Man is a vessel created by God to contain Gods Life in him. God made man in His image. All that he needed after having been created was Gods Life in himself. The fruit of Life in the Garden of Eden represented that element of Gods Spirit which man required to put within himself. But we read that man received into himself the wrong filling. As a result, a wrong nature entered into mankind and self-promotion became mans character. Since the serpent urged man to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, we discern that it was the serpents nature that Adam received. Self-exaltation filled Adam and we see evidence of this in his immediate reaction when he recognized his nakedness. He attempted to solve the problem by himself. The man immediately died the day he ate the fruit, just as God said he would. God seemingly warned him that the thoughts of self-promotion independent of God would never benefit him. God did not mean that He would kill Adam as a penalty when He told the man he would die, but He informed man the natural results of what walking away from God would be. The nature of self-promotion is deadly and will not bring the desired results of true life, but will bring death instead. The apostle Paul discovered this as he wrote Romans 7:9-11. Romans 7:9-11 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which [was ordained] to life, I found [to be] unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me]. The filling of oneself with the knowledge of good and evil was basically what Paul described in this passage. It is the fulfillment to promote self using self-ability. God warned Adam that self-ability is non-existent because self simply cannot promote self to betterment. One who seeks to know what is good and evil is one who seeks to improve oneself. Why else would one want information regarding what is good and what is evil? After attaining such knowledge, the individual hopes to avoid that which is evil and do that which is good -- through self-effort and no reliance upo God. Knowledge replaces God. One is supposedly not in need of looking towards God and His strength. One is relying upon self and self-ability. The serpent told the woman she would be as wise as gods; so, in other words, who needs God? One is unintentionally trying to make oneself like God by living upon knowledge of good and evil alone. Lucifer himself tried to live in independence of God. This tells us that it is the nature of the devil that Adam received when he partook of the forbidden fruit. No wonder it was forbidden!
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:35:06 +0000
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