The Law Tree

When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, He specifically told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His plan was that they would ultimately live from the tree of life, which represents Jesus Christ – who IS life. Yet man chose to disobey and eat from the forbidden tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil could be called “the law tree” because it offered knowledge about the rules of right and wrong. When Adam ate from that tree, he instantly found himself at a place where doing right and avoiding wrong became the defining issue of life. Until that point, his behavior had always glorified God because he had walked with the Lord daily, depending entirely on Him for every detail in life. Now his focus was on his behavior, not God.

Until the fall, the only thing that mattered was that Adam and Eve were living in total dependence upon God. After their sin, the primary matter became that of doing right.

In order to better understand what it means for a person’s life to be ruled by laws, consider this illustration:
Pretend that one morning, after he had eaten from the law tree, Adam woke up because his wife, Eve, was leaning over him and kissing him gently on the cheek. “Good morning, my sweetheart,” she whispered. “I brought you breakfast in bed this morning. You seemed to be resting so well that I let you sleep late today.”

Adam opened his eyes, took one look at Eve, and snarled at her in anger, “What do you mean waking me up, woman? Couldn’t you see that I was asleep? How dare you! What have you shoved under my nose – a bowl of fruit? You’ve already caused me enough trouble with fruit! Get out of my face!” Shocked, Eve’s eyes filled with tears and she ran off to a secluded place where she could cry alone.

By mid-morning Adam was feeling guilty about how he had treated his wife. He found her and humbly approached her. “Eve, I am so sorry. It was so wrong for me to behave that way. It was simply evil! Please forgive me. I wouldn’t blame you if you left me for another…oh yeah, I forgot that there aren’t any others – well, anyway, you get the point.” Eve looked up through teary eyes as Adam continued. “Eve, I’m going to make it up to you, I promise. Tomorrow will be your special day. Listen, world! Tomorrow is Eve Day on planet Earth,” he shouted. True to his word, the next day Adam treated Eve like a queen. He pampered her all day long. That night when she went to bed, he gently leaned across her, kissed her on the cheek, and said, “Good night, my dear princess. I’m so blessed to have you as my wife.” “Oh Adam, you’re so good to me,” she cooed.

Now let’s see how much we understand about legalism and rules. There are only two questions on this test. Our answers to these questions will reveal whether we tend to see the Christian life primarily from a standpoint of law or grace. Ready?
1. Was God pleased with Adam on the first day in the story?
2. Was God pleased with Adam on the second day in the story?
The answer to both questions is NO. God was not pleased on either day. Adam’s behavior was evil on the first day and good on the second day. However, we must recognize that the law tree can be the source of good as well as evil. Although Adam’s behavior changed from one day to the next, he still had the same problem. ON BOTH DAYS HE WAS UP THE WRONG TREE!

When law rules a Christian, his focus is on improving his behavior. Yet even if he does manage to improve his behavior, what has he accomplished spiritually? Even an unsaved person can often improve his performance. Jesus didn’t give the gift of salvation merely to help us perform better. He came to earth so that He could ultimately live IN people (Galatians 2:20) and guide their lives out of the jungle growth of the law tree.

Even when a person does good, his actions may still be sin. Only those actions which are animated by the life of Jesus within us have real value.

Some Christians find it scary to think that they are totally free from a system of rules. When I first began to understand grace for the Christian, I was afraid that I might become derelict in my responsibilities as a believer. I even thought that without rules, I might begin to minimize the seriousness of sin in my own life.

I came to discover that I had found a security in my religious rules. When I kept them I felt everything was all right with me spiritually. When I sensed any sort of spiritual deficit in my life, I would mentally run down the checklist of rules to see which one I was failing. But when a person examines himself to see if he is living up to the law, he will always discover areas of inconsistency. I thought the answer was to renew my efforts to do more. Yet even when I poured my energies into keeping these self-imposed laws, I wasn’t really experiencing the life God intends.

Paul clearly asserted that we were made to die to the law so that we might be joined to Christ. What relationship does the Christian have, then, to a system of rules which govern behavior? Absolutely none! When you were saved, you were “made to die to the law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead” (Romans 7:4).

“Don’t we need to commit ourselves to the laws of God?” a person might ask. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:8, “…realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious..” Christians are righteous people because they have the nature of Jesus Christ. Our lifestyle isn’t governed by rules, but relationship. We aren’t motivated by laws, but love! The driving force of our lives won’t be duty, but desire. We will crawl out from under the heavy weight of OUGHT TO and start living from a WANT TO motivation.

So why do many Christians live by laws? For one simple reason: it makes them look good. It’s all about appearance. They choose the bondage of rules because it seems easier than establishing a living relationship with Jesus within them.

But a ton of rules won’t provide an ounce of prevention against sin. To the contrary, rules actually impede our spiritual walk in an intimate relationship with our Savior and Lord.

[Back to Home]