The Power To Choose

When God created Adam and Eve He created them to live eternally. In Genesis 1:28 God says to mankind, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it..." God's intention in creating mankind was that he would live forever in a perfect environment (the Garden of Eden), while multiplying and extending the Garden's realm to cover the whole earth. God breathed into man, gave him a spirit, and designed him to live on. What a deal!

God gave them only one rule or boundary. "The LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Gen. 2:16-17) Man could freely eat from any tree of the Garden of Eden except one; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To eat the fruit of this tree would mean sure death. We know from the choice they made death meant the entrance of sin, eventual physical death, sickness, disease, pain, expulsion from the Garden, a fallen nature for all of mankind, and more. We also know that when they partook by the serpent's deception, they immediately had the knowledge of good and evil.

God created Adam and Eve to know Him, not good and evil. Get this...Adam and Eve had no conscience whatsoever. They didn't need one. Why? Because they knew only God, not good and evil. Your conscience is designed to discern between good and evil; and warn you when you approach evil or it approaches you. This is why today we must rely totally on the Holy Spirit. Jesus said He will lead and guide us into all the truth! Since Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil, God gave them just one boundary. He explained the results of crossing this boundary...sure death.

God also gave Adam and Eve the power to choose. How infinitely wise! Adam and Eve never had a problem being tempted to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil until the serpent showed up deceiving. When you don't know good and evil, and when you know only God, you cannot be tempted by evil. You can be deceived however! The serpent twisted the very words God spoke to deceive Adam and Eve. Temptation to do evil is not the enemy's most powerful weapon against true believers. It is deception! The serpent used deception to convince Adam and Eve to make the wrong choice, thus choosing death. It wasn't until after the choice was made, and they were disobedient to God that they felt the guilt and shame. Why? Because now they knew good and evil! They now had a conscience...and it was hard to handle. Now they hid themselves from God because they knew they had crossed the only boundary He had set for them.

Adam and Eve's power to choose was a foreshadowing of God's infinite grace which we now have access to. God sent Jesus 2000 years ago to pay the penalty for our sins that resulted from a wrong choice. And even today we have the power to choose eternal life through Jesus, or to remain in the death which came through Adam and Eve. God is a loving God who will never force anyone to love Him or to choose Him. Yet He will never turn away a heart that truly cries out for Him. He will never reject the person that chooses Him!

I have but one way to close this post. Choose Jesus! Live forever!!