4.2 The Issue
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Here is the first part of the mighty ISSUE inside of God and directed towards every single created entity. Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15). And to this question, in this present age, every human must give their own full and personal response.
There are two parts of every personal response to Jesus’ continuous question, a mental-knowledge part and a heart-knowledge part. The mental part is agreement, but the heart part is an oath. Thus, we see that Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question, while good in a limited way, was in no way the complete answer in both agreement and oath as required by Jesus.
The two trees before Adam and Eve ARE this mighty issue.
The Choice. The choice is between life and death. A Bible study of all the references placing this choice between life and death all the way through and before each one of us would be extensive. More than that, Paul placed life and death inside the very fabric of the Bible itself. – God… has made us sufficient servants of a new covenant, not of letter, but of Spirit; indeed, letter kills, but Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). And again – Death is the thought of the flesh, but life and peace are the thought of the Spirit (Romans 8:6).
Before Adam were two trees. His choice of eating the fruit of one tree would result immediately in life and eating the fruit of the other tree would result immediately in death.
The Tree of Life. The issue, then, was not in the two trees, but inside of Adam, and with Adam, inside of every human soul. And thus, every person’s response to Jesus’ question – Who do you say that I am? – comes out from their true inward answer to Jesus’ other question – What do you want?
Here is the clearest and most explicit expression of the tree of life in the entire Bible. – In that day you shall know that I am inside of the Father and you inside of Me and I inside of you (John 14:20). Yet living inside of Jesus Himself, another Person, and He inside of Father, and this other Person, Jesus, living inside of us, and Father inside of Him, is the oath-of-our-heart part of eating of life. What is the corresponding mental agreement?
The Word God Speaks. We acknowledge that Jesus, Himself in Person, IS every Word God speaks. All things exist through Jesus as God speaking, and all things are sustained in their existence every moment by Jesus as God speaking.
The Spirit is giving life; the flesh benefits nothing. The words that I [Jesus] speak to you are Spirit, and they are life (John 6:63). – You ARE a letter of Christ… having already been written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God – not on tablets of stone {word as the law}, but inside tablets of hearts of flesh (2 Corinthians 3:3). Christ, every Word God speaks, lives inside of your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). – The agreement of our mind acknowledges that Jesus and Word, Jesus and Spirit, cannot ever be separated.
The Tree of Death. The tree of life, then, is Word as a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, entering into us through faith to be every Word God speaks written upon all the pathways of our hearts. The tree of death is the word God speaks as well, but in a form that can be known as mental ideas, ideas separate from the Person of Jesus, ideas the human holds under his own control and by which he approaches God with human performance.
You search diligently the Scriptures, for you imagine possessing age-unfolding life inside of them, and these are bearing witness concerning Me; but you do not want to come to Me, that you might possess life (John 5:39-40). – Word as mental ideas under human control, that is, the law, cannot ever impart life (Galatians 3:21).
Our Human Response. This issue of the Word God speaks, whether it be inward as Jesus in our hearts or outward and under our control as ideas in our minds, could fill many books of study. My purpose is to set the issue before you as clearly as I can, this same issue that God set before Adam.
But the best way to understand the difference between the two trees is by the human response. Our response to the word God speaks, as Jesus pointed out in John 5, determines entirely which fruit we are eating. All that the Lord says, we will do (Exodus 19:8) – (the utter dishonesty of the human) – versus – Let it be to me according to Your Word (Luke 1:38) – (the pure simplicity of faith). – Who do you say that I am?
The River Flowing Out. Next, we must place the meaning of the river God set into the garden. – A river went out of Eden (Genesis 2:10).
The moment God spoke one word to Adam, “Subdue,” by that word, He placed Adam as the master over all creation. That authority remains upon all humans until this day. – The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
The river God set in Eden symbolizes that outflow that must proceed from Adam’s choice of which tree to eat. If Adam had eaten of LIFE, the flow would have been – He that believes into me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Because Adam ate of death, the flow of that river became – and death spread to all men (Romans 5:12).
God’s Intentions. Before returning to Adam and Eve, we must bring the Father back into the picture. We cannot know anything except we begin our knowing with Father’s Heart, with the intentions and desire of God All-Carrying.
God intends no evil; He has not set sin in front of mankind, to “tempt” them. Such a doing cannot enter God’s mind. God is aware of Adam’s choice, certainly, and of all the grief that must come out of that choice, but He does not know in Himself the sin Adam chooses. God is love, and Father’s intention is that Jesus might enter into Adam and Eve so that Father Himself might live inside of them and show Himself through them to all.
Yet God cannot force His knowledge; Adam is free of God.
Led in Triumph. Adam is the master; no sin begins until Adam’s teeth pierce the fruit of death. For that reason, we know that Adam and Eve walk always in the way of life; God is always leading them in triumph. No evil thing is in their way or in their doing. They appear in the center of the garden because the Lord Jesus in the tree of life is calling to them to come and to eat freely and because their hearts long to know Him.
Yet at this point, we must bring into our picture again the most terrible words in the Bible, spoken by Paul. – Adam was NOT deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). The full meaning of these words must rule how we perceive everything taking place in these next few minutes.
