Trees Everywhere

Last night I was doing some more in a personal study of Galatians (I am currently on a Grace mission, reading anything and everything I can get my hands on about Grace from Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians to Swindoll, Yancey, and Lucado) when I read something that made a light click on in my head.

What clicked was an insight into the Garden of Eden and the Two trees in the midst. First off (on a related note) I realized Adam failed his test in a Garden and Jesus passed his test in a Garden. That is not the insight I would like to cover today, just a related insight I had a few weeks ago. Today's insight was about the Two Trees that were in the center of the Garden.

At the risk of allegorizing or misinterpreting (or reading too much into) scripture, I realized that the story is the same as we face now. God told Adam he could eat of any tree in the Garden EXCEPT the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He could eat of the Tree of Life (or could as I read it anyway, the only tree forbidden was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). The Tree of Life would grant eternal life (live forever). Anyway, IF Adam were to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he would surely die.

Partaking of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would open Adam's eyes to Good and Evil, to truth, etc. This is just like The Law given to Moses, The Law does not save us or protect us. All the Law does is open our eyes to our sin, it opens our eyes to our true condition, opens our eyes to how far from perfection we fall. IS this not what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil did for and to Adam?? He did not die immediately, but his eyes were opened to his true state (his fallen state, his nakedness, etc). The Law does the same for us.. it opens our eyes.

Also the Tree of Life is similar (if not a type of) Christ. It is the Cross, Jesus on the Cross. The Cross is our Tree of Life. We face the same choice today as Adam did in the Garden, we can eat of any fruit in the world but if we choose wrong we will suffer death. We need to choose correctly, choose the Tree of Life (The Cross) rather than the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (The Law). The Law may seem appealing, it may seem to be juicier.. in that if we can uphold all it says we can save ourselves (or that is how it appears to us anyway.. I know the Law cannot and does not save us, just using the analogy). But it will just doom us instead. We must choose Jesus and what he did on the Cross. We must choose the Tree of Life.