You shall not eat of the fruit
of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
For the day you eat that fruit,
you will certainly die. Genesis 2:17
Apparently there are many people who have no capacity to read and understand or recall what their eyes have brought into their minds through the brain. I dare say that most folks who have any awareness of the story of man's fall in the garden of Eden would think that Adam and Eve ate apples from the Tree of Knowledge. The idea that there were apples involved is a corruption that comes from Greek mythology. The fruit in question was obviously a fig. The tree was not associated with generic knowledge. The tree's fruity function was to bring a new condition into the entire constitution of any human that ate it. In the same way as the bread and wine of Christian communion provide a relational condition with Jesus and all of His body, the fig juice became a permanent part of the human capacity to recognize evil from good.
When Adam and Eve, our original parents, ate the fatal figs, mankind that followed was separated from their direct fellowship with God; death. Millions of words and hundreds of sermons have discussed this aspect of "The Fall." Very little attention has been paid to the gift that God embedded in the figs. The miraculous gift He provided was that humans would be able to continue to distinguish the truth of Romans 8:28: "All things work together for good..." Distinguishing the truth does not mean that humans always act on the truth. However, to be able to know what is good in a world where evil constantly overlaps what is in view is a built in spiritual perception that cannot be traced to a time before the foundation of the world; it happened in historical time.
There are people who argue that this event made man totally incapable of anything good in any part of human capability since they were overwhelmed by evil and sin. It is easily proven that the first couple were still able to distinguish the voice of God when they heard it. The fact that their response to His voice was altered is no evidence that they looked at each other and said, "Was that God or the devil calling...I couldn't tell?" They were not good because they understood good or could respond to good. But neither were they (or we, their progeny) overwhelmed by evil to the degree that good was meaningless to them. The gift of fig juice made it impossible for the devil to have an automatic inroad into the hearts of humans. Humans must fight against the very fig juice truth within them to surrender to ultimate evil.
Another way of saying all of this is to point out the fact that, through the gift of figs, Jesus has embedded a powerful recognition of the validity of the cross into every human. The cross is able to say to mankind, "Here is my offer of love, sacrifice and servanthood. This is the way, walk in it!" (Isaiah 30:21). Humans recognize this message because the cross is the victory of God over evil in this realm; the convergence of human and divine good at the right time to crush evil. The gift of figs must always work so long as a person is alive. The cross is a promise to remain the way home to Jesus. All anyone must do is turn to it and acknowledge its place in his/her heart.
Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.
of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
For the day you eat that fruit,
you will certainly die. Genesis 2:17
Apparently there are many people who have no capacity to read and understand or recall what their eyes have brought into their minds through the brain. I dare say that most folks who have any awareness of the story of man's fall in the garden of Eden would think that Adam and Eve ate apples from the Tree of Knowledge. The idea that there were apples involved is a corruption that comes from Greek mythology. The fruit in question was obviously a fig. The tree was not associated with generic knowledge. The tree's fruity function was to bring a new condition into the entire constitution of any human that ate it. In the same way as the bread and wine of Christian communion provide a relational condition with Jesus and all of His body, the fig juice became a permanent part of the human capacity to recognize evil from good.
When Adam and Eve, our original parents, ate the fatal figs, mankind that followed was separated from their direct fellowship with God; death. Millions of words and hundreds of sermons have discussed this aspect of "The Fall." Very little attention has been paid to the gift that God embedded in the figs. The miraculous gift He provided was that humans would be able to continue to distinguish the truth of Romans 8:28: "All things work together for good..." Distinguishing the truth does not mean that humans always act on the truth. However, to be able to know what is good in a world where evil constantly overlaps what is in view is a built in spiritual perception that cannot be traced to a time before the foundation of the world; it happened in historical time.
There are people who argue that this event made man totally incapable of anything good in any part of human capability since they were overwhelmed by evil and sin. It is easily proven that the first couple were still able to distinguish the voice of God when they heard it. The fact that their response to His voice was altered is no evidence that they looked at each other and said, "Was that God or the devil calling...I couldn't tell?" They were not good because they understood good or could respond to good. But neither were they (or we, their progeny) overwhelmed by evil to the degree that good was meaningless to them. The gift of fig juice made it impossible for the devil to have an automatic inroad into the hearts of humans. Humans must fight against the very fig juice truth within them to surrender to ultimate evil.
Another way of saying all of this is to point out the fact that, through the gift of figs, Jesus has embedded a powerful recognition of the validity of the cross into every human. The cross is able to say to mankind, "Here is my offer of love, sacrifice and servanthood. This is the way, walk in it!" (Isaiah 30:21). Humans recognize this message because the cross is the victory of God over evil in this realm; the convergence of human and divine good at the right time to crush evil. The gift of figs must always work so long as a person is alive. The cross is a promise to remain the way home to Jesus. All anyone must do is turn to it and acknowledge its place in his/her heart.
Come to Jesus.
Come to the Cross.