Adam Understood All. Adam possessed all the faculties of the human as God created him. His mental acuity was likely more than ten times that of what we call “genius” today.
Because Adam was not deceived, we know that he perceived every part of the issue at hand. Adam saw Christ fully upon the tree of life. He understood the serpent and the full meaning and extent of the tree of death. He knew the difference between Word inside his heart and word under his mental control. He saw the implications of his choice and all the consequences of life OR all the consequences of death flowing out upon his children. Adam understood everything with piercing intelligence; Adam was not deceived.
Nonetheless, this clarity came to Adam only step by step.
Beholding Life. Adam entered the clearing in the center of the garden because he was drawn to life. He paid little attention to the tree of knowledge for his heart was fixated on Life. The conversation that began between Eve and the serpent was in Adam’s awareness at first, yes, but he gave it little heed, for he was transfixed by the Man hanging bloody and naked upon a cross of wood, a man, just like himself, a man of his own seed.
Some say that the tree of life is a thorn tree and that its fruit is in the top of its branches, that to eat of that fruit means to pierce your hands and your feet and to thrust your forehead up among the thorns. Adam beheld the express image of God’s Person; the full meaning of what God looks like inside His creation. Adam comprehended life laid-down and love poured-out.
Another Image. Because we know that our Father does not “trick” anyone, and because we know that Adam is not deceived, we know that he hears the words of Jesus, “Will you receive Me into your heart so that I might be your life and the fulfillment of every Word God speaks inside of you and through you?”
Yet Adam is fully aware as well of another being right there at hand, a magnificent creature of glory, light, and beauty. Adam’s focus turns just a bit, and he is overwhelmed with the beyond-all magnificence, radiance, and might of the heavenly being anointed of God over all. It is difficult to paint a picture in this setting of the vast contrast between the heavenly perfection of this mighty being and Adam’s own form, little more than a worm of the dirt.
What Does God Look Like? And so, we come to the second part of the great issue facing Adam in that moment. That issue is this – when God shows Himself as He is inside of His creation, in what form does He appear? What does God look like? Jesus was murdered specifically over this issue. He looked like a man; He did not look like the Pharisees’ innate definition of “God.”
Yet there, in the presence of the mightiest and most glorious of all heavenly beings, Adam looked at himself and saw only a tiny, limited, incapable, and weak human. Adam saw heavenly strength and knew that he was the epitome of dirt weakness and that the Man of Life was even weaker than he.
Two Parts to the Issue. The first part of the issue is our response to the Word God speaks – Who do you say that I am? – Let it be to me. The second part of the issue is what does God “look like”; when God shows Himself in creation, what form does He take upon Himself?
In order to understand this second part of the issue, we must back up just a bit and look deep inside the heavenly being presiding over knowledge, word on the outside of the heart. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until injustice was found in you (Ezekiel 28:15). The serpent is puzzled when he hears God say of this new creature – “This man and woman are like Me; I reveal myself to creation through their visible form.
A Shadow Forms. This angel has always believed that he is the highest expression of God’s glory in the universe. Yet now God is saying that here is another species altogether who are the image and likeness of God? Then, when the serpent hears God say to the man, “Subdue,” his puzzlement becomes pressed with concern. Am I not God’s covering over all the works of His hands? How then am I to come under the feet of this new creature?
The serpent perceives Adam and Eve long before they enter the space before the two trees. And when he fully understands these two puny, weak, stupid, and utterly limited creatures – worms of the dirt in his sight – that God is saying, “These ‘worms’ reveal Me” – a shadow never before known in creation forms inside his heart.
Envy towards Adam. The injustice growing inside the serpent’s heart is simply unrequitable envy. After seeing this worm God called “My image and likeness,” he becomes desperate for all the heavenly hosts to look at his own great beauty and magnificence as “What God looks like.” – “I will be the likeness of God” (Isaiah 14:14). “Everyone should imagine they are seeing ‘God’ when they look at me. Everyone should define God by me.”
Yet Adam is the master, and the serpent knows it. No sin can be imputed to any creature under Adam’s authority except by Adam’s own decision. So now the game begins. The serpent’s envy requires Adam to get far away from the tree of life.
Two Opposing Images. Adam is now caught between two opposing images showcasing the word God speaks in two very different forms, with his own weak and lowly form caught in-between. On the one hand is all heavenly lights and perfections, commanding all creative beauty, an image of outward superiority, greatly to be desired.
On the other hand, is a wounded man of utter weakness, life laid-down and love poured-out. – He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (Isaiah 53:2-3).
Unthankfulness. And in that moment, the shadow of unthankfulness was found inside Adam’s heart. “What is a God who reveals Himself through weakness? God, I don’t like the way You made me. I don’t want my lowly form to be what You look like. I prefer an image of superiority.”
What do you want? – “I don’t think that I want to look like God.”
Having known God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful (Romans 1:21). – Unthankfulness, hating the way God made us in weakness as His likeness, is the first part of all human rebellion.