11. Why The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil? Series

[IN GOD’S IMAGE – 11 – WHY THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL]

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

Over the last two sessions we have identified three sources of evil in the cosmos: a rebellious devil bent on destroying God’s good purpose; a fallen humanity with a now darkened, futile and foolish heart; and a threatening natural environment.

• Together, these three evils add up to what can be described for humans as a living hell.

• In this series we will experience four types of hell. This is the first.

• Even the so-called beautiful people in the first world, living in the lap of luxury in the 21st century insulated from the horrific evils being perpetuated on our fellow human beings in other parts of the world, can’t escape the fact that life is hard.

• By the time each of us has experienced our allotted three score and ten, there are not too many of us who would say, “That was fun, let’s do it all again!”

• But, and this is important, we need to remind ourselves, we find ourselves in this situation because we have cut ourselves off from the source of love and wisdom and chose to be our own gods and learn for ourselves the knowledge of what is good and what is evil.

• To put it in simple terms, “Life with God is heaven, life without God is hell!”

• It is now into this ominous environment man finds himself.

• But all is not lost; we have a Creator and Father who does not give up on His children easily.

Now we are going to ask a question that is going to sound somewhat disturbing, and that is, “Are there important spiritual lessons we must and can only learn from walking the path of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?”

• Earlier we spoke about two qualities God will not compromise with in regard to developing a holy people in His image even if it means tolerating evil for a time.

• They were “love” and “faith.”

• Now we need to add a third quality to that list and that is “holiness.”

• The holiness I’m talking about is not obedience to a long list of do’s and don’ts as you might expect.

• Earlier we spoke of an “other-consciousness” Adam and Eve possessed before sin entered the picture but then defaulted to “self-consciousness” under the control of self-will after they sinned.

• The holiness we are talking about even transcends other-consciousness in that it is a reflection of the very character of God whose nature is an overflowing holy love towards others.

• It is this type of holy relational love that is the lifeblood of the Trinity that God ultimately hopes to share with humanity.

• The task for God is to bring fallen humanity to the point of wanting to share in this holy love willingly.

• Evil, though introduced by creaturely self-will is used by God as part of this process.

• It is a spiritual maturity that is developed on the principles of love and faith designed to bring about a holy loving community.

• This results in beings that want to live with and reflect the holy nature and character of the triune God.

• It’s more an attitude of mind than a list of moral guidelines.

Earlier we talked about the moral universe God has created, where wise choices lead to happy outcomes and bad choices lead to sad outcomes.

• Although we think we know everything when we become teenagers, the reality is in hindsight, we have to admit we were really quite immature.

• Although our parents warned us about the dangers lurking out there in the big bad world, chances are we disregarded their advice and proceeded according to our own desires with the subsequent results.