Two Trees – A Revelation Of Divine Life

Two Trees — A Revelation Of Divine Life   BY:   D. Karl Thomas

The Bible was not given to man so that he could fix his story.

The Bible is His story and how you can find your place in it.

You don’t find 10 steps to a better life in the Bible. You read about a God who through His Son took 10,000 steps to get to you.

The Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. 

It’s about God and what he has done.   It is a book about Jesus. 

Get a revelation of how much He loves you and realize who you are in Him.

Luke 24:27  “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

Genesis 1:28  NKJV “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

TLV “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it.” 

Genesis 2:15 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

“Keep It”  Shamar:— to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life and protect … 

What are they guarding against? God’s Enemies.

Mankind is a part of the eternal purpose of God to once and for all put the KIBOSH on all evil and guard against it’s intrusion!!!

The devil wasn’t going to just sit back and let this happen … He attacked God’s plan right away.

Galatians 5:25 (AMP) “If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]”

Two Trees — Tree Of Life — In Christ Grace    /    Tree Of Knowledge — In Adam Moralism

Genesis 2:16-17  “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  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 3:4 “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

“Original sin” was eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

The sin of pursuing LIFE (our identity, worth, significance and security) for ourselves, apart from God.

An attempt to know what only God can rightly know.

Satan’s challenge to Adam and Eve was, don’t you want to be Godly, knowing right and wrong?

The fruit of self was introduced to mankind. INDEPENDENCE 

We have the ability to now determine what is right and wrong. We will self govern!   MORALISM

Genesis 3:7-8 “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 coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,…”

“…and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

God is going to kill us!???

They instead became accusers of God, themselves and each other. Wages of sin death.

Authentic Christianity is about union and communion with God.

Knowledge of Good and Evil was prohibited:

They didn’t have it! They didn’t need it! They were corrupted by it!

Religion is a moralistic way of living and viewing life.

God did not in any way change because they ate of the Tree of Knowledge.

Man Changed!!!  

His view Of Himself Changed  His View Of Others Changed  His View Of God Changed

Genesis 3:10  “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 

F ear  — I don’t trust you.

I  gnorance — I don’t know you.

G uilt — I’m no good.  

The Gospel

Genesis 3:15 “He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:21 “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”

Blood was shed!

Hebrews 9:7 “…not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the 

people’s sins.”

The choice remains for every person:  Who do I trust? Who is in CONTROL?
God doesn’t want to control you.   CONTROL IS NOT LOVE!!!!!

He wants union and communion with you. He is your source!

1 Corinthians 6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Moralism:— the belief that the Gospel can be reduced to improvements in behaviour.

Galatians 2:21 “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.  President of SBT Seminary

“Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel—And Why So Many Christians Think It Is.”  (Article 03/09/09)

“The theological temptation of moralism is one many Christians and churches find it difficult to resist. The danger is that the church will communicate by both direct and indirect means that what God expects of fallen humanity is moral improvement. In so doing, the church subverts the Gospel and communicates a false gospel to a fallen world. The deadly danger of moralism has been a constant temptation to the church and an ever-convenient substitute for the Gospel. Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.”

Hell will be highly populated with those who were “raised right.” The citizens of heaven will be those who, by the sheer grace and mercy of God, are there solely because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Moralism is not the gospel.”

Genesis 3:22,24 “‘… man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ … So He drove out the man; …and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Morgan Guyton

“So we should not be pursuing the knowledge of good and evil when we read the Bible; that’s eating the same fruit that Adam and Eve ate. Instead we should be reading the Bible to discover the love of God that makes us more loving.

Sadly, too many Christians want knowledge rather than love because knowledge gives us a feeling of power. It makes us think we can be like God, exactly what the serpent tricked Eve into believing.

But knowledge itself, even perfect knowledge of good and evil, has no power to make us like God at all. It is love that makes us like God, and only God can be the origin of love; we can only be its recipients and conduits.”

Genesis 5:3   “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image,…”

John 17:20-23 “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,…”

John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”     NOT “Bios”  BUT  “Zoe”

John 4:10,13-14 “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’  ,,,   Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’”

Revelation 22:2  “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Jesus restores access to the Tree Of Life … He is the way the truth the life. We are in union with God because God made a covenant with himself that includes us. Better than Eden … Abundant life!!!

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