THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. Josimar Salum
The Tree of Life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and every tree that is pleasing to the eye.
In the middle of the garden, the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that could be there anywhere, in any part of the garden.
Because the Word of God clearly says that "in the middle of the garden was the Tree of Life".
If you study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation you will notice that man is compared to the tree in several passages.
Psalm 1, for example, says that man is like a tree planted by the stream that at the right time bears its fruit.
Jesus said, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit" - "Every tree that bears good fruit"
These expressions are about trees: "You will be an oak of Justice". Tree in the Bible is related to man and the Tree of Life, clearly in Scripture, is Jesus.
We understand that man and woman, male and female were already similar to God. The Word of God is very clear when it says that God created man in His image.
God created man. When the Bible says, "God created man," it's not, God created mankind, God created Adam.
God created man, male and female created them.
God spoke to the man and the woman. The woman already knew clearly why she heard the following command from God.
You've heard the version that the woman was not present when God spoke to the man, the woman only learned about it through the man. All these conjectures have no basis in Scripture.
What was the reason for the fall of man? What did the man lose? When I say that, "male and female", when did he take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eat it?
See Genesis 3: "The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,"
The serpent wanted her to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
"But God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
The tree in the middle of the garden was the Tree of Life and not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
People develop a huge theology on top of this saying that God knows good and evil. But in the Scriptures it doesn't say that God knows good and evil, it was Satan who said that.
There's another passage that says there in verse 22:
"And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat, and live forever.”
When Satan speaks something, he speaks something similar to what God said, but distorted. He gives it another meaning. Adam was already similar to God, he would not be equal to God for having knowledge of good and evil.
Quickly, in Genesis we find the Tree of Life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we find every tree that is pleasing to the sight that man could eat.
In the middle of the garden the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is man, the Tree of Life is Jesus.
"But every man is enticed by his own covetousness. Then covetousness, having conceived, gives birth to sin..." James 1:14-15)
Look what the woman did:
"And, seeing the woman that that tree was good to eat..." - the lust of the flesh.
"And pleasing to the eye..." - the lust of the eyes.
"And a desirable tree to give understanding, she took of her fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband, and he ate with her." — The pride of life
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is man, the Tree of Life is Jesus.
Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 speaks of the fall of an anointed one that we translate as "lucifer", but the word "lucifer" is just a transliteration of the Latin word.
It is not the word that appears in Hebrew, it is not the word that appears in Greek.
The text describes that this being, this anointed one, wanted to be like God… He wanted to go up and be like God.
Isaiah 14 is the biblical description, without making it up, of what happened in Genesis 3.
The only being the Bible references who wanted to be equal to God is not this mythological figure of Lucifer.
In the Bible, in the written Word of God, who wanted to be equal with God was man (Adam).
The text says in Genesis 3 that they, seeing that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eyes, a desirable tree to give understanding, they took its fruit and ate.
Interestingly, the temptation was a false temptation and every word Satan uses there was totally false, totally untrue. Satan is the father of lies.
He is the father of the lie from the beginning according to Jesus in John 8. Satan never stood on the truth.
In other words, Satan was not an angel, Satan was never an angel of light, he passes himself off as an angel of light as it says in Corinthians.
But according to the Scripture, in John 8, it states clearly that he was a murderer, a liar from the beginning.
And what he uses here is exactly a lie.
And he makes a proposal to Adam, the man and the woman, the male and the female saying, "Ah, the day you eat you will be like God".
They were already like God, because God created them in His image and likeness.
That's what the text says: "And God blessed them. And God created man in His image, the image of God created him, male and female created them."
They were already like God, they were the image of God. What they really wanted was to be more than God, to go beyond in such a way that they became independent of God, that they became independent of their Creator.
What happens when man takes the tree and eats its fruit? What happens ?
What's the first thing that happens?
The first thing that happens is that he has lost the image and likeness of God. He ceases to be similar to his Creator, he ceases to have the Image of his Creator, and in that instant man becomes sin.
This expression we find in 2 Corinthians 5, when the Bible says, "He who knew no sin made Himself sin for us..."
In a very simple way, biblically speaking, man did not simply sin, man became sin. Man is sin.
This is so serious and so important to understand, because it's going to bring about a redefinition, it's going to bring about a very big repentance in our mind, a change of thought, of mind that's going to change our whole focus on our life with Jesus. Our whole focus will be changed, our whole way of looking at this issue will be changed.
