The Two Trees

I have always had the tendency to be a people-pleaser. I learned a long time ago the way to make people happy is to do what they want you to do. Obey the rules and your mom and dad are happy. Follow the directions on school work and your teacher is happy. Follow the guidelines at work and your boss is happy. I usually had success in all these areas because I was able to take rules, directions, and guidelines and carry them out. Give me a list of things to do and I could do it. Tell me what not to do and I'd try not to do it. I have always had a good amount of willpower and am a pretty disciplined person. In fact, I tend to thrive on little disciplines. I love the fact that if you do something small over and over it amounts to a huge payoff after a while. The point is I'm really good at DOING. In my life I have been successful at being (or at least appearing) "good" and it has paid off. The problem is that I had carried that over to my relationship to God, and it doesn't work that way with Him.

About six months ago it all fell apart. While I have always been successful at controlling myself and being good (or so I thought) all of a sudden (for a period of about a year) it was as if I could not control myself! I was compelled to sin! All I could think about was the sin that I wanted so badly to do, then would become overwhelmed with guilt that I wanted to do it. It was a horrible cycle. I think that God in His love for me let me fail on every front. The illusion that I had it all together and was such a "good" Christian was shattered and I was crushed! Where I had pride in my heart, it was now gone. I saw myself for what I was....a failure. Now, no one would have known all this was going on because it was mostly a struggle in my heart and mind, but had God not rescued me from what I was doing, I know it would have "surely led to death."

Let me explain. After hitting the bottom and my knees in desperation and crying out God to save me, He led me to a wonderful Bible study called, "The Gracewalk Experience" by Steve McVey. In it I learned a critical lesson. It's based back in Genesis.

In Genesis chapter 2 verse 9 the Bible says that God placed two trees in the Garden of Eden - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is a lot of truth wrapped up in those two trees. The tree of life represents Jesus. Jesus is the way, the LIFE, and the truth. He is the LIVING water. He is the Word and it was the Word that breathed LIFE into all of creation. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the law, our knowledge of right and wrong, rules and our efforts to follow the rules, basically our fleshly attempt to achieve righteousness in our own strength independent of God. Adam and Eve had a choice. They could eat freely from any tree in the garden as well as from the tree of life. However, if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God said they would surely die.

We all know the choice they made. They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they did die. And mankind has been dying ever since. Romans 5:12 says that sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin. There is physical death, which none of us can escape since sin entered the world and death through it. Then there is spiritual death, which is even worse. The good news is that while we can't escape physical death, we can be saved from spiritual death through believing in Jesus - or eating of the tree of life! We still have a choice of which tree to eat from in our lives today. Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (or the law) still leads to spiritual death. And eating of the tree of life (trusting in Jesus) will give us life.

We are all tempted to sin. The reason we know what sin is is because we have the law. So, the law in itself is not a bad thing. The problem is when we try in our own strength to keep the law. Even though it is impossible to keep from sinning, and the Bible says that ALL have sinned and that there is not one that is good, we become proud of our perceived "goodness" when we are able to act right. It is much easier to have a set of things to DO to be right with God then to just trust in Jesus to make you right before Him. Because of our pride, we like to do to earn. We don't like to admit that we are helpless and hopeless on our own. Before we can trust in Jesus' power to free us from sin and help us not to fall to temptation, our pride has to die. We have to admit that we can't keep from sinning in our own strength and we need Jesus to help us!

We are so focused on the rules! It's all about what we do and don't do as Christians. We have formulas to stay on track with God. Read your Bible for 15 minutes every day. Pray. Spend quiet time with the Lord. Go to church. Tithe your income. All of these are good things to do, don't get me wrong! But do they make you right with God? No! The Bible says that if you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are right with God!! He even says you are righteous and holy! It's a done deal! The old is gone, the new has come! You can stop striving. God knew every sin you'd ever commit from the time you were born until you die. He knew what you did before you were saved and He knew everything you would do after being saved. And He still saved you. Why is it that we realize that there was nothing we did to get saved. It was a work of the Holy Spirit. Yet we think that living in a way that is glorifying to God is all up to us? We focus on keeping the rules. We're proud of ourselves and feel right with God when we succeed and beat ourselves up and despair when we fail. It is a needless struggle. It does not lead to life and freedom. It will "surely lead to death." Maybe that's why people walk away from the Lord, churches fizzle out, ministries cease. There are different type of death.

As Christians, we have to let go of the rules and trust the Holy Spirit living within us to guide us. That is eating from the tree of life. Turning away from the rules tree and turning fully to the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! It's scary to let go of the rules. I felt like if I let myself be free in Christ and stopped trying to follow the rules, I would do something horrible or lose my salvation. The truth is that the Holy Spirit will show us how to live. He will guide and direct our actions. We can trust Him to keep us from evil. If we are truly surrendered to Him we will do good works. Our lives will make a difference in the world. God will finally be able to use us for His plan, His purpose, and His glory! We will stop getting in His way!

For so long I was not even aware that I was trying to DO and EARN God's favor by following the rules. They were His rules after all. I was trying so hard to obey. I was striving to be "good" and not sin. I was so focused on His law that I was no longer focused on Him at all and it was leading to death. I had lost the joy of my salvation. I had burdened myself with that which Christ died to relieve me of. I thank God for opening my eyes again. I thank Him for the joy and freedom found only in Him! I pray that today you would stop striving and just be in His presence. I pray that you would eat of His fruit and enjoy the freedom of being His child. Taste and see that the Lord is good! Eat freely from the tree of life and LIVE!