Two Trees in the Garden

[Read] Gen 2:8-9, 15-17

Favorite story:  God’s Redemption Plan for Mankind

Luk 2:10  but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 

If I were leaving this earth tomorrow, this is the message I’d share with others. So just in case God says “time to come home”, I’m sharing this with you!

So to our message for today…

According to Genesis, there were many trees in the Garden.

• But only 2 were in the middle…the center (Heb “tavek”…to bisect, be in the middle)

To more fully understand God’s Good News for all people, we need to talk about the 2 trees

Adam’s sin was more than just disobeying God, which was bad enough.

Eating the fruit from the wrong tree, i.e. the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, brought a curse upon ALL mankind.

• Adam went from being God’s man to being Satan’s subject. When Adam ingested the poison, he fell under a curse that continued until Last Adam…Jesus.

The underlying issue with this curse is found in Genesis 1:11-12 [Read] seeds of fruit produce seeds and fruit of their own kind. Therefore, for all of human existence until the sacrifice of Jesus, we had no option but to feed from the wrong tree. We were under a curse.

• Eating poison fruit perpetuated itself through history. Seeds bearing seeds and fruit after their own kind; seeds and fruit that brought death; death as opposed to God’s intended eternal life.

To fix this problem, 2 things had to happen:

• A new tree had to be provided with God’s fruit

• The curse had to be broken

Before exploring God’s Redemption, let’s talk about the effect of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:

The tree was in the “center” of the Garden. That’s symbolic:

That tree cast humankind into a self-centered state, rather than a God-centered state

• Self-centered, self-absorbed, self-reliant, self-indulgent, self- conscious, self-sufficient…you get the picture

• Sound like most of population today: those without Jesus?

The sobering news: prior to Jesus death we couldn’t really help it. Being self-centered became our DNA at Adam’s fall. We could have been God-centered from the jump, but given a choice, we became slaves to the kingdom of self, powered by our enemy.

It’s a familiar story, the curse was, perhaps, more pervasive than we realized. The tree of TKOGE was symbolic of the Law itself; i.e. under this curse, humankind fell under the Law rather than Grace.

• Yes, “the Law came by Moses, (but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ)”.

• God codified the underlying Law when He presented the tablets to Moses. The curse of the law was there, infecting everyone, but it wasn’t obvious…it wasn’t visible, plain to see.

• A careful reading of Paul’s letters to the Romans and other churches brings this point home.

The magnetic pull toward the TOKGE is powerful

• 1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

• Can’t we all just see those juicy apples? 

• Self-centered, self-serving… Self as God (Tower of Babel)

• Paul notes this so eloquently to the church in Rome: “the very thing I don’t want to do, I find myself doing.”

  
  

Two trees. Two very different fruits. One appealing to our corrupt human nature.

That’s why humanism is the simplest, easiest trap for all of humankind to fall into. We became the center of our universe the moment Adam ate the apple from the wrong tree. Its kind of our comfort food when outside of God’s influence.

That’s also why the harder we try to “be good” from our self-life, the more we fail. Its built into the curse. Bad seed produces bad seed produces bad fruit, which produces bad seed, …bad fruit....

• By law, self-effort and self-initiated “good works” are destined to produce bad fruit; fruit unacceptable to God

Two trees: one anchored in the world, a slave to its master, and the other anchored to heaven, life flowing from its master.

So another seed had to be planted in a different garden. …”but the angel reassured them. Don’t be afraid!” he said. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” Hear this again from the angel: …behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

• Good news for all people

• Another seed had been planted (in Mary)

• A God seed, unpolluted, that would become a life giving tree

• Giving humankind another bite at the apple (so to speak); this time a bite at the fruit from the Tree of Life

  
  

Jesus said: So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (Joh 6:53-54) 

Eternal fruit from the new Tree of Life!

But a problem remained when the new seed was planted in Mary: the old curse from First Adam remained. Something had to be done about the curse before we could eat fruit from this new Tree.

The tree that sprang from the new seed had to die. To become the curse for us.

• John 12:24 “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

• Gal 3:13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"

  
  

Great news to all people! i.e. …the Tree of Life is coming! And so it did; it came forth in His resurrection with life giving fruit, wrapped in Grace, and available to all.

Unfortunately for us, while the curse was broken, the old tree of TKOGE is still dangling its poisonous fruit. But… now we have a choice! Jesus said Abide in Me and you’ll bear much fruit. Seed after its own kind, fruit after its own kind…God’s kind.

What happens when we eat fruit from the wrong tree? What does that look like?

• Legalism: thou shalt not…

• Religious acts; the human-led kind

• Condemnation

• Accusation and Guilt

• Self-righteousness, self-centeredness, all things self-focused

[Read] Col 2:20-23  Don’t handle, don’t touch, don’t taste…

Keep in mind the Jewish law, which forbade so many things that Gentiles felt free about. But God was making a bigger point, found Gal Chp 3…

• “Who has bewitched you? …Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 

• I.e. having eaten from the Tree of Life, are you now continuing to feast on the tree of TKOGE? To try and live out of poisonous fruit…and sharing that bad fruit with others?

• The Spirit gives life. Only God is the source of life…not self!

Perhaps this scripture takes on enhanced meaning, when talking about deceivers and false prophets: “you will know them by their fruit”.

Thinking then about the Tree of Life, how do we eat from it?

• Eating, absorbing God’s Word. Jesus is the Word, and we’re called to eat of Him…the bread of Life

• Life springs from His Spirit. (“the Spirit gives life!”)

  
  

[Read] Gal 5:18-26 (contrasts bad fruit from good fruit)

• We will know them by their fruit

  
  

As we abide in Him, good fruit is produced and is both recognizable to others, and life giving to others as well. So thankful God didn’t leave us in the prison of this curse! Instead, He made a way out:

• Rom 8:1  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

• Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Free from the curse!

Free indeed! The curse was broken by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Application…

As parents, be careful. The TOKGE is close at hand, and the fruit looks appealing. Endeavor to feed your children from the Tree of Life. Be conscious of this choice every day, every minute. Don’t let the magnetic pull and appeal of the TOKGE sucker you in. It’s a trap, and an easy one to fall into.

Brothers and Sisters, likewise be careful. Its quite easy to unintentionally put others under bondage. We should ask ourselves: from which Tree are we feeding others? Part of that answer will be: from which Tree are we feeding ourselves? Good fruit produces good fruit.

Jesus is our model; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. His interactions with others were always couched in grace and carried the life of God.