We're going to actually face ourselves for what we are and what we've come to be when we've received the Power to be made children of God.
When we have been transformed back into the Image and Likeness of God, and it is this likeness that the Spirit of God continues to work on today, it is not a process. The word process does not appear in the Bible. It's a metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis is the biblical word for this journey that is taking place with me and you in such a way that He is working in me and in you according to His Image of Glory.
He is transforming us. He is “metamorphosing” us, if there is such a verb, I just created it.
The Holy Spirit works in me this metamorphosis according to the Image of Jesus, according to the same Image.
And this Image, according to the Image of God is the Image of the very Son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, because the Bible says He is the Image of the invisible God, He is the exact expression of His being.
If Adam looks like someone, Adam the man and woman before they are cast out of the garden, they look like Jesus.
If you probably look at the image of Adam and the image of his wife who was also called Adam… She was renamed Eve only after she lost the Image of God. If you look at each other, look at Jesus, look at the man Adam, look at the woman Adam they are the same, they are alike, because Jesus is the express Image of His being.
I'm not interpreting anything, I'm just putting the texts of the Bible as they appear in the Scriptures.
What happens to a man when he takes from the tree and eats? He misses the Image of God.
Sin in Scripture is not being equal to God. Sin is not being like Jesus.
The Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil…
You eat from the Tree of Life, you become the Tree of Life: "Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." John 6:53
You eat from the Tree of Life to become the Tree of Life and you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And experiencing the knowledge of good and evil is what resulted in sin.
Sin entered the world because man ceased to be the Image and Likeness of God.
Man became sin.
Sin is an entity.
Sin is an organism.
Sin is not a person, but it is a spiritual being.
I am a tree, you are a tree.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil only works sin when that lust gives birth, and lust giving birth begets sin.
There is the Tree of Life: The fruits of the Tree of Life are fruits of Righteousness. The fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, long-suffering, patience, self-control … this is the fruit of the Spirit.
But you don't have the fruit of the flesh. You have the works of the flesh, the works of that flesh that became sin.
The Apostle Paul says: "Sin dwells in me." (Romans 7:17).
Sin is an entity and I become that sin, because I am not like Jesus, I am not like Jesus.
If I become like Jesus, if I become like Jesus I can no longer sin.
Now, you have the tree that is sin and you have the fruits of that tree that are: adultery, prostitution, lying, etc.
Jesus speaks thus: From the heart proceed all these things, iniquity, lies, greed, idolatry, sins.
All these works of the flesh come from a tree called sin and the sins are adultery, prostitution, they are the fruits of that tree.
So when I look at myself: In sin my mother conceived me.
Until recently, about 20 years ago people thought that this "in sin my mother conceived me" was because they had a sexual relationship and that is sinful. It's absurd, but I've heard this in sermons.
"In sin my mother conceived me" is because Adam's nature passed into his descendants, and throughout the Bible and throughout history it passed from one to the other.
"But what do I have to do with Adam's sin?"
"What if I'm not disobedient?" "What if I don't lie, don't practice idolatry?" 'What if I'm a completely correct person, "holy"?'
The Bible speaks in Romans 5: "For as death reigned from Adam to Moses, so death passed to all men." (Romans 5:12)
But we don't have the same sin of likeness that they did, as Adam did. But why does sin dwell in me? Because I die, because you die.
Death is not the consequence because you lied or you stole. The wages of sin is death, not the wages of sins. The wages, the reward of sin is death.
Sin is me, sin is you, the wages you receive for being who you are is death, but God's free gift is Eternal Life.
That's why the Bible says in Corinthians: "He became sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God." (II Corinthians 5:21)
You are not eternally condemned, using the language that is used, you do not go to hell because you committed adultery, because you lied, because you stole, because you coveted, because you dishonored father and mother, because you killed, because you committed adultery, no. You are condemned because you rejected Christ Jesus' gift of life.
Because every sinner who has sinned all kinds of sins, but receives the free gift of God which is Eternal Life, which is Jesus Himself, the Tree of Life, is not condemned.
You do not go “to heaven” or receive eternal life, because you have stopped sinning. You receive eternal life, because you believed in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, and His sacrifice, God's operation completely transformed you in Jesus' Name, Amen!
#ASONE
