whitewash the tomb to make the outside of the cup look good.

"Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." Gen 3:7

It's a tree that separates you from God and hides you from His presence.

"They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Gen. 3:8

It's a tree that made fruit-bearing painful.
It's a tree that made one rule over another.

"To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.” Gen. 3:16

It's a tree of toil.
It's a tree that produces thorns and thistles.
It's a tree that makes you eat bread by the sweat of your face.

"...Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread..." Gen. 3:17-19

It's the bad tree that cannot produce good fruit.
You cannot gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles.

It's a tree that makes you eat bread by the sweat of your face.
It's a tree that makes you reject the bread that comes from Heaven.

"The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” Numbers 21:5

It's a tree of death that, because of the poisonous lie from the serpent's mouth, caused many to die.

"The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died...And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived." Numbers 21:6-9

It's a tree of toil, curses, sweat, judgment, sin and death that Jesus took upon Himself and died away.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life." John 3:14,15

Jesus came to lay the ax to the root of that tree.
Jesus came to curse that fruitless fig tree that couldn't produce grapes or figs, but thorns and thistles.
Jesus came to move the mountain of religion that was obsessed with the knowledge of good and evil - the ministry of condemnation and death.

Jesus came to restore our faith in God.

"So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 5:18-21

God's will has always been for man to freely enjoy life, to freely eat, to be fruitful and painlessly multiply and live forever without the knowledge of good and evil, without the judging, without the toil, without the sweat.

Do you want to do the will of your Father?
Don't eat that tree.

See Jesus hanging on that Tree of death, dying away that whole cursed serpent system of judgment, sin and death.
Don't fall for the lie. You can't find life in that tree...only death.

Jesus has re-opened the way to Tree of Life, the good tree that cannot produce bad fruit, God's own eternal Life in us.
Jesus enabled all to eat freely of the Tree of Life, to drink freely from the waters of life.

Christ took the judgment, the sin, the death, the shame, the separation, the pain, the curse, the toil, the sweat in that Tree upon Himself.

Faith in Christ has raised us from the fall into death back into grace.
Faith in Christ has removed our toil and sweat and given us rest.
Faith in Christ has restored our painless fruit-bearing.
Faith in Christ has removed our shame.
Faith in Christ has brought us to life gain.

"Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God." Rom. 7:4
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I'm not saved because I'm good. I'm saved because He's good!

My website: www.bradfreeman.com
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