Your choice: Why the tree in the garden? The gift of free will Why didn’t God stop Adam and Eve the moment they put the apple to their lips? Why didn’t he send a bolt of lightening down to remind them the consequences of disobedience? Better yet—why put the temptation there in the first place? No tree? No disobedience? And, we would still all be naked running around a garden…hmmm. It all has to do with free will. It has to do with choice. Initial choice This is simple but complicated. God made man in his image. Three components of personhood are will, intellect, and emotion. Adam and Eve were created with a will. A will means there are options. You can choose obedience and submission to God. Or, you can choose disobedience and independence. You could reject Christ: Matthew 21:42 (NLT) 42 Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.This is the Lord’s doing, and i